Sailing in the Andaman Sea
Keith
Hi all
I got back on Friday to the UK from a fantastic fortnight's sailing
around Phuket
and thought you may be interested in my experiences.
I have been holidaying in Thailand for over fifteen years, initially
through my love of golf but in 2004 decided with my chum Bill to try
sailing over there by chartering a 33ft Gibsea from Sunsail out of
Phuket.
Alas, our fortnight in the Gibsea coincided with the aftermath of the
tsunami - the devastation was shocking but we realised the potential -
and cheapness! - of the area and have regularly chartered over there
since. Apart from the Andaman Sea area, which stretches from the Burmese
border in the north to the Malaysian border in the south, there are two
other main areas for boat charter - the island of Koh Samui on the
western side of the Gulf of Thailand and the Koh Chang Archipelago on
the south eastern side of the Gulf adjoining the Cambodia border.
The latter area is real 'backpacker' country and is totally unspoilt.
When we first chartered in this area there was only one company - Gulf
Charters - with a tiny number of cats/ monohulls available but since
2008 Sunsail have based a fleet of boats there as well, bringing their
Vietnam flotilla fleet round for a limited season. Bill and I seriously
considered buying a yacht and basing it on Koh Chang but the lack of
support infrastructure concerned us.
At the London Boat Show in 2008 we met the Bavaria distributor for
Thailand - Jurg Hofer of Elite Yacht Co. based in Phuket - and he
invited us to spend a few days sailing one of his Bavaria fleet (neither
of us had sailed a Bav previously) so, following our fortnight on a 42ft
Jeanneau off Koh Chang in March we flew across to Phuket and sailed his
35ft Lolita. We were sufficiently impressed that Bill decided to buy the
38ft model announced at the Show and, with our practical experiences of
the area, we were able to specify precisely what we deemed necessary as
factory fitted options plus many additional extras. Shiraz is now fitted
with forward looking sonar, networked chart plotters at helm and chart
table, solar panels, davits for hoisting the rib, water purifier,
electric heads and, latterly aircon for use with shore power.
Elite are the largest independent charter agents in Thailand. Unlike
Sunsail their fleet is all privately owned, so one is able to specify
and fit any accessories one wants. Being Swiss managed their efficiency
is really exceptional and they have a great team of guys and girls who
really do take a personal interest. Despite my inability to go over
there last November they all remembered me from the previous year and
their friendliness and willingness is just so, so, refreshing..
When not being used by Bill and myself she is one of Elite's charter
fleet and, being new for the 2008/9 season, she has been much in demand.
This has more than covered her running costs for the last fifteen
months, despite the reservation for owners use for three months during
the period. The only major incident she has incurred was during the
Kings Cup Regatta last December when she dragged her anchor whilst the
crew were ashore getting pissed - she clouted another competing yacht
and sustained damage to toe-rail, deck rigging and gel coat. All
relatively minor and will be repaired when she comes out of the water in
June. (The yacht she tangled with was sailed back to Malaysia the week
after the Regatta by a local crew, collided with a supertanker and was
sunk!)
I arrived at Phuket airport on the Saturday evening and Bill, who had
been out there since January, met me at the airport. The first surprise
was that Shiraz was not berthed at the Haven Marina - her usual home -
but had been hauled out the previous day at the Royal Phuket Marina
further down the east coast. Following her last charter the turnround
crew had spotted water emulsified in her gearbox oil. A leaking seal on
the saildrive was suspected and so it proved - a plastic carrier bag had
wrapped around the output shaft and damaged the seal. On Saturday
morning they replaced the seal and she was back in the water in four
hours, hooked up to shore power and a deliciously cool airconned saloon
awaited. Wunnerful - at 10.00pm the temp was still over 80 degrees..
The Royal Phuket Marina is accessed by a dredged channel through a
mangrove swamp and is not navigable at low water by keel yachts (Shiraz
draws nearly 2 metres) so we had to wait until lunchtime Sunday to slip
our moorings. We discussed a plan of action and tentatively decided to
sail over to the Similan Islands, some 60-odd miles west of Phuket with
some of the best snorkelling reefs in the area. This very much depended
on prevailing winds (sailing at night is not a good idea over there due
to a preponderance of fishing nets and a total lack of navigation aids.
It doesn't help that the locals use any/no form of lighting they want to
show where they are..)
Thus we set off and navigated the dredged channel at lunchtime. Our
initial plan was to make Kata Beach our first overnight stop but, as we
rounded the southern tip of Phuket at about 4.30pm the 20 knot breeze
was right on the nose - a sure sign we'd be anchored off a lee shore at
Kata - so we did a quick u-turn and settled for the south-facing Ao
Chalong Bay for our first night's stopover. With a new pier it's easy to
get ashore, has some great restaurants and gave us the opportunity to
update our 'Windguru' projections for the planned trip to the Similians.
