Horrible Passage in rough conditions. Non stop squalls and difficult downwind sailing with gusting up to 30, swell and constant rain. Why do we even look at the forecast? Got approached by fishing boat but did our usual manoeuvre and just put both engines down and left them in our wake. Glad it’s time for a drink!

We can add another worst ever to the list. From the worst anchorage ( we all got seasick on anchor! First time for me getting seasick and we didn’t even move) to getting hit full force by strorm which arrived a day earlier than predicted. It was absolutely terrifying. 2 meter swell didn’t help. For a while we were just beating into it but then decided to turn around and go with the wind. Much less force on the boat but wrong direction for us. Good decisions and less scary apart from the worry that a wave might break on us. It was now more of a surfing feeling and much easier to handle. I am glad we got that experience under our belt. Also good to know that the captain and boat can handle it. Very relieved and exhausted arrival to another remote paradise found.

Beating into wind, waves and currents which slowed us down to 2 knots wasn’t pleasant but we just wanted to get there.

We are so happy we are finally here after months of boat work and hectic prepping to make one of the last weather windows across. Had a great sail and can’t wait to find some good waves

We thought we had couple of chill days up our sleeves but the wind only looked good one day this week so we just packed up and left straight away. Racing back to Phuket to collect some items before we head over to Indonesia before the season changes. The race is on.

The day has finally come to go back in the water. For some reason our wind Instruments didn’t work this morning but we were too desperate to splash, we decided to deal with it later. Plus it’s good practise to sail without instruments. Quick stop at Telaga Harbour to stock up, fuel up and check out of country. Next stop Koh Lipe.

🌅 Settling back into slow mode: Nai Harn, Phuket. Nothing like washing off the boat yard with some hard earned R&R.

Surfing The Banyaks ⛵🌊🏄‍♂️ 🗓️ April 2024 🌏 Banyak Islands, Indonesia One of our major life goals 🏆 was to surf off the back of our own boat. It's been a dream of mine for years, ever since I hopped aboard a random yacht in Timor years ago, before life got in the way. The idea has been subconsciously fermenting in my brain. Anchor up, jump off, surf your brains out, come home, relax. Freedom. 💛💚💙 But like everything, it's a fine balance of doing the things you want, and everything else. As responsibility takes over, dreams are de-priortised and suddenly you're old and locked into the monotony of 'life'. 🚫 Not us. 🚫 No thanks. 🚫 Rejected. After an overnighter to the Banyak Islands from mainland Sumatra (where we had a hectic 36 hour reprovisioning stop - see the last post) and we arrived. Welcome to the Bay of Plenty; the southern most point of Tuangku Island 🏝️, the Banyaks. A literal tropical surfers paradise. With waves flanking both sides of the bay, we dropped the hook in 10m of sand, right between the surf breaks. One of the true pinch-me moments of my life. The perfect place to truly lock in to reality, be present with the family and forget the world - not without help from zero internet coverage. The next week was a blur of surfing, snorkeling, sleeping, eating, rinsing and repeating. As a surfer it really doesn't get much better than this.

