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We finally left Langkawi on 10 May. We were going to sail to Phuket in easy stages, with safe anchorages planned in case the weather hit the fan.
Well it wasn't the weather which hit the fan it was the drive shaft. After two nights of blissful anchorages, I was thinking this is why we have a boat. Perky the engine was purring and I felt I could trust her to motor all 120 NM if we ended up with no wind. Then at around 9 am, 20 NM north of Taratao the drive shaft snapped, right at the end where it meets the gearbox so no way could we jury rig a fix.
So we started sailing north in about 3 knots of wind (from the north!). We tacked for hours between Ko Phetra and Ko Tului Noi making one mile progress if that, or less. Then the wind did pick up but it was still pretty well in the direction we wanted to go.
It was hairy passing those rocky outcrops at the SW end of Ko Talebong close hauled in the moonless dark, but we finally made it to a safe anchorage at Ko Muk by 11 pm, despite the fact the only night sailing we'd ever done was in our TAFE and we'd never anchored without using the engine before.
Ko Muk
What is it they say about cruising being 99% boredom and 1% panic?
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