Sailing Andaman Sea

Us reading in our cabin

Koh Lanta

Emerald Cave

sailing

on the sailboat

We just got off the sailboat yesterday, after a wonderful time visiting many different islands.
We went from Phuket to Koh Rang Yai at about 4:30pm and made it in time for a candle light dinner on the beach. The next day we had a long sail to Koh Phi Phi Don at Monkey Beach. We had an entertaining anchorage there, watching a pack of wild monkeys chase the humans around the beach (seriously). Emily refused to go to land there because she was afraid of the monkeys. Luke, Della, and Joe snorkeled to shore and watched the monkeys from the water, not daring to step onto the beach...

The next day we went into Ton Sai Bay of Koh Phi Phi and dingyed to shore for a meal in town and to get some supplies. We dingyed back in to shore to eat dinner at Ciao Bella, Italian food on the beach. The next day we visited Koh Phi Phi Leh, where they filmed the movie "the Beach" with Leonardo Di Caprio. We did a little snorkeling and saw a beautiful lionfish. We departed when we saw about 10 James Bond speedboats full of tourons headed our way. We then sailed to Koh Ngai, a small empty island in the south, had a quiet anchorage alone and snorkeled through a jellyfish riddled obstacle course. The next day we headed down to the Emerald Cave, where we swam through a cave 80 meters in darkness (with a piece of crap flashlight) to a beautiful lagoon. It was pretty fun because there were many thai tourists floating in a human chain through the darkness.

After visiting the Emerald Cave, we headed to Koh Lanta, for a protected anchorage and went to shore for dinner. We ate at a beautiful hillside restaurant overlooking the bay. The next morning we headed to the quiet and laid back Koh Pu (Koh Jam). We ended up relaxing and Luke and Emily went to shore in the afternoon and had calamari and fruit shakes at the sweet beachside Urban Cafe. For dinner we all dinghyed to shore and ate more thai food at a hillside restaurant/bungalow joint run by a scotsman.

On our last full day of sailing, we had the best winds, and sailed over to Koh Yao Yai and walked the beach and ate dinner at the bungalow resort. The next morning we had a nice breakfast aboard and then headed back to the Sunsail base.

See below a map of the area we sailed (the lines aren't our track but note ferry service routes).

We'll add more pictures later when we find a faster internet connection.