Bulletin

	Bulletin - 17 May 2002
The Thai Coast
	Once our colds were on the mend, we tore ourselves away from the comforts of Rebak Marina in the Langkawi archipelago with just a week to go before Christmas. We carried on with our coast- (or in this case island-) hopping, making a short first sail up to Ko Tarutao, where we anchored in a bay and during the afternoon watched eagles and brahminy kites soaring on the wind above us – we counted 19 at one time! The Thai islands are spectacularly steep limestone, with even tiny islands rising out of a fairly shallow sea to great heights.
	The next day we moved on to Ko Phetra, which is really dramatic as you approach from the south, with vegetation growing from practically every crevice. As it cooled down in the late afternoon we were about to launch the dinghy to go ashore, or at least to explore the base of the cliffs, when a violent squall sprang up and we decided to stay on the boat.
The following morning we left early for Ko Muk, an island famous for its “hong” (a cave whose roof has collapsed, leaving a steep crater, accessible in this case only at lowish water through a tunnel leading from a cave mouth on the island’s coast).
	We arrived at the anchorage soon after high tide and set off in the dinghy for the entrance to the hong, to get there early, in the hope of seeing it on our own. The entrance was very low and only really apparent from its proximity to a number of mooring buoys provided for tour boats. In the dinghy, with our not-very-powerful torch, we were able to follow the directions given to us by new friends in Rebak, who had warned us that just as you feel totally lost and give up hope of coming out of the tunnel, you will glimpse the light … and they were exactly right! It was impossible to do justice to the hong with a camera – we came out of our tunnel into a small pool, with a gently shelving beach of white sand, backed by jungly growth at the base of steep cliffs. It must have been about 75 yards or so across and maybe 200-300 yards high, and we were on our own in this silent and beautiful place! There are many such hongs in this area, and particularly further north hear Phuket island, which were all undiscovered until after the second world war, when planes started to fly over and the hongs were spotted from the air.

	As we sat and gazed and marvelled at the sight and at the peace, we heard a faint squeaking noise, which slowly resolved itself into echoing voices, and after about 5 minutes or so a chain of swimmers in life jackets appeared at the mouth of the tunnel, having swum through from their boat! It was all very well organised – cameras had been placed in a polystyrene box which one of the guides pushed through, and it was amusing enough to hear the approach and to see everyone gradually emerging that (having already had the hong to ourselves for quite a while) we didn’t mind their presence in the least. We waited till all the swimmers were clear and then motored back out, losing our way almost immediately and then having difficulty finding the right exit, and got back to the boat just as the afternoon squall came through.
The Thai coast offers some very pleasant cruising. Fishermen and their traps are much in evidence, and the long-tail propeller shaft boats are very noisy! Because of the many tall islands, sailing tends to be either boisterous or calm. From Ko Muk it was a boisterous sail across to Phi Phi Don, anchoring for the night in a beautiful bay somewhat marred by extensive, though low-height, tourist development, and crowded with tour and dive boats. And thence to Ao Chalong, the main anchorage on Phuket Island, arriving at lunchtime on December 23rd. Ao Chalong is well geared to the needs of yachtsmen – to victualling, laundry and email – so that by the afternoon of Christmas Eve we even had time to clean the bilges (the underfloor area inside the boat where water which may have leaked into the boat collects, together with, in Flame’s case, oil from the V-drive). We couldn’t help reflecting that by contrast on Christmas Eve afternoon at home we normally decorate the Christmas tree while listening to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings College!
	Christmas Day was quite different too. As we planned to set sail on Boxing Day morning for the Andaman Islands, we went very early to the market to stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables, delighted to find again here, as in French Polynesia, the huge grapefruit-like fruit they call pomela here. Each stallholder, at the end of the transaction, would screw up his or her face, concentrate hard, and then wish us a “Moley Chlismas”. We had hired a jeep to get us to both a Catholic Mass in Phuket town and then on to another anchorage where Perdika, Vagabond and other yachts were assembling for Christmas lunch on the beach. The service was in English, mainly attended by expats, tourists and a few yachtsmen, with a very friendly priest, a dazzling display of decorations and coke and biscuits served to everyone afterwards in the car park.

On the way to church we had spotted the recommended local butcher and found some smoked salmon there, which we collected on the way back to take to the lunch. We had some difficulty identifying the right collection of dinghies on the huge beach at Nai Harn bay, on the south west side of Phuket, but finally joined our party for a hot and jolly Christmas lunch. You might be amused by one of the topics of conversation, apart from the normal exchange of cruising plans and experiences: the best way to kill cockroaches on board, and how to prevent rats escaping from a trap. The answer to the latter is to mix dental floss into the bait, having first tied one end onto the trap, so that the rats get the floss stuck in their teeth! Such are cruising people’s concerns. (No, in case you were wondering, so far, luckily, we haven’t had a rat on board, and we were able to stem a potential cockroach infestation fairly promptly). We phoned home on the way back from lunch, had our own small Christmas dinner early and were in bed by 9 pm, ready for an early start to prepare the boat to start the Indian Ocean crossing.
John & Helen Fleming Flame of Gosport 17 May 2002
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