Not long after Jo and Lex left, Will (from Chiang Mai),
called to say he was dropping into Phuket on his way back to Australia…and
could he come sailing with us? Oh boy – time to crack the whip getting our
generator working and the canvas finished. We somehow managed to get the canvas fitted in time for his
arrival the next week. We were sweating bullets over the generator though and
couldn’t figure out why we were going through impellers so often.
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| Famous monoliths in Phang Nga Bay |
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| Leaving the James Bond Island in our wake |
Will arrived, and off we went to finally cruise the famous Phang Na Bay. It was getting a bit late in the season, yet tourists were still pouring into all of the favored spots by the boatload. By this time, Frank and I were ready to see what all the others had been raving about. We visited Ko Hong, James Bond Island and several other beautiful anchorages. Our fun and frolicking was a teeny bit overshadowed, however, by recent reports of theft. Some fellow cruisers had anchored their yachts in various popular bays to go off exploring the hongs or to head to shore in their dinghies, leaving their boats locked up tight for a few hours. Sadly some locals had come by in a Longtail boat and had broken into yachts, taking everything of value: money, passports, phones, electronics, iPads, jewelry, etc. How devastating! Because of this we decided that we would always leave someone on board. This makes it a bit of a drag if you all want to go somewhere together, but Frank and I decided that we would have opportunities to return so I generally stayed aboard while Frank and Will set off in the dinghy. One of these times while I was down in the galley I heard the sputter of a longtail’s engine approaching. It got louder and louder until it was nearly on top of Destiny I watched it from one of the portholes as it approached and began circling around our boat. It was getting much too close for comfort so I popped up the companionway to check it out. I must have scared the heck out of those guys because as soon as they saw me they sped off. I was a little disappointed about that because I had hoped it was prawn fishermen coming to sell me some of the famous local jumbo prawns. Sadly it may have been one of the thieves checking to see if the boat was available for a surprise visit. A short while later, I noticed several longtails riding around and eventually one of them did stop by to try to sell me some old dead fish and prawns that had been sitting out in the sun a bit too long for my taste. We did eventually manage to score some of those beauties though before Will left us and they were outstanding.
By the third day out in the bay our beloved generator quit on us yet again. We managed to conserve fresh water and with the use of our solar panels and the main engine, kept the batteries topped up. Unfortunately, however, we had to cut short our tour of Phang Nga Bay. We made a u-turn for Yacht Haven Marina, which seemed to make Will quite happy. He didn’t care much for the work of showering on board (you know: turn water on to get wet then off while you lather, then back on for a quick rinse, then squeegee the entire shower afterward), and was thrilled to head up to the marina’s showers for a nice long one when we got docked. We literally spent the next two days on board working on fixes, and sent Will off to Nai Yang Beach for some fun relaxing in the sand before he returned home.
We managed to get everything working again in time to head back across Phang Nga Bay to Krabi Marina where we would leave Destiny safely tucked away while we made a land tour of SE Asia.
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