Lonely. Diomedea was the last yacht to clear the Surins/Similans as the season closed down and we tracked south by ourselves. Thus it should have been no surprise to come into Nai Harn bay to find it completely devoid of yachts. Moorings were vacated and the dinghy dock at the little restaurant was gone. Sob. Just us. We still dinghied ashore to the beach for laundry and an evening meal but the writing was on the wall for the west coast of Phuket.
We pottered around the cape and the big golden Buddha into Ao Von, just east of Ao Chalong harbour for a very comfortable night before heading across to the coast near the city of Krabi, on the east side of Phang Nga bay. Our destination was the small but towering island of Ko Dam Hok. We anchored in 14m of sand and met up with Robbie and Jo from Southern Star who we had not seen in months. Lamb roast was enjoyed on board SS that evening, thanks to Jojo’s superb cooking. The next morning brought high drama. SS’s anchor would not come up. It was firmly attached to something on the seabed. In the end, Robbie had to put on scuba gear to inspect the anchor. He found the anchor chain firmly wedged under an uncharted shipwreck! He surfaced and we developed a plan whereby we would motor forward, thus releasing load on the chain and allowing Robbie to manually extricate the anchor chain from the wreck. Communication was achieved by pulls on a piece of cord linking Robbie to us. After several attempts the chain was freed and the anchor came up as the wind pushed SS onto the lee shore. We then had to find Robbie who had surfaced and was himself drifting into the beach. He was retrieved with the RIB. All in all, several hours of excitement - the most difficult up anchoring I have ever attended.
The respective crews needed to decompress so we headed over to the stunning limestone pinnacles of Rai Le beach, only a few miles east, and had an excellent lunch at one of the beachside restos. The 250m pinnacle overhanging the beach provides an unparalleled climbing venue and some rock climbers were taking advantage of this. Great entertainment. One group seemed to remain on the cliff overnight as evidenced by a small light seen on the crag.
Diomedea explored another climbing venue on a nearby island. A boating business provides “Deep Water Solo Climbing” whereby one is taken to the base of the cliff which rises straight out of the deep water. You swim over to a manky ladder which gives access to the cliff and then you climb up without any rope protection. At your chosen high point or failure point, you simply jump off. Unfortunately all the islands are attractions for the mass tourism market. The islands are visited by hundreds of longtail boats and large speed boats each day. These boats are driven by lunatics who seem to revel in how close they can approach anchored or moving yachts. The water is relentlessly churned up by criss-crossing wakes. It is difficult to get away from this. Water clarity is generally poor and rubbish remains a significant issue.
Moving up the channel we anchored at a bay populated by various resorts, near to the King’s summer residence. That evening we had our first cold front followed by thunderstorms. From there is up to Ko Hong to inspect the flooded collapsed limestone cavern which is about 400m across. We found another at Ko Roi, further north in Phang Nga bay, before turning south to arrive at Ao Po Marina. Peak sea water temperature seen was 33.3 C! Air temp is constantly at least 30 C day and night
With the SW monsoon coming, this period is quite volatile weatherwise. The days become excessively hot and thunderstorms develop in the afternoons. We had 45 knots and heavy rain through the marina with one. Lots of ripped awnings and distressed vessels.
We are beginning to prepare Diomedea for her next “voyage” which will be to Turkey. Can’t wait to move on.