We checked back into Malaysia on March 9th and on March 18th Malaysia went into total lockdown after the President declared the MCO – Movement Control Order - due to COVID -19. For 6 weeks no-one was allowed out of their homes (in our case off our boat) unless going to the supermarket. Overnight the busy beach of Chenang with all it's restaurants and bars became a zombie apocalypse...even no walking on the beach for exercise. Not a soul was on the street and all shops were closed.
We spent a couple of weeks anchored off Chenang, then moved up to near Rebak Island and finally settled in Telaga Harbour anchorage. At least here we could dinghy to a small island where we could swim and Ange did her noodling – water aerobics with a pool noodle. This was the only exercise we could do as going ashore was a no no. Only one person was allowed to be in a car or on a bike so Steve became the grocery shopper, hiring a scooter every 2 weeks and riding to Matsirat to get supplies. To get into the supermarket he had to wear a face mask, have his temperature taken and hands sanitised. Only 20 people in the supermarket at once.
After 6 weeks the MCO was eased slightly to become the CMCO – Conditional Movement Control Order. Hardware stores were allowed to open and restaurants could serve takeaway meals. All were encouraged to still stay at home, but we could now travel together and shop together at the supermarket.
After 9 weeks of lockdown we were going slightly stir crazy so decided to seek permission to travel to Pangkor marina. The PUB desperately needed new anti foul paint and a few other jobs done. After enquiring with the Jabatan Laut (marine department) they confirmed maintenance on the boat was an 'essential service' and allowed during the CMCO. We needed written permission from the District Police Headquarters before we could travel. After sending an email to seek permission we visited the station the next day and got our piece of stamped paper! We were the first boat to do this and 2 other boats followed suit before the Police shutdown any further movement.
So off we headed to Pangkor on May 12th, stopping at Penang for a couple of nights (even though we weren't supposed to!). It was still very quiet at Penang, but we did manage to get some nice takeaways and give the boat a good clean. We celebrated Steve's 60th birthday very quietly on May 18th with a couple of beers.
The PUB was lifted out onto the hard at Pangkor on May 19th. Lots of sanding later we had her hulls ready for new antifoul paint and the back of the bridge deck repainted. Due to the heat and humidity in the boatyard and because our water cooled fridge doesn't work when not in the water we decided to rent a small apartment in the town of Lumut about 10 minutes from the marina. We had air con and hot water for a shower at the end of our long days at work on the boat. We also had a small car for running around in which was really handy. Work on the boat took us 3 weeks and we splashed back into the water on June 5th. We traveled by road to Ipoh – a large city about 1 ½ hours away where we were able to extend our visas by another 60 days at Immigration.
The RMCO – Recovery Movement Control Order was issued by the Malaysian Government on June 8th stating that travel between states was now allowed from the 9th of June. We were able to travel back to Langkawi freely and without any permission needed.
We have spent the majority of our time back in Langkawi at the anchorage of Singa Besar with a number of other boats. It has been great to socialise again with beach BBQs and swimming. It is still very hot and humid with rain usually every day because of the south west monsoon season. Our future cruising is still uncertain – depends on whether countries around us open their borders. At this stage we will stay on in Langkawi until other options are available. We are able to extend our visas for a final 30 days after August 6th and after that ??????

We spent 2 great weeks at Nai Yang, scrubbing the bottom of the boat, walking and swimming. We caught up with Garry and Kerry on KITTY HAWK as they arrived into the anchorage several days after us – we hadn't seen them for probably 6-7 months. We attended two functions hosted by Sail Thailand and Seven Seas Yacht Transport - the first was a casual lunch lazing around under trees in bean bags at Premier Boat Yard and the second was an amazing dinner at The Deck in Yacht Haven marina. It was great to catch up with friends and also see fellow sailors from our short time with the Indonesian Rally. Everyone was going their separate ways from now on, so a final hurrah was fun. We left Nai Yang on Saturday 29th and sailed down around the bottom of Phuket and up to the eastern side of Ao Chalong Bay to anchor off Panwa beach.
Sunday we had a long farewell lunch with Michael and Deb from STELLA at The Beach Bar. Great food here with your feet in the sand and a lovely view over the anchorage to The Big Buddha sitting high up on Nagakerd Mountain.