It looked good for a three-day trip over to the Similans - easterlies
predominated during the daytime - so next day we sailed up the west
coast of Phuket to Nai Yang Beach. Whilst not shacking up on the boat
Bill had found some great English friends over there, one of whom had
offered him a room whilst Shiraz was out on charter. By car the distance
between our usual Yacht Haven Marina and Nai Yang is less than 15
minutes - the sea journey requires a virtual circumnavigation of the
island and takes two days. It's a great shame that masted vessels are
totally incapable of passing underneath the Sarasin Bridge, which joins
Phuket in the north to the mainland.
The sailing was fabulous - from 0800 until midday we had 12-18knots of
easterly breezes and the girl was sailing a dream, smoothing along at
over 7 knots. This turned out to be the norm during our two weeks -
great sailing in the mornings, doldrums at lunchtimes, then another
really good couple/3 hours in the afternoon and early evening.
However, the 'sea-gremlins' struck. A water tap had not been closed
completely and, during our trip to Nai Yang the forward tank (150litres)
emptied. Domestic water (other than bottled for drinking) is not
available on the Similans so now we were somewhat compromised. We went
ashore at Nai Yang and updated our forecast - the regular easterlies we
were relying on were now changing, the trip back three days later could
be hairy. We'll sleep on it, get a new forecast in the morning and then
take a final view...
...not. I got up early next morning to find a warning light on the
console - service batteries were down to 10.4 volts.. hmmm, something
wrong methinks. I talked with the Fleet Manager, Ulrich, and he agreed -
not worth risking being stranded on the Similans without power.
Trip aborted. Chilled out for the day with Bill's chums at Nai Yang for
the day, took a local bar owner, Yom, out and bashed up and down the
coast for a few hours (earned us free beers for the night!) then two
days back to Yacht Haven Marina (fantastic sailing, 15-30 knot breezes,
taking reefs in/out, judging in-mast furling reefs, wunnerful fun!).
Arrived back at base on Sunday and the marine sparks came aboard Monday
morning. Diagnosis was that one of the two 140amp batteries was fried
and the other one was on its way out. Solution was to replace both
batteries which we did on Tuesday morning - uprated to 1 x 150amp plus 1
x 200amp, loads of little problems disappeared, like the fridge not
keeping the beers cold enough, macerator started working properly, cabin
fans kept working, great! Downside was it cost me over 300 sovs... still
, it's only money...
We had invited one of Bills chums, Jamie, to join us for a couple of
days. With three double cabins it's no hardship and he's a great guy.
However, his best friend - a Swiss guy who owns a bungalow resort - had
contracted Dengue Fever and was seriously ill in hospital so he declined
as he wanted to be on hand. There's a bit of a plague of Dengue Fever in
Thailand at the moment - it's a serious disease and there's no
prevention available, unlike malaria - it's related to stagnant water
and is borne by day-biting mossies, not night-biting like malaria. It's
not rained over there for three months and the government are keeping
quiet about it - as soon as the monsoons break it'll all die down again.
As Jamie wasn't available we invited Sue who was over from Cornwall for
a month. She jumped at the chance, despite not being a sailor, and
stoked up with Stugeron. Wednesday morning we sailed south to Phi Phi
Dom, which we'd first visited in the Gibsea in 2005 when it was
devastated. Unfortunately we had a southerly all the way so we mainly
donked and arrived to a very choppy anchorage with a heavy swell, took
us four attempts to bury the anchor. Got ashore to find a vibrant fun
economy, great atmosphere, super food, loadsa booze. Back on board and
Shiraz rocked 'n rolled all night - I loved it, slept on deck. Sue
managed to keep her dinner down and was delighted that she'd found her
sea-legs.
Next morning, early, we zoomed over the Phi Phi Lei, four miles south,
and site of the cult film 'The Beach'. Arrived at 9.00am and grabbed a
buoy before the hoards of day trippers arrived. Unfortunately the buoy
we grabbed was the one used by 'Angel Cruises' - they arrived in a 200ft
liner just as we served boiled eggs and soldiers for breakfast and we
were hailed and politely asked to move under the flashing cameras of
500-odd Japanese tourists. We politely told them to f.o.a.d whilst we
finished breakfast, then we moved to another buoy.
I have never, ever witnessed so many grockles leaping off the back of
boats with buoyancy aids on for thirty minutes, getting back aboard,
then buzzing off whilst another day boat grabs their mooring and does
exactly the same thing. Unbelievable! The (beautiful) beach looked as
though it was infested with thousands of ants. We hired a local
long-tail boat for an hour and he took us to the east side of the island
- Pela Lagoon is stunning, not available to draft keels but inside it's
25m deep and you can see the bottom clear as crystal. Viking's Cave is
home to seven families, they crawl up the cliffs using lashed bamboo
poles to collect eggs. Mad...
Come 5.30pm all the grockles disappeared. Fabulous. Only two yachts,
perfectly quiet, smooth sea, light breeze over the back mountains, watch
the glorious sunset. Quick swim. Shower off on the bathing platform,
couple of Bloody Marys, dinner. Ahhh, sheer perfection...
Headed north towards the Marina next morning at 8.00am. Steady 13-16
knot easterly breeze all the way, set the rags, stick on the autopilot
and just enjoy the quiet. Pure bliss...
There ya go. Life don't get better than that...
--
Keith replace nospam with ilf0rd