On 18th January we achieved our New Years resolution and finally left Thailand! In spite of my excitement of starting our voyage, I did feel a little sad to be leaving. In the last four years I’ve become very familiar with the Thai way of life, some of it I loved, some it was funny and a small bit drove me crazy! So . . . to all the people we met, thank you for your friendship and please send an email now and then.
On the way south we stopped for a couple of nights at Koh Rok Nai, one of the more remote islands in the SW extremities of Thailand. The highlight of the trip was the Spanish Mackerel which Neil snagged. After hours of careful deliberation in fishing shops from Paris to Perth, Neil has sought out exactly the right equipment for the job.
His first catch was a fishing boat to which he lost 100m of line before it got away, accompanied by swearing that would have made Popeye blush. We sashimi-ed the Spanish Mackerel . . . yum, the first of many we hope! We spent an evening at Koh Rok Nai with Francis and Daeng, old friends from Brunei. Francis has also bought a yacht which is moored in Phuket so he came down to see us off!
Before we left Thailand we completed our RYA Day Skipper training. We hired an instructor to do the course on Distant Drummer and we held him captive for 5 days! He not only taught us how to sail our boat with just the two of us, including endless man overboard drills (day and night!), but also gave us some great advice on different/better ways of doing things. It was fun and was all carried out between Phang Nga Bay and the Phi Phi islands – perfect!
Amazingly we managed to get it all done in 8 days – luckily there were no Thai holidays in that period. Now we’ve just arrived in Kuah Harbour on the south coast of Pulau Langkawi, west coast Malaysia. We will spend a couple of days here buying a new outboard for the dinghy. The Rude Evan (Evinrude 8HP – which we bought with DD) is still going but is incalcitrant to say the least!
Cheers for now!