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Firefly - Sailing south on the sea breeze



Today is Tuesday 15th March and Firefly is on a 25 mile passage to Koh Lantra. We spent last night anchored on the east of Koh Hok Dam and this morning we motored a couple of miles to Railay Beach on the mainland just west of Krabi. Like the north of Phang Nga Bay, the land is this area is limestone and the scenery is absolutely superb with numerous towering karsts.

Railay is 'sadly' one of those beaches that features in the 'world's top ten'. It is beautiful, bordered on both sides by towering rocks and pinnacles and there is no road access - but it is totally overun with tourists who have been delivered by the ubiquitous 'longtail'. A longtail is a Thai fishing boats modified for tourist activities and fitted with an old car engine. These engines are mounted on the transom and act as a rudder as well as being for propulsion and are unsilenced - so loud they will stop any conversation as they tear past. We did venture ashore and had lunch in a restaurant on the beach, under a lush green tree, watching the numerous multi national tourists passing by and enjoying the beach. However, it was great to see Firefly sitting in the bay, waiting to whisk us away to some peace and quiet.

And she is whisking us along to Koh Lantra.... we are beam reaching in flat water in 10 knots of cooling sea breeze - slightly heeled and cruising at 5 to 6 knots. The prevailing wind is from the north east, which is offshore here, but its not strong and its normally gone by mid morning. The pattern is then a south westerly sea breeze fills in, blowing on shore and from early afternoon until the sun goes down there is a good sailing breeze at a good angle.

Our route for the next week or so is to the south east as we head back towards Langkawi where we will check back into Malaysia.
On our way up to Phuket back in January we took a direct route and missed out a lot of anchorages on the islands that lie off the Thai mainland. The pilot book recommends many of these spots but does warn that we will encounter more tourist 'hotspots' particularly at the Trang Islands.

A week or so ago we left Firefly in order to do some land travel and visited the Khaosok National Park. This area does attract visitors but was relatively quiet and the small hotel we chose was in a lovely jungle setting. There is a reservoir nearby and the 'drowning' of this limestone area has led to more breathtaking scenery. Without our own boat we chartered a longtail for a couple of hours on the lake, visiting the karsts and taking a swim. The other activities we undertook during the 'holiday' were canoeing down the River Sok, cooking ourselves in the 'super heated' hot springs and on Susie's birthday we went elephant trekking. The highlight of the latter trip was bathing (with a hose and scrubbing brush) a baby elephant - it was particularly keen on having its trunk filled so that it could spray water over itself and elsewhere!

Air con in the 'Jungalow' we stayed in and in the car we hired was much appreciated during the period we were away from Firefly. The car also came in useful as we re stocked the boat and also drove across Phuket to check out of Thailand (Customs, Immigration etc) at Ao Chalong about 30 miles away (to save us going by boat). Driving around Khaosok was fine, the roads are very good and quiet, crossing Phuket north to south is a different matter! The roads are ok but the level of traffic is really high and there appears to be no rules for the numerous mopeds, often 3 up, who are weaving in and out continuously.

On leaving Yacht Haven Marina we initially went back to Phang Nga Bay and visited a few more hongs. Koh Chong Lat was a memorable place to stop, surrounded by high cliffs and on Koh Yudu Yai we found a small hong at high tide and managed to squeeze the dinghy in. Several months of cruising in Thailand has been a great experience and although it is sometimes very busy with tourists, there are some fantastic sites to see, many we will never forget.

Paul and Susie
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