Sailing in Thailand – Day 2

This is Day 2 of our Sailing trip with the Moorings in Thailand.

What a great evening that was last night – anchored up completely remotely next to Ko Ku Du Yai with the delicious dinner of shrimp from the local fishermen. Here are our crew boys peeling the shrimp.

Peeling the Shrimp last night

Peeling the Shrimp last night

Here is today’s charted itinerary

Day 2 Itinerary

Sailing in Thailand -Day 2 Itinerary

 

In the morning, we headed south weaving through the spectacular islands.

Spectacular Islands of Thailand

Spectacular Islands of Thailand

First stop was Ko Phak Bia for a snorkelling stop and where I snapped this great shot of a typical longtail boat used extensively by the Thai for fishing, lugging tourists and anything on the water. The boat has a car engine mounted on a balance with a direct-drive long (long) drive shaft coming out the back. You can see the saltwater cooling lines out the back into the water. To steer, the driver pushes down on his balance handle lifting the spinning proper out of the water, he then swivels the entire engine and drive shaft and places the proper back in the water. The sight of a spinning proper waving through the air makes you want to stay very clear away. This type of boat is used extensively throughout Asia. The efficiency lies in the ease of maintenance. Car engines are relatively cheap and easy to mount. I imagine the Mercury dealership has a difficult time penetrating the market.

Thai Long Tail boat

Thai Long Tail boat

 

Then further south down to the very impressive (2nd) Ko Hong. At high to mid tide, this hong is filled with water and you can dinghy in and have a delightful swim inside the impressive hong approximately 300 m in diameter. We had to anchor outside the hong in fairly deep 20 meters of water with a falling tide. The boat had 50 meters of chain so we let it all out. The winds were extremely light and so I felt safe with a 3 to 1 scope. Would have preferred 4 to 1 with all chain.

Ko-Hong

Ko Hong

Three of the female crew abandoned us and headed off on the kayak into the hong.

Paddling into the Hong

Paddling into the Hong

Then we headed off in the dinghy. This is the entrance.

Ko Hong entrance

Ko Hong entrance

And this is inside.

Inside Ko Hong

Inside Ko Hong

We moved on to the famous Rai Leh Beach which is renown strangely enough for rock climbing. But also the Thai version of  food trucks. Below, all the boats park up on the beach and serve up delicious Thai food albeit, I did notice a few hamburgers scattered in the menus. A pleasant walk from the beach cuts you past the peninsula headland taking you the other side to a long row of very nice resorts and restaurants. This place is a good stop.

This photo of Phra Nang Beach is courtesy of TripAdvisor

 We anchored in 2 meters of water at low tide being careful to let out enough chain to accommodate the 5 meters of depth sometime in the night. The cliff behind our anchoring point was incredibly impressive with 10meter long stalactites.

Rai Leh Beach

Rai Leh Beach

That was it for Day 2

See Day 1 here

Day 3

My vision for NauticEd is to provide the highest quality sailing and boating education available - and deliver competence wherever sailors live and go.
Grant Headifen
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Last updated on July 11th, 2022