We’ve been back in Phuket almost a week now, and are just about recovering our equilibrium. Today (Wednesday) has been the first hot, dry day since our return. Like much of Thailand, we experienced continual rain for several days, although thankfully we haven’t had the disastrous floods that southern Thailand has been suffering from. The accompanying cooler temperature was a bonus while we were working to get the boat shipshape again, and a welcome contrast to the minus 9&10 temperatures we experienced in Germany.
This first week has been all about unpacking, cleaning, tidying and generally sorting stuff out, as well as shopping for provisions and new equipment for the boat. We’ll be in Yacht Haven Marina for the next three weeks while the bowsprit is replaced and other essential maintenance tasks are carried out. Our month long Christmas break in the UK and Italy with friends and family was great fun and also provided an opportunity to gather up items such as food and tools that are unobtainable or expensive here. Paul’s luggage consisted of various replacement parts and objects for the boat, while mine held several blocks of Sainsbury’s new range of vegan cheese, packets of veggie sausage and burger mixes, a few lightweight clothes and several (heavier) toiletry items and books. We were both just on the maximum 23kg weight allowance, but apart from the fact that four packets of Alta Rica coffee refills aroused suspicion in the Xray machine at Phuket Airport, we were successful in transporting it all from England, on to Germany and through to Thailand.
Before we left in early December, we enjoyed a fabulous ten-day trip exploring the Similan Islands, a group of eleven small islands in The Andaman Sea (part of the Phang Nga Province). Paul described it in his blog entries, along with some pics of the beautiful places we visited. My intention was to publish my blog and pics once I got back to the UK, naively assuming I would have time to do it in between the shopping, planning and preparation associated with Christmas (not to mention the socialising ;)). So since there is nothing much to report on here at the moment as we relax in the luxury of Yacht Haven Marina, I’m going to go back to last year for my next few blogs and describe my impressions of the picturesque Similan Islands.
Monday 21st November We left the marina on a beautifully clear, calm and sunny morning which made departing from the berth extremely easy. The downside of course was that there was no wind, so we motored out and used the engine for the whole journey to Koh Lon. It was a very relaxing six hours: no squalls, not many other boats, a calm sea and a warm sun. We were able to doze and read for pretty much the whole way. Paul put a line out after spotting several fishing buoys in the area but still had no takers. Koh Lon, seen in the pics below, provided a nice anchorage. We sat in the cockpit watching darkness fall and several fishing boats motoring in and out of the island’s small beaches, before eating dinner and turning in for the night.
Hi P&K
Neil passed your blog on to me and we can now keep track of your wanderings. The weather here is miserable and
typically grey I would prefer it to be dynamically bad (or good) but we have to deal with the hand we have been dealt.
Sorry we could not meet up over the holiday but we will make a supreme effort next time you are home.
The sprit was a surprise to see how the dreaded rot had got into such a well laminated item and I will be interested
to see what the replacement is like before you fit it. I have been given a proper signal cannon for a Christmas present
from my friend. It would look very nice on your deck !!
Give me a lat/long and I can check on Himawari the latest Japanese wesat what the weather is like where you are.
As a confirmed landlubber who likes nautical engineering but not actually sailing may I offer you the following bon mot:
“The good seaman weathers the storm he cannot avoid, and avoids the storm he cannot weather.”
Take care
Peter and Joan
Hi Peter,
Lovely to hear from you, just sitting in the cockpit just after sunrise in just a pair of trunks doing some reading before it gets too hot and I have to take a siesta ;-). Hard to reconcile with the snow you are reported to be having, or as the express has probably put it “mega death freeze/blizzard to destroys Western Europe”.
If you click on the Location tab, top right, you can see our location. it says 8.170366740194892, 98.34031820297241, but if you want it in the proper format, whatever that is, it’s:
8º 10.2′ N, 98º 20.4′ E
I’m hoping to get pictures of the bow sprit on Tuesday, when it will just be a large block of laminated teak, before it is sawn and shaped, it would make a great time lapse project. Ideally I would have loved to make it myself, but time and resources are against me.
The weather has been most unusual here, lots of talk of climate change, but as we know, it takes more than a few anomalies in weather to add up to anything definite. We shall see. At last the NE Monsoon is well established, caused by the annual strong high pressure region over china.
I’m still looking for a good source of synoptic charts for the region.
Talk soon P&K