Farewell Pattaya, We're Heading to Phuket (Poo-Ket)!
- kelligwiggins
- May 14, 2024
- 11 min read
Part 1 of 2
We arrived at Ocean Marina in Pattaya, Thailand on December 15, 2022, after a 7 day sail from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Our boat was brand-spanking new, and we were sailing newbies. We lived on our boat at Ocean Marina until February 24, 2024. We spent one year and 3 months getting to know the ropes, so to speak, and making the boat feel like our home. As our dream of living on a sailboat began on the island of Samos in Greece, we thought it would be fitting to return to the Greek Islands on our own sailboat someday. We are excited to have the opportunity to transport our boat to Genoa, Italy sometime this spring. Our boat will be lifted onto a large cargo vessel, and we will fly to meet it in Italy. The cargo ship will be departing from Phuket, Thailand, so we needed to get Sunspot Baby from Pattaya to Phuket.
We departed from Ocean Marina in Pattaya early on Saturday, February 24, again by the light of a beautiful full moon. We made our way southwest toward Koh Samui, motor-sailing through the night. On Sunday Randy noticed some issues with our diesel, so we dropped our anchor in a beautiful bay near Koh Phangan. Randy cleaned the fuel filters and blew out the fuel lines, and we had a quiet night.
On Monday Feb 26 the seas were quite rough, and we got a bit of rain. We decided to anchor, and stayed south of Koh Samui at Koh Mat Sum (aka Pig Island) for a few days, waiting until the winds and seas calmed down. On Thursday we pulled up the anchor and sailed all night, dodging fishing boats. On Friday my cell phone hopped right overboard, what a bummer! Around 5:00 pm we pulled into Songkhla, Thailand and anchored up the river. We took the dinghy to shore a couple of times, for a meal and some ice.
This map shows our progress from Pattaya to Songkhla.
We left Songkhla on Monday Mar 4 and headed south. We motor-sailed all day and night, then again all day and night on Tuesday. Right before we crossed the Thai border into Malaysia, I saw my first dolphin. It swam right up to the starboard side and jumped into the air. It was thrilling!
On Wednesday we pulled into Terengganu, Malaysia to check in to that country and replenish our diesel. We anchored in the harbor (among lots of garbage), and took the dinghy under the drawbridge in to the marina to meet our agent for check-in. He drove us to the airport for immigration and customs, then to a couple of stores so that Randy could find a fuel pump and hoses. We spent Thursday afternoon pumping the diesel out of the starboard tank, cleaning the bottom of the tank, then filtering the fuel and pumping it back in.
Here is a picture of the drawbridge in Terengganu Harbor - if you need them to open the bridge one time, the cost is around $6,000 USD!
The sunset at Terengganu was beautiful.
On Friday Mar 8 we left here and headed further south. We saw a small pod of dolphins off the starboard side, they swam along with us for a short time (again, thrilling!!). We had a real nice day sailing with our pretty blue code sail, at speeds of 6.5 - 8 knots. We sailed all night, not too many fishing boats. On Saturday the seas were calm. See the picture below - no waves, just a few ripples. It was quiet and flat.
As the day went on, the winds very light, but we noticed dark clouds building behind us.
We were too far from the mainland to head to shore, so we headed to Tioman Island instead. The rain started, winds picked up, and we found ourselves inside a major storm. Our AIS didn't seem to be displaying boats in our area properly, so we had to navigate solely by radar and chart plotter. It was difficult to decipher the rain clouds from the boats. Randy was drenched at the helm, and the boat was heaving in the rough seas. We came close to a couple of fishing boats, and one close encounter with a tanker. Frankly it was terrifying. Here's what our chart plotter looked like - we're the tiny red dot in the middle:
We were both clipped to the boat using our life vests and safety harnesses, praying to the good Lord that He would bring us safely through. I was feeling queasy, Randy was trying to navigate while completely soaked, and I had to keep wiping his glasses. At last the rain started to ease, and we motored into the harbor at Tioman Island and dropped our anchor. It took us 3 tries to get it to hold on the sloped bottom, and we finally dropped ourselves into bed. Unfortunately our anchor alarm started going off after only 3 hours, so we pulled it up and left, heading south to Pulau Sibu, about 45 nm away.
We made it to Pulau Sibu around 6:30 pm, and enjoyed a couple of restful nights.
