07 48.855 N  098 22.908 E

Thailand

We are finally on our way to Thailand. We had to wait out the Southwest Monsoon season until the weather switched over to the Northeast Monsoon. We have left a wee bit ahead of the norm of the seasonal change, but the weather looks good…so we have to say goodbye to Rebak ….. but at the same time, we say “hurrah”… we are out of the marina….always a good change to head to the open water and away from the confines of marina docks.

We have a brand new Virgin Islands Mermaid on our ensign staff and Sea Mist is ready to go sailing.

Rebak has been a safe marina for us over the last two seasons, next year we may try Telaga Harbour Marina, we will have to see come April when we head back south to Malaysia to escape the change of season back to the Southwest Monsoon…and the poor sailing weather that accompanies that change in these waters.

Koh Lipe

This was an overnight stop for us on our way north; we will probably stay for a couple of days on our way back as it is a favourite tourist destination amongst the southern Thai Islands. Right now, we need to get to Au Chalong Harbour on Phuket Island (by far the largest of the Islands of Thailand) to handle the formalities of checking into Thailand…and even more importantly ….. get some help from Honda Marine as our dinghy outboard does not want to operate after being mothballed since last March.

As we approach Koh Lipe, we are back at the familiar entrance, where the depths go from 20 metres to a very shallow depth of around 3-4 meters so you have to be very aware of the channel limits and depths as you come in.

The colorful fishing boats are still around. This particular boat was immaculate, many of the fishing boats are quite worn and dilapidated…

On to Koh Lanta in the morning - Good night for now.

Koh Lanta

Some things never change, last year we decided this group of huts would have to be lost to one of the storms…here we are back again and they are still standing with people sitting on their rickety verandas.

Still as colourful as ever, it has been a long day on the way up from Koh Lipe - time for dinner then bed and onwards to Phuket in the morning. Good Night

And after a comfortable night at anchor, we have arrived at the Au Chalong Harbour on Phuket and we are just in time for the sunset and dinner.

Sunsets always amaze us, the sky can go from pink to orange, we feel very fortunate to be able to enjoy these fabulous sunsets.

Tomorrow, after check-in formalities, we are off to do some research into various places and people who we may have work on Sea Mist during 2015 to get her ready for sale back in the UK in 2016/2017 - quite sad to sell her, but we can’t live on her forever.

Good Night from our new “home” (anchorage) in Thailand where we are likely to be roaming around  for the next 4 to 5 months.