Phuket Boat Lagoon

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Wed 10 Apr 2019 21:46

07:57.825N 98:23.203E

 

Wednesday 10th April 2019

 

Distance run: 5 nmiles

 

We left the anchorage at 1030 and made our way to the channel into the marina, arriving a little before 1100.  We called the marina and they confirmed that a  dinghy was on its way.  We had been unable to ascertain to what depth the channel had been dredged, or even if, in fact, it had been dredged.  The tide tables told us we now had 2.5 metres of tide under us, so in theory we should be ok depth-wise, but we just couldn’t be sure, and as it was an unknown entrance we thought it best to play safe and get guidance in.  As it happened, we never had less than 1.3 metres below the keel and could easily have done it ourselves.  But now we know.

 

               

The channel wound its way towards mangrove swamp.                                  The water changed colour as we got closer to the lagoon.

 

               

The brightly-coloured climbing frame looked incongruous.                             Local homes on stilts along the bank

 

It took almost an hour to get all the way to the marina basin, and then I held my breath very hard while Steve steered the boat through some very narrow gaps and safely into berth B16 where several guys took the lines and had us securely tied alongside in no time at all.

 

The blue striped lighthouse is at the entrance to Boat Lagoon.

 

Our first priority was to get checked in, so we went first to the marina office to complete their paperwork, and then got a Grab to Ao Chalong on the southern end of the island.  

 

               

The seats in the Grab van were so big my feet couldn’t touch the floor, but fortunately there was a footrest.  Luxury!

 

We walked along the long pier to the Yacht administration centre where we first had to complete a computer registration, then visit the Harbour Master, Immigration and finally Customs.  It took the best part of an hour, and in each office they wanted photocopies of the same documents.  At least the form-filling was kept to a minimum as the computer registration meant that the forms could be printed out already completed ready for signatures.  Goodness knows how long it would have taken if we’d had to complete all those forms by hand!    

 

Clear instructions for the checking in/out process.

 

               

The pier at Ao Chalong is very long!                                          A big buddha sits on the top of the hill overlooking the town.

 

We left the building with all our ducks in a row, and happy that the clock was now ticking for time spent in Thailand.  One box ticked.  By now we were feeling quite peckish.  We didn’t want to waste any time on lunch, so we nipped into a 7-11 and got a couple of cheese and ham toasties (yes, very Thai, we know) and at the same time topped up our Thai SIM card so that we could make calls to the companies doing work on the boat.  We ate our sarnies by the pier, then called a Grab to bring us back to the boat.

 

We arrived back just in time for Steve to call the two companies he had previously been in email touch with, and arranged for both to visit the boat tomorrow.  So far, so good.  Fingers crossed they turn up as promised in the morning.