41 days in Thailand
Gaviota
Sat 28 Jan 2017 05:18
07:49.210N 98:17.668E
We ended
up at Patong Beach for Christmas, we had thought it would be packed with boats
but apart from a Cruise ship a day there were very few private boats anchored
there, we tucked away on the Kalim Beach side and it was remarkably quiet with
a surprisingly clean clear sea. The only
problem was getting ashore but minus the outboard, Syd rowed ashore and with a
lot of heaving and dragging we got the dinghy up the beach and secured to a
palm tree with a heavy steel chain and padlocks. The busy town of Patong Beach was a 20
minute walk along the coast.
We joined
Phuket Hash House Harriers Christmas Eve for a great run and have ended up
doing several more hashes with them. The
Hash has a strong group of runners so trails are pretty long (usually over an
hour of running through jungle and hills followed by plenty of beer.
The West
coast of Phuket has some amazing beaches so we sailed up to Bang Tao which
boasts a 5 mile stretch of pure white sand (great for a morning jog).
It was
back to Patong Beach for New Years Eve and yet another Hash followed by a great
free barbeque put on by the Expat Hotel which hosts the Hash. Patong Beach was packed for NYE and crowds of
people were letting off flaming lanterns from the beach which made an amazing
site as they floated off (along with their wishes) out to sea – slight worry
was that one would plummet onto a boat still flaming but luckily the wind was
in our favour and most fell into the sea.
We got back to Gaviota in time to see 2017 in and watch the amazing
fireworks over the bay with the ever drifting flaming lanterns. Partying went on all night and quite a few
people didn’t surface for NewYears Day!
Next stop
was Nai Harn Bay at the South of the island, a well protected anchorage from
the North East Monsoon and the most favoured bay on the island for yachts (we couldn’t
quite work out why as accessing the beach by dinghy was nearly impossible and
the only landing point was a jetty which was owned by a bar/restaurant and
charged 300 Thai Baht (£6) per day to leave your dinghy – this was expensive by
Thai standards but the owners did let you spend the 300 baht in the bar).
Wednesday,
4th January and we picked up a worrying weather warning, there was a
tropical storm brewing in the Indian Ocean which was due to track rather too
close for comfort to the West Phuket coast.
The local bar with the jetty made the decision for us when they said a
2-3 metre swell was due to come directly into the bay on Saturday and they were
removing their jetty in preparation.
Okay time to leave!
The wind
was blowing so we had a really nice sail round to Ao Chalong but the swell was
already creeping in so after a night of rolling we left and sailed (another
good fast close reach) across to the large island of Koh Yao Yai where we
anchored off a resort and watched the depressed looking holidaymakers wandering
along the beach with umbrellas as the rain continued (this bore no resemblance
to the brochure pictures of wall to wall sunshine and clear blue seas), reality
Thailand in the dry season – torrential rain, wall to wall cloud and a murky
pondlike sea.
Friday, 6th
and the swell had reached into the bay we had tucked into so it was on the move
yet again and another nice sail in pouring rain over to the island of Koh Rang
Yai (now this looks absolutely gorgeous in the photos posted on the internet –
have a look – total paradise) but in the pouring rain with the wind battering
the palm trees and the holidaymakers huddled in the 2 beach cafes it definitely
did not look it’s best. Plus the
jellyfish problem had escalated on a grand scale where we lost count of them
floating past the boat.
We tried
to get a Marina berth at either Royal Phuket Marina or Boat Lagoon but both
were full so we sat it out. Weather
Forecast showed no change!
Tuesday,
10th January we managed to get a berth at Royal Phuket Marina at
great expense. The entrance to both
Royal Phuket and Boat Lagoon has to be made within one hour of the high tide as
it is all very shallow, the entrance was well marked with posts but Royal
Phuket sent a boat out to guide us in which was a nice bonus. The Marina was full of large motor boats most
of which had nobody on them so it was very quiet. We had the use of a private pool at a 3
million baht villa which had not sold which was a nice bonus after a hot day of
jobs.
It was a
hectic 2 days of provisioning and seeing what tradespeople there were for
future boat jobs but we did manage to meet up with a friend we had met in Aruba
who now lives in a lovely house in Boat Lagoon.
All
provisioned and re-fueled we headed out on Thursday morning and motored North
to Koh Naka Yai a favourite stop for the tourist boats after their trips to
Phang Nga National Park. A totally
beautiful strip of white sand was a perfect spot for a cool beer in the late
afternoon when all the day trippers had left.
