April 2004 High and dry in Boat Lagoon, Phuket

The next day we lifted out and and found the bottom in pretty good condition. When we bought the boat we found a lot of bubbles on the bottom. When cracked open they were found to clean and no sign or smell of osmosis activity. Over the last two years bubbles started appearing on the water line and this was a worry so now it was time to fix it up so we would know for sure whether a problem was present or emerging.

   

We engaged Pro Yachting to do the work on the boat. Jill and Pro are a well know couple here with a good reputation for getting the job doen well, but not the fastest job. The choice for a quick quality job would be Precision Shipyard run by Scott. But the prices his prices are significantly more.  With the boat up and out the first task was to find somewhere to live. the units at Boat Lagoon are convenient and by western standards, cheap. A small motel unit is 7000baht  (A$250) a month plus electricity (A$50-100). After three weeks of hunting we organised a larger unit for the four of us at 12000baht and settled into our 'temporary home'.

First up on the boat the mast came down.  Then a tent was erected around the boat. Then just about every fitting on the deck came off. Most of them not without a fight as most had never been moved since installation around twenty years ago and many were sealed in with epoxy.  The bottom paint was stripped off with paint stripper and then the epoxy layer was ground off. This took two weeks with two workers on angle grinders. One with a small grinder took the epoxy layer off and the other followed with a larger grinder and 'faired off' the fibreglass.  Amazingly they produced a very smooth bare bottom. We could see a few wet spots but overall were please to find our bare bottom looking pretty healthy!


Over the next two months several areas started weeping around the ground out wet spots. These were chased out and five months laters we were satisfied all the problem areas were gone and the hull was dry enough to be sealed up again. They filled and faired the hull until it was very smooth and fair. Then on a near perfect day, a team of four worked their way around the hull applying and screening off the epoxy resin and went around the hull five times, moving fast enough to maintain a 'wet edge' all the time. So that's the hull story.

The collision with the ship at Port Klang left us with a twisted section of toerail. Attempts to find a similar section of toerail failed and we eventually got a stainless steel fabricator, Siphon, to repair the damage rail. This was pretty costly ($500) but at the end of the job we were very pleased.  Pro replaced the damage timber board and while the scars remain (on the boat and within us!) the imprint of the Port Klang adventure was lessening all the time.

Feburary 2004 A short trip to Phang Na Bay

Phang Na Bay is a large bay to the north and east of Phuket.  The large somewhat shallow bay is studded with islands that are 'karst formations' - limestone islands that rise often vertically out of the sea.  A wonderous sight and very much a visual highlight in our journey.

There are numerous caves and hongs (the thai word for room) in these islands. The edges  of the islands are eroded away to form an overhang. We spent many hours cruising along in the dinghy admiring the limestone formations in and under these overhangs. The hongs are (I think!) collapsed caves and are just amazing.

At our first anchorage at Ko Phanak there is a Hong that is accessed by going through a cave for 50 metres or so.  With a rising tide we rowed into the cave and switched on our torch as light from the entrance faded. As we moved along a green tinge of light on the water grew, showing the light coming from the Hong. The cave finished and a small airspace of a few inches could be seen with the daylight in the distance. Jumping into the water I (Col) ducked down and swam through a two metre long and metre wide passage to surface in the brilliant sunshine and a huge 25 metre round lagoon with shear rainforest lined cliffs rising hundreds of metres skyward. Just a fantastic to swim out of the dark cave into this sight.

Liz & the girls followed and I revelled in watching their expressions as they surfaced and took in the vista. The tide rose to close the air space and one of us stay at the cave entrance so we could find our way back.  Really good stuff!

From Ko Phanak we made a lunch stop at another Hong which was much easier to enter but still very beautiful and here we watched large numbers of day visitors being paddled through the Hong on kayaks with a reclining seats so the visitors can lay back and relax while touring around.  Many hundreds of people make a day trip out to Phang Na bay - and rightly so!

The big attraction in the area is the island known as 'James Bond' island as the film the "The Man with the Golden Gun" had scenes filmed there. We anchored a mile or so away for the night and watched the sun set and lit up the islands around us in a spectacular way.

