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Firefly - The Surin Islands, a Thailand highlight



Firefly has spent 4 nights moored in a large bay on the south east of Ko Surin Nua, one of the 5 Surin islands. Today, is Friday 5th February and we are moving on to the north east again and the destination is an island called Ko Phayam. The wind is coming almost from where we want to go and we are currently motorsailing hard on the wind with just the jib out. There is a good breeze of about 12 knots and it would be perfect close hauled sailing conditions - but without engine assistance we would be too far off course. Using the engine with the jib boom set in very close gives us the optimum performance.

At Surin we caught up with our Aussie sailing companions again on yachts Reverie and Evolution and are in convoy with them again today. They are both a little slower than Firefly and left Surin at 0700 this morning. We cast off the National Park mooring at 0815 and within 3 hours we are up with them and are now about 2 miles south of the border with Myanmar (Burma). Permission and considerable fees are needed to cross the border so we are being careful not to do so and this makes our route of about 35 miles slightly longer (as the border dips south).

Surin has been the highlight of our Thailand cruising so far. It was beautifully quiet with much less tourism than elsewhere. This is surprising as this is how the Islands are described in the Lonely Planet Guide - 'The flaxen sand and sparkling blue-green bays, the purpling depths, and the sheer granite peninsulas that tumble down in permanent geological avalanche forming arrow like points and natural breakwaters' - this is a good description and it is probably only time until its overun. We have spent a lot of time snorkeling as the water is really clear, the coral is healthy and the marine life quite abundant. The sea is also a perfect temperature at about 29 degrees centigrade and Susie in particular swims for hours at a time, going directly from Firefly as the best reef was just beyond our mooring.

There were a few of the usual speed boats bringing people into Surin from the mainland, a few dive boats and a small camp at the national park headquarters - but with bigger bays than at Similan it was very much less intrusive. It is interesting how as yacht cruisers we don't really think of ourselves as tourists. On each of the first three evenings we had a sundowner drinks session on each others boats - Evolution, Reverie and then Firefly and at these get togethers we would discuss how much we were enjoying the peace and quiet without all the 'Grockles'. At the Firefly party we invited the couples from 2 other yachts that had arrived in the bay. Both the Belgian/NZ couple and the French couple keep their boats out here and sail each winter. This was a great opportunity to gather information from them about Koh Phayam, other mainland anchorages and also the best local dives.

Koh Phayam is an island about 5 miles offshore and is another gem according to the Lonely Planet as well as the experienced Thailand cruisers. Its going to be busier than Surin but apparently more like Thailand was about 30 years ago - quite a hippy vibe they say. From there we will probably head on up to Ranong which is a border town with Myanmar and as far north as we can go with Firefly. Ranong is reported to have some hot springs we can visit and also a Tesco's supermarket - this would be useful as a supplies on board are running a little low. Once restocked Firefly will start to head south again and at present we have a plan to go back to Surin for another visit as well as stopping at several places on the mainland.

Paul and Susie
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