Time is a funny thing. As I sit here on the boat looking out over the Ao Chalong bay, it seems such a loooong time since that fateful day when I slipped, and yet it also feels like that the 14 months since then has just flown by. I re-joined Phil on Paseafique at Rebak Marina, Langkawi (Malaysia) three weeks ago. It was a little bit of a trek involving a plane flight to Kuala Lumpur and connecting fight to Langkawi, then a taxi ride to the ferry stop, as Rebak Marina is on an island. It was late in the evening Aussie time when I arrived at the ferry stop and my heart did a little skip when I spotted Phil waiting for me there. After a very short ferry ride, we were at the marina and I was stepping back onto the boat. This was a moment that I had thought about a lot, wondering how it would feel, given the circumstances around the last time I had got off the boat. Strangely it felt completely normal.

 

There was much excitement the next day when I finally met up with a fellow cruiser, Deb and her partner Bruce, after having been Facebook friends for quite some time. Deb is a member of the Women Who Sail group as am I and we had corresponded a lot while Deb and Bruce were preparing to do the Sail 2 Indonesia rally that Phil and I had done in 2015. It was clear from the questions that Deb was asking that she and I think along the same lines and have a similar approach to life. The four of us had a couple of hours together until Deb and Bruce needed to leave on the Sail Thailand rally. Hopefully we will get to spend more time together later this year.

 

Phil had been busy with the boat in my absence and it was looking great, sporting new varnish around a lot of the wood trim, polish on the cockpit and bathroom fibreglass, a new stove, and a new autopilot computer and cockpit instrument, and generally looking very clean and tidy.

After a few days at Rebak, it was time to set sail again- another key moment that I had wondered a lot about. Again, it felt completely normal. I don’t really know what I expected- drum rolls, trumpet blasts? There were a few nervous moments but it wasn’t a problem if I just kept my mind on the tasks at hand. We anchored at Kuah on Langkawi for a few days to sort out a repair to the dinghy. With that done, we cleared out of Malaysia with the authorities and were on our way to Thailand, which was only a day sail away. We spent the next six days or so, doing day hops to our current anchorage in Ao Chalong. We had a mixed bag of sailing- some very nice day sails with nice wind in the right direction, and some days without much wind at all, or wind on the nose.

 

We spent a couple of nights at the resort island of Ko Lipe in a very busy bay, a night at Roc Noc with one other boat (anchored in between two large rocks), and a night at Phi Phi Li – a location made famous by the movie “The Beach”.

Ko Lipe

The scene at Phi Phi Li just has to be seen to be believed. It is a fairly long and narrow bay almost completely surrounded by very steep high cliffs. Quite spectacular. During the day, the bay is invaded by power boats, larger party boats, and long tails (smaller more traditional Thai boats with a propeller at the end of a long shaft connected to a motor in the back of the boat) that bring hoards, and I mean hoards, of people to spend the day. There are people everywhere on the beach, in the water swimming and snorkelling, and diving from the party boats after having consumed liberal quantities of alcohol.

 

The boats keep zipping in and out of the bay seemingly oblivious to the people in the water and while there are some areas roped off for snorkelling, people swim and dive anywhere. This spectacle certainly kept us entertained for the afternoon. By late afternoon, most of the people and all of the boats clear out leaving the spectacular bay empty and quiet for any anchored yachts to enjoy.

“The Beach” at Phi Phi Li before 5pm and after 5pm

So we ventured ashore. Phil had been there before and had kept the details a surprise for me. The beach has perfect fine white sand and the undergrowth has been cleared, leaving a shady canopy through which to walk. There are some cabins there where you can actually stay the night which would be a very cool thing to do. We went across to the other side of the island which only takes about 10 minutes. This is the steep rocky side of the island which is used for access during the SW season, which is when Phil had visited without me. In order to get onto the island from this side, you anchor off and dinghy towards the access point and secure the dinghy there. Then you have to swim/wade through surging water to a wide rope “ladder” which allows you to climb up onto the island. Mmmmm, not sure I would have wanted to do that!

 

 

So on to Ao Chalong, where we anchored in the very large bay there and took advantage of the services of the town – laundry, banks, supermarket. Phil did a three day diving course which means he is now a certified open water diver. He had bought a tank and related equipment from some friends and so now he can use it for not only pleasure, but also for scrubbing the hull or checking the anchor and prop when required. With the certificate in hand and the boat provisioned, we were free to start exploring the west coast of Phuket – new territory for Phil, as well as me.