Koh Hae (Coral Island) to Ao Patong

Wed 14th December

We planned to hit the water early before the crowds appeared. The first boat appeared from Ao Chalong at 0730! By 0830 it was a steady stream, including the “sandwich” team from the previous afternoon.

We had a snorkel, best marine life spotted was a Moray Eel, and incredibly friendly schools of yellow and blue striped reef fish about 2” long, who just had not a care in the world that we had entered their domain. It was like swimming into a curtain of them at times.

We decided that it was time to leave the beach to the hordes and we set off to check out the south side of the island. As it was uninspiring and with no obvious anchorage, we again laid off the course for Cape Prom Threp  as the swell had diminished significantly.

We SAILED ALL DAY. This is the first time in months that I can say K'Gari was doing what it does best, sailing!

Anchored for the night at Laem Thai Pao, which is just inside the northern headland of Patong Bay.
Ashore was the Naka Resort, which looked suitably swish and rather under inhabited.

Buffy checking out Mariner of the Seas in Ao Patong

We shared the bay with Mariner of the Seas until 2000, when she departed. Being aware of  the influx of funds that these passenger vessels bring to ports like Cairns and Gladstone, I can only imagine that it's like striking gold for Phuket to have them stop in the Bay for a day. one seems to be anchored in the bay every day, during the time we have been around.

Beat a retreat to Ao Chalong- and the phone goes on its own private tour of Phuket

Tuesday 13th December.

Return to Ao Chalong and went ashore to both shop and dine.

Big Buddha from Ao Chalong Anchorage

Dining en route to the shops, it became apparent that Thai style curry, (not spicy) is way beyond Jo's not spicy/hot tolerance gauge . After swapping meals, with Steve, its been unanimously decided that possibly sticking to Pad Thai noodles, unless dining in heavily 'touristed' areas might be safer for her.

Shopping was a success, so returned to the boat  via a taxi, as we had frozen goodies and stopped en route to grab a bag of ice ,as the cockpit fridge seems to have given up the will to live. It's not vital but it is handy for drinks, and the storage of veges and fruit, when it was working.

It was I suspect about here on the journey, that I apparently parted company with my phone, as I alighted from taxi to buy the ice. I think it slipped from my pocket onto the seat.
We arrived back at the very long Ao Chalong Pier, caught the wee transport 'bus', back to the seaward end and it was now I felt for the phone and realised I was in fact, sans phone.

Yes,  the taxis display both the number and name of the driver. Could any of us remember it? Of course not! I was pretty sure that the number was a combination of an old postcode. Jo thought the drivers surname was something like ????? and I was pretty sure his first name was Watsur or Surwat.  The boys had no idea!
The only thing to do, with the very limited information I had, was to return to the taxi rank and hope that as the street system was basically a one way set up , with the exception of a 5 way roundabout about 500m from where we had been dropped at the pier, that our friendly driver had returned to the same rank, located as it was, outside the supermarkets.
A 15 minute  hike back to the rank and there was the taxi- but no driver.
I asked the other drivers ( in fluent English!) if they knew where the driver was as I had lost my phone and maybe it was in the taxi.
Yes ,yes madam, ( perhaps the trend setting bright pink board shorts, with the offendingly shallow pockets, aren't really disguising my age, I note I'm getting called madam more often) just wait we phone him. Yes, yes he find phone.

About 10mins later, he reappeared on the back of a motor bike with phone in hand. I think he may have been in the process of taking it the near by police station.

Reunited with my phone, (which during  the intervening 30mins of being phone less I had realised is actually like my brain these days, in fact it retains far more information than my brain does, now I think about it ) and declining the offer of a lift on the back of a motor bike, I returned to the pier, with life returned to its normal harmonious status.

Steve had delivered the others and he shopping back to K'Gari and then come back to the pier to await my return. He hadn't been back long, as he had in fact had to refuel the dinghy after almost running out of petrol on the return to K'Gari with the shopping.

Just a we set off,so was a woman in another dinghy. She was rowing . She explained she was returning to her yacht under oars as still “no part”, for her motor had turned up. We offered her a tow, for which I imagine she was most grateful as it turns out she was almost as far away from the pier as we were.