Friday,
13th (Oh no!) and we motor sailed North to Koh Hong getting very
excited about the prospect of seeing our first ‘hong’ – ‘hong’ means ‘room’ in
Thai and basically it is a room surrounded by limestone cliffs and open to the
sky, the entrances are normally through narrow caves and some entrances are
submerged at high tide. We arrived along
with a group of Japanese tourists who were being kayaked into the ‘hong’. The ‘hong’ was described as being very beautiful,
it was actually pretty disappointing as half of it was open to the sea and as
we were at low tide the only entrance was from the open sea side but the karst
limestone scenery was impressive and it was a pretty nice place to anchor for
the night.
Early
start next day to beat the crowds at Koh Ping Kan (Thai translation ‘the Island that leans on itself’ named
because of the huge limestone rocks that lean together) and commonly known as
‘James Bond Island’ as it was the setting for the 1974 Bond classic ‘Man with a
Golden Gun’. We arrived just after
8.00am and were not the first but it was a good decision to make the effort to
be there early as the horrible vendor stalls had not opened and walking round
the island was easy. It was a ‘must see’
and having recently watched the scene where the sea plane lands and goes
straight up the beach, it was great to see where it was filmed. We managed to escape as the first large
tripper boat disgorged it’s ‘Bond’ fans onto the beach. A pretty nice little earner for the Thais at
500 baht per person (£10).
Up anchor
and escape before the whole bay filled with tripper boats and South to Koh Rai
and another ‘hong’, this hong was a much better one with it’s cave entrance and
peaceful setting. A few tourists arrived
by longtail boats but it was off the main tourist track other than a French catamaran
that decided we had the perfect anchoring spot and decided to anchor right on
top of us – why do people do this?
Having had near misses several times during the night and having no
other reason to stay we left early next morning.
Next stop
was Koh Pak Bia a few hours motor! South.
Another popular tourist spot with a small white sand beach which became
even smaller as the tide came in. It
was quite amusing watching the people all being forced into a smaller and
smaller area as the sea took over. The
sea was not clean so we left the next day and motored towards Krabi where at
last the water started to get cleaner.
We anchored between Koh Dam Hok and Koh Dam Khwan commonly known as
Chicken Island though we could see no resemblance to poultry. These islands were yet another very popular
tourist destination with hundreds of longtails and speedboats bringing people
over from Ao Nang, Krabi and Rai Lei Beach.
The larger island of Koh Dam Hok had a good sized white sand beach but the
trippers all wanted to go to the small islands off Koh Dam Khwan as they were
connected to the island by a sand spit which appeared at low tide. When the sun shone this was the
quintessential paradise desert island – that is if you didn’t mind sharing it
with several hundred other people – from a distance it looked like a penguin
colony as people strutted around the tiny island and tried to pretend they were
Robinson Crusoe. But at the end of the
day when the boats all departed us yachties had the place to ourselves until
9.00am the next day when another load arrived.
The sea here was clean and relatively clear so we got swimming.
After 2
nights the wind picked up so we rolled the genoa out and sailed the very short
distance over to Rai Lei Beach (rock climbers paradise). The scenery here is stunning with towering
limestone cliffs. We dinghyed ashore
hoping to see people hanging from the jagged overhangs and were slightly
disappointed. There were a few people
climbing the huge limestone stack in the bay but apparently the Thai government
has restricted access for climbers at a lot of the popular climbing spots. The 3 beaches at Rai Lei are hugely popular
and have several expensive resorts on the beach with loads of small restaurants
along the path which links Rai Lei West with Rai Lei East. There are no roads to the area and the only
access for people staying there is by boat (unfortunately for them there seemed
to be nobody on hand to help anyone with their cases and it was quite amusing
to watch these newly arrived tourists trying to wheel their expensive cases
through sand to get to their chosen Hotel.
Even funnier to watch them trying (again with no help!) to lift their
suitcases out of the longtails and not drop them in the sea when they arrived –
I’m pretty sure most people are not warned of this delight! We had a nice lunch on the beach and walked
across to Rai Lei East then visited Diamond Cave a remarkable limestone cavern
with amazing stalagtites and stalagmites.