On Tuesday Mar 12, we pulled up the anchor at 2:45 am. The wind was 16-20 knots, but right behind us. We used the jib, but never raised the mainsail. We pulled into a marina at Penerang, near Singapore, at 6:15 pm. About 30 minutes later, a Malaysian Maritime officer told us that the marina was restricted, and we had to leave. Since we needed diesel they allowed us to stay one night. We hired a driver to take us to get fuel and some food, then left the next morning. We motored up the river about 1 mile, and anchored. We spent a relaxing day at anchor - defrosted one of our 2 freezers, changed the starboard water pump, had showers, played gin rummy, and watched one episode of 'Young Sheldon' as a treat.
We brought up the anchor around 7:15 am, and motored down the river, past the restricted Malaysian Maritime marina. We began making our way toward the shipping channel around Singapore. There were hundreds of huge cargo ships moored offshore, and we carefully navigated through the maze of quiet, giant vessels.
We hadn't made it very far when a Singapore Police boat pulled up alongside. They were very friendly - I think they wanted to know what the heck a sailboat was doing among all of the cargo ships and tankers. We told them we had come from Pattaya, and were heading around Singapore to the Malacca Straits, up to Langkawi then Phuket. They told us to stay out of the shipping lanes (which we had already planned on!), and to have a good day.
Here are a couple of pictures of our trip around Singapore. That red cargo vessel had shipping containers stacked in rows 8 high, and a dozen across, at least 16 rows. It looked like an apartment building on water - it was enormous!
The Singapore skyline was pretty.
And here is a picture of our chart plotter - Our boat is the black one, right in the middle.
As you can see from all of the boats, the AIS system appeared to be working just fine!
We saw at least 8 different black and white Singapore Police boats as we made our way through. None of them approached us, but they all kept an eye on our progress. We saw the last one on the Singapore/Malaysia border, as we motored across the Johor Strait.
We had been nervous about getting around Singapore. It was exciting, and we had to keep our wits about us, but all in all, it was easier than we had expected.
We continued heading north into the Malacca Strait, motor-sailing with a good current helping us. At around 9:00 pm, the current changed, so we decided to drop our anchor to rest. We stopped near Pulau Sauh.
On Friday March 15 we pulled the anchor up at 5:40 am. The sunrise was stunning!
We were able to sail with full main and jib, and had good wind. We were sailing right along with our blue code sail, when suddenly our mainsail came crashing down. Something had caused our main halyard to fail. We quickly pulled in the code, and made our way toward shore to see what had happened. We anchored, and I tried to hoist Randy up the mast with our winch. I wasn't able to do it, so we decided that he would hoist me up. We strapped me into our brand new bosun's chair with 2 safety lines, and up I went. I made it past the spreader, but I kept sliding out of the chair - yikes!. So Randy brought me back down. We re-rigged our main halyard using a different line, and we were back in business.
We continued sailing north toward Port Dickson. We saw a few small fishing boats, but mostly huge cargo ships and tankers (we even saw a huge cruise ship!). We stayed to the right of the north-bound shipping lane. We decided to motor-sail all Friday night. The winds picked up to 20+ knots, and it was a bumpy night. Still a gorgeous sunset though! 😉
On Saturday March 16 we made it to Admiral Marina in Port Dickson. We had contacted them via email and VHF radio to see if they had a berth available. When we arrived around 2:30 pm, they really rolled out the red carpet for us! There were 3 men on the dock waiting to catch our lines. We backed the boat into an empty slip, and they quickly got us hooked up with shore power and fresh water. We had a lovely evening which included some cold beer, long showers, cool air conditioning, and more 'Young Sheldon'.
We rested for several days at this wonderful oasis, taking advantage of the swimming pool and yachtie bar. We stocked up on diesel, groceries, and fresh fruit. We had the bottom of our boat cleaned. On Tuesday Randy purchased a complete safety harness, and along with the slippery bosun's chair and 3 safety lines this time, he strapped me in and hoisted me up the mast. This time I knew what to expect, and wore jeans and gloves. I zipped right up to the top. I was able to grab the main halyard and pulley mechanism, and pull it back down. I have to say I enjoyed my trip up the mast, as there was absolutely zero danger of me slipping out! We re-rigged the main halyard again. We didn't see anything wrong with the halyard mechanism, so we are still not sure why it had failed.
On Wednesday March 20 we said goodbye to Admiral Marina, pulling out around 9:20 am. Wind was 10+ knots so we put up the code and made great time. We anchored south of Port Klang, among many huge tanker ships that were also anchored.
On Thursday we pulled the anchor up around 7:30 am, there was no wind, and a storm north of us. We motor-sailed with the jib, and when the wind picked up in the afternoon we put the code up. We were about 10 miles off the coast of Tanjung Karang, and started to see lots of garbage floating in the water. Actually the entire sea was filled with garbage.
