by Judy Handley | Dec 29, 2008 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand |
Day 68, Year 4: Upper Phang Nga Bay-A James Bond Experience
Date: Monday, December 29, 2008
Weather: Unfortunately–Overcast
Latitude: 08 degrees 11.383 minutes N
Longitude: 098 degrees 29.165 minutes E
Location: Ko Phanak Northwest, Thailand
It was another one of those “interesting” days. Things started out smoothly. Claire and I had tried to snorkel ashore Ko Phak Bia late yesterday afternoon, but found ourselves in shallow water over coral. We searched and searched and found no way to get ashore. But this morning the tide was up and we were able to take the dinghy right up to the shore. Ko Phak Bia is a tiny little island, but it has lots of character. The beach is flanked on both ends with cliffs covered with jungle growth and a most interesting array of small rocks cover the shoreline. There were also lizard tracks, but we didn’t see any lizards. After our explore, we were on our way to the upper Phang Nga Bay. We had planned a lunch stop, but decided to head straight for James Bond Island. This is where “Man with a Golden Gun” was filmed and it has made the island a very popular place for tourists. We weren’t planning to visit the island, but just wanted to sail by to see the beautiful islands in the area. In this part of the bay, there is just one beautiful island after another, but traveling in the waters is tricky as it is very shallow. We kept a careful watch and never really saw anything under five meters, but we were traveling at high tide. After see James Bond Island, we headed back south to our anchorage for our last night out with Kevin and Claire. We chose Ko Phanak as it is right on our way to Phuket.
We arrived mid-afternoon and headed directly by dinghy to the cave entrance close to where we had anchored. We knew we should be able to take the dinghy through the cave to a hong (small bay enclosed on all sides with cliffs with only narrow entrance, in this case, entrance through a cave). Now comes the James Bond adventure. Once in the cave we were in total darkness and our flashlights just don’t do the job. But there were many tourists in kayaks that were being rowed through and each of the kayaks had a good light. So we made our way through the narrow passage with a little help from the tourist boats. As we got deeper into the cave, kayaks were passing us in both directions-quite bizarre to have a traffic jam in a cave. We went as far as we could go and then went into a holding position. The exit from the cave into the hong was too narrow and not high enough for us to get through in the dinghy. Some of the tour guides stopped to tell us to wait 30 minutes and then the water would be low enough to let us go through. The current was strong and it was hard to hold on, so Kevin and Claire jumped in and swam through the narrow opening into the hong. I stayed with Mark as I had no desire to jump into the murky, dark water, but Kevin and Claire returned unscathed and we rode the tide out of the cave. No sooner did we emerge than Mark discovered that his underwater camera was no longer in his pocket. This is the same underwater camera that was brand new when we left the US last May. After using it underwater only three or four times, it got water in it. Justin and Jo took it home with them after their visit and sent it in for repairs. Kevin and Claire just brought it back, so it is feeling like this camera is jinxed. But jinxed or not, Mark was devastated. We continued on exploring the fantastic rock overhangs and other cave and hong entrances around the west and north side of the island. But when we returned to Windbird, Mark decided that he wanted to go back in the cave to look for his camera. The chances of finding it were almost nil, but we gave it our best effort. We stopped by Windbird to get snorkels and fins and then went to the cave. The current was flowing much faster out of the cave than it had been for our first trip through, and Kevin, Claire, and Mark took turns struggling to row us against the current. I’m such a poor rower that I didn’t even try to help. I would have had us going backwards for sure. Twice we had to turn on the dinghy engine which is a “no no” for two reasons. One is that the engine noise is not good for the bat population in the cave, and the second is that the water was shallow and we had no idea what was under the surface. With great effort, we made our way back to the far end of the cave and Mark jumped in the water to see what he could find. Much of the bottom was very muddy so he just had to feel in the mud for anything the shape of a camera. It was a valiant effort, but he came up empty handed.
