Sailing...we are sailing

---

Up bright and early for our sailing trip to Phang Nga Bay, which is north-east of Phuket. Opened the curtains to our room to see...rain pelting down and nothing but grey skies all around. It looked like monsoon season had finally caught up to us. Already apprehensive about the possibility of rough water (which Sam doesn't like much), it seemed our luck was about to run out. Nevertheless we quickly packed our raincoats and were collected by our driver for the 40 minute trip to the boat docks on the other side of the island.

Our 18 metre yacht, the Sakai, is operated by Captain Mark, originally from Perth but resident in Phuket for the last 3 years, a public servant who was looking for, and found, his sea change. As we arrived at the dock the rain lifted and the sun appeared. For the rest of the day there were only a few light clouds and one sunshower. According to Mark, this is completely normal for Phuket, the weather conditions on the Andaman Sea (Patong) side of the island bearing no relationship to the east coast.

Our destination was Ko Panuk, an island uninhabited except for a large number of iguanas and monkeys. On the 2 hour trip to the island, Mark entertained us with stories of his Thailand adventures and detailed knowledge of the many secret hideaways in Phang Nga Bay, which whetted our appetites for a more personalised tour next time (this one had 6 more passengers, coincidentally mostly from Perth). Our cook, Noi, whipped up some delicious fried chicken to snack on our trip.

On arrival at Ko Panuk, we took turns in the dinghy exploring the many sea caves, or hongs, which honeycomb the rocky cliffs of the island. Many of the hongs can only be accessed at low tide, and once through the narrow limestone passages, the caves open up to large secret lagoons open to the sky. The passages are also home to colonies of bats which squeaked their annoyance at being woken up as we passed through. When we weren't exploring the caves we were cooling off in the green waters around the Sakai. For lunch we found a quiet shelly beach where Noi cooked up a feast of hot & sour soup and barbequed prawns which we'd bought from a passing fisherman on the way over.

After lunch we did some more exploring and then headed back to the docks, sailing most of the way in the strong afternoon breeze. On the way we passed an iguana swimming in the open ocean, possibly a refugee from the SS Minnow.

Dropped back at our hotel, we did what you inevitably do after days like this...order room service and then crash.

Cheers xxx

---