Year 2- 15th November 2025 – Phuket Yacht Haven-Phuket-Thailand

We woke to a lovely sunny morning and I had hope that it will be a good day. We had breakfast and as we plan to leave tomorrow for about 8/9 days around the small islands we need to provision.  I therefore prepared a list. Ruth and I volunteered to go and the others remained. Steve and Mark looked at the windlass switch to see if they could find the problem. It was quite corroded and so I need to find some replacements. I hope I will be able to get some when I go home. However, hopefully we will not have a problem until it is replaced.

Ruth and I got a taxi to the Lotus superstore which was a large supermarket in a shopping mall. I was quite surprised how modern Phuket was. There were dual carriageways, neon signs, modern buildings and shops. There was also the smaller buildings but you got a sense this is not a third world place probably as a result of the tourism they have had over many years. There were pineapple sellers beside the dual carriageway and we thought we would get some on the way back.

We went round the supermarket and got most of what we needed. There was a mix of western type food and a lot of Thai food with packaging I could not understand. The people here do not speak that much English but that is fine.

We managed to pack it into bags and bundle it into the taxi who waited for us. We stopped to buy some pineapples and got 4 for 100 baht - £2 – which was good value. When we got back the guys were reading and chilling in the cockpit and so we packed everything away and we were now vitalled for the rest of our trip. We had the rest of the day to relax.

Mark, Keith and I went to go for a swim in the little pool they have in the marina which was nice and cooled us down. We then walked along the road to a restaurant which overlooked the bay and had a woodfired pizza oven. We sat overlooking the front and there was a nice breeze and we had a pizza which I have not had for a long time. There was a pool table and so we decided to play a few games and so we spent a pleasant afternoon playing pool. We got chatting to one of the waiters and they were all from Burma (Myanmar). He challenged us for a game and he was an excellent player and had cleared the table before Keith had a second shot.

Steve came to speak to me and said he has decided to leave the boat as he wants to tour around Phuket. He will meet Mark when we get to AOPO Marina and they will then go to Bangkok together.  

We stayed at the restaurant for supper and then headed back to the boat. Steve had left for his hotel. Andy and Ruth went to the beach and spent the afternoon and evening there and had a good time.  We are now 5 on the boat and will head off tomorrow.    

The picture of the day is us playing pool for a change.

 Need/Opportunity Year Three

In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK.  I am looking for crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town and from Cape Town to the UK. If of any interest do email me.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com