Day 62, Year 4: Phi Phi Don to Phuket
Date: Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day
Latitude: 07 degrees 49.210 minutes N
Longitude: 098 degrees 21.464 minutes E
Location: Ao Chalong Bay, Phuket, Thailand

Before leaving Phi Phi Don this morning we made an early morning snorkeling trip across the bay to Long Beach and Shark Point. We jumped in the water and had a very nice snorkeling experience. The coral was more varied than we have been seeing and the fish life was plentiful. Kevin and I saw one shark cross our path and there lots of little barracudas, so both of these gave a little excitement to the morning. We then went back across the bay to Monkey Beach where we swam with loads of little fish among some very nice coral. We spotted a huge lobster hiding in among the rocks and we saw either a very unusual sea snake or a very unusual eel hiding among the rocks. We saw more pipe fish and nudibranchs, so it was a very successful snorkeling morning. We also saw a monkey on Monkey Beach. So we left Ko Phi Phi Don feeling like we had experienced it all. We had a wonderful sail most of the way to Phuket, but as we got nearer to the island the wind came around behind us and the motor went on to get us to port by mid-afternoon. Unfortunately we didn’t get ashore until almost 4 pm and Customs and Immigration closed at 3 pm. So we will check in to Thailand tomorrow morning and take off shortly after.

In order to go ashore here, you take your dinghy to the very long long jetty that comes out from the shore and walk quite a distance down the jetty to shore. The town is unremarkable but we did find a supermarket, some little veggie and fruit markets, and a great little German-Thai restaurant, The Anchor, where we had an early dinner. On our way back to Windbird we stopped by to say hello to Nancy and Steve on Toboggan, the only other cruising boat we recognized in the harbor, and then we returned to Windbird. Tomorrow morning we will head back to town to formally check-in to the country, buy gasoline for the dinghy, check our land-based email account, and then head back across the bay to Krabi Province which promises even more spectacular scenery than we have seen to this point. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and we will traveling from the east coast of Phuket to the west coast of mainland Thailand. On Christmas Day we hope to travel inland to a national park and to a Buddhist temple, so it will certainly not be your typical Christmas Day. But we will be near internet access and I am still hoping for a Skype call to our kids on Christmas Day evening. That might be an optimistic hope, but then it is Christmas, and miracles can happen.

081223 Day 62 Thailand–Ko Phi Phi Don to Ao Chalong, Phuket