Arrived in Phuket yesterday after the nicest day of sailing so far. Strong tailwinds in the morning blew across the the rolling seas following and sometimes catching us. Unfortunately the day before the boom vang got sick, that's the bit that keeps the boom down, so we had to trim the main in close instead of out on a beam reach where it would have been much
happier.
We pulled into Boat Lagoon, one of two marinas on the island after anchored in the lee of a gorgeous island opposite, waiting for the tide to rise so we could get in. I swam across to the island with a dry bag and procured cold beer and some really pretty shells. Later on we ate at a fancy restaurant over looking the biggest motor launches I have ever seen in my life. The restaurant was kind of like something you might find around the toaster end of the quay, Japanese minimalist decor with a stunningly designed menu to match and yummy gourmet food. Luckily I wasn't paying. The night before was in stark contrast and in many ways much nicer and cooler. We anchored in a bay on the south side of Koh Yao Yai and as the sun sent watercolour streaks across the sky one the the fishing boats we had been waving at going past came and gave us some fish for dinner, refusing to take payment.
Yup. I have been eating fish lately. Don't give me a hard time about it; it's weird, I smell different! Mmmmm (Mike Moore style). Any hoo, we scaled and filleted the three fish including the beautiful one with a big long fin and yellow and blue stripes, the ones i'd prefer to see whilst snorkling rather than on my plate. But it tasted better that the other two which
were kinda ordinary looking. Interestingly it had lots of spikey bits, probably to convince other fish, like the other two that had big teeth, that it didn't really taste all that good.
Leslie, the guy whose boat I've been sailing on has been really nice and covered all my expenses in return for scrubbing decks etc. But he's an American bankruptcy lawyer and is starting to drive me a little crazy. Today immigration is closed so i can't get out of here which is driving me a little bit nuts. i'm thinking of going for a dive, not tomorrow, immigration run, but the next day cause Phuket is supposed to be one of the top ten dive sites in the world.
But I'm trying to get my ass over to Korea so I can find a job and I'm in serious need of big hugs. I haven't hung out with anyone under 35 since New Year so I'm really looking forward to seeing Dom, Jonathan and Andy over there. So I'm kinda running out of time and hoping to fly to Seoul next weekend where it sounds really cold. I guess I might have to go buy some warm clothes soon!