An early start at 6.30 to recover our stern anchor. I go in the dinghy so I have a vertical pull and it would not budge. I held it as tight as I could and waited while the swell gradually lifted the anchor out of the mud -it took a good 5 minutes. Tidied all the ropes up then hoisted the outboard then the dinghy - we now have that process down to about 5 minutes as long as there is not too much movement. We started mainly motor sailing then the wind picked up from the East and two reefs went into the main and 8 rolls in the Genoa - a steady force 5 occasionally 6 then by lunchtime the Genoa was rolled up and we were motoring again. Ahead of us Sandra saw some white water and I double checked we were clear of the shallow patches and it was wind -back to a good 5-6 so reefs in again. We were just getting control of the boat again when we got a message from Stuart that we were grandparents again and Debbie had given birth to a son -Espen 7.5lbs and all were doing well. We were so delighted. We arrived at Koh Rang nok mid afternoon and went ashore for a walk. There was a resort -the Golden Buddha which we had never investigated. They had on the north beach a bar, watersports equipment and a large covered are for Yoga and exercise classes. After a few hundred metres we came to a sign for the tree house and tsunami shelter point. They had created some steps at the start of the climb up quite a steep hill and fortunately had put rope lines down either side to aid the ascent and descend and then the track continued to climb higher and higher. At the top of the hill they had built a very large platform and a 4 X 4 metre shed (which was padlocked closed) tables and chairs with a marvellous view about 100 ft high overlooking the trees out to sea. I enjoyed the view Sandra cursed being bitten by something. We took the descent a little more carefully making full use of the ropes on either side. The resort has bungalows 50-80 metres apart - mostly built up on stilts with nice large shaded balconies and many had their own bar and seating area. We continued through the well groomed forest to the main buildings and enjoyed a well earned beer, sprite and soda. They had no champagne at the bar but we could buy a bottle of Prosecco. We saw signs for a nature trail and we were told if we had continued walking you were into a National Park with savannah type terrain and lots of animals. We will make an effort to investigate this next time.
We had dinner ashore with David and Margaret and celebrated the arrival of our grandson Espen James MacDonald.