Sunday 12 January Phang Nga Bay to Krabi

Free at last to go cruising once more. After all this is what we came to Thailand for, not to sit in a town anchorage, but to go off exploring this islands.

Yesterday David worked his Super Mechanic magic and repaired the furling motor on the main sail. A few days ago it was kaput. It had ceased to live. Our worst case scenario was to buy a complete new unit for one BOAT (bung on another thousand) or David to disassemble, diagnose and fix. With nothing to lose he opened up the motor and discovered the permanent magnet switch which should be attached to the outer case had been torn from their true position and were now magnetically stuck to the centre rotating part of the motor. The simple plan was to re-adhere the magnets and re-assemble. The actual was a dirty and long process of cleaning the unit of carbon dust using a rotary wire brush to provide a super clean surface, mind juggling to work out the correct permutation of how to place the four magnets (two positive, two negative) and then sticking then in with epoxy.

With the dogged perseverance of a terrier after a rat David did it. Another example of his genius as a mechanic (OK I'm biased). I can now forgive him for screwing it up in the first place – furling the main in 30 knots winds without turning up to the wind completely.

That was yesterday. Today we motored out into Phang Nga bay, the body of water between Phuket island and mainland Thailand famous for it's surreal mountainous limestone islands, some with flooded tunnels leading to hidden lagoons. My guide book says 'Created by glacial flow some 10 millennia ago, Phang Nga (pang-NA) resembles Neolithic sky scrapers'. It's also well known for the thousands of tourists who visit each day to see and to kayak into the hongs (local name for the hidden lagoons).

entrance to tunnel

inside Phanak hong

side turn

entering tunnel to exit hong

nonchalant sea eagle

We reached the NW anchorage on Koh Phanak at 4.30pm and dropped the hook behind two catamarans which were already here and then our good fortune to see a guided kayak tour turn into the difficult to see tunnel entrance. No time to lose the kayak was in the water and we were paddling off to follow then in under ten minutes. The tunnel is 50m long, completely dark in the middle section and tall until you reach the entrance to the lagoon when you have to duck under the overhanging rocks. Going through the tunnel with our torches we first smelt and then saw the bats hanging from the roof. One or two were disturbed and were flying.

Inside the hong opened up into a wondrous scene towering over us. From murky water sheer cliffs rise to 150m with tenacious trees and bushes clinging wherever they can. Going through a small opening we reached the second hong. Questions came to mind about how were these inner lagoons formed? I know limestone turns acid when rain falls on it and the rock is slowly dissolved and washed away to form stalactites and stalagmites but where has the great mass of rock which would have filled this whole space gone? If it crumbled and fell why aren't there rocks at the base of the cliffs? Has it all been dissolved? A question for Google I think when we're internet connected again.

As the sunset all the tour boats had gone home and we enjoyed a wonderfully quiet night.