It was, however, the weather that put pay to our plans of dinghying ashore to enjoy breakfast at the Port of Call restaurant in the Ao Po Grand marina, as a storm packing winds in excess of 37 Kts, accompanied by lashing rain, passed over us, prompting us to move further into the bay to get more protection. We were satisfied with our decision when the second storm of the day only topped 24 Kts, a considerable improvement, although it too was accompanied by torrential rain and visibility of less than 50 metres. This, of course, occurred just as we’d thought of heading ashore for a morning coffee in lieu of our breakfast. At this point we gave up and resigned ourselves to a day onboard. Fortunately the remainder of the day was dry and calmer after a wild and woolly morning, allowing Roy to pop ashore briefly to dispose off our garbage and visit the marina office in the hope that his latest packages had been delivered, but to no avail, although the courier had called earlier for directions. A call from Richard, off Charon, as well as a gluten-free chocolate and orange cake which Elaine baked, added cheer to the otherwise dull, overcast day. Our entertainment, however, arrived in the form of a fisherman dragging an anchor across the seabed, peeking our interest immediately, having ended up on a reef after previously witnessing this practice. Fortunately he was a considerable distance off to our port side, but we were, nonetheless, surprised at how many fishing pods he lifted onto his “longtail”, returned the smaller fish to the water, kept the bigger ones and putted around to some distance off our stern before dropping all five pods again, with no flag to indicate they were even there. Of course, we suddenly realised that the seabeds are probably scattered with these things and here we are anchoring amongst them, unknowingly.
Our day ended the way it started; somewhat chaotic, as Roy was in the middle of preparing dinner when the courier called again to say the marina office was closed and that he had our delivery.
So, switch off the gas, lower the dinghy, head ashore, collect our new lithium batteries and return at dusk, just in time to be eaten by the mosquitoes. Then, given that we didn’t want to leave the packages in the cockpit overnight because it was definitely sure to rain, the whole “sanitise and stow” routine was conducted in the dark with insect repellent coils to help keep the mossies at bay. By now dinner was somewhat ruined, but needs must!
After a quiet, peaceful night, though, with only light rain during the early hours of the morning, we woke to the sun trying to break through, so we jumped at the opportunity to dinghy ashore for breakfast. We were delighted to have Derek, the Marina Manager, join us, before returning to Paw Paw to continue our passage planning exercise. Given that it rained on and off for the rest of the day, it was the perfect time to undertake this task.
Today was a “rinse and repeat” of yesterday, with rain showers passing over throughout the day, while we continued with our passage planning efforts, although we did re-lay our anchor chain, as it was hooked around something; probably one of those large fishing pods.
A surprise phone call from Maria, off Cattiva, was a wonderful start to the day and back-to-back calls from Elaine’s sister, Dianne, and then from Justine was a lovely way to seal another dull, overcast, windy, rainy day. We’d hoped that with the number of fishing boats that were back out on the water earlier in the day, we were about to get a break in the weather, but it was not to be.
We were intrigued, however, to read about the conservation efforts underway in Thailand to restore the tiger population, following the “Hua Hin Declaration on Tiger Conservation”, established in 2011, resulting in at least 177 Indochinese tigers now roaming in the wild, an increase of 17 in the past year. This news was revealed in celebration of International Tiger Day. Efforts continue, though, to conserve tiger habitats and natural resources in order to maintain their population. Thailand is among 13 countries participating in the declaration’s conservation programme that aimed to double the tiger population by 2022. As such, patrols have been increased in forest reserves, awareness of the programme has been raised and cooperation forged with communities, efforts which have lead to the arrests of 36 big cat poachers in parks between 2019 and 2021. Great progress indeed! Now if Thailand can just get their COVID-19 situation back under control, we’ll rest easier and be able to get back to our sailing! Grrrrr!
