Final Preparations - Au Chalong, Phuket, Thailand
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sun 4 Mar 2012 00:35
| 7:48.980N 98:22.821E February 18, 2012 - March 1, 2012 It feels like we've been preparing for years even though it's only been three or four months. Finally, though, we are down to the last of it. Here's the rundown:
That pretty much covers all the stuff Don took care of during our two weeks at Rebak. What did I do? Blog updates. Laundry. Provisioning, cleaning and a bit of cooking. Boring. The seamstress working on the dinghy gas container cover. We did make sure we took a walk around Rebak Island every day while staying at the marina. It's really a beautiful place, and the island is small enough to circumnavigate in about an hour. On a good day, we'd see a whole flock of hornbills like this one. They travel in pairs and are gorgeous when they fly, with broad stripes of black and white stretching across their wings. On the ground, they hop to get around. So odd. They do the same to travel from branch to branch in the trees, they hop. Quite a forehead, don't you think? No question where the name hornbill came from. On one of our last walks around Rebak Island, we witnessed this hornbill spat. Two hornbills were sitting happily in a tree when a third flew in and disrupted them. They were not happy. The bird in flight did his (her?) best to batter the heck out of the poor interloper sitting on the ground looking up. We've never seen anything like it and were quite pleased the hornbills chose to put on this show on a day we happened to have the camera with us. It was Valentine's Day. Perhaps we witnessed a lover's triangle gone bad? Back to Thailand (again!). Didn't we just do this? We left Rebak Marina February 17 and anchored nearby for one night to test all the systems (anchor windlass, SSB, sat phone, generator, water maker, engine, VHF, etc.). It's very easy to ship boat parts into duty-free Langkawi, Malaysia, so if we did find a problem (we didn't), it would have been best to address it in Langkawi. After confirming all was well, we moved into Telaga Harbor Marina on Langkawi Island for two nights, to do the last bit of hard core provisioning - wine, beer, canned goods, meat, cheese, other dairy products. We have this provisioning thing down pretty well now, so it doesn't feel strange (or wrong) to buy 8 kilos of hamburger (or mince as it's called in this part of the world), 7 pounds of butter, and the biggest block of New Zealand cheddar cheese available in all of Langkawi. Not that we don't love the local food wherever we go, we do, but sometimes, a burger and a big hunk of cheese are just….necessary. At this point, Storyteller had joined us in Langkawi, venturing down from Thailand to make a visa run, a wine run, pick up two guests, and to see us off…except we didn't leave when we were supposed to. Oops. Tom and Suzy on Priscilla showed up in Telaga at the same time (they are semi-planning to take the southern route to South Africa this year, so are currently heading south), so we said good-bye to them before heading north to Thailand. Again. For the fifth (and last!) time, we covered the 135 miles between Langkawi, Malaysia and Phuket, Thailand. This time we made the trip in three daysails squeaking out 6 hours of sailing in 24 total traveling hours. Along the way, we anchored off new (to us) and different Thai islands: Koh Lipe and Koh Rok Nok. Both had beautiful, clear water and pretty scenery. Nice. Fifteen knots apparent. My favorite sailing wind condition. Fifteen knots is just enough to get our boat going at a quick pace (7-8 knots), but not too much to stir up a rough sea. Perfect! Now if we could have this kind of wind all the time, we wouldn't be the chronic weather complainers we are today. Alas, it'll never happen. Arrival in Thailand. We arrived at Ao Chalong on Phuket's southern coast on February 23. We cleared in with no trouble and spent a week in the calm, flat, hot anchorage completing the last of what needs to be done before we leave. Don cleaned up the hull and finished a few miscellaneous engine room projects while I wrote blogs and filled our freezer with baked goods and casserole dinners for the nine day trip to Sri Lanka. We had plenty of company in the anchorage. Storyteller stayed a few nights before moving on to Yacht Haven Marina with their guests, and Dave and Jan on Baraka were there, as well as about 25 other boats. We said good-bye to Dave and Jan, but will most likely see them again in South Africa (they are taking the southern route). We also met a few new boaters. The boats Scorpio and Cat's Paw IV, both new to us, are currently on their way to Sri Lanka. It's good to know several boats will be out there. Scorpio and Cat's Paw IV both left last week, we leave tomorrow and two more boats, Sunflower and Tartufo will leave several days after us. In the blue water cruising world, when making an ocean passage, boats within a couple of days sail are considered to be pretty darn close. We'll talk to all or most of these boats every day on the SSB radio, so it will feel like they're right next door. Final piece of Khun Sue wisdom. Last Thursday, Don and I went to visit Khun Sue for one last haircut. She was in rare form having just returned from a trip to Bangkok. "You hear man on boat anchored killed self? Yes, smell so bad other boater noticed, found him dead. Stupid to kill self! I sad when divorce husband, but I not kill self! Better I kill him! I have girlfriend, all cry because no good man. She try kill self with paracetamol. She take too many pills and throw up. I tell her, 'Paracetamol no good! Next time go to store, buy strychnine!'" Gotta love Khun Sue. Sunset over Ao Chalong Bay looking at Phuket's southern coast. If you squint, you can see Big Buddha atop the highest hill, just to the right of the sailboat's mast. Next up: We're Off! - Nai Harn, Phuket, Thailand. Anne |