2012 already

Wow, where did that year go and it\'s February 2012 already!
Our last update was in July 2011, we had just slipped Catcha Star at Royal Phuket Marina in preperation for Her new paint job.



Oh and his team from Oh Services have transformed Catcha Star into a different yacht. The

Time for a make-over

 The 6^th of July came and went, I had a lovely birthday with lot’s of wishes from friends all over the globe. A group of Australian’s that are currently in Phuket joined me for a lovely dinner at the Winch restaurant at Boat Lagoon Marina, we had a ball. Ley from “Crystal Blues” that we had met in One Degree Fifteen Marina, Singapore was in Phuket and joined us for a few hours before she flew back to Singapore that night. Errol Robins and his Skipper Brad were in town after purchasing another yacht and getting Her ready for sailing back to Fremantle and we also had our regular cruising friends Peter and Lyn off “Mandella II” and of coarse Paul and Tracy off “Cockatoo II”. It was a great night and we all enjoyed some real Australian tails of the high seas.   

Catcha Star stripped of all her deck equipment, getting ready for a new coat of paint

The work on Catcha Star’s interior timberwork is progressing nicely, Marley and his team from Yachts Repair Co have done a fantastic job. We have now made a decision on who will repaint the outside of our yacht. Oh and his team from Oh Services will be rubbing back the complete hull and then applying something like ten coats of Awlgrip’s best paint. This will be done on the hard stand at Royal Phuket Marina (RPM), we have booked the boat lift for 1000 on Saturday 30^th July. Oh's guys have already stripped most of the equipment off the deck, with no winches, halyards or sheets we will have to steam down to RPM from here at yacht Haven Marina. We will have also have to do without any stanchions, safety lines and pulpit. The plan is for Marley to complete the interior by Saturday 23^rd July, we will then have a week to make “Catcha Star” ready for the two hour run down to RPM where She will be out of the water for over two months. 

We have managed to hire an aged Honda CRV for $12 a day and will move into a cheaper apartment next door to RPM, in the Boat Lagoon Marina resort. The hotel apartment we are currently staying at Yacht Haven Marina are only $22 a night, at Boat Lagoon they are just as nice and cost about $15 a night. As well as the cost saving, it will save us a thirty minute drive every day from one marina too the other.

The Honda CRV with the Yacht Haven Marina apartments opposite

The view of Yacht Haven Marina from our room,
Catcha Star is the second yacht in on the left side of the main jetty

Room with a view

While in the local general store near Yacht Haven Marina one day, we met a lovely guy called Matt. We asked Matt if he knew of anyone in the area that would teach us Thai. He responded with great enthusiasm and in very clear English that he was a teacher and would like to teach us. He offered us one hour for four nights a week, completely free of charge. Saying that he needed to polish up his English and this would help him as well as help us. It turned out that the general store was his Mum’s and dad had passed away only a few months before. Matt is 42 yrs old has a son aged 16 and a daughter aged 12. 

Matt and his daughter Varna

These days Matt’s work involved supervising building and construction sites, among many other things he appeared to be good at. He had never been to an English speaking country and gained his university degree from home using the internet. One evening we asked him where we could find a local Post Office. He ask why, don’t you have Email? After three weeks we all had brain strain and a far better understanding of the Thai language, we can now communicate in basic sentences with the locals and count, the locals usually laugh at the way we pronounce words, but in most cases they understand what we are trying to say. Learning to speak Thai has been a huge help when dealing with the local trades people.

Matt's sister, her friend who is chef at Ao Po Grand Marina restaurant and Matt's son

Matt's Sister Ree and her friend One 

Peter and Lyn
Afternoon tea is always filled with interesting nibbles and great company on "Madella II"

Our friends Errol, Brad and David are about to set sail, heading back to Fremantle on Errol’s recently purchased Nauticat 44 “CG”. It has been great to catch up with them while they were here in Phuket.

Errol's Nauticat 44 "CG" ready for Her voyage to Fremantle.  

We also had a surprise visit from Mark’s old mate Shane. He and his partner Rachael were in Phuket for their first time, having a holiday. Having the little Honda CRV enabled us to take them too a few interesting places around the island, one of which was the Big Budda. Among many other interesting places we found a lovely orchid farm, a village with eople that peak perfect broken English and the place where dogs rest.

Oh the elephants

While driving up the hill to see the Big Budda we stopped to have a look at the elephants. Right then we had a call from our dear friends in Perth,Vince and Denise. Fingers crossed they will also come and join us in Thailand soon.

They began building the "Big Budda" in 2007

Following a good dose of Bud-ism, we headed back down the hill for lunch near Ao Chalong.

Ao Chalong from the top of the hill.

Ao Chalong, where we first anchored on arriving in Phuket

 I guess if you come to Phuket you haven't  seen it all until you see Patong at night, so we took Shane and Rachael for a look at life on the wild side of Phuket.

Patong at night - Where the beautiful girls are probably guy's and the guy's,,,,,,,,,,, well who knows?

Time for a haircut

17^th June 2011

Following our 40 degree anchorage and midnight re anchorage, at 0600 the next morning we set sail with a pleasant ten knots of breeze for Ko Khlui N08 14.388 E098 38.492 Here we stayed for one night before making our way down to our planned anchorage at Ko Yao Noi N08 07.814 E098 37.675 While this is a very beautiful anchorage, there was a swell caused by recent winds and tides that made it rolly and uncomfortable. So after going ashore to clean the dinghy hulls on the nice sandy beaches, we set sail for calmer anchorage between Ko Yao Noi (north) and Ko Yao Yai (south).

