Langkawi to Phuket, Thailand
Gaviota
Wed 21 Dec 2016 04:10
07:48.515N 98:23.807E
The plan
was to check out of Malaysia on Monday 12th December but we should
know ‘never make plans’! The protocol
with yacht clearance is that you have to see the various departments in a set
order – 1. Harbour Master 2. Customs 3.
Immigration (just to confuse the issue this is different when you are clearing
in). We dutifully looked for the Harbour
Master and were told he would not be in until later. We walked to Customs and they were
closed. Lastly we called on Immigration
who were open but informed us it was a Public Holiday – we hadn’t factored that
one in! So it was back to the boat to
check which of the many National Holidays in Malaysia it was – should have
known ‘Prophet Muhammuds Birthday – of course, silly us!!! There was no choice but to wait until
Tuesday.
Tuesday,
13th December we repeated the same process and this time everybody
was in and we got our Clearance Papers stamped and ready to leave.
There had
been a recent cyclone in the Indian Ocean which had produced a very nasty large
rolling swell but as we rounded the West point of Langkawi we had just enough
wind to sail for half an hour! Then it
was motor sail the rest of the way. The
original plan had been to go to a group of Islands called the Butangs but the
anchorages there faced the swell so we headed to KoTarutao Marine National Park
and anchored behind a rocky island on the East side of the Island. We had tried to get a Pilot Guide to
Thailand before we left but could find nothing so finding information about
anchorages was pretty impossible – Syd used the electronic charts (still not to
be relied on) and I consulted the Lonely Planet Guide to Thailand which waxes
lyrical about every dam piece of rock in Thailand!
Our first
anchorage on KoTarutao was very well protected from swell and wind but the sea
was murky and the Lonely Planet told me it had a grim past as between 1938 and
1948 more than 3000 Thai criminals and political prisoners were incarcerated
there. During WWII food and medical
supplies from the mainland were severely depleted and hundreds of prisoners
died of malaria. The prisoners and guards
mutinied taking to piracy in the nearby Strait of Malacca until they were
suppressed by British troops in 1944.
We left early next morning!
More
motoring and we arrived early afternoon at Ko Phetra with it’s towering
limestone cliffs and jagged rocks. There
had been a strange haze in the sky all day with poor visibility which was a
shame as we were now nearing some of the scenery which has been used in so many
films.
The sea
at Ko Phetra was emerald green and pretty clean but still not clear and had
very strong currents running – where are all these amazing snorkelling spots –
Lonely Planet said they were here????
Early
start next morning and enough wind to sail, things were looking up. Wind was iffy so we motor sailed most of the
way to our next stop Trang Islands – yet another of the Marine National Parks
of Thailand (all of which have a separate fee for visiting). We anchored off beautiful Ko Kraden (claim to
fame – the island made it into the Guiness Book of Records for hosting the
largest recorded underwater wedding in the world!). The sea at Ko Kraden was a lot clearer though
not as clean as you would have hoped.
Coral was in a poor condition but there were plenty of small fish so it
was definitely getting better. Then the
Park Rangers arrived, demanding money.
We told them (truthfully) that we had no Thai Baht and had not cleared
in yet, so we offered them Malaysian Ringitt which they declined and left us in
peace so we decided to stay the night.
Next
morning it was off with the morning breeze (seems to be a regular pattern with a
good land breeze up to 15 knots which blows from about 7.00am to 11.00am). We had a lovely fast sail the short distance
to the next Island Ko Ngai. It was
another snorkelling stop with pretty clear though not clean sea and pretty dead
coral but quite a few fish. We had just
got back to the boat when we had another visit from more Park Rangers. Same story (all true) but with slightly more
difficulty as these ones looked a lot more officious and did not speak
English. They seemed to get the gist and
realised they were not going to get any Thai Baht so disappeared. We moved on to the large Island of Ko
Lanta. We had planned to try to find an
anchorage on the East coast but the sea was very dirty and we spotted several
giant jellyfish lurking in the murky water.
Without decent Charts and very basic information on anchorages it was
becoming difficult finding safe places to stop.
The Lonely Planet showed some nice beaches up the West Coast so we
headed up that way and found a reasonably protected bay called Ao Kantiang
which had several yachts and tripper boats anchored in it. Ao Kantiang had a beautiful beach and several
large upmarket resorts tastefully tucked away in the hills, the best thing was
the sea was clean so we swam.
Another
early start for our 25 mile sail to Ko Phi Phi Don and we had wind so managed
to sail most of the way. Ko Phi Phi Don
is party island, made popular as being the inhabited island next to Phi Phi Leh
setting for the cult film ‘The Beach’ based on Alex Garland’s book and starring
Leonardo Di Caprio. Backpackers around
the world flock to see the spot where Leo smoked a spliff then party through
the night on Phi Phi Don. We tried to
find an anchoring space on the harbour side but it was full of speedboats and
tripper boats whizzing backwards and forwards to Phi Phi Leh and the nearby
caves and snorkelling and dive spots. It
was chaos so we motored round to the other side where we anchored in beautiful
Ao Lo Dalam bay, the sea was clear and clean so we swam to a little beach
nearby. Night time was a bit noisy but
overall it was a good stop.
Early
start and we had serious wind and in a good direction so we sailed away from
Phi Phi Don, picked up speed with the 20
knot wind and managed the first half of the trip to Phuket at 7+ knots, the
wind lessened but we managed to sail the whole way to the leading buoy into Ao
Chalong Harbour South of Phuket City. We
dropped anchor at Ao Yon a quiet bay next to the busy harbour and check in
facilities at Ao Chalong. A celebratory
bottle of vino was called for – we have made it to Phuket, Thailand.
Monday, 19th December we upped anchor and
took Gaviota round to Ao Chalong to officially check in to Thailand.
Thailand
has an amazingly efficient check in procedure (probably the most efficient,
thorough and painless we have ever had).
There is a one stop check-in building on the end of the pier at Ao
Chalong. We arrived by dinghy and first
stop was registration (this is an online process – all the boat information can
be registered before arrival so you simply log in and check the registered boat
in). Next stop the Harbour Master who
needed copies of the boat registration, clearance from Malaysia and our
passports. Then onto Immigration who
needed more copies of our passports and boat registration plus a bit of form
filling in. Then Customs and finally
Quarantine and we were officially in Thailand.
All this took place in a clean, air-conditioned building with polite,
helpful staff and the whole process took less than an hour. Gaviota is allowed to remain in Thai waters
for 6 months, we got Tourist Visas in advance from the Thai Embassy when we
were in Penang, these allow us 60 days which we can extend to 90 days then we
have to leave Thailand, so it will be decision time as to whether to leave
Gaviota back in Malaysia where the rules are a lot less strict and yachts are
welcome to stay for a year.
We needed
provisioning and a local Sim Card for Internet so took a ride down the pier on
a sort of cattle truck with open sides which operate as buses here then got
ripped off with a taxi but he did take us to Tescos (they get everywhere!)
where we managed to stock up with food for another week.
Now we
are back anchored in Ao Yon and it is 5 days to Christmas Day – not sure what
we will do for Christmas but there is a Hash on Christmas Eve so we may go
round to the crazy tourist beach area of Patong and anchor off there or just
head out to a quiet little bay on one of the hundreds of off lying islands here
– decisions, decisions . . . . . . .
Whatever we wish all our Blog readers a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS and NEW YEAR,
here’s to lots of sailing in 2017.
