Rebak to Phuket

Clearing out at Kuha was as smooth as one of Clooney’s Nescafe ads. After spending 20 minutes visiting the various officials at the Kuha ferry terminal, we were granted clearance and came away with the paperwork that allowed us to set sail for Thailand.

The consensus is that the Thai authorities give ample time to get to Phuket to clear in – up to 2 weeks, allegedly. However, because we like to stay on the right side of friendliness with the authorities, we got there in 7 days, having stopped on the way at these places, all day sails from each other:

• Koh Lipe
  • Full of tourists on the south side. From a distance, it looked like Benidorm.
• Ko Bulon Yai
  • Peaceful – just fishing boats in the distance
• Ao Nam Ton
  • Flat calm amongst the hongs
• Ko Lanta
  • Calm beach
• Koh Yao Yai
  • A lovely place where it would have been great to get off the boat and join the holidaymakers on the beach.

And a lovely surprise was to see Michael and Maam, our nearby neighbours from Riverside Drive Marina in New Zealand. They arrived in Thailand well in advance of us and came over to Jamala to say hello.

But before exploring Thailand properly, we needed to clear in. To do that, we had to make our way over to Phuket Yacht Haven, where we had reserved a berth and arranged for a clearance agent to meet us to take care of the paperwork.

One of the many fishing boats

Pointy hong

Stripey hong

Anchored at Ao Nam Ton

Near to Koh Yao Yai

Anchored at Koh Yao Yai

Phuket Yacht Haven

Phuket Yacht Haven

We knew our berth allocation in advance and knew where to go from the marina map. So it was something of a surprise when one of the dockmasters in a dinghy piloted us past our turning. We thought there must have been a last-minute change. After all, this isn’t really the place to get things wrong – the wind and current rushing through the marina conspire together to create a healthy revenue for boat fixers. But he had got it wrong. Fortunately, we had timed our arrival for more or less slack water and were able to turn around without crunching into other boats. We then headed to where we were supposed to be, where the other members of staff caught our lines.

Registration and clearance were easy. One of the clearance agent’s representatives met us at the marina office. We handed over our documents, and later that afternoon, he returned with our clearance papers and passports stamped for a 60-day visit. Shortly after that, he sent me the bill. Next time, I’ll check in at Chalong. As we came to know later, it’s an easy place to get to and not full of the anchoring dramas that comments on various social media platforms might lead you to believe.

That evening, we met onboard Panache for drinks with Price, Benny, Derek, and Letitia before going to a Turkish restaurant, where we met up with the crew of another boat we met on the Sail to Indonesia Rally – Glam.

Usual suspects

The marina is bonkers. Motorbikes with sidecars and golf buggies race along the pontoons, either ferrying people to and from their boats or rushing tradespeople to fix the mostly charter boats scattered throughout the marina. The constant clatter of wheels over boards gets old very quickly, and despite the good company, our week here felt a lot longer.

A lift on a motorbike and sidecar

On a positive note, the marina does have a fitness centre and pool to use for no extra charge. That read like free to us, so off we went for a bit of exercise and a float around. Also, the staff are very helpful and friendly – so there are no complaints there.

It’s for blokes, too, you know

The Pool

Being on the large island meant that we could reprovision. A relatively low-cost grab ride brought us to the Supercheap supermarket, which is great for basics but not so good for anything fancy (I doubt caviar and blinis would ever be on sale here). I don’t know if this is common to all Supercheap places, but they are tardis-like. What looks like a 7/11 on the outside transforms into something like Costco for local people on the inside.

Phuket – we are off

Leaving the marina was easy enough. We paid the bill, waited until slack water, called the dock hands over and away we went. Getting to the fuel pontoon wasn’t so easy, though. The local charter boats assume priority, and one of them shoved ahead of us. That meant a wait of around 20 minutes to pull onto the dock.

During that time, the current had picked up to a fairly aggressive pace. And when we left (as we had to do to let another boat fuel up), it was raging so much that we couldn’t park the boat back up no matter what we tried. It was so bad that the current pinned the boat on the other side of us to the fuel pontoon. The result was that we had to contact the marina and pay online.

That done, we were free to go. We headed back out the river towards Koh Phanak, where we could start our proper exploration of Thailand.