While anchored at N08 05.119 E098 34.2 we took a long tail back to Ko Yao Noi and then hired a driver ($15) to take us in to the main village of the island and then around the island. 

Our limmo for the day

Waterside villa

Paul and I needed a haircut, and before long we found the village barber. $3.00 later we were looking a lot smarter, Paul even had an old fashioned cut throat shave included in the price. During our drive around the island we saw our first anchorage, this time from land. We all agreed that we had to come back to this island again, soon, it has a lot to offer, is very beautiful and the people are so very friendly.

The next morning we went ashore in our dinghy and explored Ko Yao Yai, hiring a driver for the same ($15) price to take us around this island. Almost everywhere near Phuket you will find rubber tree plantations. Being at least twice the size of Ko Yao Noi, Ko Yao Yai has a much larger rubber tree industry and our driver took us to family home where they were processing the raw rubber off the trees and turning it into rubber sheets ready for drying and then to become Bridgestone tyres or something.   

Our first ice cream for months

Even here on this small island, they love their motorsport. This bike has been stripped down to the bare minimum,
with only around a 100cc engine he did a wheel stand in 1st, 2nd & 3rd gears as he left the cafe.

More local transport

They mix a setting agent too the raw rubber that comes off the trees

After it has set they roll it a few times until it becomes a 1" sheet

They then hang the sheets out to dry

It was almost high tide at 1400, we needed to get going in order to make a safe passage over the shallow areas between the two islands. Making our way through this shallow passage saved us at least a days steaming around the bottom of Ko Yao Yai, however this meant that once the tide had turned the current and wind were against us for the rest of the shallow passage. This was unavoidable unless we made the voyage at night, so we put up with a slow run until we were well clear of Ko Yao Yai island and then set sail for Cathy’s favorite anchorage in this area, Ko Nakha Yai N08 03.258 E098 28.303. Here the water is quite clear and Cathy enjoys a swim, it is here that there is also the beach cocktail bar and polished timber restaurant.     

The next morning we made our way back to Ao Po, and anchored at our usual spot on the north side of Ao Po Grand Marina N08 04.294 E098 26.732. From here we access the marina and leave our dinghy safely tied up on the marinas jetty. We met with Peter, Lyn, Errol and Brad for dinner again at the Ao Po Grand Marina restaurant. Peter and Lyn kindly left their hire car for us to use the next day, this enabled us to do some shopping, pick up some spare parts, do some more shopping and take our outboard in to the doctors for a carby checkup.

With a couple of quotes in hand for re furbishing our interior timberwork, and one quote to re paint the deck and hull we decided to see if the tradesman at Yacht Haven marina were any cheaper. On Friday June 24^th we set sail for Yacht Haven Marina, we had a great sail almost all of the way and anchored outside the marina, quite close to the dinghy jetty at N08 10.110 E098 20.566 We stayed at this anchorage for two days while obtaining more quotes from the local trades. On Monday 27^th June we moved into pen B04 at Yacht Haven Marina and Marly and his team from Yachts Repair Co Ltd began work immediately, even before we had time to move off the yacht and into accommodation. Kay from the marina café offered us her apartment in the Yacht Haven Marina Guest House, we moved in at 1600 on Wednesday 29^th expecting to be off the boat for at least four weeks.

“Mandella II” was ready to go back in the water, after having all her timberwork re varnished and bottom re anti fouled. Cathy and I offered to give them a hand, as the channel from Boat Lagoon Marina is difficult at the best of times. Everyone we have spoken too suggests using the free of charge Pilot, which we wisely did. The Pilot comes out to meet you in his dinghy and you simply follow him in too or out of the marina. Almost all of the boat owners that have tried to navigate this channel without the Pilot, have run aground. We made a safe return back into the water and a safe passage back to Ao Po Grand Marina. Peter and Lyn stayed in Ao Po Grand Marina for a few days while they cleaned up their boat and re stored the pantry etc. They had hoped to steam up to Yacht Haven Marina in time for Mark’s birthday on 6^th July, however they only had to drive from Ao Po Grand Marina to Boat Lagoon Marina as "Mandella II" was not quite as ready as Peter wanted.

Generally our day to day chores are now quite different. Instead of cleaning, maintaining and sailing “Catcha Star”, we now spend our days gathering quotes, sourcing parts and picking up equipment and parts. In the evenings we are taking Thai lessons, in an attempt to improve our ability to communicate with the locals. Unlike Indonesia and Malaysia Thai people do not speak much English at all, even the children have little or no English and most of the signs are in Thai. Reading Thai however is another story, thank God for Google Translator. 


Yacht Haven Marina



The apartment room is ideal, with a view looking down onto “Catcha Star” in the marina. Down being the operative word, to get to the room from the boat we climb the gang plank up to land (very steep at low tide) then climb up three flights of stairs to the car park, then the half kilometer driveway has a 45% incline to the road. Once you make it to the road it’s a left turn and another half kilometer 30% climb up the road to the guest house driveway, the guest house driveway then has a 25% incline all the way to stairs that take us to the second story………

"Catcha Star" is in the left hand bottom corner of the marina

A room with a view and air conditioning is always very welcome. Having just made it back to the room from the boat, we will quite often receive a call from one of the tradesman. “You need us onboard”? “Okay, see you down there in a few minutes”. We always project enthusiasm when they need us onboard and we sleep like babies at night.

Poolside on Sunday is a popular spot for many Live Aboard's