 Next morning we moved close to James Bond island and went ashore before the influx of tourist. Everyone that goes on a Phang Na bay tour ends up here and they say it can be literally standing room only on the small island.  Our early morning saw us well outnumbered by souvenier stall owners - luckilly they let us get away with just buying an ice cream.  But once again the attraction, while it's a bit overrun by the tourism process, was worth a look.

 

Time was against us with our visa running out soon so it was back to Ao Chalong to check out and head down to Langkawi. The intention was to go via Phi Phi Island but this turned out to be a dumb idea as the wind was right on the nose.   After punching into six miles of sloppy sea we anchored behind an island for the night and then decided to just overnight straight to Tulaga Harbour on Langkawi. This turned out pretty good as we had strong winds but  at a good angle and had a reasonable trip.

The trip back to somewhere you've been before is always much easier as the pressure on working out the right approach and quite often we have our previous track stored in our navigation software.  Going into Tulaga harbour for the night we treated ourselves to KFC for dinner.  The next day I went to the new immigration/customs/ports offices to check into Malaysia but was only able to do half the job as there was not Ports officer.  Apparently they opened the office with much pomp and ceremony a few weeks before and when the first boat checked in they 'clicked' that the Ports administration hadn't allocated someone to work there.  Hmmm...

We met up with Don & Jean off Katrine and were told there quite harrowing tale of dragging anchor back onto a reef and only just being able to get the boat away when the wind shifted for a few minutes.  Luckily this doesn't happen very often and they admitted that it was a bad place to anchor and though 'it'd be okay just for one night'.

After stocking up on beer, chocolates and Nutella we checked out and then rounded Langkawi to go into the 'Hole in the Wall'.  This is a long narrow passage, almost fjord-like on the north eastern corner of the island.  While you can take the boat straight up in there, we were told that is nice to anchor in the harbour around the corner and then head up a side river by dinghy.  The river is connected to the Hole ain Wall area by a man made cut through.

This was a top idea.  We enjoyed a beautiful anchorage in the bay and then spent all day in the dinghy going up the river, through the cuttings and into a cave in the dinghy.  The new motor performed faultlessly.  A short walk down the road from the main jetty at the Hole in The Wall is a gallery dedicated to the recently retired Prime Minister - Dr Mahatir.  It is a 'glorious monument to their glorious leader' - I'm sure that must be written.  The main collection of the gallery are all the gifts to Dr Mahatir from other countries, companies and individuals seeking favour or good will.  All that said it was worth a look.

January 2004 Similian Islands

Koh Similan National Park

We left Patong beach early for the 54 mile run north-west  to 'the Similans'. These islands are forty miles off the Thai coast  and run north - south.  The north-east wind blows hard most mornings and we left with a fully reefed main and quite a few turns on the headsail furler.  For the first few hours we charged along at 7.5 to 8 knots, but as the day went on the wind died away and after a short effort with the spinnaker we motored the last twenty miles to Koh Miang, the first island with anchorage possibilities.  A large pod of dolphins joined us for the last mile into Koh Miang - good stuff!

Every other shop in Phuket seemed to have ads for diving the Similans, so it was no surprise to see lots of dive boats. There are moorings at most of the dive sites and the two most protected anchorages. We picked up a mooring and jumped into the water for an late afternoon snorkel. The first thing was the water clarity - it was stunning. While the coral and fish life weren't spectacular, it was still very good.  On way back to the boat we watched in amazement as a marlin repeatedly shot out of the water and kicked it's tail wildly.

That night we rolled around terribly as the swells seemed to come from all directions.  A trip ashore in the morning found a beautiful beach and a campground  ashore. This would be an excellent holiday option - camping on this island or Koh Similan. Moving up the chain of islands we came to Koh Similan, the largest island. At the northern end there is a protected bay. Once again moorings are available and there is plenty of competition for a spot. We soon realised that patience pays off, as the dive boats move on to the next dive site every few hours, freeing up the mooring.

