Learning to dive!

My brother and family have arrived. My niece Natasha is a dive master and enjoyed in teaching Rob and I the basics in a swimming pool. So nice to be taught in a relaxed spot, 1 on 1. Managed this lesson, more to come!

Russ, Barbara and children Natasha and Malcolm, have dived in various wonderful sites in the world so were very happy when we suggested a visit to the Similan Islands NW of Phuket. We departed our marina and spent the first night off Layan Beach, in the north west of Phuket island. On the way we anchored in Ao Chalong to collect more dive tanks and we tested the compressor and pumped up our dive tanks.

We went ashore and ate dinner on Layan Beach. The beach is lined with restaurants on the sand. Sitting there is so relaxing.  

Back on the boat we taught Natasha and Malcolm how to light a 'lucky/happy' lantern. This is the second one and it flew up up and away. (the first one went nowhere)

Ko Phanak

Ko means island. Ko Phanak is in the Ao Phang Nga. Ao means bay.
This is a National Park and is filled with islands of Lime stone. They come straight out of the water with magnificent cliffs.
Some have caves in them as we found in Ko Phanak. Its a large deep cave which must be very slippery in the rainy season. I shot the blog photo from this cave.

Many of the islands have 'hongs' which is where the roof of the cave has fallen in. This creates a little paradise inside the island. Here Rob and Anthony are walking into the hong at low tide. At high tide you can row your dingy into the hong.

Me inside the hong with the cliffs around me.

Rowing into a hong.

Boat Braai

We invited a number of people from the marina for a braai and Rob was at home again behind the grill.
The special guest was Bubba a month old puppy from the pound who was recovering from an absess on his neck. Tina who volunteers at the pound was nursing him back to health.

Bang Tao Beach

After New year we headed north to anchor off Bang Tao beach. This is a very long beach with restaurants scattered along the waterline. We drove the dingy to shore, got off with out getting too wet and had a lazy dinner at the Reggae bar and restaurant.

The next day this chap came past with his dogs.

New Year in Patong

New year in Patong was amazing. We anchored off Patong beach, which is the main tourist area on the island. The fireworks started at 8pm and built up to a climax at midnight. We stood on the deck and gazed in awe as the sky exploded from one end of the beach to the other. Every hotel has there own display and then lots of folk set them off on the beach. That continued for about 20 min and then the odd one continued to go off till about 4am.
We had friends from Cape Town with us and Rob showed them how to light a lantern (happy balloon). Not so easy when its windy. The sky is full of them by midnight. Its a thin paper sleeve with a simple candle at the base. Once lit the heat floats it up and away.

With the nice breeze there were no mosquitos, so we slept out on the deck. Two blow up mattress is all you need! Here the one mattress is left as our friends had a late lie in. Rob even served us coffee in bed!

Enjoying the islands of Phuket

This is Ko Khai Nok, (Ko means island) a group of 2 islands this being the smaller one with a restaurant on it.

We anchored off shore and some swam in, others used the dingy to go ashore for lunch.

As you enter your given a cold wet cloth to freshen up, a nice treat. 

We could see the colourful tropical fish from the boat.  Snorkeling around the boat we could see them up close, its like being in a fish tank!

December 2011, Back in Thailand

We are back to start our sailing in the Andaman Seas!

SeaWolff is looking good, the Marina positioned her under a tree, nicely protected from the sun. Seems this was not such a good idea as the house batteries only just kept their charge and the engine batteries are dead. The Solar panels struggled with very little sun on them! We bought new engine batteries and alls well.

Rob spent 3 days sanding and painting on the anti-fouling (he did get some local help). The new paint job looks very pretty.

We also fitted the underwater lights, cant wait to see them at night.

The tractor is pushing her into the water today.