Sadiqi arrived at Ko Adang (part of the Butang group of islands) on Christmas Eve and dropped anchor near “Katrine”. Don and Jean (ex South Africans) own Sailor Foods on Langkawi – providing great pies, sausage rolls, meat, bread etc to the sailing folk. Also on board was their son, Greg, his wife, Ann and grandson, Rayson. They insisted I had dinner with them of the Spanish Mackerel that Rayson had caught on the way over from Langkawi.
Christmas morning I watched as Rayson tried to paddle against the strong tidal current and barely succeeding. Being a bright lad he paddled toward the shore to get out of the current then back to “Katrine”. Having petrol for the outboard is handy – oops. I had put my outboard on the dingy and was ready to rescue if needed. There was a fairly sombre mood on “Katrine” when I arrived. After wishing everyone a merry Christmas Don announced to me, between expletives, that one of the toilets was blocked. No wonder the sombre mood. This rather unpleasant job was soon accomplished and all was well and festive onboard “Katrine”, even more so after a hearty breakfast of bacon steaks, egg and coffee.
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| Xmas at Ko Adang |
We had an exceptional lunch of steak, sausages, prawns, vegetable salads and fruit salads. In the evening we sat around the beach bonfire enjoying the peace and serenity. A great day.
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| Greg, Ann, Jean and Rayson |
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| Beach Bonfire |
“Katrine” left early the following morning for Phuket. I decided to head for a more sheltered anchorage as the wind had increased and was going against the current making it very unpleasant on the boat. Heading west I soon noticed “Katrine” had turned around and was heading in the same direction as I was. The conditions were quite rough outside the shelter of the islands as I was soon to find out. The further west I went the more the conditions, wind and swell, deteriorated. I think I must have gotten soft not having been sailing for so long. I had to anchor or pick up a mooring somewhere to get the outboard motor off the back of the dingy, preferably in fairly quiet waters. This was eventually done in a not so sheltered anchorage on the north west of Ko Rawi. I decided to head around Ko Rawi and back to Ko Lipe. It was a great beat to windward in 20 to 25 knots. The new windlass got baptised repeatedly, as on occasion the bow was submerged followed by green water washing down the decks.
The other problem I had noticed when hauling the anchor with the new windlass is that a section of the chain had worn almost halfway through. This does not make for a very good nights sleep while on achor. In the shelter of Adang I drifted and cut the worn length of chain off and reattached the Fisherman/Admiralty anchor. I headed for Sunset beach, Ko Lipe and dropped anchor.
The following day I went ashore and visited Mr Man in the refurbished Boom Boom bar and met up with friends. I can only hope that, somehow, Ko Lipe will manage to retain it’s quaint, laidback mystique.  |
| Boom Boom Bar, Ko Lipe |
