Wednesday 26 June Gaya island

We've visited KK, seen the sights, played football with the yacht club and had cocktails by the pool at the marina. We also had an uncomfortable rolling night before catching the hotel bus into town for the vegetable market. There's no further reasons to stay and the more relaxed, offshore life of a cruiser beckons.

The breeze was blowing from the southwest and. we'd like to find a spot which will give us shelter from the swell. First we tried Police Bay on the west side, a deep indent and a deep basin; to be a safe distance from the fringing reef we'd need to anchor in 30m which is the absolute limit for our length of chain. We decide to move on to the recommended anchorage on the east end of the island. Here we find Samsara 2 already anchored and a good spot for us, away from the reef, in 18m of water.

It's peaceful here. We can sit back with a cold sundowner and watch the tide of plastic bottles drift past. A national marine park full of litter is not a well maintained park.

We stayed here for three nights and saw Brahmin hawks and, I think, sea otters close to the fish farms. There wasn't any diving worth doing and the snorkelling was poor.