Monday we checked out with the Harbour Master, Immigration and Customs, which took a couple of hours as there were a number of other boats in front of us. At about 11am we upped anchor and headed toward Phi Phi Don under sail but a bit uncomfortable as we were hard to the wind. We took up a mooring ball in Ao Lohdalum off Monkey Beach and watched the last of the tourists leave for the day, many on kayaks, while we had sundowners.
Tuesday we went snorkeling off Monkey Beach while we waited for the tide to rise so we could access the main area of Phi Phi. By 9am the Monkey Beach was crowded with visitors and long tails, making the anchorage a bit uncomfortable. Even though tourism is down at least 50% due to the caronavirus situation, Phi Phi was still packed. Would hate to see it at normal times – too busy!! We went ashore around 12 noon for a walk around. We were surprised to see what an established community/town it was! We expected a few high class hotels and expensive eateries, but it was a major centre/village with banks, chemists, dive shops, McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, supermarkets and many more. The village consisted of lots of alleys and walkways holding small tourist shops and value for money eateries. We found a very reasonably priced restaurant and had a great lunch and then wandered around for another hour. After that the heat and crowd became too much and we headed back to the boat for a much needed swim.
Up early at 6am on Wednesday to catch the wind to get us down to Koh Lanta or somewhere close. We had a great sail at 8 knots for a couple of hours until in true Thailand style the wind completely dropped. We motored past Koh Lanta and dropped anchor off the lovely beach on the eastern side of Koh Ngai. The beach had small bungalow style resorts and a few restaurants. We went ashore for dinner and found the island to be lovely and quiet with a very peaceful vibe.
Thursday we hung out at Koh Ngai swimming and walking the beach. After a load of washing dried at 4pm we headed to Koh Muk and picked up a mooring right outside the entrance to Tham Morakot – the 'Emerald Cave.' The entrance is an 80 metre pitch black passageway leading to a completely enclosed circular hong. A sign above the entrance showed no dinghies or kayaks allowed so we threw on our dive fins, jumped off the boat and swam through the black, black passage and onto the small beach in the hong. The cliffs are draped in lovely rainforest type foliage reaching right to the sky! To top it all off a crab eating macaque (monkey) sat on the rocks right near the water and watched us explore. Seeing as though it was close to sunset we had the place to ourselves! Back out to the boat we had sundowners as we watched the last of the long tails take tourists back to their accommodation and also do some fishing. We were woken at 1am with banging on our hull. The wind had dropped completely and the mooring ball next door was lying against the boat. After moving the ball away and tying the mooring rope up on itself, it was back to sleep.
Next stop on Friday was Koh Phetra after a long day of motoring where we had another uncomfortable night as tide raced against wind making us joggle around.
Saturday we had a great spinnaker run down to Koh Lipe, leaving at 7.30am and arriving into the anchorage at 2pm. The water is wonderful and clear here, so it was a jump off the back and a swim. At sundown we headed ashore for a wander. Koh Lipe is only a small island so very easy to walk from beach to beach via the local village situated in the middle of the island. After our last Thai dinner we strolled through the 'Walking Street.' Very busy for a small island!! Plenty of bars, restaurants, souvenir and clothes shops, tattoo shops and dive operators.
Sunday was another nice sail to Langkawi where we anchored off the main town of Kuah again. We've been here almost a week now, getting lots of boat jobs done. We hired a scooter which has made picking up parts and sourcing equipment so much easier. We'll probably moving to another part of the island in the next couple of days so we can make water and swim. This anchorage at Kuah is pretty yuck!!

We spent just over a week at Nai Yang, walking on the beach, going to the afternoon markets and swimming. We sold our old outboard motor to a guy from Bangkok and our Reefit furler went to a guy in the Philippines. Finally getting rid of bits and pieces we don't need.
After Nai Yang we headed south to Bang Tao beach where we spent a couple of nights tucked behind a small island. The wind turned on day 3 and the anchorage bcame fairly uncomfortable so back to Ao Chalong we went. We took down our main sail and delivered it to Rolly Tasker Sails for some small repairs and also purchased a new asymmetrical spinnaker. Repairs were done in 3 days so we then headed east of Phuket into Phang Nga Bay. The sheer-sided sea mountains that rise out of the bay form some of Thailand's most spectacular scenery. Most islands are uninhabited and offer secluded anchorages under cliffs fringed with jungle. The famous features of this bay are the hongs – Thai for room. These are shallow-water fully enclosed lagoons open to the sky and are only accessible through caves at certain tide times. We spent 11 days in the bay visiting hongs, small islands and of course Koh Phing Kan, better known as James Bond Island. This island is now a major tourist attraction after filming the James Bond movie “The Man with the Golden Gun” in 1973. It is visited by hundreds and sometimes thousands of people daily. We decided not to go ashore due to the huge number of people already on the island and circumnavigated the island in our dinghy. It was incredibly busy with tourists, boats and long tails, but definitely a sight to see.
