Passion for Cruising

Anchor up at 6.40am, a lovely 8 - 12 knot breeze from the SW so a quick start for the 56 miles to Au Chalong, under sail all morning with no engine required. Halfway there about 20 miles from Phi Phi Don the VHF DSC alarm klaxon went of giving a distress position within 1 mile of Phi Phi Don. We tried calling on 16 but no response. "China Grove" a yacht that we know answered as they were only a few miles away from the distress location. On arrival they found nothing probably someone in the anchorage fooling around with the emergency button on their VHF - although why they did not say so on 16 is a mystery - a full scale search and rescue could have been launched. NB Norm - yes we made all the correct log entries!!!
A couple of hours later the wind died and went on the nose so we dropped all sail as a number of storm cells were fast approaching. We tracked them on the radar but then out of nowhere the gust hit the masthead at 30 knots not become noticeable at deck level until several seconds later. This is the typical storm up here the wind literally drops out of the sky. We have learnt to take in sail as soon as a cell is closer than 4 miles.
We are, as I write this, one hour out from Au Chalong and it is pouring, visibility awful whilst watching for fish traps and pair trawlers with the net strung between them. It is now 3.45pm and I am finishing this blog as we approach our usual anchorage. Too late to clear in so we will do it in the morning. Just taken a photo and as you see all is obscured, it must be scotch mist!
Anchor down 4.30 another storm coming - hitting at 40 knots this time and testing our freshly set anchor - this is a very crowded anchorage so dragging - us or them - is a big problem.