We all got back to Windbird, had showers, and started to relax, when Claire offered to take Mark back to the cave at lowest tide so he could walk in and look for the camera. Kevin offered to go along, so off they went. Claire stayed on the beach with the dinghy looking for shells and critters and Mark and Kevin walked into the abyss with headlights, flashlights, and even our million candle power light. It looked like a scene out of a James Bond movie. About half an hour later they emerged, soaking
wet, still with no camera. Kevin said he almost lost Mark to quick sand once during the trip. Quite a little adventure!
This is our last night out. Tomorrow we will head to Phuket to one of the marinas on the east side of the island. We hope to get there in time to do a little exploring on the island before Kevin and Claire fly out the next morning. Our travels through the islands of Thailand have been fantastic. I don’t think we could have asked for better weather or more perfect anchorages. If I could wish for one thing, it would be a blue sky, sunny day tomorrow. It was overcast today and we didn’t get to
see the fantastic colors of the upper Phang Nga Bay at their best. But other than that, we had had a perfect adventure.
by Judy Handley | Dec 28, 2008 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand |
Day 67, Year 4: Beautiful Day, Beautiful Problems
Date: Sunday, December 28, 2008
Weather: Beautiful Sunny Day with Afternoon Sprinkles
Latitude: 08 degrees 06.961 minutes N
Longitude: 098 degrees 40.519 minutes E
Location: Koh Pak Bia, Krabi Province, Thailand
We left our beautiful anchorage at Phra Nag North early this morning and headed a whopping seven miles to Koh Hang South. This was another beautiful anchorage where we picked up a mooring ball and headed to shore. We had to share the beauty with many people who had arrived in long tail boats, but sharing is a good thing. We walked the beach and enjoyed the beauty and then Mark and I headed back to Windbird to fix a picnic lunch for all of us to enjoy on the beach. After lunch we got in the dinghy and went around the island to the hong. Hong in Thai refers to a room, and the hongs in the out islands are little lagoons that have a narrow entry way with huge towering walls which make them feel a little like a room. Once inside the lagoon, it widens out and the views are beautiful.
After our explorations, we headed back to Windbird and then the “beautiful” troubles of the day began. I know problems cannot really be beautiful, but when you are in such beautiful territory, you simply don’t want anything to mar the experience, so we’ll just call the problems “beautiful.” Mark’s computer that we use for navigation has been struggling with a power issue. The problem is the connection between the computer and the power cord and this came to a head today. But we decided to let go of the mooring at Koh Hang South and head just a little north to Koh Pak Bia and deal with the computer issue once we got there. But very soon after we left our mooring, we started hearing a terrible noise in the engine room. This is never a good thing, and today was no exception. The coupling that holds our prop shaft to the transmission was the problem. That is same coupling that we recently had so much trouble disconnecting in order to remove our transmission. Evidently one of the new shiny, stainless keys that had been fabricated in Langkawi fell out and the prop shaft was loose. We floated about for a bit while Mark worked on the problem and he finally repaired it temporarily so that we could motor to our next anchorage. Once there, he and Kevin spent an hour or so in the hot engine room repairing the problem. Mark dug out one of the old cast iron keys and hammered it into place. So things are a bit tentative until we get back to Phuket where we can get this checked out more fully, but hopefully things are temporarily repaired. Mark was definitely our hero of the day.
So we started out with a computer problem which then turned into a prop shaft problem, solved that, but then still had the computer issue. And Mark is still working on that one. The main computer we use for navigation is just not going to stay charged, so we have to get our back-up computer up and running with all the necessary software. I have a feeling that is a job that takes a few days, so for now we hope to be able to use the backup and get things fixed once we are back on Phuket Island.
