My Personal Sailing Adventures - with land trips on the side: Don't mention the pork

We took a couple of weeks island hopping from Phuket to Langkawi. Some people do this trip in 24 hours but that’s just not our style.

Phi Phi was uncrowded unlike our last visit when we could hardly move on the island during the day and fell asleep to super loud doof doof music every night. This time the sound track was something so benign I didn’t even remember what it was in the morning.

The next leg was hard work with 30 knots on the nose on the way to the historic east coast anchorage at Koh Lanta. I decided to give the anchoring way point from our last visit a miss. It was being used by a sunken boat. Sunk by politics according to the local intel. The interested parties couldn’t decide who was supposed to pump the bilge until it was too late.

The green prawn curry was just as delicious as I remembered from our first stay. When I asked the staff if the prawns were farmed or wild he articulately pointed out to the sea.

It was an easy run to Koh Muk. At one point I looked out the porthole and saw fish jumping a meter out of the water. Like something out of Nemo. The other captain kept telling me about the dolphins he was seeing. All I got was water disturbances. Hmm.

We visited the Emerald Cave on the way. A 70 meter swim through a dark cave to get there. With a waterproof torch that ended up being allergic to water. On the way back out we realized we had taken a wrong turn. Had to back up in the pitch dark. Maybe that was the way to the fabled pirate treasure. We wouldn’t have found it with a dead torch anyway.

We took our time slowly heading south down Koh Taratao. Three different overnight anchorages. A bit of exploring. A bit of weather. Took the tender up one of the rivers. Out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a dog swimming. It was a sea otter. The last Thai radio we’ll be hearing for a while.

Suddenly, it seemed, we were in Malaysia again.

Langkawi is a time vortex. Like the Hotel California you can check out but you can’t leave. We planned to say a few days but were there for a month.

Anchored in Bass Harbour, Kuah, we were waiting for some credit cards to arrive in the mail. And waiting. And partying. And waiting. And eating. (The Bak kut the which is the only dish on the menu at the Shark Fing is still my benchmark for that delicious pork stew.) And of course consuming and stocking up on the duty free grog. And catching up with old friends. And making new ones. And provisioning for our next leg.

Naturally the shopping had to include pork espionage. On a Moslem island they do sell this forbidden product but it requires being in the know. You have to go into the back room of a shop selling spices. Quietly - I thought the proprietor was telling us not to wake the baby – to choose your cloak and dagger snags.

They were yummy too. Sausages and mash for dinner at our first anchorage on the way to Danga Bay.