Sailing to Koh Tao

Last night we had dinner down the street at a family run restaurant. The father and mother had two kids, boy and a girl, who were about five or six years old. They both took turns bringing us our menus, drinks and meals under the supervision of their father. They did run around a bit when not employed in a specific task, but they did a good job, and they were cute. We all high-fived the boy on our way out, who was by then in his super hero PJs. John had a new curry for dinner called Panang curry. It was red but tasted much like green curry but with some additional Indian spices. The varieties of curry pastes the Thais use in their dishes seem endless - it was worth it trying a new one.

This morning we started a four day sailing trip on a Whitby 42 foot sailing boat, with our German skipper and Thai second mate/skipper in training. We left Koh Samui in the morning, had lunch at Bottle Beach on Koh Phan Ngan, and moored in Koh Tao for the night.

The wind was strong on the way over and for the first part of our journey to Koh Phan Ngan; we were making about seven or eight knots north in a 15 knot wind. About half way through the five hour journey to Koh Tao, the skipper at first thought we could outrun a storm that was fast approaching from the west. But then it looked doubtful as the wind picked up. The clouds moved along to quickly obscure Koa Tao ahead in a sheet of grey and black. So we battened down the hatches, prepared for a rainy and blustery future, and kind of enjoyed the ride as the wind picked up to 25 knots. I did turn into Elmer the Safety Elephant somewhat when I started asking the skipper some questions. Should we be wearing life-jackets? Up to you he said. Should we go down below? Up to you he said. Can you check the weather by marine radio? We don"t have one because there is no service here. Should we tack to avoid the storm? Never done that before he said. At this point I realized I'm not helping and I should just be quiet and enjoy the ride I guess. The skipper and crew mate switched out the genoa for a storm jib and prepared for the blow. A little later on I was concerned again when the skipper said something like "Come on! Is 25 knots all we're going to get? We're ready for more!" I couldn't help but pipe in that we don't need to wish for more weather - we are hopefully prepared for the worst, but we should at least hope for the best. Again in retrospect I don't think I was helping.... Anyway, the storm passed by in front of us and we only caught some strong winds and a few drops of rain.

Upon arrival in a small cove in Koh Tao we all made use of a couple of paddle boards we rented for the trip. The kids took to the boards right away, but Catheleen and I both fell once to twice before we hang the hang of it. Elizabeth and I went snorkelling along the cliffs and saw a truly amazing assortment of coral reefs, fish, sea cucumbers, massive anemones and all manner of sea life. We saw pointed fish in the colours of a rainbow, swam through schools of large orange tropical fish, and spotted what looked to be jumbo clams embedded into the coral so only their mouth openings were showing. Whenever we approached them they would scrunch up their blue or orange lips into their shells. It reminded me of the time about ten years ago when we scuba dived around coral beds not too far from where we are now.