Let’s just hope we can get there without any further issues.
by Judy Handley | Dec 27, 2008 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand |
Day 66, Year 4: What a Difference a Mile Makes
Date: Saturday, December 27, 2008
Weather: Mostly Overcast with Light Rain in Late Afternoon
Latitude: 08 degrees 00.569 minutes N
Longitude: 098 degrees 49.927 minutes E
Location: Railay, Krabi Province, Thailand
Judy’s Log with Comments in Parentheses by Kevin (kjr)
What a difference a mile makes. We motored one mile from our anchorage in Ao Nang and arrived in a Thailand fairy land with limestone cliffs jutting out of the sea and out of the land all around us. (Thank goodness for the short trip. Judy has been driving us pretty hard; this morning we were allowed to sleep in until 8:30 am. *yawn* – kjr) We had to dinghy around to the most beautiful spot, but the anchorage is not shabby. We have two great beaches in sight and we dinghied around the karsts jutting out of the water to the beach at Hat Phra Nang. The bay there is touted as the most beautiful in Thailand and that might be true. But we also love Phi Phi Leh. The beauty here in Thailand is just so spectacular that is hard to say one place is more beautiful than another.
Our first land trip today was to what is called Railay Beach or Hat Rei Lay West. You can only get there by boat, but there is no lack of humans on the beach there. There are sooooo many longtails delivering tourists. Mark and I checked out the resorts there just to see what the accommodations were like while Kevin and Claire combed the seashore for shells. Each of the resorts had restaurants and we had lunch at one of those-yummy Thai food. We then walked to the other side of the peninsula to see Than Phra Nang Nai (Diamond Cave). Each of its caverns is dimly lit so you can see the beauty without having to use flashlights. We walked back to Railay Beach, had Bud’s ice-cream from San Francisco and then went back to Windbird to pick up our snorkeling gear. Our next trek was to the islands off Hat Phra Nang, but we found ourselves in very shallow water snorkeling over sharp rocks much too close for comfort. Kevin saw a big sea snake (easily 6 feet long with the eyes of a killer – no lies – kjr) and then Claire found herself between a rock and hard place with a sea snake looking her in the eye. The bite of these snakes is lethal but their mouth is so small that they can only bite the skin between your fingers. We had warned Kevin and Claire to keep their fingers close together and somehow Claire got herself out of her face-to-face encounter with no problem… she and the snake wriggled past each other between the rocks with mutual horror. We decided to take the dinghy around to the beach to get out of the shallow water and spent the rest of the afternoon shelling, watching monkeys, talking with sailing friends from New Zealand, and just generally enjoying the beauty.
We are now back on Windbird and our Christmas dinner is almost ready. It did take us a couple days to get to Christmas dinner, but it is finally here. (Stuffing! Oops I forgot Dressing! – kjr) Tomorrow we head north into Phrang Nga Bay. There are supposed to be drop-dead beautiful spots, but they will have to be pretty good to beat what we have already seen.
by Judy Handley | Dec 26, 2008 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand |
Day 65, Year 4: Land Trekking in Thailand
Date: Friday, December 26, 2008
Weather: Mix of Overcast with Periods of Sunshine and Rain (and one monsoon – kjr)
Location: Ao Nang, Krabi Province, Thailand
Judy’s Log with Comments in parentheses by Kevin-kjr
‘Tis the day after Christmas and time for a trek. We visit a Buddhist temple and walk a strenuous 1, 237 steps straight up into the heavens to commune with a mountain top Buddha and see fabulous views of southern Thailand. (Let’s be honest, we were going to stop at step 600 but were shamed into finishing by the octogenarian who passed us on the way up – kjr). We then go for an hour trek through the jungle on the backs of elephants-very special. Onward we go to a national park to climb up to a waterfall and swim in the cool pool at the bottom of the fall before it continued tumbling down the mountain. Lunch was at a lovely spot beside a lake with a limestone karst towering over us. We then visit a fishery and get to see all of the fish that we have been seeing while snorkeling plus huge grouper and black-tipped sharps, just to name a few. (We were very lucky to be there at feeding time – or should I say feeding frenzy time – 100 pound groupers going after their dinner is a thing to behold – kjr). Then it is back to Ao Nang where we are dropped off at Milano to pick up the clothing Kevin and Claire had ordered. Kevin was having a cashmere suit and a couple of shirts made for him, and late on Christmas evening Claire decided to have a classic Chinese dress made of Japanese black silk. Now, if you know Kevin and Claire, cashmere suits and black silk dresses are not their normal attire, but the materials here are so wonderful and the cost of having tailor-made clothing made in 24 hours is so alluring that they went for it. They tried on the finished products (couple of good lookin’ kids – kjr ) and only Claire’s dress needed a bit of adjustment. We needed to wait half-an-hour for the adjustments to be made, so we walked to the waterfront where Kevin and Claire went to a spa for massages and Mark and I went to a lovely ocean-front restaurant to have a beer and spring rolls while we waited. And we did this while watching a beautiful sunset.