🌈 In The Spirit Of Adventure 🗓️ March 2024 🌏 North Sumatra, Indonesia Adventures are funny things. You can't really plan a real adventure. You can only put yourself in close proximity to one and hope it finds you. A real adventure is greater than the sum of its parts. A true combinatorial effect. It requires the good, the bad and the ugly to qualify. Tropical beaches + dirty cities = memories. --- Provisioning in Indonesia, especially remote Sumatra, is both a test of wits and tolerance. No marinas, no beachside tourist towns, no supermarkets. It's an extremely DIY adventure. As a privileged westerner, it tests your ability to withstand filthy water, rubbish strewn rivers, hot/stinky cities, and language barriers. It's one necessary ingredient to creating a true adventure, all the while knowing there's a tropical paradise just over the horizon, a day sail away. Main objective: Fuel, water, fruit, vegetables, pasta/rice & sauces, eggs, milk, toilet paper, soap. Side quest: Meat, yogurt, tuna, juice, cheese and bread. Just like a special forces strike team, you require a tight plan. Get in, carry out the objective, extract. Go. Go. Go! --- This particular adventure required a reprovision in Meulaboh - or MuesliBar as it got named - a few hundred klicks down the coast of North Sumatra, on the way to the Banyaks. MuesliBar is the capital of West Aceh Regency. It's regional shipping hub with muddy brown water and the smell of a thousand fishing boats basking in the sun. Sometimes we don't get to choose. You just play the hand you're delt. It's a filthy place to stop and restock. We arrived late so had to sleep on it. The sickly combination of fish and diesel fumes wafting through the hatches. --- Sunrise the next morning and operation resupply is a go. There's no time to waste. The sooner we get in, the sooner we get out. 0700 and the first objective is to head up the a rubbish strewn river in the dinghy. Find a spot between the local fishing boats. Slack tide. Small waves. No problem. No Uber here. Found a Tuktuk and head to the petrol station. 200L in jerry cans please. Return to boat, drop petrol and grab family. 0830: Back up river and find some transport to the local markets. Pick our way though the sunbathing fruit and veg. Eeeh. Onward to a shopping centre. Dry/cold goods, meat & snacks. 2 shopping trolleys full. 1100: Back to the dinghy and now it's low tide. The river is just rapids. Slight problem. There's no way we'll make it out with all of us + provisions. 1101: Shit. Risk analysis; too dangerous. 1102: Problem solving. 1110: Possible solution. A boat of local fisherman (pirates?) offered to take the girls & provisions, while I wrangled the dinghy. Risk analysis; sketchy, but with a 55% chance of success. 1111: Decisions made at 11:11 always turn out good. Let's go. 1120: Arrive at the boat with the girls, riding shotgun with pirates, close behind. Ahoy. We'll stow everything later. Engines on and a straight line through the tankers direction Banyaks. Direction paradise. Direction waves. Yeeeow! That's the spirit. This is adventure.

Like ⛪churches in Europe, hongs in Thailand get quite samey-samey after a while. As amazing as they are, if you've seen a couple you've kinda seen them all. The exception being Ko Muk. After an extensive Phang Nga Bay hong tour I've formed a somewhat sophisticated view of what makes a good hong. To be honest I think I've become a bit of a hong snob. Maybe a hong connoisseur🍷. Here's my criteria for judging a hong; 1. Secret entrance 2. Fully enclosed 3. Clear water / can swim 4. Tropical interior 5. Not crowded 6. Adventure found While most hongs tick a majority of the boxes, Ko Muk goes for the clean sweep. 🚪Firstly, the entrance is pretty much hidden. Without a few tourist boats 🚤 bobbing around outside it would have been difficult to find. 🤿 Then a swim through an 80m pitch-black water cave. No dinghy, no kayak. Just fins, a torch and a few feet of breathing room. Slightly intimidating 😨. There's a mental note somewhere in my brain about Thailand and caves. Anyway, continue. Adventure awaits. Once through, it opens into a fully enclosed secret beach🐚🦀 with huge vertical walls 🏞️, clear water and a white sand beach ⛱️ surrounded by lush, tropical hong fauna 🌿. I could quite easily have laid down and taken a long peaceful sleep. Quite literally the epitome of a secret beach paradise. ...and only a few other people inside! Maybe we lucked into that one? We're not complaining! So to conclude this 📽️ episode of Malallo Hong Adventures 2024; Ko Muk gets 6 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. If you're looking for adventure, we would highly recommend it. Another day, another memory. Onward …

✅ Autopilot fixed (🙏) ✅ Bum cleaned (the boat!) ✅ 12-15kts on the beam ✅ Fish hooked for dinner Definitely earned my captain stripes today ⚓. A slightly larger hop than we've been doing lately now that Ray (autopilot) is back up and running. He's been having massive issues for months and I've had a few attempts at diagnosing him, but with no luck. Until yesterday. Turns out a loose wire coming from the compass 🧭 will make Ray act like he's been on a 3 day vodka bender. Connection fixed = Ray sober = Me happy. Let's go ✅ Along with that I got her bum completely cleaned. 2hrs of prying barnacles off her underside and she's probably 100kg lighter and 2kts faster ✅ In addition, ideal conditions with 12-15kts on the beam and we were flying along at 7-8kts with a full main and genoa out. That's good speed for us! ✅ And to top it all off, snagged a mackerel coming into the anchorage, just in time for dinner ✅ I'd call it a successful day.

