We finally dropped Sue off at the airport on the 11th and are making our way up the coast of Phuket and now mainland Thailand. Hopefully, in a couple of days we will be making the 320 mile hop over to The Andaman Islands which are part of India, spend about three weeks there and make the longer sail to Ulligam in the Maldives.

We had a good sail up the coast of Phuket but now the wind is almost non-existent. This harbour is a centre of fishing, diving and navy. There is a national park bordering the seaward side with monkeys and water monitors in abundance. A nice swell free place to complete jobs before setting off into the ocean.

After finally leaving Malaysia, we encountered 40 knot winds gusting off the mountains of Langkawi and the Thai island of Taratau. Unfortunately the direction was not favourable once we cleared the gap between the two islands so we had to motor up to the northerly bay to a relatively peaceful anchorage off the national park headquarters.

We previewed the weather situation and decided to stay two nights waiting for the weather to moderate and have been lucky enough to find a wireless link from the small national park resort. We took the bikes ashore and rode 12km to the other side of the island , stopping at creeks for a cool off along the way.

Tomorrow we are off to Thailand, leaving Malaysia behind us and the beautiful Pulau Langkawi. We hope to arrive in Ao Chalong next Sunday night in time to clear immigration formalities on Monday morning. The wind seems to be firmly established in the NE so hopefully there will be a bit to blow us to Phuket. It is a little showery at the moment but that brings the temperature down a bit which no one would complain about.

Final preparations are now nearly complete for the Indian Ocean crossing.
After a circumnavigation of Langkawi, we are back in Telaga and have spent a day climbing up to the top of the cable car hill , Machinchang, and several half days exploring the area up to Telaga Tujuh waterfall, where the water was almost ice cold. Langurs have been active everywhere close to the coast and dolphins have been seen at times in and amongst the growing fleet in Telaga's outer anchorage. Some boats have already departed for Thailand and many more are on the move. We will be leaving the Langkawi area around about the 30th November at first for Phuket, and then as soon as weather permits will be heading to The Andaman Islands via Thailand's Similan or Surin islands. The North East monsoon or "trade winds" have sort of arrived in fits and starts with a lot of rain in thunderstorms still. The picture shows us looking South along the main waterway in the "Hole in the Wall", along Langkawi's East coast.
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We have now been back a couple of days from our month long trip to northern Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. We are certainly glad we made the journey as it opened a window for us on another part of the world.

We are now preparing for our massive trip to the Mediterranean. We will be putting the boat on the hardstand at Rebak for a week or so to paint underneath and then we will be departing the marina and staying around Langkawi until Geoff's sister arrives on 23rd November.

The wind is still staying firmly in the west so we will have to still be careful of anchorages around Langkawi. Further info and photos will appear on our main website soon of our recent trip. http://saraoni.googlepages.com.

Back at the boat in Langkawi for a few weeks, before our last overland trip this year. So far we have made three interesting trips within Malaysia : the first a 1100 km trip by our rusty, trusty bikes up the East Coast, the second to Taman Negara and the Cameron Highlands and the most recent to Sarawak and Sabah. Fuller details on our personal website : google "Saraoni" and you'll find it! Our last trip takes us up to Bangkok, Laos and Cambodia.

The "monsoon", which has supposedly been around since May, seems to have arrived at long last at least in terms of heavy rain, if not wind or sea. We have sorted out some outstanding maintenance issues in between the floods of rain and now only have a few things left to do in October. We should be ready to leave Langkawi with sister Sue visiting from England at the end of November for Phuket initially and then the Andamans.

Pied hornbills have been exceptionally active around Rebak, and have taken a liking to the wattle buds and casuarinas around the marina. We discovered a new / old track on the island which leads to a remote beach on the North West side and meanders on the ridge top past many pitcher plants and strange remnants of Rebak's former life. The resort management has now put arrows marking the track!

Saraoni is now in Rebak Marina, Langkawi for most of the wet season. We have been back in Malaysia for just over a month while the seasons have changed from sort of North Easterlies to Westerlies. We will be off the boat exploring inland from Vietnam to Sabah in Borneo. As usual we will be concentrating on the bits of wilderness left in South East Asia, although inevitably we see what the human inhabitants are getting up to as well.

Saraoni needs quite a lot of attention before our anticipated departure for the North Indian Ocean in December this year, and we will have to be busy in the short periods back on the boat in between trips.