Phuket to Langkawi Jan 2017

   Phuket to Langkawi Jan 2017

Having cleared out at Ao Chalong we set off the next day to Koh Lanta, over the eastern side of the bay and very near the mainland.
Early in the morning the wind seems quite good , fading away about midday and then a couple of hours later the afternoon breeze kicks in. So good was it in the  morning, that we had two reefs in the main a we trekked towards Koh Lanta. Wind against tide made it interesting for a couple of hours but we still made good speed , then the wind died ,but did not return, so I grudgingly opted for Phi Phi Don. Steve had no idea of the delights of Phi Phi , but twigged to it after about 30 seconds of being anchored. Continuous longtails and passenger ferries. We anchored much further out than the previous visit- half a mile from the beach to try to avoid the worst of it. This in turn meant that we were serenaded to sleep by some really bad karaoke tunes, that I could almost recognize, but not quite ,however I feel the original artists may have been turning in their proverbials, to have heard the renditions that emanated from which ever vessel it was.

I realised later in the evening that I had entirely wuzzed it on both of my visits, in my selection of anchorage positions. We went ashore for a meal and I was surprised to see 6 catamarans all anchored up about 20m off the beach. Now the book does say go as close in as you can, but that seemed ridiculous. However they were there in the morning. They all appeared to be charter boats, so perhaps they didn't know or care if that they actually sat on the bottom at the low water!

We left Phi Phi and had a beautiful sail down to Koh Ha Yai, where we stopped for a couple of hours. The water was clear- possibly even clear than the Surin's. The location is truly beautiful. A “floating” island, affords a great swim through, at certain stages of the tide and the place was relatively under touristed when we there. Only a couple of live aboard dive boats and one day boat.

Finally saw a shark- a tiny black tip reefy-well two actually . I had to chase them  , to get the photo for Jo just to prove there really are at least two sharks in the Andaman Sea, so she was in fact correct to be wary of these "man eating" midgets!

https://youtu.be/992fDgchu3s

After a couple of hours we continued on to Koh Rok Nok, arriving to pick up a mooring just after 1600.

Having stopped there on our way north, I knew my way to the mooring buoy which I had used on the previous visit. We had admittedly on the first visit had an attempt at another, which had resulted in a very rapid astern movement when Lynne kept asking for the depth,from her position up forward, as she could see the bombies very clearly below. The shelf here rises from 35m to, as it turns out less than that, by about 34.9m! We had not been going fast and had the sun in as good a position as possible and Lynne knew what she  was looking for , so when the depth indicator hit 1.7m, that was escape time for me.
We had then picked up an alternative mooring buy which was in about 18m of gloriously clear water and sat there happily.

So here we were again on the same buoy.

18m -clear!

We had followed another catamaran in from the north, which was in the process of attempting to anchor in the channel between the two islands- a recommended anchorage, if there are no moorings available, as its on sand. There were about 10 boats anchored there already, which seemed odd as there were at least 6 moorings available. Perhaps those at anchor were hoping to avoid the National Park fees- not the case by the way!
So the newest arrivals, were being given the hurry up by the incumbents as they were attempting to anchor too close- they were a charter boat by the way!

About 30 minutes after we had passed them and gone to  pick up our mooring, we saw them approaching, at a fairly good speed from the west- (sun behind them). We had just commented that “oh well they had better information than we did about the depths”, when they came to a grinding halt about 30 m astern of us. Well obviously they didn't have better information! Nor did they have a clue about manoeuvring a twin screw boat. From where we were, we could see and knew there was deep water if they came towards us. They had had a guy on either bow, dutifully looking into the water, for ??? , doubt they could a) see anything with the sun behind ,b) nor would have an idea of what  exactly it was they were looking for.

from Russia with love 

Having ground to a halt with full sound effects and the starboard hull being lifted about 20-30 cm out of the water for a moment or two until the coral obviously collapsed, they then eventually figured out how to go astern. Then we realised they were going to back out all the way. Unfortunately the direction they were now going, it was going to end in further tears, as it was even shallower!
Attracting their attention with “Oi! Come to us, directly to us”, and using international “aeroplane parking signals” of parallel hands and arms going slowly up and down, indicating a straight line-  my Russian failed me completely- it not being one of the phrases I learnt when I was in Russia in 2008!

This manouvre ultimately proved impossible for them to achieve, as the chap manoeuvring just couldn’t quite work it out. They did eventually make it to deeper water, at least they drifted to deeper water, as I think in the end the use of the engines was just too confusing for them.
Barely had I  had time to pour a G n T ,when thundering past the window, came a privately owned French steel hulled mono, who also spectacularly came to a halt- sat there stationary for a few minutes, we figure they may have had a drop keel , which they wound up and then continued on their reef crushing excursion to deeper water! They didn’t seem that phased, perhaps that is why they have a steel boat!
Unbelievably, they were almost not the last! Having eventually poured that GnT and retiring to a shady spot down aft, what do we see, but another catamaran motoring in from the East. This one also attempting to pass astern of us. They were motoring directly into the last 10minutes of the setting sun. They also had people posted on each bow , with frothy comestibles in hand ,the chaps with beer and the ladies with white wine. We could see the tips of the bombies breaking the surface , they could not, however they did notice and did pay attention to the frenzied gesticulating and shouting which emanated from K'Gari. The stopped, listened and altered course around us, passing ahead of our bow,into the safety of the deeper water.
Having not seen any really major excitement to date, we were stunned to see two coral crunching events and almost a third in the space of 35minutes.

We stayed the next day, as it was a beautiful spot. Did the washing and whilst it dried went for a snorkel for a couple of hours. I couldn’t resist another snorkel in the afternoon. It was just beautiful.

washing day

Needs must however , and with the expiring visa issue, we moved on the next day, a mainsail and MPS run to the Butang Islands.
These islands  are just  27 miles from Langkawi, and the following morning we firstly motored 6miles further south to Koh Lipe to check it out as a possible return destination, depending on what I decide to do next.

We crossed into Malaysian water about 1130/31st January.

from the beach at LW at Koh Rok Nok

Koh Rok Noi and Koh Rok Nok