We left
the next day as we had an invite to a Krabi Cultural Event which was being
hosted by a brand new Marina called Port Takola which is due to open in Spring
2017, this event was in conjunction with the Sail Thailand Rally. We anchored in the Krabi River on Thursday,
19th January and immediately a speed boat pulled up with an invite
for 3.30pm drinks at the new Marina. We
dinghyed round and were amazed to see 2 elephants who had obviously also been
invited! The Marina which had recently
been filled with water was a project on a vast scale and eventually would have
berths for 260 yachts. It was being
built by an amazing family who had owned the land and run a coconut oil
plantation until the price of coconut oil plummeted, so they had had a dream of
building a Marina on the site and without any outside help were in the process
of seeing their dream a reality. The whole
family greeted us including the 90 year old grandparents. The beer flowed and the elephants ate their
way through several sacks of pineapples, the younger of the 2 elephants a baby
bull elephant did tricks for us including standing on his hind legs and rolling
over and going to sleep in the hot sand and we were even allowed to ride them
bareback. The grand finale was bath time
where the baby elephant went into the water and cooled himself and everyone
watching, by showering water everywhere.
It was amazing to see and sad to wave them goodbye when they had to
return to where they lived.
The
evening got better and better as our incredibly generous hosts took us to a
wonderful local riverside restaurant called Baan Ko Lek, we were greeted with
garlands of fresh flowers and wine on the gorgeous terrace built out over the
River (we were told afterwards that this whole terrace was constructed just for
our visit!). The Vice Governor of Krabi
attended the dinner along with the local Tourist board chief and 2 tables full
of prominent officials from Krabi province.
There were several speeches then the live band started and an amazing
dinner consisting of delicious dish after dish of local specialities and fresh
seafood was served. The wine and beer
flowed and the evening culminated in lots of dancing. Taxis and longtail boats took us back to our
boats in the early hours of the next morning.
It was certainly the best event we have attended and we hope we will be
able to repay in a small way the Nagara family’s generosity by helping them get
future business for their incredible project.
The next day
and the rain fell, it poured all day.
Sadly a lot of people had booked trips to see the sights of Krabi
province. We took a trip (kind courtesy
of Mathew Nagara) to the local Makro and stocked up with provisions. The surrounding area of the Marina had turned
into a quagmire of red mud – they have a lot of work still to do but having met
the family - they will do it.
We left
on Saturday, 21st and anchored back off Chicken Island, the weather
had improved but was still very unsettled and as everyone kept telling us
‘totally unseasonal, this does NOT happen in the dry season!!!’
It seemed
crazy to waste the wind so Monday, 23rd
January we upped anchor and out came the spinnaker (this had laid unused for
too long in the wet sail locker!), up it went and we had a lovely sail over to
the large island of Koh Yao Yai and anchored in the large bay at the South of
the Island. Koh Yao Yai divides up the
bay to the East of Phuket and though it does have some resorts on it, it is
predominantly Muslim and does not get the tourists. The bay was quiet but not sheltered from the
swell and the sea was murky and uninviting so we moved on next day back to Ao
Chalong to sort out internet which had run out – this is no easy task as the
top up procedure is all in Thai but we managed to find 2 very helpful girls in
the local bookshop who sorted it.
The wind
was still blowing so after a rolly night in Ao Chalong bay we got the sails up
and had another really nice sail back round to the West coast beaches of
Phuket, we sailed into Kata a bay we had not been to before and found the
clearest, cleanest sea we have seen.
Kata is divided into 2 bays, Kata Yai and Kata Noi, we tried both and
because a Northerly wind had been forecast ended up in Kata Yai a busy tourist
resort favoured by the Scandinavians as a place to live and by the Russians as
a place to holiday (apparently there are direct 9 hour flights from Russia). We spoke to a young Russian man who told us
he had left -30 to come and enjoy the +30 degree sun – it must be hard for them
to leave to go back!!!!!
We have
now been in Thailand 41 days and we have 19 days left until Visa renewal, we
have been on the move for most of it as so far there has not been a place that
we have either wanted to stay or the weather has allowed us to stay. Decisions have to made about where to get
work done on Gaviota and where to leave her for 6 months. The weather has not been good but we have had
some wind and actually sailed. The West
coast of Phuket certainly boasts the best beaches and cleanest sea but any bad
weather in the Indian Ocean that sends swell in makes these untenable, so I
think we will stay this side until we are forced to move.
