Rebak to Phuket Dec 2015
We left Rebak on 28 Nov and motored to Ban Ao Makham (in Thai waters) and had our first night at anchor for quite a while. Slipstream were also anchored here but a lightning and thunder storm with strong wind and rain put an end to any idea of a happy hour as no one keen to dinghy across in that weather. We stayed two nights here and then had an early morning start with a pleasant sail in the morning and motoring in the afternoon dodging the usual mine field of fish buoys and nets. We picked up a mooring at Koh Rok and stayed here for a night with a few other yachts and left the next day for PhiPhi Island, a tourist resort. Morg spiked a temperature and vomited in the morning but by the afternoon was up and devouring 4 weetbix. These sort of episodes always make me a little anxious because of the malaria and dengue fever around.
Not a lot of room for anchoring at Phi Phi but managed to squeeze in at the side of the tourist boat runway. Some nice snorkelling along the shore, but not as beautiful as Flores. Still it was great to be out of the marina and back on the water so to speak. After PhiPhi we left for Phuket where we cleared in at Chalong, not a chore, quite organised even though the officials were quite busy with a lot of the foreign race boats arriving for the Kings Cup Regatta. Clearance done we headed for the Lighthouse Bar where we met Bellie, Mikey and Tom (Warrens son) for a beer and then headed out to the boat-one trip on the dinghy which with all of us was quite a wet one. We then headed down to Kata to get a good spot before it got too crowded with race boats. The rest of the crew slowly arrived and the boys and I got to work cleaning the hull and doing minor jobs on the boat to get her ready for the weeks racing.
Morg and big brother cleaning the hull
A pre regatta sail for the Thai Navy
The crew
We had a good weeks racing, a few passage races which were very hot and which we did well in and lots of windward leewards which we didn’t do so well in. I don’t know how the crew survived, as they often got to the boat in the mornings in a very sorry state after a night on the town. The regatta organised great functions most nights at local resorts with entertainment, food and drink, and prize giving for the days winners. So as you can imagine there were no early nights for the boys. I have seen them join MS for regattas over the last 10 years and nothing changes. Not sure how they survive the days racing in 30 ° plus heat without getting dehydrated, but by the time the race is over they are sufficiently recovered to sink a few cold ones and  start all over again! And they’re not even young!
On the last day we were coming first in our division but with no wind and a few windward leewards it was a real challenge and we decided to let our Fremantle rival Rockets(Rod Mulcahy’s )-souped up, stripped out Beneteau First 44.7 ‘ Slipstream’ -take the honour and glory. Which he did so willingly and our fragile friendship was once again cemented. (Rod was still smarting after we beat him into Bali on the Femantle -Bali race).
So after a great fun week racing we said goodbye to everyone and we took MS up to Yacht Haven, leaving ourselves 2 days to get her organised and tidied for a 2 month stay in YH while we flew back home for Christmas.
