12-05-00 We're in Thailand in the Butang Islands about 30 miles off the mainland coast. We're anchored off an island called Koh Lipe, Lat 06°28'N/Lon 99°18'E. It's a lovely spot, clear water again for swimming, yeah! And some coral to snorkel. It's been sooooo long since we've seen clear water. Thailand should prove to be an interesting country - we'll spend about 6 weeks here. We're anxiously looking forward to the dramatic coastal scenery and the exciting, hot Thai cuisine. Here's a little info about Thailand for you. It is a constitutional monarchy - King Bhumbibol Adulyadej has been the chief of state since 1946. His majesty claims the longest reign of any current monarch worldwide. The population is 61 million and 95% practice Buddhism. The language is Thai, but in some tourist spots, they speak English. We have no chance at learning Thai in our short time here - it is a very complicated language with a unique alphabet. It is also a tonal language - the same word can be pronounced with a rising, falling, high, low, or level tone and could have 5 different meanings! We just smile and wave "hello" and so far that has been enough. The Thais really are happy and like to smile alot. We celebrated our arrival in Thailand by decorating SIMMER for Christmas today. While Harry Connick, Jr. sang "Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!", Colleen hung our stockings, put up the tree, set up the mini train set, hung the garland and strategically placed Santa along with various snowmen around the cabin. All in 90 °F heat! It'll be strange to spend Christmas in a hot, tropical, Buddhist country so far from home. But there are heaps of other yachties around, so we'll be able to experience a few Christmas traditions with them. Hope we can find candy canes (doubt it!).
12-09-00 We're slowly making our way north and are now anchored at Koh Muk, Lat 07°22.5'N/Lon 99°17'E, between two towering cliffs about 1000 ft. tall. The sheer limestone walls are truly amazing. Anywhere that a tropical plant can get a hold is covered in green foliage and in places, trees grow out at impossible angles. The vertical cliffs of the islands are supposed to get even more dramatic as we sail north. We experienced our first Thai "hong" today. It was totally thrilling. Hong means "room" in Thai and is a cave system where the top of the cave has collapsed, leaving a steep crater (room) in the island which is only accessible from outside to inside through a tunnel during low tide. You can either swim through to reach the small beach on the inside of the island, or do as we did - take the dinghy in. We took some pictures, but they don't do it justice. You have to be here to appreciate it. Or maybe if you saw the movie "The Beach", which was filmed in Thailand, you've seen a hong. We hope to explore more hongs and maybe get a digital picture that captures their magic. It's just too large a landscape to photograph for our little camera and expertise. An aerial picture would be best!
12-15-00 We arrived in Koh Phuket (pronounced POOH-ket) yesterday and we're anchored in Ao Chalong, Lat 07°50'N/Lon 98°22'E. Ao Chalong is on the southern end of the island of Phuket, about 10 K from the main city, Phuket Town. We cleared into Thailand here, as our first official port, although we've been in Thai waters for the past 10 days. The cost to clear in was $300 Thai baht which equates to about $7 US dollars and we can now stay for 28 days. We walked around Phuket Town today and enjoyed lunch out and some shopping with other yachtie friends. The supermarket actually has a butcher and large meat selection and we bought pork tenderloin and bacon, which we haven't had forever. Malaysia had a very high Muslim population and pork was not to be found! The prices are very cheap - the pork tenderloin was a little more than half a kilo ( 1 pound) and costs $1.00 US! We'll stay here a few days to relax and shop, then head north into Phang Nga Bay to see more of the unique limestone sea mountains that rise vertically out of the bay.
