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| Once in Thailand we started seeing a lot of these pretty fishing boats. |
Thailand with Tweed will be the next stop on our journey. We were a little late leaving as we had formalities to complete in Talaga with Customs and Immigration. However its just 20 miles north to Ko Tanga, a small isolated island just over the Thai border and here we anchored for our first night in Thailand. It was a bit deep and we rolled a little but the weather was fine. Its mid January, the best weather of the year in Thailand.
Early next morning we set sail for Rok Nok, 45 nm in lovely weather with a pleasant following breeze at 12 knots apparent. We were starting to see some very big fishing boats. Brightly coloured and fast. We didn't see nets and some boats appeared to be anchored. Rok Nok is a really beautiful National Park Island group of just 2 islands with a narrow passage between. We played cautious and approached from the north west into the channel where we anchored. Next day by dingy we did due diligence and realised we could get much further into the channel which we did for more shelter. There is great snorkelling around Rok Nok in warm sparkling clear water with live coral and plenty of fish. We only stayed two days but will be back. |
| Phi Phi Don. The Tsunami went right through the middle. |
From here we sailed on north 35nm to Phi Phi Don where we dropped anchor in the deep water bay on the southern side.
Our Anchor windlass decided to down tools here and we sheared a roll pin causing the drum to run free. This unloaded about 60meters of chain onto the bottom. So our first job was to disassemble the windlass and replace the pin. Its a pretty rolley anchorage so that was fun.
Ashore Phi Phi Don is a real holiday island. Bustling with tourists of every nationality, young and old in various shades of red and beetroot. Bars, massage, food outlets, street stalls and a fairly frenetic tourist touting background noise. Nice for a visit but wouldn't want to live here.
This island suffered enormous damage and a very high casualty rate when it was struck by the damaging Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004. There has been a lot of rebuilding but damage caused by the massive wave which swept right across the narrow isthmus is still evident.
There are a lot of Long Tails. This is a typical Thai motor boat. They have a motor on a pivot which lifts out of the water to stop or go over nets ectetra. They make a terrible noise as there is no muffling system just a straight through exhaust.
There are lots of tour boats operating out of Phi Phi Don and numerous boats come direct from Phuket every day disgorging thousand onto the island. We really love Phi Phi Don as a great contrast to the totally secluded and peaceful beaches elsewhere.
From Phi Phi Don its just a short sail to Ao Chalong the regular bay for clearing in to Thailand. The Thai officials were none to pleased with us because they maintained we had taken too long to get there from Malaysia. David and the official had a bit of a stand off but it was resolved without blood shed. We were joined here by Magic and Tweed went off to do some boat jobs while we headed north to explore the islands.