This anchorage became our base for the next week. This is also a ranger station and has a small restaurant, tents for hire and showers ashore. We were all very keen to try out our dive gear so the next day Liz wakes up with a head-cold. This ruled her out for a dive so Courtney and I prepared for the first dive off our boat.  We went around to the south eastern corner to a site known as Breakfast Bend. This was named as the dive boats do this as the first dive of the day. We picked up a mooring and with the boat tossing wildly Courtney & I stepped off the boat into a beautifully clear scene of coral and fish.  Swimming against the light current we made our way along sand banks that contained fields of small garden eels that sit up out of there holes and slowly descend as we approached. As we got toward our maximum depth of 18metres we found coral outcrops teeming with coral trout and gropers. A large Leopard shark was spotted and a good look in a darker hole found a two metre moray eel.  An excellent dive. On our return Liz and Anna we feeling pretty lousy on the madly tossing boat, so we quickly made our way  back.

That night the girls rented a tent ashore and had a great time 'camping out'. Liz progressively got sicker with a good dose of flu and over the week we all succumbed to the bug. But before Courtney and I did another dive, this time from the dinghy with the families on Uhane Kai and Brilliant II. The highlight of this dive was swimming with a turtle and making our way up, around and under large boulders.

The cycle of the day here was very consistent. A quiet start to the morning with a few of the dive boats moving out, followed by a steady influx of high speed powerboats (mostly with three 200hp outboards) carrying day trippers who would set up on the beach. With dive boats coming and going the day  trippers would leave and the evening would calm down with the sound of dive compressors filling the void till just after dark. The large boulder in the photo was a favourite vantage point for watching the sunset.

Not feeling well certainly put a damper on our stay in the Similans but it was still a very enjoyable stay. We left with little breeze but sailed most of the day to get us back to Patong Beach just before dark, then the next day heading around to Ao Chalong to do some 'town' things.

A short stay   in Ao Chalong saw Liz head off for several interviews for possible jobs. One at a large resort called Le Meridian sounded good but the interview turned out to be a bit of a farce.  Another a small college training people to teach English went well but the manager only needs some one if more enrolments come in. The third was at a private primary school teaching English to the predominately Chinese students. Once that was done we had just enough time to go up to see some of Phang Na bay before heading down to Langkawi to renew our visa

A short trip to Phang Na bay

January 2004 Phuket Thailand

So the year started in Langkawi, Malaysia and after a week or so we cleared Custom and Immigration and headed for Thailand. Most people spend a week or two making their way to Phuket to check into Thailand. We were keen for Courtney to have her birthday with some kids so did and overnight sailed straight from Rebak Marina to Nai Harn at the southern corner of the west coast of Phuket.  The north-east monsoon winds blew well and we flew across with twenty knots of wind on our beam (the wind at right angles to the boat).

We met "Dave the Cat" and they were able to supply four children for the birthday party, their own kids Shannon and Simon and two visitors Craig and Lisa. The bay was crowded with yachts and the beach was teeming with tourists, with whole beach lined with umbrellas and sun lounges for rent. Courtney wasn't well the day of her birthday so a party was held over til the next day and at the next beach up the coast, Kata Beach. Just as pretty with fewer boats anchored but just as many tourists on the beach.  

While at Kata beach we spent two days running around Phuket island to check out options for slipping Reflections. There are two main yards one at Ratanachai, close to Phuket town, which is very traditional slip and the other Boat Lagoon, a resort style place with a very clean open yard and units to rent. With charges very similar we decided on  Boat Lagoon.

A short move up from Kata beach brought us to Patong. This the 'night-life' capital with streets full of bars and girls and middle-aged western tourists. Definitely the place to go if you're in need of a bit of 'sleeze'.  That said Liz and I went in one night without the girls and had dinner and wandered round - got bored and went home to bed!

For a cruising yacht, Patong is not the bay of choice as there are heaps of jet skis buzzing around. Inexperienced riders going really fast, really close is not conducive to a relaxed afternoon at anchor!  We heard of several other boats with kids aboard and soon heard one of the yachts "Uhane Kai" on the VHF radio.  They told us that they and "Brilliant II" each had a twelve year old boy aboard with another boat "Raptor" having a twelve year old girl.

Also they told us about a dive shop selling off it's equipment.  With the thought of meeting more kids and possibly getting dive gear we ran the 12 miles back down to Kata beach to meet up with them.  We fulfilled all needs with the girls meeting up all the kids described above and we bought two sets of scuba diving  gear.

The two boys Dylan off Brilliant II and Kai off Uhane-Kai had recently completed dive course and were also heading to Koh Similan National Park. This is the main diving destination around Phuket and we were all now well equipped.

Next Page: Koh Similan National Park