Exploring Phuket

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Phang Nga Bay

After our successful haul out and run down to Malaysia, we came back to Thailand to meet my sister who was flying in from the UK.  We spent our first night back in Panwa bay where we met Karel & Phil from Tehani Li and Doris & Rudi from Muk for dinner on the beach. We were going to check in the next day and then go to the airport early the day after, but as luck would have it, there was a public holiday the following day so we headed straight up to Ao Po and stayed the night there. The next morning we picked up a car to go to the airport and pick up my sister Jenetta continue reading

Not so hard on the hard this time…

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G & T Boatyard beach

Checking out of Malaysia is a doddle. All the authorities are in one building and you can check in and check out at the same time. We (as usual) were on a very tight time schedule, so this is exactly what we did – as you have to check into Langkawi from Penang because it is a duty free island. After the obligatory stop at the bottle shop and after filling up with diesel in Telaga we set sail for Koh Lipe – the first port of call in Thailand. The outer islands of Phuket are lovely – with a relaxed backpacker vibe. I wish we could have stayed longer this time but we needed to get to Phuket to haul out so we kept going. Koh Lanta was our next stop, and this time is was deserted. No cruising boats and few people. Even the bouncy jetty -continue reading..>

Tioman Island and Penang….

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We had rough sail back to Malaysia with a heavy squall on the way – of course it hit in the middle of the night but no damage so we arrived at the island of Tioman tired but happy to be in one piece. Tioman is the easiest place to check in and only took us about an hour so we headed straight to the bottle shop to stock up on some duty free alcohol and then had lunch. We wanted to spend few days here this time so we sent round to the lovely bay of Juara. There are only a few restaurants and backpackers here and no cruising boats.
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Whale sharks & waterfalls

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Top of the Rock – Sagu Dampar

We left our little bay behind and sailed off to a great anchorage on the island of Sagu Dampar where we caught up with John & Cathy from Mystic Moon.  This place is really out of the glossy magazines with turquoise waters, coral gardens galore, local fishing boats nestling in the bay and many small idyllic sandy beaches.   Most anchorages in the Anambas are 20m plus but we found a couple of great spots here with good holding and not too deep.  We carry 60m of chain and a further 40m of rope but we like to anchor in 5 – 10 metres so the Captain was happy… Continue reading →

The Anambas – A Tropical Paradise

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Sagu Dampar

We had arranged to meet up with Ingrid and Vince Mzungu on the small island of Tioman so that we could sail the 100nm to the Anambas Islands. Tioman is a port of clearance for Malaysia and also a duty-free island, so we stocked up on beer and bourbon, cleared out and set off early in the evening.  The Anambas are actually part of Indonesia located in the South China sea between the Malaysian Peninsular and Borneo. There are 255 islands in the archipelago of which only 26 are inhabited.  Only since the Indonesians have stopped requiring a CAIT (the old cruising permit for Indonesia) have boats found it viable to visit these islands.  They now have their own immigration and customs offices which makes it easy to visit and in fact, they are encouraging people to come.  This group of islands is at present, completely untouched and unspoiled.  They are off the beaten track, -cont reading ….>

Redang & The Perhentians

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We arrived in the idyllic island of Redang to spend a few days before meeting our kids in the Perhentians.   What a gorgeous place … the water was crystal clear, with turtles swimming in the bay.  We jumped in and swam with them – they were really inquisitive and seemed to have no fear of us.   There must have been 8 – 10 fully grown turtles living in the bay and so tourist boats kept coming by depositing their swimmers into the bay.   We noticed that the turtles actually went up to them so they must be very well protected here.  Redang is a small island off the East Coast of mainland Malaysia consisting of a small village and a couple of up market resorts.  It is incredibly beautiful – continue reading…>

Terengganu

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We left Kapas and headed to the small town of Terengganu only 10 miles away.  We needed to stock up for when our kids arrive next week, and get some credit.   Terengganu is a sultanate and state of Malaysia, and the city of Kuala Terengganu is capital of the state.  We headed into the marina, which was incredibly muddy and were settled in by lunch.  We had to check in and out of Terengganu which surprised us as we had not done so in any other state except Langkawi, so imagine our surprise continue reading….

Malacca Straits again…..

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Friendly neighbours in the Malacca Straits

With the South Westerly monsoon approaching, we decided to head south via the Malacca Straits to spend a couple of months on the much less travelled Eastern Coast of the Malaysian peninsular.  As we had already been down this coastline before we decided not to stop and spend too much time here instead opting to explore the other side.  I love the best laid plans…

Langkawi was our first port of call and Rebak marina beckoned.  It was so good to be back at our favourite haunt complete with swimming pool, beach bar and choice of restaurants.  Many of the rally friends were still there and we  had a lovely few days with everyone before we all went off in different continue reading…

365 days

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20170331_084227I cannot believe it has been 1 year since we left our home in Perth and sailed away to attempt to circumnavigate the world.    What a incredible year it has been for us. People ask us all the time the following questions:  Has it met our expectations? Have we loved it? Would we change anything? Have we had any major disappointments? Will we continue?  Well – we have certainly had an amazing time but I must admit there are aspects of cruising that I didn’t know about and there were far more adjustments to make than I realised.  I had been planning this trip for 5 years and had read just about everything I could on cruising and the lifestyle – including many blogs and articles. In fact the only source of information I had not tapped into was personal info – neither of us knew anyone cruising full time to give us the warts ‘n all version. Ian had harboured this dream of sailing round the world continue reading