The road stead at Ao Chalong,  especially where we had anchored for our envisioned stay of only a couple of hours is a bit like the track at  Le Mans. The tourist traffic, especially morning and evening is fast and furious.  We heaved anchor as the returning wave of boats could be seen heading our way, and made for Banana Bay on Coral Island  (Koh Hae). This is allegedly a less frantic anchorage! We arrived there about 1700 just in time to participate in a “sandwich manoeuvre” by two tourist catamarans, both overtaking us as they raced to the floating jetty to pick up their passengers. I wouldn’t have minded “playing", but I did find it a bit disconcerting not knowing what the rules of the game were!

Safely anchored in 19m- it shelves steeply, of allegedly sand , we ran out 80m plus the bridle- I never feel comfortable without at least 4:1 ratio of anchor chain, the more the better!
The tourists all departed and we had the place to ourselves. There is 'resort' in this bay, but it appears to be more of a day time resort, but clearly staff stay on the island overnight.

A quiet night at anchor. We did in fact drag during the night. I think we moved about 20m, but all was well.

!2th December

Monday 12th December.

Rounded Cape Prom Thep, the most southern cape on Phuket, in what had become an increasingly strong NW'ly. The sailing was great.

However the wind direction was not.

We anchored for the night in Nai Harn Bay.

Contemplated going ashore by dinghy but decided against it, as the swell was coming into the bay and rolling up the beach.
Steve swam ashore from the anchorage, to check out exactly what was available ashore.
Jo also went for a swim, but not from the anchorage. Instead we launched the dinghy and I ran her in towards the beach, so that I could study any potential landing sites from the dinghy. Jo flipped off the dinghy and I went and inspected a couple of the small beaches slightly to seaward of our anchorage , but again the swell was breaking on them as well.


Time to return to the boat revealed the great dinghy boarding without fins exercise debacle. With only one occupant in the dinghy (me) the sides are actually incredibly high above the water line from a swimmers point of view. The harder she tried to get into the dinghy, using the “seal on to the ice flow technique', the more we just both convulsed with laughter, eventually rendering us both incapable of doing anything other than deciding the easiest way back to the boat was simply to tow her in the water. To achieve this however I actually had to manoeuvre the dinghy astern , so that she was able to use the painter from the bow as her tow rope.
The ignominy , apart from being towed thus , is that my darling nephew of course managed to video the event for posterity!

The swell increased during the night, so we decide to retreat the next day to Ao Chalong Bay.

Phang Nga Bay : Day Three

Phang Nga Bay Day 3   Sunday 11th December

K'Gari at anchor Phang Nga Bay

We headed South, for a couple of wind less hours and decided to detour to Koh Pak Bia, described as a secluded anchorage. Well admittedly we were the only boat anchored.........but around the other side  the “spectacular strip of white sandy beach, with an enticing bay for snorkelling.....” were a few dozen of my friends, the speed boats and the longtails.
As usual though, the occupants seem to far more content with sizzling themselves towards melanoma crispness, rather than being in the water.

We did snorkel and yes, there were fish and coral heads and out on the drop off ,one spectacular gorgonian fan, in amazing pink.

Opposite this island, another island about 150m away , had a troop of macaque monkeys just eyeing off the tourists. Obviously its a regular stop off , for a drift past ,by the longtail trippers. The monkeys ranged from wee infants about 6 inches long, right through to the matriarch and patriarch of the troop.

Diverted again, into Chong Koh Yao to have a look,and suss out the likelihood or otherwise, of going ashore for a late lunch. We entered at low water and passed through the shallows ok. Once in the channel between the biggest islands in the Bay we decided it was akin to being in a hothouse, and that eating ashore was less interesting than being sautéed in the sun.
Followed our course back out and by now the first decent breeze in days had filled in from the NW, so for the first time in over 12months the MPS was allowed out of the bag.

Buffy "paragliding"

note the  safety gear- one life jacket.

back on board after the paraglide

Great run for a couple of hours with the MPS .I was beginning to wonder when, if  ever we would get it out of the bag again.

Anchored for the night close to the bottom of  Koh Yao Yai, just on the east side. Went ashore as there was purportedly a restaurant. We meet the owner, an incredibly friendly chap, who due the time of day cold offer nothing to eat today , but tomorrow could organize a beach BBQ for us if we wanted, or fresh coconuts in the morning. How many on board? What time were we leaving in the morning?

