Back to Cruising

September 28, 2017

The land travel to Vietnam and Cambodia was great but we were happy to return to the boat and head out to the islands around Phuket for a little rest & relaxation. Our first stop was Ko Racha Yai which is reported to be one of Thailand’s best dive sites with clear water fed by the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, the diving was much less than spectacular and we limited ourselves to snorkeling and exploring the beautiful shoreline by dinghy. The fishing, however, was good and we stocked up on fresh tuna.

Next, we headed back into Andaman Bay and explored the mangrove swamps on Ko Yao Yai. We thoroughly enjoyed sailing through the Koh Hong Archipelago with its many pinnacle islands jutting up from the seabed. We spent several nights in a gorgeous anchorage on the north side of Koh Hong Island beneath vertical cliffs. Although we were the only boat in the anchorage, we were visited daily by tour boats that would arrive at high tide and pass through a narrow split in the cliffs to enter a large lagoon. But once the tourists were gone we had the place to ourselves and we enjoyed our evenings in the cockpit eating fresh tuna that we caught and prawns we purchased from the local fishermen.

We had an exciting moment while motoring when our high-water bilge alarm went off. A hose clamp had failed on our wash-down pump and the bilge was filling with sea water. A few coincidences helped make things more stressful that they should have been; our primary bilge pump failed, our bilge pump alert light failed, and our manual bilge pump failed. Fortunately, the high-water alarm was working fine. We soon had things under control and continued on our way.

We spent our days exploring the islands, doing boat chores, and playing games. Our evenings were spent in the cockpit enjoying a relaxing drink and appreciating our surroundings. We had mellowed considerably when we finally returned to Boat Lagoon. We are planning another excursion to the islands in early October before heading south to Langkawi, Malaysia, for a dentist appointment and to pick up bottom paint.

Ko Racha Yai and Ko Yao Yai