🛠️⛵🏝️ It is true what they say. Boat work in tropical locations is a reality of sailing. While at a pretty popular tourist spot full of 'sporty' longtails, our [❤️well loved!] dinghy 🚣 got a bit battered against our transom, causing a spontaneous and rapid deflationary event (or SARDE for short). When things break - and they will - you must channel your inner MacGyver and use anything you have available. Broken rudder? No worries! Let me grab my 🪥 toothbrush, a🩴flip flop, 🍳 fried egg, and a 📎 paperclip! (Not quite, but you get the idea) After the SARDE, with total deflation approaching fast and no other options, we hoisted her onto the operation table (the cockpit) and began triage ⛑️. Turns out the glue was dry in both dingy repair kits 🤦‍♂️. Mental note for the next boat shop. 👩‍⚕️ The operation; ✅ 10 stitches using sail thread for structural integrity ✅ An initial small/thin patch using the sup repair kit. Wait 2 hours to dry. ✅ A larger repair with actual hypalon, using the rubber glue I mistakenly (luckily!) purchased last week for another job. We waited 24 🕔 hours before pumping her up fully and she's good to go. Lifeline to the land re-established! Let the adventure continue...

A morning spent checking out Pi Leh Bay 📸 while dodging longtails 🚤 full of tourists, we decided it was time to bounce across to Ko Lanta and chill for a bit. No wind and no autopilot, so it's engines on, rods out 🎣 and hand steering. One snagged fish trap 🐟 + one hat 👒 overboard later (a good chance to do a hat-overboard drill), we were anchored in Khlong Dao Beach, in about 3m on sand. Earlier in the year we broke our bridle here in about 35kts of wind 💨. Not enough scope out + an old bridle = ping. Good lesson to learn 👨‍🎓. While a tourist spot, Khlong Dao is exponentially less hectic than Phi Phi and is a great place to stop, regroup and chill for a few days before the next adventure. So time to blow up all the water toys and have some fun.

🏝️ Idyllic location + 🍔 fast-food tourism = mixed emotions 🤔 I believe the correct term is cognitive dissonance. I have a severe case of it. 🤚On one hand there's an incredible lagoon with crystal char blue water flaked by huge vertical cliffs that everyone should experience once in their lives. ✋While on the other hand there are thousands of fast-food tourists waiting in line at The Beach drive through for their new Instagram profile pic. And I'm one of them (‹- this is the mixed emotions part). Made famous by the 2000s movie 🍿 aptly named The Beach, Maya Bay is why everybody comes here ✈️. And by everybody I mean everybody. Hundreds of longtails 🚤 carrying thousands of tourists 🙋 swarm the place every day, all armed with empty memory cards and selfie sticks 📸. The smell of diesel fumes ⛽ reminds you that capitalism is in full swing. I get it. It is truly breathtaking. After all, we're also here as tourists looking for the same 'experience'. However, after the sun goes down 🌅 and the last of the boats disappear, we find ourselves bobbing here completely alone ⛵, with only the sounds of the ocean lapping at the cliffs around us. These are the moments which make living on the ocean so special. After-hours access to the most magical places on the earth. It does actually kinda-sorta feel like we're in a movie.