We are now back on Windbird and Kevin and Claire are fixing dinner while I write the log and Mark downloads the photos from today. We area all finding Thailand to be truly amazing. Tomorrow we move only a mile and half to another anchorage, but it is an anchorage surrounded by beautiful limestone karsts. These are mountains of limestone that rise straight up out of the sea. They are covered with greenery except on the sheer cliffs, but they definitely make a dramatic backdrop.
Now back to Christmas evening . . . We did make Skype contact with both of our kids which was the best Christmas present we could ever ask for. Our daughter-in-law Jo had a very special Christmas gift for us. She and Justin had written “Ho Ho Ho to Oma and Grandpa” on Jo’s belly to wish us a Merry Christmas from Wee Gerbil (our grandbaby to come). It was also so very special to see her mother and father, brother, sister and her partner. We didn’t get see our grandson Sam, but we did hear him while talking with his mother. At one point in our conversation Sam came to the phone to say, “Ho Ho Ho.” That was after he had taken a bite out of a sand dollar decorating the Christmas tree. Must have looked like a cookie! After our Skype conversations, we had dinner at a restaurant in a beautiful jungle setting. The food was good but we were the only people there which made it feel just a little strange on Christmas evening. But it had been a great Christmas Day and a quiet Christmas dinner was a good thing.
by Judy Handley | Dec 25, 2008 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand |
Day 64, Year 4: Merry Christmas from Windbird
Date: Thursday, December 25, 2008
Weather: Overcast, Rainy Day
Latitude: 08 degrees 01.582 minutes N
Longitude: 098 degrees 49.055 minutes E
Location: Ao Nang, Krabi Province, Thailand
CHRISTMAS EVE-I’ll start by backing up a bit. We wrote our little Night Before Christmas poem in the log last night, but I didn’t get to write about our day. We had hoped to check into Thailand at 9 am and be on our way by 10:00. But that didn’t work out. For whatever reason, the Port Authority offices didn’t open until after 10:30 and it was noon before we got back to Windbird. That didn’t leave us enough time to make it to our destination, so we made new plans. Phuket is an island that hangs off the western coast of southern Thailand peninsula forming Phang-Nga Bay. It is about thirty miles across the bay to the Krabi Province. Right in the middle of that bay there are couple of large islands, so we decided to go halfway and stop on the southern tip of Ko Yao Yai. The winds are blowing from the northeast now and we were headed northeast. Lucky for us, there wasn’t much wind yesterday, so we made the trip just fine. We had our Christmas turkey on the way-Spam Turkey. I bought this in Singapore to have when Kevin and Claire were with us. It was in a conversation with Kevin’s parents a few years ago that I was convinced that Spam might not be as bad as I thought. So in honor of the Kevin’s parents, we enjoyed Spam Turkey for lunch!