12-20-00 It's 9AM and we're underway, sailing north in Phang Nga Bay - actually Pat is topside sailing and Colleen is down below baking Christmas cookies and writing this log. We have 10-15 kts of wind and are making just about 4.5 kts of boat speed with the genoa up, no mainsail. We're heeled over a slightly, so making the cookie batter is not too challenging. Our stove is gimbaled - it swings on pivoting mounts - so it is always level even if the boat isn't. We figured it's better to bake underway early in the morning, so that the boat will have all day to cool off, while we're moving. (One to two hours of the oven turned on really heats up the boat). Pat can smell the chocolate chip cookies and cappuccino biscotti baking as the aroma rises out of the hatches. Wonder if the boats downwind of us can smell it too?! As we get further up into Phang Nga Bay, the scenery is becoming more dramatic. It actually looks like an alien planet, the limestone island formations look like nothing we've ever seen before. We are headed to Koh Hong - an island with a huge opening (hong) in the center. There are lots of local fishing boats called longtails all around. Last night we bought fresh prawns and crabs from two young boys in a longtail and made a curry dish with them. There are also tour boats throughout the islands as well as cruising yachts. Thailand is a favorite tourist destination for backpackers it seems, lots of young people making their way around on boats, jeeps, motorbikes, etc. Great way to really see a country. It's a shame when we look at the map of Thailand and realize we are seeing such a small part of this amazing country by sailing the southwest coast. If we did stay another year in this area, we would definitely have to do some in-land tours as well. But our decision remains to leave in mid January '01 and cross the Indian Ocean. We visited the famous island - Ko Phing Kan - or "James Bond" island. It was made famous by the filming of 007 movie, "The Man with the Golden Gun". It has a stunning lagoon and some interesting rock formations - you may remember it from the film.
12-26-00 Merry Christmas! It's actually the morning after Christmas here, but it's still Christmas day back home in the States. We had a wonderful yesterday. Hope everyone at home is enjoying themselves as well, we're thinking of you. We're anchored in a lovely bay on the southwest corner of the island - Nai Harn Bay (Lat 07°46.4'N/Lon 98°18'E). There are about 75 other yachts here, and Santa Claus found each and every one of us. We decorated SIMMER for the special day with our code flags and she looked very smart. Many of the other yachts flew there flags and some Christmas lights in the evening, the entire bay was quite festive. Pat and I decided as a special Christmas treat, we would get Thai-style massages. (They are very popular here). So, yesterday we dinghied into the beach about noon and hired two women masseuses to oil us up and rub us down, for over an hour ..... sheer ectascy. They have shaded massage tables right on the beach and you wear your swimsuit. They apply aromatic gels and lots of spray-on oil, and massage you from your scalp to you toes - hardly missing a spot - even earlobes! They have wonderful, strong hands and we felt so relaxed and soothed afterwards. We invited them to sail with us some we could have massages everyday on SIMMER. But they said they get sea sick on boats. Actually they said it in Thai and we only understood from their hand signals! Oh, well. After the massage, we swam and created quite an "oil slick" along the beach. (Sorry no digital pictures of the massage). In the late afternoon, we gathered under a pavilion for a pot luck dinner with the other yachties. What a great way to eat - lots of different international, traditional Christmas specialties. The main fairs were - pork, ham, turkey, breads, salads - and of course lots of deserts. We tasted a Swedish herring dish, French chocolate truffles, German potato salad, and too many other to name. Then the guitar players started and we sang Christmas songs and other popular tunes. The pavilion had no lights and when it started to grow dark the monks from the nearby Buddhist monastery provided us with some beautifully carved pillar candles. What a lovely gesture, and we'll remember that night as one of our many treasured memories. We ended up back at the boat around 9 PM, and watched our newest Video Computer Disk (VCD) movie - the Grinch with Jim Carey. All in all, our Christmas in Thailand was very special, the only thing missing was our family to share it with. We thought of you often throughout the day. Love you all and miss you.
P.S. We both are now General Class HAM radio operators. We upgraded our licenses by taking two written tests (Technician and General) in Ao Chalang on the 23rd. We had already passed the Morse code bit, so it was just a matter of studying up for the technical questions. We're excited about it, now we can do email from the boat through our HAM radio. We bought a used Terminal Node Controller (TNC), a modem for the HAM radio, from Dutch yachtie friends. We wanted to have that option for staying in touch while crossing the Indian Ocean. We'll use internet cafes as much as possible, but once they disappear, we have our own onboard the boat. We'll hope to contact two different HAM operators for our trip across the Indian Ocean - "HS0AC" in Bangkok, Thailand and "ZS5S" in Durban, South Africa to send/receive our email.
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