Yes, I have been really slack with the Blog for those of you who are following our adventures. My only excuse (which of course I find totally acceptable) is that we have primarily just been cruising backwards and forwards around Phuket And surrounding islands, many of the islands I have already blogged about.
The month of May did see us taking the boat down to Penang to get a 12 month non tourist visa. This meant we only had to check in and out of Thailand every 3 months and not every 30 days.
The Wet Season or the South West Monsoon Season was overall pretty good. We did get rain, more than enough to keep the water tank filled and some. July and August were the pick of the months, we had beautiful weather and little rain.
We have spent many enjoyable weeks in the company of various boats from the Sail Indonesian Rally, which we did, as you all know. Just to name a few, there was Dol Solene, Simply Sensational, Imagine, Infini, Rum Runner II. We visited many of the non touristy islands where we experienced great food and great people. Many of these places we kept going back to, as we felt it was like a home away from.
The end of August saw us returning back to Australia with a visit to New Zealand as well. It was great to catch up with family and friends. Snoopy was incarcerated at the Animal Welfare Centre on Phuket for the 6 weeks we were away. On our return he appeared no worse for the experience and we were happy with his condition etc, perhaps he may have been a kilo lighter due to not having little bites here and there though out the day.
We returned to Thailand early October, Keris came out of the water for anti fouling and a polish at Krabi Boat. Once she was back in the water and we had re supplied etc, it was back up to Phuket to play around for a month or so before having to go down to Langkawi. The visa for the boat was due to expire (the boat gets a 6 month visa) in early December and we had to leave Thailand to be able to get another 6 months. Also our very good cruising companions Ruth and Kelvin of Island Sonata had returned from an extensive trip overseas and we were eager to catch up with them and to get sailing again with them.
Langkawi is a Duty Free Haven, so it the ideal opportunity to resupply in Christmas, New Year and any occasion alcohol, at least enough to last until we get back to Langkawi in Late March.