We have seen debris in the water since we started sailing back in Viet Nam, so the styrofoam, plastic bottles, flip-flops, take-away containers, and other plastic garbage were not a shock to us. What alarmed and sickened us was the massive amount of garbage here - it was like sailing through a floating dump. We noticed that there was dark green and black growth on the bottles and styrofoam - it has been floating out here for quite some time. I saw a small crab crawling on a piece of styrofoam, and we saw birds sitting on the garbage taking a little break. Pretty sad. These pictures just don't do it justice. The floating dump went on for at least 15 miles, and included uprooted palm trees and floating logs. We had to take turns sitting up front to steer around the big pieces. We were fortunate to encounter this in the daytime!!
We continued north, the garbage finally thinning out. The wind picked up in the afternoon, and we made some good time. We anchored around 6:30 pm off shore at Bagan Sungai Burong, and had a pretty calm night, though it was HOT!!!
On Friday March 22 - we pulled up the anchor around 7:15 am, the sun was just coming up. We motor-sailed north toward the island of Pangkor, our next stop. About 6 miles south of Pulau Rumbia, we noticed several large gold-colored jellyfish in the water, just under the surface. They were huge, and looked like giant glowing globes in the water. In the afternoon the wind picked up again, and we made good time sailing.
We passed close by a fishing boat south of Pangkor.
We anchored around 6:00 pm near the lovely little island of Pulau Giam, on the west coast of Pangkor. It was calm and quiet, lush and green.
Saturday we pulled up the anchor at 7:15 am. There was a bit of wind, and it was nice and cloudy. We motor-sailed north toward Penang, our next stop. Again the wind picked up in the afternoon, and we were able to make good time sailing. We saw more yellow and white jellyfish. We also had a large tanker change his course and head straight for us, so we had to change our course to miss him. It was a little unnerving to have a huge tanker headed our way. Randy was not happy, we had to pinch up into the wind and lost valuable time!
We sailed to the south coast of Penang, and tried to anchor near Pulau Kendi, but there were many fishing boats already anchored, so we just moved a bit northeast, and anchored right in the shallow bay south of Penang. It was nice. During the night the winds kicked up to over 20 knots, and we got some rain. We battened down the hatches and went back to sleep.
Palm Sunday March 24 - Anchor up at about 8:30 am, no wind to speak of. We sailed up the west coast of Penang, and got a bit more rain. We passed this cool sailboat, moored off of the coast.
We anchored around 6:30 pm near Pulau Bidan. It made me think of Gilligan's Island!
Monday Mar 25 - We raised the anchor at 7:45 am, and made our way past Pulau Telur, Pulau Songsong, and Bunting Island. Dozens of longboat fishermen came roaring past us, heading to their fishing grounds up north. Many waved and shouted at us, and we were captured on more than one iphone camera! We encountered more giant yellow and red jellyfish. We motored up the coast of Malaysia, anchoring offshore near Sanglang. Off to our west we could see the islands that make up Langkawi. Around 4:45 pm a fishing boat approached, and the gentleman asked us to move so that he could lay his drift nets out. We pulled up our anchor, and moved offshore, west about 3 km. We dropped anchor again, hoping for a quiet night. Not too long after that, more fishermen approached, and again asked us to move. We explained that this was where we had been requested to move, and we would be heading to Langkawi in the morning. The fishermen went ahead and dropped their nets, and unfortunately they drifted under our boat and into our anchor chain. Randy had to cut the nets away, and the fishermen left the area.
Not long after that, a black Maritime Malaysia boat approached, and asked why we were anchored there. The seas had become so rough the men couldn't get close enough to board our boat. After a couple of hours of explanation, and sharing our passports and boat information, we were allowed to stay the night. It was a bit rolly, but we were able to get some rest.
The next morning we lifted the anchor at first light, and made our way due west to Langkawi.
We motored our way among the beautiful islands, passing the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club, and saw the enormous Queen Mary 2 anchored at the cruise pier.
We arrived at Rebak Marina in the afternoon, and Randy's American friend Matt from Pattaya was there to meet us and catch our dock lines. We were happy to have access to fresh water and shore power again, and to replenish our groceries. We also had a nice time catching up with Matt and his wife Pach.
Here is our journey from Penerang to Langkawi.
Our next post will pick up here, in the lovely islands of Langkawi. We have one last leg of our journey through Southeast Asia, from Langkawi to Phuket.
Cheers!!
Amazing !!!