The next morning early we noticed him down on the beach checking I guess, if we were still there. About 30mins later he arrived on paddle board with 4 chilled green coconuts. Don't recall actually ordering room service, but we bought them anyway, and they certainly were chilled. He offered to open them for us , but we didn't actually want to consume them at that point, so we declined. Steve dealt with them, using the 18'' parang and a drill bit. The coconut water was sweet and cold and the meat was good too , once Jo dug it out.

More Phang Nga Bay

More  Phang Nga Bay

Having arrived late in the afternoon  at the Koh Hong group, we went for a quick 'reccy' around the island, after the daily tour boats had departed , to find the entrance to the hong.
The next morning, before the hordes arrived, we entered

somewhere ahead there is an entrance

in the lagoon

looking at the Eastern entrance to the Hong  from the  lagoon

the lagoon, through the narrow entrance in the rocks, then paddled our way into the hong. This one would be spectacular at midday. Unlike our adventure yesterday, this one opens into a towering chimney which allows light in. The walls  of the 'chimney' have palms and other vegetation clinging on for dear life.
Once in the hong , daylight is clearly visible on both sides at the bottom ,as well. The entrance we had come through,was relatively high

from the lagoon looking towards the high East entrance to the  lower Western entrance

exiting the way we came in via the Eastern entrance

  and the exit to the sea was definitely restricted to kayak height and then only at certain stages of the tide. No torch required in this one- just as well as it was back on board K'Gari.
From the Hong group, we decided that as it was still well before tourist daytripper time, we would set off for James Bond Island , about 10miles to our north. Buffy mistakenly posing for selfies in front of an obviously inverted JB island. It was only we  checked the tourist brochures the mistake was realised.

This is not JB island.Buffy had it all wrong as usual
-and wonders why he isn't allowed to keep a solo watch!

Yes! Correct it's  Roger Moores "son" Daniel - who just happened to be in the dinghy

So having anchored off “Jimmy Bond” island we went exploring in the dinghy for the real James Bond Island (Man with the Golden Gun)-  You see the photos of what appears to be a towering finger but in reality it's tiny.  Certainly all three parts of the island would have made a substantial headquarters ,but the iconic photo of the towering finger,
undercut at the base is actually the smallest part! On the beach, in huts, you can buy all the usual tourist essentials of thongs ,hats etc – undoubtedly logo-ised . We didn't go ashore just cruised past.

Just as we arrived, so did the the first of the countless  longtails, the ubiquitous superfast (3x 200hp outboards) speed boats. We had by then done our photo opportunity so we decided to hie it away to Koh Roi , a couple of hours further south.

the Eastern side of JB island- see the cleft in the rock face.

Anchored for the night in a channel between  Koh Kuda and Koh Kuda Yai. Excellent wind tunnel! One of the coolest nights sleep yet! An interesting lagoon, with a nice beach just around the corner and

The lagoon at Koh Kuda Yai

 a circumnavigation of Koh Kuda Yai, revealed  more interesting  rock formations ashore and in the water ,giant purple jelly fish,

giant purple jelly fish

one of which had passed by me  at the anchorage, when I was having a squizz underneath at the props and through hull water inlet for the watermaker, as  I planned  to give it a test run. We will have to make our water for the next few weeks.

Phang Nga Bay

The exploration of the magnificent limestone creations, which make up the islands of  Phang Nha Bay, began with anchoring at Koh Phanak .

Ko Phanak

 Hong is Thai for room, so what we we looking for were the tunnels that burrow into the limestone and open up into "rooms" beneath the towering structures.  There now being four of us on board and no kayaks, we were a bit restricted as to the ones we could explore. Undaunted the first exploration was amazingly successful. We arrived,anchored and explored in the dinghy- paddling once we entered, not using the outboard in the hong.Torch in hand we entered and proceeded  in about 500m. The tide was rising as we entered , so we explored the first couple of caverns by torch and decide that was far enough. We emerged back into daylight, having had the whole place to ourselves. Minutes after emerging  a tourist boat arrived and disgorged 15 kayaks, followed by another boat and another and another and another. How much confusion would have been caused had we been emerging as they we trying to enter, I have no idea. Each canoe is launched rapidly, with two pax and one guide (doing the paddling). we only just squeezed through

its dark

looking  from the dinghy into the gaping cavern above us

almost back at the entrance- the narrowness not really highlighted in the photo.

the entrance in our dinghy - there was certainly no room for a kayak. Chris reckoned if we had known they were coming in, we should have just sat there in the dark, and really given them "a kayak trip to remember".

