Weatherly Sailing Adventures
I spent 3 very busy days on anchor in Ao Chalong getting through my work lists, buying miscellaneous spare parts, doing repair jobs and visiting foundaries to have a new fishermans anchor built.
My crew (Sarah and Gemma) arrived in Phuket on 27th December and met me at Jimmy's Lighthouse. Black and Nui were onboard doing some jobs so we picked the girls up from the beach using Ettie's longtail boat. It was fun to ride on one again. Built very sturdily from tekientong wood and with a new Kabota pumping out a lot of noise and vibration - the propellor is water surface-piecing.
My crew and I hired a small car to get around for groceries and fresh veggies from a great night market in Phuket town. After so many years maintaining the boat it was now down to a few days before I'd be sailing again across large distances. It was vaguely daunting, yet I just kept focussing on the outstanding jobs and priorities. I had to keep close contact with my next crew, as it is vital they would be joining and at the right time. Unfortunately one crew had broken his collarbone and luckily I was able to find a replacement crew (an Aussie bloke) to fit the sailing schedule.
Picked up my worker mates (Black, Nui and Toy) from a longtail and together with my new crew, headed up the east coast of Phuket island for an overnight stay in Phang Nga Bay. This is a spectacular limestone region, with many steep sided, mushroom shaped islands sprouting vertically from the seabed. We anchored off one gem of an island called Ko Phanak, which has a "hong" (Thai for room). Hongs are formed by seawater eroding the limestone cliffs and carving out a cave through to an inland lagoon. Ko Phanak has a long dark tunnel with 2 bends inside.
The girls are strong swimmers and swam to the island and through the cave, impressing my Thai friends who can hardly swim. Black, Nui and myself rowed the small dinghy and used a flashlight to guide us through the dark. Bats clung to the roof and a large stalagtite lit up dimly on one side of the cavern.
Once through the cave, we were in sunlight again, and the water opened up to 2 lagoons, met by sheer cliffs and a muddy shore. The lagoons are only connected by water through the cave and the tide was rushing in.
The boys are keen fishermen and brought in many fish that afternoon and night. Toy cooked us up a great fish dinner and prawns for lunch. I told him he was very welcome to join us to Sri Lanka as our chef. It felt like a party on board with my Thai friends and new crew aboard, and we drank quite a few beers and talked till late at night.
Next morning we motor sailed around the island and bay for a fantastic vista of limestone islands through a humid haze. It was a lazy day, with light breezes and a few fish caught on the way. Dropped the boys off near their home, and collected the new anchor the foundry had built for me. My crew and I continued to sail all evening until around midnight where we anchored in the crazy beach of Patong.