Once anchored, we headed for shore to explore one of the Muslim stilt fishing villages in the bay. We tried to reach the northwestern part of the bay to a village mentioned in the cruising guides, but it was just too shallow, so we went to a village of the eastern side of the bay. There was a concrete wharf that we tied to and then made our way up the steps. There were a few men fishing off the dock and even though they spoke almost no English and we speak no Thai, we understood that it was fine to walk through the village. As always, the children were so very friendly chanting “hello, hello, hello” and we found one young man who could speak a little English. The sign said Ban Khlongdinniu, so we are assuming this was the name of the village. We walked down the concrete road and watched men making fish traps, took pictures of the children, stopped by the little store they call a mini-mart, and took photos of the surroundings. All of the homes and buildings in these seaside villages are built on stilts. At high tide they are sitting in water, but it was low tide while we visited so we could see the complete structure of the little wooden shacks with corrugated tin roofs. As we were walking back to the wharf we realized that something had happened. Everyone started rushing toward the wharf and then one man stopped to tell us that there had been a terrible motorcycle accident. The narrow road winds around the bay to the other side and motorcycles are the only form of transportation. We tried to slip away quietly as it appeared that the accident had been fatal. Our thoughts have been with the people of that village and it is our sincere hope that maybe the man was just unconscious. The visit had been so pleasant but ended so tragically that it was difficult for us to get back into the Christmas spirit when we returned to Windbird. But we put on Christmas music, had smoked salmon and cream cheese on crackers with olives as an appetizer, and then watched the White Christmas video in the cockpit while Mark cooked a marinated port roast with potatoes and green and red peppers on the grill. We ate dinner while watching the movie and had a great time. We even pretended that the white mosquito netting surrounding the cockpit was snow. Well, that one stretched our imaginations, but it was a great evening.
CHRISTMAS DAY–Our Christmas Day weather has been overcast and rainy, but nevertheless, most enjoyable. Santa didn’t wake us when he visited and we actually slept until almost 8:00. We have had early mornings since Kevin and Claire arrived, so the late get-up was a bit of a Christmas gift to ourselves. We immediately left the anchorage at Ko Yao Yai and cooked a big Christmas breakfast and opened presents while underway. Kevin and Claire brought gifts to us that our kids had sent to them as well as gifts they brought for us and we had things for them, so it was great fun opening presents as we motored across to Ao Nang.
We wanted to get to Ao Nang by noon so that we could do a little inland exploration. We arrived on time, but once we went ashore we found it was going to be cheaper and easier to wait until tomorrow morning to do an organized jungle trekking tour visiting all the locations we had planned plus we will to ride elephants. That gave us the afternoon to walk the street in Ao Nang and do a little shopping. The big thing here is the fabric. There are beautiful Thai silks, cashmere wools, and all combinations thereof. Kevin splurged and is having a new cashmere wool suit and a cotton shirt hand-tailored for him. It is amazing that they can do this in one day, but there will be a fitting at 7 pm tonight and the suit will be completed by tomorrow afternoon. While Kevin and Claire stayed in town to shop, Mark and I returned to Windbird so I could get photos ready to upload and to write this log. Shortly we will return to shore to upload photos, make some Skype calls to our kids and family, and have dinner. The chicken and stuffing is going to have to wait until tomorrow night, but the restaurants here look too good to pass up.
We are having a different kind of Christmas this year but enjoying it. We certainly miss our children and are looking forward to talking to them this evening. We hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday season. Merry Christmas to all!
by Judy Handley | Dec 24, 2008 | Sailing Logs Year 4, Thailand |
Day 63, Year 4: Sea Gypsies
Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Weather: Overcast with Evening Sprinkles
Latitude: 07 degrees 53.570 minutes N
Longitude: 098 degrees 35.502 minutes E
Location: Ko Yao Yai South, Thailand
So checked in to Thailand this morning but it took much longer than we had hoped. And are now underway. We can’t seem to stay in one place for a day. So sea gypsies we are, a lifestyle we love. And we composed this little verse to celebrate the season:
‘Twas the night before Christmas and onboard the yacht,
We had left Ao Chalong having spent all our Bhat.
Pretending they’re Santa, both Kevin and Claire,
Worked sneakily wrapping the presents with care.
While Judy sat down to finish her log,
Mark ate all the chocolate in lieu of egg nog.
When in through the port holes there shone such a glow,
We all went on deck to see the light show.
But instead of Rudolph who glowed red for kids,
For us it turned out to be luminescent squid.
We have seen cliffs and lagoons and schools of bright fish,
And all scorched all our tongues on a spicy Thai dish.
While we wish that you all could be here onboard,
There’s not enough beer for that ravenous horde.
So to family and friends who are so far away,
We will think of you fondly on this Christmas Day.
So raise your beers now in a toast to this day,
For Windbird is sailing once more underway.
