Feburary 2006 - A week's break in the Surin Islands.

The middle of February is mid-term break and with a week off to the Surin Islands, 100 km north-west of Phuket. we departed on Sunday morning after a day of packing and visiting other cruising families on the Saturday.



Day One started out in fine form. The weather was great but the main sail jammed in the track at the top of the mast and tore at the luff as soon as we started to tension it. So I spent the remainder of the day hand sewing it back together, while we motor-sailed with the headsail. The last time I had to repair that sail was five years ago when we were in at Frederick Reef, 200 nm East of Bundaberg in the middle of the ocean. That time I ended up driving the blunt end of the needle through the muscle at the base of my thumb to the bone, so Col had to finish stitching the last few inches. But five years on, that repair is still holding fast. This time the tear was above the old one and I have a new sewing awl that has a large timber holder for the needle. I managed to finish the repair before dark and with just very red hands and a few blisters this time.  A few hours into the trip and a pool of diesel fuel was spotted on the floor. A loose fitting was found and tightened, but the next few days the 'seep from the leak' continued - sigh....

 Surin Islands National Park brochure - (free) (in PDF format and quite large 1.5Mb)

Not long after, the wind picked up and we successfully raised the sail, turned off the motor and sailed the remainder of the trip. The highlight of the day was seeing a marlin taking several leaps near the boat. Not long after that we felt inspired to set a lure but didn't catch anything.

We were going to arrive at the islands in the middle of the night, so at dusk, we put one reef in the main sail and a partly furled headsail to slow the boat down as we needed to wait for daylight to approach the reef laden anchorage. We finally arrived at about 6:30 (Day 2) after 18 hours and were able take our pick of the National Park moorings as we were the only yacht there. That afternoon we snorkelled on the reef fringing the bay to find a stunning array of coral and fish. In the afternoon we headed into the park camp for showers, refreshments and dinner.



On Day Three we woke to a beautiful day and decided to head out to Richelieu Rock for a dive. It is 14 km east of the Surin Islands and is reputed to be one of the best dive sites in Thailand. We arrived at the cluster of pinnacles at about 9 o'clock to find three other dive boats already there. There was only one mooring and being the smallest of the boats there we were able to pick it up. Later we realized how close it had brought us to the pinnacles which lay just below the surface.


Col and I went for a dive, tagging along with a group of Japanese divers. It was a fantastic dive to 20 m with plenty of coral and fish to see including a pair of skeleton shrimp nestled amongst some whip coral. We also had sightings barracuda and three of giant manta rays just cruising past. Its a site where whale sharks are frequently sighted but we weren't lucky enough to see any. We resurfaced to find heaps more diving boats converging on the pinnacles. The casualty of the day was a large hole in one of the tubes of our inflatable dinghy. It seems that it must have been trapped under our windvane at the back of the boat as we were picking up the mooring, leaving it with the biggest hole it has ever had. We had arrived at the rock nice and early before the masses and as other smaller boats were now wanting to tie off our boat, we decided to head back to the islands for the rest of the day, mooring in the neighbouring bay. That night we shared the bay with a number of dive boats and local fishing boats. It blew quite hard in the night but the mooring held well. We woke to find our dinghy still a float, the dive boats gone and the biggest motor yacht that we had ever seen anchored in the middle of the bay, only 100 metres away.

So Day Four was dedicated to repairing the dinghy, watching the comings and goings from the motor yacht, wondering if and how we might be invited aboard and snorkeling on the fringing reef (this time we had to swim in as the dinghy was out of action). Well, we were well entertained watching the crew of Le Grande Bleu survey the bay for beaches, select and set up their beach umbrellas, relocate them to the next beach as the tide crept up. Then the owner ventured ashore only to see them pack up again after the next beach disappeared with the rising tide. They returned to their yacht and later headed to the neighbouring bay.

The intrigue of the boat dominated the day and suitably distracted us from the repair of the day. You see this motor yacht is 370+ feet long and has the most amazing toys on board. The visible ones are the 72-foot sailboat and the 68 foot powerboat that are stored on deck. In addition to this they also have a helicopter and multiple small craft inside and hanging off the sides, at less five of these were darting around the bay that day. When we got home we did a web search on it to find it had once been the largest motor yacht in the world (2000) but now is only number 9. It was previously owned by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, but is now one of the big motor yachts owned by a Russian billionaire.


So there we were in a Surin Island bay, just us on Reflections IV(43ft), a Russian billionaire on Le Grand Bleu (374 ft) and two Moken ( local sea gypsies) in a traditional canoe (10 ft). Sadly, in spite of our friendly waves and our respect for their privacy, showering and painting my nails, we wined and dined on board Reflections once again that night, but then again things could have been worse.




The following day, our neighbours moved on and so did we. We made our way further around to the northern bay of the northern island to one of the best snorkelling sites we have come across. We spent the morning snorkelling and then after lunch and we moved on again to a secured bay on the western side of the island for the night.
Some where here I have lost a day but I guess that's okay. On Friday morning, we headed back to Phuket, motor sailing most of the day with calm seas and keeping a sharp lookout for fish trap markers and stick rafts erected by large fishing boats. This time we were treated to seeing a whale emerge near our boat- a Brydes' or Minke whale we think. The wind picked up in the evening and we were able to complete the trip back under the peace and quiet of sail. We finally reached Phuket and Bang Tao Bay at 5:30 in the morning where Col dropped anchor and went to bed.



So now we are back at the house, washing and contemplating school tomorrow. We had a great holiday and can't wait to go back to the Surin Islands again.