!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.