Similan Islands

8 degree 40.5 N 97 degree 38.7 E Koh Bangu is the name of the island and it belongs to the Similan group. It is a national park, 99% marine park, so you have to "do it" in the water. Alishan is hanging at the end of a mooring line. Right under us it is 15 meters deep and we can clearly see the bottom. And the zillion and zillion fish swimming by. These islands are very popular for scuba diving, but even for snorkeling it is GREAT. Yesterday we went for a 4 hour hike over the main island. Destination was a great look-out point, over viewing the other islands belonging to this group. Underway we spotted the odd monitor lizard, saw some bird and squirrel life and Marijke had a close encounter with a killer bee...but luckily it was no direct hit. Friends Danika and Sten of Mata'irea where here also for a few days and of course we compared snorkeling notes: More variety than in our fish books ! Tomorrow we will head back for Phuket. Hope today's nice E breeze will help us along. Salute.

Ban Thap Lamu

No this is not a Thai food dish. It is the name of a small village near Alishan.... 08 degree 34.1 N 98 degree 13.1 E The people are very very friendly, hardly speak any English and don't try to push you a TukTuk, Massage or T-shirts You should Google Earth this location to see this beauty. Mind you, the village is NOT beautiful at all, but the location is. We just came back from a 4 hour mangrove dinghy trip. Tomorrow early we will make the jump to the off-shore islands, either Similans or Surins. Depending on the wind direction. From there on, sniffsniff, Alishan will sail south again.

DONE

25 bottles @ 20 liter of drinking water hauled by dinghy from the beach.. Replaced 2 x engine oil, oil filters, fuel filters, coolant, water filter... Cleaned the waterline.... Who says it's only play.. Anyway, these jobs are DONE and yes, we will go back into cruising mode. There are a few more islands and beaches to be explored.. and of course we could do with a nice THAI MASSAGE.... Here we come.. Salute.

Back to the 4 of us...

Oops, a bit behind with the updates. Sailor Tom, ehh, Diver Tom, ehh, Sleeping Tom left for New Zealand a few days ago. And yes, we did have a good time with him on board of Alishan. Indeed a great way to get to know each other. The last stop we made was at Phi Phi Don. A must for the younger generation. We all went for a long walk and enjoyed some of the Phi Phi dining and shopping. Now Alishan is "back" at Nai Harn. Here to R&R , clean the boat and refill the water tanks. Still no rain since that 1 shower 1 month ago.. An extension for our Thai Visa is in the passports as we took the decision NOT to sail to the Andaman Islands. So from here we will back-track North, maybe the Surin Islands again: Great Snorkeling and Birding. Salute for now.

On our way to Krabi

Alishan is making "waves" while moving to Krabi area. ZERO wind at the moment, seas like a mirror. Position: 8 degree 02.5 N 98 degree 44.81E Doing 4.9 knots thanx to Yanmar Power. 3 wonderful days/nights were spent at Phang Nga Bay, nice places indeed. For Tom a first, for us a repeat. After Krabi we hope to sail to Phi Phi and do some more snorkeling. Salute.

Sunday February 8th

Yesterday Sailor Tom became Diver Tom. Phuket is loaded with dive companies (and dive sites of course) and the deal they offer is too good not to take up a PADI dive course. After 1 day in the classroom and the swimming pool off he went on board one of the dive boats to do his first open water dives. Nice to listen to his stories..reminds us of our own first dives somehow. However we did our training in freeeezing Holland! Meanwhile Alishan was relocated to Ao Chalong (east coast) due to an un-comfy swell at the west coast of Phuket. From here the plan is to sail into the Phang Nga Bay (NE of here) and explore the beautiful islands there. Salute.

pictures Surin and Patong (of course)

Nice place those Surin Islands


Lunch stop.


Tom with .....



A toast at the THE bar in Patong