We then moved on to explore the Koh Hong Group.

The road to enlightenment- The futile search for Big Buddha

The last month since Lynne departed, has flown by in  days of blogging, meeting new friends,and generally  melting in the heat of the cool season.
Mental note - never come to Phuket in the hot season, the "winter" is more than warm enough.

Apart from blogging and forays to various chandleries ( most of which are located around Boat Lagoon and its environs- 15km from here), finding where to shop for food and other necessities, meeting new friends and the general relaxing, not a great deal to report really.
I have pottered about and the days have actually flown by, as I awaited the arrival of my next crew.
They are here now and tomorrow we set off on the next phase of the adventure.

Over the last two days we have toured round the island a bit, taking the "scenic route" to  a few of the beaches at the northern end of the island.
Steve arrived on Sunday and we started doing a couple of those " this will be easier with two people jobs" I have been prevaricating about; adjusted the belt on the salt water pump on the port engine. We also tightened the steering cables. We jiggled 100 litres of fuel into the tanks, discovering a bit of 'black death' lurking in the jerry cans. We serviced the electric winch. Checked out Premier Boat Yard with a view to haul out in January.

On Wednesday Jo and Chris arrived and we set off about lunch time for a small reccy of the island, the highlight of which, I'm sure would have been the chandleries at Boat Lagoon.

 On Thursday we went to Wat Chalong -biggest Buddhist temple in Phuket. After exploring the temples for about an hour we decided to go and check out 'Big Buddha' which is basically a huge Buddha (32m tall) on top of a  hill, inland from Ao Chalong, that can be seen about 20 miles out to sea. Unfortunately things didn't go as planned as the road there was, for us, impossible to find.
We started to ascend the mountain according to "google maps" - that took us to up an ascent that would have worn out a team of Sherpas. Had to pull the automatic into low, and then we were only crawling.Eventually the sealed road (single lane , petered out into dirt , that was far more suited to the quad bikes we came across, and which in turn had probably deteriorated because of the quad bikes. We persevered another 6-700m and decided that there was no way this the "tourist" road to BB. Back down again,  in low transmission- it was steep! Tried again , having another attempt at googling a route- failed again, gave up on 'the road to enlightenment' and decided to have some satays as a late lunch.  

Provisioned up on the way back to the K'Gari for the next month, on all the essentials. Tonic water, chips, biscuits, cereal, milk, some fresh veg,some steak and chicken for the freezer- an entire car boot full in the end.

Back on the boat and everything stowed away, it was time to introduce Jo and Chris to, nae dad diew,before we departed on the tide in the morning.
That was when my electricity cable came to grief, assisted absolutely in its demise by being run over by one of the many many sets of wheels that transit the jetty fingers on a daily basis.The marina is so large that many deliveries are made to the various boats by two wheeled large 1m x 0.5 m hand carts , or motor scooter, or motor scooter with side car, ( include here ,motor scooter , side car and up to six people jammed in /on same), or the piece de resistance and in this case the culprit, golf buggy.
Just after we went ashore, a golf buggy crossed the cable, which by necessity has had to lie across the jetty for the last, month, due to the design of the wharf. I asked the marina if the had any means of protecting it for  the daily traffic , but nothing eventuated. I encased my cable in a length of hose pipe and taped the hose pipe all around it to prevent the cable from taking he full force of each set of wheels as they crossed. unfortunately the buggy tonight, moving at speed managed somehow to entangle my cable around its wheels and rip the plug out of the socket and snap about 6 foot of cable.
So have to sort that out before we leave in the morning. At least they provided an electrician ( immediately, after hours to reconnect us, as it had been a stinking hot day and the aircon was required, not to mention the issue of the recently restocked freezer!