{"id":1704,"date":"2017-01-12T16:07:26","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T16:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/?p=1704"},"modified":"2017-01-12T16:07:26","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T16:07:26","slug":"past-and-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/?p=1704","title":{"rendered":"Past and Present"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

Paul in Cologne Airport<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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. \u00a0We’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\u00a0through to Thailand.<\/p>\n

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). \u00a0Paul 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\u00a0got 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 ;)). \u00a0So 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.<\/p>\n

Monday 21st November \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/strong>We left the marina on a beautifully clear, calm and sunny morning\u00a0which 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.\u00a0Paul put a line out after spotting several fishing buoys in the area but still had no takers. \u00a0Koh 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.<\/p>\n

Getting ready to inspect the anchor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Sunset at Koh Lon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Breakfast fruit in the cockpit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “Past and Present”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1704"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1718,"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions\/1718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sistermidnight.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}