After visiting the islands in the bay we headed over to Krabi where we anchored off a small beach called Rai Lei. Ashore it was pretty cool with a real hippie vibe. Restaurants and bars advertised 'funny cigarettes' for sale and at the end of the beach there are two caves with colourful phallic shrines inside, also known as the Fertility Caves. Rock climbing has been thriving here with plenty of climbers on the steep limestone pillars on the south end of the beach. However, because there is no road access to this area due to the high rock walls enclosing the beach the anchorage was horrible! Long tails roared past constantly always with no mufflers and incredibly loud. Speed boats ran in and out to the beach all day and also large passenger ferries. It was loud, hectic and joggly. Sort of spoiled our time at Rai Lei.
After one loud day and night at Rai Lei we continued south to the northern end of Koh Lanta anchoring off the beach at Had Khlong Dao. This beach was dotted with small restaurants and bars and seemed to be popular with the older set. It was nice to have a long beach to walk and the water was clear for swimming. After 2 days we headed 5 miles south and anchored off Hat Khlong Nin which was a little more laid back.
Heading back to Phuket we decided to visit Phi Phi island. After a great sail with our new spinnaker we arrived at Phi Phi to find it extremely busy and too uncomfortable. A change in plan saw us heading for the south of Koh Yao Yai in 30 knots of wind with swell 1.5 metres on the beam – pretty yuck. At one point our boom bag cover blew off the deck and into the drink, so it was all sails down and a motor into the swell until we were able to find it. Amazing that it didn't sink!! We arrived into the anchorage just on dark to find 2 other boats hiding from the wind as well. We certainly enjoyed our beers after a long and varied sailing day.
Due to the easterley winds Ao Chalong was like a washing machine on our return. We headed over the to eastern side of the bay and anchored off Panwa Bali. We had a nice lunch out with Frank and Karen from TAWORRI. After a day or two we had itchy feet and decided to head back up the west coast to our favourite spot at Nai Yang. We stopped at Patong Beach (Sin City!!!) for a night out on the town – dinner and a show!! We walked to Bangla Road (also known as Walking Street) which is a 400 metre festival of neon lights, loud music, lady boys, tourists and touts. It was a complete zoo!!! We grabbed a beer at one of the bars and just watched forever.... drag queens having photos taken with tourists for 100 baht a pop, families on holidays, dodgy older guys wandering with their lady loves for that night, Thai girls standing on bars and dancing at the Go Go clubs and of course local touts holding up cards advertising their chosen 'Ping Pong and Sexy Show' who constantly harrass. It was a complete assault on the senses, but so much fun. After walking up and down the street a couple of times we headed to a Ping Pong show – some very talented ladies! Now we back at Nai Yang to chill for a week or so.

Happy New Year!!
We left Nai Yang Bay on New Year's Eve and headed north. With not much wind it was a slow motor and that night was spent anchored behind a small sand island half way along the Thai penninsular. At midnight Ange counted 10 different sets of fireworks along the coast and watched 3 sets of 30 or more lanterns float up off the beaches and out over the water. It was lovely and quiet and the fireworks were spectacular. Again motoring the next day we spent the night in Waterfall Bay at the island of Koh Lanta where we watched tourists swim and monkeys play on the beach. We finally arrived at our destination of Koh Phayam late Thursday afternoon where we anchored half way along the beach of Ao Yai or to us boaties 'Long Beach.' There weren't a lot of people on the beach and it was dotted with small restaurants and bars. As night fell it was pretty as a picture with coloured lights over the restaurants all along the sand. We spent 2 weeks here at Koh Phayam, alternating between the anchorages of Ao Yai (Long Beach) and Buffalo Bay - walking the beach, hiring a bike to explore, swimming and lunching with a couple of folks from other boats. Koh Phayam is extremely laid back. No roads means no cars, trucks or buses. Just concrete or sand paths crossing the island for walking and bike riding. It's a little bit hippie and rasta and the locals really ooze these vibes. Many of the cafes and bars are built from the driftwood and rubbish washed up on the island from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami giving them a really unique, alternative look. The most famous of these is the 'Hippy Bar' at Buffalo Bay which has little decks and rooms every which way as it has been added on to over the years.
