Here is my trip report - there may be some photos to follow:
It's amazing how four adults can interpret the same event differently. We were anchored at the Sunsail base at Bo Phut in Thailand when something flew into the cockpit. One person thought it was a bat, one a bird, one a moth and the best the fourth could come up with was a flying asterisk (!) - the colour, size and intent varied with each account too. I was in the head at the time so I don't know what it was but my best guess is a big moth attracted by the light. It didn't do any harm except disturb our peace.
After a number of charters in the BVI, we decided to try something different and chose the Koh Samui area in Thailand. After a long flight London to Bangkok (just short of 12 hours) and a short hop to Koh Samui (another hour), we were relaxing and consuming our Duty Frees when the event happened. A strange place, everybody sleep-deprived and relaxing it's just as well we didn't have to report a crime!
The Sunsail base in Bo Phut is just a small shop, no marina, boats at anchor or on a couple of buoys in the bay. Our late arrival meant we got a hand ferrying baggage over, a very quick overview of necessary info from the manager, Guy and the promise of a more complete briefing the next day. All our pre-ordered provisioning was already on the boat, seemingly complete. The next day, we didn't rush things and Guy was good for his promise of a comprehensive boat and area briefing. Sunsail also provided charts and a good, locally written guide to the area though, perhaps, it could have been more helpful about where to get ice, dispose of rubbish etc. Anchored in a nice place, we lazed around, filled up with water (a hose pipe run out to a buoy), explored a bit and stayed an extra night in Bo Phut - much nicer than sweating in a marina and an evening meal introduced us to the joys of Thai cuisine in the evening for the most expensive meal of our trip (1000 baht per head including drinks). (As a guide, exchange rates are roughly $1=30 baht, £1= 50 baht).
From Bo Phut we went to the An Thong Marine Park many stunning limestone islands and a good park base and restaurant. One of the park guides advised us that, if we came back at 5:30pm, he would show us the resident wild monkeys (or, more correctly, spectacled lampurs). This proved to be an excellent, though slightly buggy, walk and was well worth doing. We were just about the only people in the restaurant both nights we stayed there but the food was excellent. They did not serve alcohol but we still had our Duty Frees....
From An Thong we went up to Koh Tao, noticing how the clarity of the water improved greatly over the journey (downwind so we motored most of the way) to Ao Leuk which was one of the high spots: good snorkelling and an excellent restaurant (rather unimaginatively called Ao Leuk II as it is the second restaurant in the bay!). We then spent a few days around Koh Tao some superb snorkelling (best at Koh Hang Tao but crowded during the day due to the number of dive boats), excellent food and it mostly seemed like we were the only yacht around. We managed to get more water and ice at Ao Hin Wong but, essentially, there is no infrastructure for yachts and the locals seemed slightly amazed that we were sleeping on the boat.
After Koh Tao, we made our way back to Koh Samui via Koh Phangan. Koh Phangan is renowned as the island where full moon parties are held that make Bomba's Shack look positively sedate. Fortunately, we were there between full moons but they can get up to 30,000 people for the parties and this, no doubt, stretches the infrastructure to breaking point. Most bays have a couple of restaurants and about 10 20 bungalows which vary from the very basic to simple rooms with en-suite facilities. Prices vary from about 200 to 1500 baht per night and they are catering mostly to a backpacking, transient community.
Koh Samui is by far the most developed island but, even here, prices are very reasonable with proper, air conditioned hotel rooms available at about 2500 baht per night (a couple of the crew decided they wanted proper beds and showers).
The weather generally was slightly overcast in the mornings, clearing as the day progressed with some very heavy thunderstorms in the early evenings. Winds were mostly west or south westerly varying from calm to 25 knots, mostly 10 15 knots during the day. Temperatures were mostly in the low 90s F day and night both air and sea!
Before leaving, I asked the crew individually to compare Thailand with the BVIs. They all preferred Thailand. The most common reason was the people: friendly though not pushy, respectful, welcoming, joyous and happy. Some of the distances were greater than the BVI but no more than 4 5 hours for any of the legs. As noted above, there is little or no infrastructure for yachts. Part of the standard equipment on the boats is a couple of 10 litre jerry cans you can take into the restaurant to ask for them to fill for water. Fortunately, the crew was very careful about using water and we only needed the one major fill up. No marinas anywhere and anchoring in the uncrowded bays made it very easy and stress free. It was not easy to re-provision anywhere unless we had deliberately gone to one of the (few) port towns which we deliberately avoided. The only major downside was the active fishing in the area that meant you had to keep an eye open not to run over nets in the yacht or dinghy and, it seemed, meant that there were not many large fish left around. I think a greater area of fishing reserves would benefit everyone especially around the marine park and Koh Tao. There were a lot of mosquitoes around early in our holiday but fewer later I'm not sure if this was area- or weather-related.
Overall, a beautiful area just ripe for more yachts to visit. Admittedly, we were there at the beginning of their season but there are only about a dozen charter yachts in the area so it will probably never be crowded. A two wonderful weeks and we will almost certainly be going back some day.
Cheers,
Boris <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />
I've posted some photos at
http://travel.webshots.com/album/580351001ORuFKR
