Sat 5 to Fri 11 March Ao Chalong to Koh Roc Nok

Saturday 5 March –Ao Chalong
We went ashore meaning to catch a bus to Phuket town but decided to hire a motorbike instead. We were looking for the weekend market and also somewhere to buy rattan. We went right through Phuket town and didn’t find the market so went on up to Supercheap for a last shop. Asked directions to the market but it didn’t start til 5pm. We took a shortcut through the park and found the markets then went to Big C Supermarket to fill some time and just as we pulled up who else should pull up but Braveheart! So we went for a fruitjuice and caught up on all the news. Then some shopping and back to the markets. Not all the stalls were open as it was still a little early so we walked through the whole thing. By 5pm it was getting pretty crowded so we were pleased to have gone early. Headed back to the boat and stopped at the Anchor Inn for one of their fabulous salads!

Sunday 6 March – Ao Chalong
Were going to get up early and shoot up to Big C and have the bike back by 11am but we had a bit of a late start so hired the bike for another day. Went chasing down a rattan place but it didn’t seem to exist. We had pulled over in a little town to consult the map and were watching a black ute in front of us putting caged birds in the back. We had to wait for traffic and luckily hadn’t pulled out when the black ute gunned it and took off. We think he must have thought he would scream his tyres and take off - didn’t work though and a minibus was unable to avoid him and they came together – huge scrape down the side of the minibus. We cautiously passed them and back to Big C where we bought a lot of pork to put in our freezer. They have big slabs of pork and you use tongs to pick out what you want. So our freezer is stocked up. It is difficult to find pork in Malaysia being a Muslim country. After we dealt with the meat we went back ashore and went to a couple of places we had seen which looked interesting. By the time we got back the sky looked a bit threatening so we got takeaway salad to take to the boat for dinner. It is spring tides again and the tide was way out so it was really muddy. But being the innovative things that we are we pulled ourselves along the side of a tourist boat which was tied to the shore until we could reach his line which went about 30 metres out and pulled ourselves out by that – worked really well!

Monday 7 March – Ao Chalong
We took the bike back and then went to Immigration/Customs/Harbour master to check out of Thailand. There was quite a crowd in there so it took about an hour. Good to chat to yachties you don’t know as you find out snippets of information to be tucked away. We went and did some last minute shopping and used all our coin up buying cooked chicken pieces off a roadside stall. The lady was lovely and very happy to take all the coin. We bought some fruit from a roadside stall then went to the Anchor Inn for – you guessed it – the fabulous takeaway salad. Got back to Bob about 4pm and the tide was way low so pulled ourselves out along the tourist boat rope again. Had an early dinner watching the sun go down – couldn’t actually see it as it was cloudy. Watched a dvd –Inception – which we didn’t enjoy – very strange. There are now quite a few boats around us way out here. Suspect it may have got a bit shallow for some of them further in and in fact we could see a yacht on its side – obviously ran out of water. We could smell diesel all around us – not a nice feeling but the diesel barge must have spilt a bit when he fuelled the boat in front of us.

Tuesday 8 March – Ao Chalong to Phi Phi Don
We could smell the diesel again this morning and you could actually see it on thew ater but the tide eventually took it away. We noticed that the yacht which had been on its side was gone. We upanchored at 9am and headed out of Ao Chalong for the last time. Had a lovely lunch of chicken purchased yesterday and of course the wind was on the nose so it was a motor day. It was so clear you could actually see the Phi Phi’s from our anchorage in Ao Chalong. An uneventful trip arriving at Phi Phi Don at 2.45. We went in half way up the island to check out an opening which we had seen when Brett was on board. There were two hong like openings but nothing we would like to take our boat into. As we were coming around the point to Phi Phi Don a large tourist boat passed us and he was putting out a wake at least 500metres behind him. When it hit us the waves were 1.5m high – amazing and exceedingly dangerous!!! We anchored quite a way out and could only see one other yacht further in. It was threatening rain so we stayed on board. A big storm came through but passed just north of us though we did get quite a bit of rain.

Wednesday 9 March – Ao Chalong to Ko Roc Nok
07°13’021N 099°03.606E
We awoke to lots of rocking and rolling. The swell was coming from the wrong direction. We left at 7.10 and counted 10 other yachts in. Thats the beauty of taking your house with you – you can do your housework on the way. We sailed for a few hours with a SE swell and then motored arriving at 2.30. Just as we were approaching the islands we thought we saw a fish trap but it turned out to be the fins of a pod of dolphins. Five of them swam under the nose of the boat but only briefly and then they broke away. Was wonderful to see such a large pod. We came in between the two islands and anchored on the opposite side to where we had been last time. We could see a huge weather front coming in and were pleased to be anchored out of the way. The rangers came to collect their 200 baht per person but we only had a 500 baht note and 290 bht in change. They didn’t have any change so decided to only charge us 100 baht each!! We had quite a bit of rain and the storm was all around us and just seemed to miss us. We could see a wall of water (rain) to the north. A couple of cats came in and took up buoys and a French boat came in and anchored in front of us.

Thursday 10 March – Koh Roc Nok
It was very windy through the night and very windy all day – comfortable though. A few tour boats came in at 10. We stayed on board. Peter cleaned some stainless and caught a couple of fish which kept him happy and Dell made us a 2011 calendar – finally.

Friday 11 March – Koh Roc Nok
Well wind against tide did not a comfortable night make! We bucked up and down and at times went side on and rolled. There were white caps further in front of us and when we got up all the other boats had left!! The wind kept blowing but at 12 we got in Bob and headed up towards the beach but the swell was so bad we turned back and investigated the side of both islands out of the wind. The coral didn’t look great so we didn’t bother snorkelling and came back to the boat. Saw a large puffer fish – red with white spots very pretty – who was in a spot of bother splashing around on the surface and all puffed up. Dont know if he puffed himself up too much or he got hit by a boat. Anyway there was nothing we could do for him so left him to sort himself out. Around 3pm it was a completely different story. The wind dropped off, the swell dropped and we were able to go to the beach and have a swim. This is a beach with the shining white sand and beautiful aqua clear water. We had a swim and then sat in Bob and gently floated along the shore line towards our boat. Until Peter realised he was getting bitten by sandflies (they love him!) so we started the motor and went down a bit further then jumped over for a snorkel. The coral wasn’t much and it was pretty murky. We went down aways but visibility wasn’t good and we started to get a bad feeling so we came back to the boat. Seemed we were in the current line and all sorts of nasties were floating past and then we saw something interesting so hooked it. After we managed to get all the crabs off it, who were reluctant to go, we found it was an industrial strength sling used with forklifts. Might come in handy sometime so we have kept it! Tonight four more boats have come in. Three are out the back with us (much calmer) and a big timber ketch is behind us. The boats further forward of us last night must have had a really bad time. So far tonight the weather is looking good!!


It seems we will have to haul out again before we head south. We usually cover our prop with prop speed but this time decided to use copper coating which is supposed to be very good. We had it professionally done but we are not sure if it wasn’t applied properly or it just is no good. It is supposed to last ten years but really it hasn’t lasted ten weeks and the prop already has barnacles. Anyway we don’t recommend it.

For those of you who know Ann and Bill, they are finally on the move and can be found at http://www.sailblogs.com/member/seareverie
Hope you are all well

Much Love
Dell and Peter