With so much rain on Sunday and the volumes of rainwater we had collected, Elaine decided to get another chore out of the way yesterday; the laundry. She is, however, hard pressed to call this a chore these days. With a cool breeze blowing through the porthole and hatch of the starboard forward head (aka bathroom), where the washing machine is located, looking out at blue sunny skies, dotted with puffy white clouds and surrounded in clear turquoise waters, interspersed with jungle-clad karst limestone cliffs for as far as the eye can see, laundry day will never quite be the same again, not to mention the snoozes enjoyed in the cockpit while she awaits the completion of each load.

While Elaine toiled away, Roy cleaned our bridle, which had grown a small reef again, as well as enjoyed a brief chat to Craig, off Il Sogno and then one with Colin, off Endorphin Beta, whom we hadn’t spoken to since last seeing him and Izzie on Penang Island, Malaysia, in February last year. They were back from Krabi and fortunate enough to have secured their COVID-19 vaccination appointments on Phuket Island. This definitely gave us some hope that there was a chance we may well get our appointments soon too. We also learnt from Colin that they’d seen Paw Paw in the Boat Lagoon marina a few weeks ago, as a backdrop to a video filmed in the marina for a news media outlet in Thailand called “The Thaiger”. What are the chances of them seeing the footage, never mind the fact that Paw Paw was a “film” star and we didn’t even know it!

After our chores were complete, we dinghied ashore to enjoy another delicious lunch at the Port of Call restaurant, then went for a short walk around the marina complex to stretch our legs, before picking up our deliveries at the marina office.

Today we woke to a gloomy, rainy morning, but, by the time we’d enjoyed our breakfast, it had all cleared up, so we continued with our plan; weigh anchor and head south. First, however, we enjoyed a slow sail across the bay towards the west coast of Koh Yao Yai to make water where there was far less sediment to clog the watermaker’s filters, as well as taking the opportunity to dry out our sails. This daunder took us towards the yacht carrier that had been anchored since yesterday unloading and loading yachts; a little sad to see, as this was another indication of cruising dreams left high and dry with this pandemic.

It was lunchtime before we turned towards Phuket Island again, unfortunately motoring this time with the wind on the nose, arriving in our chosen anchorage for the night, Koh Taphao Yai, around 1500, but not before Roy enjoyed another chat to Craig, off Il Sogno, who was positioned for his arrival in the quarantine anchorage tomorrow morning and Elaine had enjoyed a chat to her folks in Ireland.

The anchorage was a little different to what we had expected in that there were, not only numerous squid fishing boats anchored, but a number of occupied cruising yachts too; we had company at last!