Phuket adventures ( 18th March to 24th March 2012)

On the 18th of March we set off from Ao Chalong at the bottom of Phuket Island, Thailand to Yacht Haven marina in the north. It was flat calm so we motored the 30nm.
Fishermen often cut across the bow. We've been told that they believe they can transfer bad luck across to you ( If the fishing has been bad)

Traditional longtail fishing boat

We had booked a berth in advance and organised a refridgeration technician to come and re gas our system. Eric made some adaptations to the condensor as we were unable to buy another one or have one made. The system is working better than it ever has been!
Now we can have ice in our G&T's and keep icecream frozen!
We had a great internet connection so took the pleasure to talk to family on skype.. It had been awhile.

2 days later saw us on our way to Phang Nga Bay where 3 rivers run into the head of the bay.
The water is silty but suprisingly clean forming a green backdrop to the striking scenery. Most of the islands are uninhabited. Anchorages are numerous in shallow water or bouys are provided by the National Park in areas where it is deep. The most popular places are crowded with tourists during the day but in the late afternoon through to mid morning it's all yours. All bar one night we had anchorages to ourselves.
We had such fun exploring and discovering caves and hongs not mentioned in the guide book.
This was one on Koh Phanak we came across by chance.

This cave was huge inside. Around 50m in diameter and we discovered this amazing limestone stalactite/ stalacmite creation

This sunset was enjoyed at the end of a perfect day. We often lament that it would be even better if our family and friends could experience this with us

The next day we joined the crowds to navigate a 100m tunnel to an inside lagoon by kayak. As you can see by the photo one had to lie down to get through

The guide ahead of us had to deflate his canoe to get his guests through. I placed the camera on my hips and videoed as we went.

The inside lagoon

"Erica" anchored in the bay

In the afternoon we vyed with the sea canoe companies to explore some more Hongs and caves at Ko Hong

Cathy sitting on her beach

We bought fresh prawns from these fishermen and enjoyed a meal that night of BBQ fish and chilli prawns. YUM!

View from the boat at dusk

Our view in the morning

The next day we by passed James Bond island but didn't stop as it's too comercialised, but we took photos and that night watched the movie "The man with the Golden Gun" which was filmed there in the 70's

Tourists heading for the Floating village

Koh Pan Yi is a floating village built on stilts. It is a muslim fishing village but makes alot of it's revenue with up to 3000 tourists daily brought here for lunch and souvenirs

We anchored "Erica" upstream off Khao Khian and took a 4 hr return dinghy trip upriver to visit a cave which the river runs through.

The river meandered through mangroves and had many tributaries and as we had no idea where to go we had to wait until a guided boat came to follow it's path. Just incase we got lost we took photos as we went.

It was spectacular and well worth the effort

Swallows were nesting on the many ledges and crevices

From here we motored on to Koh Chong Lat and spent the night

The next day we spent at another island called Ko Hong ( Thai for room ). There were some interesting rock formations on the way. 

This was a popular beach at the south of the island

In the north of the island was a cave nestled between 2 small cliff faces. Eric set up our large torch with a battery and lugged it up the beach. We were expecting something more spectacular inside from the description in the guide book

There were just a few small bats clinging to the ceiling

Koh Hong is named after a huge internal lagoon, 200m across, accessible across a shallow reef on tides above a metre

 It was very pretty inside with towering cliffs, lush fauna and eagles soaring above. We took our morning coffee and drifted with the tide inside

On the seaward side was a pretty silica sand beach with a mermaid hanging from an outcrop!

From here we headed back to Ao Chalong, said goodbye to fellow cruising friends and prepared ourselves for the journey across the Malacca straits to Sumatra