Monday, March 28, 2016

THAILAND harbours

We did our official check-out all under one roof by the Telaga marina on March 26th. Port Captain, Customs, and then Immigration were all very quick and easy. Then at 03:30 early in the morning under an almost full moon, we departed Langkawi Malaysia for a 25 nautical mile run west to Koh Lipe, Thailand. (Koh or Ko means island in Thai.) We had a great downwind sail all the way pushed by a 25-knot wind, arriving just after sunrise.

Today's sunrise...

We arrived at the exposed bay on the south side of Koh Lipe (N06°28.980' E099°18.209') in front of the village and the Thai Immigration office, a visit to which was our first order of business. Normally here, we would lay a deep anchor close to the reef but we were directed by some locals to take advantage of a mooring ball. Regardless, it was less than ideal conditions as there was a rolling swell that put us and the other boats a rockin'.

At the Immigration hut, fortunately we got there just in front of boatloads of day trippers that also were checking in and our officer was stressing about the workload, asking us to "hurry, hurry" when we were filling out the papers of official redundancy.

Then it was off to get some brekky and a Thailand SIM card with data for our smart phone so that we could access internet. That done, we left the place to the incoming throngs of tourists.

Boats of all kinds

We passed longtail boats with small loads of day sightseers heading to various spots around these islands and an unusual group just up the shore. The latter were indigenous nomadic people with no official status or individual identity who lived out of their boats wandering from island to island camping and fishing.

Our next stop was the beautiful lonely beaches on the west side of Koh Adang only 4 nautical miles away for some snorkelling to cool off, beachcombing, and rest and relaxation for the rest of the day (N06°31.470' E099°17.030').

...and today's sunset (taken from in the water)

We made sure to set our clocks back as Thailand is one hour earlier than Malaysia.

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