New Year in Thailand: Phuket, 07:48.9N, 098:23.0E

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Sat 11 Jan 2025 10:50
We left Malaysia on the 27th of December, bound for Phuket in Thailand.  The total distance is only 120 miles, or 24 hours sailing, but there are lots of islands on the way and there is an unwritten arrangement that you can take up to 10 days over the trip without questions being asked.
Our plan was to head north to start, which we hoped would give us a better angle on the predominantly northeast wind and this seemed to work well.  There also seemed to be a pattern to the wind of a breeze in the morning that died off midday (to return in the evening and die again in the early hours).  Making use of this we had some pleasant short morning sails between islands without too much motoring.  Our first stop was Koh Tarutao, just a few miles north of the top end of Langkawi, (Koh, or Ko meaning island) where we anchored in a bay that was deserted apart from a couple of fishing boats and a big groups of fishing pot markers.  We found a spot in clear water for a quiet night.  Up early the next morning we made the most of the wind for the 30-mile trip to Koh Phetra, a dramatic, towering lump of rock rising up out of relatively shallow water making anchoring in its lee possible.  On this day we first came across the huge acres of fishing pots strung across the sea that made sure we stayed alert and concentrating on what was ahead. There were strong winds forecast for the next day, so we decided to stay where we were, though it wasn’t always comfortable as the wind gusted round and over the cliff we were sheltering under. 
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Our route north from Langkawi to Phuket via; 1. Ko Tarutao, 2. Ko Phetra, 3. Ko Mok and 4. Ko Lanta
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The sea between Langkawi and Phuket is littered with dramatic rock islands
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But also with buoys marking fishing pots.  There were acres of them that you had to wind your way through
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Our anchorage at Ko Phetra was in the shadow of towering cliffs, but they were surrounded by shallow water (the blue colour on the chart) so we were anchored in just 10 meters
Our third stop, 22 miles on, saw us beginning to get into Thailand's more touristy areas. Koh Mok had bars and resorts, and the local ‘long tail” boats taking tourists diving, snorkelling and to see the sights.  We were not alone here and there were a number of charter yachts in the anchorage - the first time we have seen them for a while.  As we weren’t in a rush we decided to have a couple of nights here.  We visited the Emerald Cave, where you swim through a tunnel about 80 meters long to reach a cave open to the sky.  We hadn’t expected something quite so beautiful as this place with a beach and trees and greenery growing all the way up the cliffs to the opening to the sky.  We took a walk to the local town to visit the ATM and get some Thai Bhat.  The roads were narrow, and the only transport was motorbikes, often with sidecars for carrying goods and passengers.  We had New Year’s Eve here with a meal in a restaurant overlooking the beach.
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The anchorage at Ko Mok
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Ko Mok city centre
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Ko Mok taxis are motorbikes with sidecars
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And here is the fuel station
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Inside Emerald cave
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Looking up to the sky
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Swimming out from the cave.  We went at low water and there was plenty of air space in the tunnel
While we were here, we realised that our 10-day time allowance for getting to Phuket to clear in would run out at the weekend, and the Thai authorities charge for weekend check-ins, so we would need to move a bit faster.  Another short day-sail took us to Koh Lanta, where we enjoyed a quiet afternoon and a swim in clean water, before covering the final 40 miles to Chalong Harbour on Phuket.  We had a great morning's sail doing 6-7 knots before the wind ran out at midday and we motored the rest of the way.
Chalong came as a bit of a shock to us: from the huge number of boats in the harbour to the number of tourists and the amount of flesh they display.  In predominantly Muslim Malaysia and Indonesia and away from the tourist areas favoured by westerners it is normal to remain fully covered on the beach and both women and men swam that way and just let their clothes dry in the hot sun!
Clearing in was easy and by mid-morning on Friday we had 60-day visas and were officially in the country.  In town, we found the local Highfield agents.  Our Highfield dinghy has been leaking since it got shunted across the deck by strong winds during an ex-tropical cyclone in New Zealand and had been getting worse recently, so we went in. Within an hour it had been collected for repair, and we had a courtesy boat on loan. That was Saturday and we had ours back fully repaired on Tuesday morningall for about £120.  Sadly, the supermarket closest to the pier wasn’t such good value and our shopping cost twice what it would have done in the UK!
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The water is shallow in Chalong harbour, so you leave your dinghy at the end of the jetty where the tour boats dock and catch the pink bus to the shore.  50p return ticket
We have spent most of our first week in Thailand anchored at the far side of the bay from Chalong town where there is less traffic on the water and a nice beach bar where we have been able to catch up with some friends from our passage through Indonesia in 2023.  Yesterday we had lunch ashore with Sarah’s nephew, Dan, his partner Shelley and their son, Cam, who are on holiday at a nearby hotel.  We hope this will set the tone for a more gentle year after the miles we covered in 2023 and 2024.
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Long-tails are everywhere for fishing and tourism.  The engine drives a propeller at the end of a long shaft.  
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Lovely to see Dan, Shelley and Cam