We also spent 3 days at Koh Chang which like Koh Phayam has no hotels, only small bungalows lining the beaches. Some are just shacks with a mattress on the floor covered by a mosquito net and some are a little more up market with glass windows and doors and fly screens! It was even quieter than Koh Phayam with apparently only about 80 local homes on the island. We had a lovely evening having drinks and dinner with Craig and Claudia from GALLIVANT at the Sunset Bar, laughing over the fact that they were from Bangalow and know Ange's relatives well. It's just a small world!!
After two weeks of having a fantastic time at these wonderful, quiet and pretty islands we decided to head back to Phuket. Steve is itching to do some kite boarding and we would like to see if we can afford an asymmetrical spinnaker from Roly Tasker Sails.
We spent two nights at the Surin Islands approximately 32 nm south of Koh Phayam. The water clarity is beautiful here and the snorkelling was reasonable. Plenty of fish life which is nice to see. Also some lovely sandy beaches which we spent a lot of time swimming off. We expected to see lots of fast motor boats taking tourists around the islands, but it was very quiet with only a long tail or two of snorkelers coming and going.
Thursday was a slow day motoring from the Surin Islands to our anchorage, Cape Pakarang, again on the Thai peninsular. There were lots of small resorts and bars on the beach here and we were tempted to stay for a day and have an explore. But on Friday morning we were greeted with 10 knots of wind and we could sail!!! Arrived back in Nai Yang Bay at about 4.30pm after a day of sailing....even if the wind didn't play nice and kept gusting and shifting. Will be here about a week...

We had heard a number of boats were going to have Christmas Day lunch at Nai Harn around the southern tip of the island. We decided to head there and see what was happening.
Tuesday morning we received a text from Nick and Sharon on 'Cheetah' letting us know they were up at Nai Yang Bay with Mark and Juliette from “Ate'” and were going to have Christmas Lunch at a restaurant on the beach. Sounded good to us so we upped anchor and had a lovely sail north. Nai Yang was much more what we were looking for – lovely water, quiet and lots of bars and restaurants. We had Christmas Eve drinks on board “Ate'” and then an early night.
Christmas morning was lovely. A leisurely breakfast, swimming and phone calls to family back home. Lunch was on the beach under cool casurina trees with great company. We wandered back to the boat around dark and another early night.
Boxing Day was quiet too, just swimming and reading. The guys on “Ate'” headed south to Nai Harn and Nick and Sharon headed north the following day. We are enjoying being here, with no reason to rush off. Steve has scrubbed the bottom of the boat and Ange has finally caught up with this blog. This afternoon there are some good markets ashore and time for more exploring.

Friday, with very little wind, we headed to our first stop on our way to Phuket – Koh Phetra. This turned out to be a stunning island....very high and steep limestone ridge with jungle fringed cliffs and caves.
Saturday we were heading to Koh Muk, but with some wind we were at our destination by 1pm, so decided to head another 15nm to Koh Lanta. We anchored off a lovely beach called Waterfall Bay where people were enjoying the last of the sun and monkeys played on the beach. There were a couple of small resorts in the corner, but they were lovely and quiet over night.
Sunday with no wind it was a long motor to Ao Chalong in the southeastern corner of Phuket. There were so many boats anchored off town and on moorings and many in the marina as well. We haven't seen so many boats for a long time! We arrived just on dusk so anchored well back and away from the moorings and the local ferries coming and going.
Monday we dinghied to the main pier to do our check in duties. There is a one-stop port control centre at the pier to make things really easy. Quickly set up a boat account at one of the computers available, then visit the harbour master, immigration, customs and quarantine. These are all side by side, very friendly and efficient. We walked down the long pier and into town to get money and sim cards. Money was easy, but sim cards not so. Many shops were able to top up existing sims but purchasing a sim was proving difficult. We stopped a couple as they exited a shop to ask where to purchase a sim... Jim and Anne-Marie were from Australia, now living in Phuket and offered to drive us to a local shopping centre where we could get everything we needed!! How nice. Not only did they take us there they also waited until we were done and drove us back to the pier. So lovely of them!!