Well, here we are in the famed cruising grounds of southeastern Thailand and while I can see and appreciate the attractions regarding raw natural beauty there is a corresponding disappointment with the hoards to tourists at particular sites. Is it reasonable to fit a 1000 people onto a 100m long beach? Well, I understand both sides of the coin and it remains a luxury to be sailing in these waters but this is crazy!

Our first anchorage north of Langkawi was the west side Koh Adang where we enjoyed snorkeling and diving. Then across the bay to Koh Rawi for a few days to see the waterfall and some more snorkeling where we found beautiful corals, scorpion fish, stone fish and rays. Our GoPro gave its first underwater feature film but we still need some editing before we publish this!

We sailed up to Koh Mook (Muk) in light winds of 10-18kts and smooth seas on a close reach and later on a beam and broad reach which enabled us to put up our large 105m2 gennaker. Koh Muk was another pleasant stopover to enable a visit to the exhilarating Emerald Cave on the western cliff face. We entered the pitch black 80m long cave from the sea with our kayak at 06:45, early enough to have it all by ourselves and avoid the hoards of tourists. The exit of the cave enters into a 60m x 60m circular cathedral (“hong” in Thai) with its own beach. After a few solitude hours we left and circled Koh Mook with the dingy taking photos and talking about life in Thailand.

Koh Phi Phi was our next stop following a 7hr sail from Mook again in light winds and we managed to get the gennaker up again – our favorite sail but does give us challenges at times – this sail has a character all its own and we are getting to know it well now. The waters are getting clearer now and the winds more consistent as the NE monsoon settles in. Though these are morning winds and the afternoon tends to die down and change to a SW’erly direction. We first pulled into Maya Bay on Phi Phi Le hoping to find a free mooring ball but as we turned around the corner it opened up to a outstanding large cathedral (I have used that word twice now) but after counting 40 boats in chaos and some thousand people ashore we decided it wasn’t safe (or fun) to moor or anchor here. We quickly turned around and decided that the best time to visit is early am or late pm!

After a sail around Phi Phe Le we crossed mile long channel and anchored (12m) on the west side of Ton Sai Bay of Phi Phi Don for the evening, lots of long boat taxi’s passing by ripping up a wake with exhaust fumes. We snorkeled for the rest of the afternoon and then cleaned up and took the dingy into town for a visit – tattoo parlors, bars, tee shirt shops, flip flop shops, restaurants, more tattoo parlors. We were glad to leave after a tasty Thai meal. One day here was enough. Got our 3G card!

We spent a day sailing completely around Phi Phe Le and Don with a good breeze at all points of sail. It lovely sailing territory - chill-axed (as Ty tells me). Many a water taxi/long boat passes, the faithful wind blows and we solve the problems of the world on our Emerald Sea. In the afternoon we lowered our hook at Hin Klang Reef, on the east side of Phi Phi, which are listed as ‘arguably the best diving outside of the Similan Island’ and did a dive and saw…..a sea cucumber. That’s all. Perhaps we were on the wrong side of the reef.

Today we leave for Phuket for clearing in and immigration. We completed the online registration so will report as to how this went later on. I expect we will anchor in Chalong Bay for the night and then sail up to the Royal Phuket Marina on the 27th for a high tide entrance to our berth for a week.