🌊🏄 Waves Ahoy!! 🗓️ March 2024 🌏 North Sumatra, Indonesia. Indo is a super magical place, but for a surfer it's paradise🏝️ But the perspective you get seeing it from your own yacht, with your family, is absolutely next level 🙏. 🧭 From the ocean it feels like you're a true explorer, discovering a new land for the first time. It's the pure definition of freedom and escape. In March 2024 we spent 3 weeks in Banda Aceh, anchored at some perfect, off-season reef breaks surfing our butts off. Literally. I wish I could convey the feeling of jumping off the back of your own boat, surfing all day, then coming back to the comfort of your 'home', and watching the waves from your back porch. It's something everyone should experience once in their lives. More recap posts coming soon, including pirates, mosquitos and shallow reef breaks.

Amazing sailing conditions 🌬️⛵. 10-15kts right on the beam as we made our way to Ko Phi Phi. 🏝️ Not before a quick morning swim/snorkel 🤿 in some tropical blue water on Ko Poda to wake up, and a lap around Thale Waek as all good tourists should do. We departed direction Ko Phi Phi after lunch, sailing off the mooring (not to self; need more practice 🤦) in perfect conditions. One of those days where you want to sail all day. But we heard there's a pretty nice beach here we need to check out, so here we are. Maya Bay tomorrow.

Clear water at last. At least, clearer water than we've had for a while. For those who have never been here, northern Phang Nga Bay, as tropical and picturesque as it is, doesn't have clear water. It's pretty shallow and silty/muddy. As you head more south and stay off the coast, it begins to start looking more like the postcard you imagined. After spending awesome 4 days in Krabi eating at the local markets and exploring the city, we finally departed. As nice as it was to have everything right there, easy to access, we were still anchored in a river, in a city. Not what we got a yacht for. So today, after filling the water tanks at a local stilt house (for showering only!) on the edge of the Krabi river, we headed out and over to Ko Poda, a topical little island a few miles off Railay Beach. As it often is, the wind couldn't have been more perfectly on the nose. Like, dead on the whole way. This is happening too often to be a coincidence. Got a mooring ball just on the edge of the sand bar, 100m of the beach, and finally had a decent swim in somewhat clear water, and a walk around the island. We'll stay here the night and probably depart south in the morning to either Koh Phi Phi or Koh Lanta.

No more Dr visits! 🎇 Let's go. ⚓ After 5 days of being anchored in Ao Nang due to Dr appointments were off again. This time Only a short 10nm hop to Krabi. With around 10kts of wind 🌬️ directly up our behind we decided to take it easy and cruise at 3-4kts with only the genoa ⛵ up. A couple of gybes later and we made our way to the marked channel entrance and sailed our way up. It's pretty shallow in here with only 2-4m under us, and visible sand bars on both sides most of the way. We navigated our way up river for a good 20 minutes, dodging the shadow spots and local boats 🛶. The marked anchorage is in a pretty narrow river, and with 3 other yachts in here it's a bit tight. We anchored in 2m deep at low, with high coming up another meter or so. 20m of chain out feels about right. Any more and we'd be on the river bank. It's that close! Now we just have to contend with the mozzies for the night.

The seasons are changing. Finally back to sunshine ☀️. A welcome change after a week of rain 🌧️. Let's hope it continues. Still stuck in Ao Nang having to visit 👨‍⚕️ Dr every day. Longtails belting past all day causing wake. Not the most comfortable place to anchor. 🥶 Was cold on the boat last night with no cloud cover to trap the heat. Windows closed and blanket on. But today was absolutely 🥵 sweltering. Probably the hottest we had so far. Has been a day of extremes. The sunset tonight was amazing 🌅.

🌧️🌊😫 woke up in stormy Koh Hong. Super rolly with backwash off the cliffs + current. Rating 5/10. Left early direction Ao Nang with a couple of circles on the way to calibrate the auto pilot 🤖. Still not working! ⚓ Anchored in 4m on high at Ao Nang & made our way into the the beach with knee high breaking waves to visit Dr. What we thought were infected mozzie bites 🦟 turned out to be a staph infection. So 4 hours, a mini operation, antibiotic IV, a 25kt storm front, and one boat relocation from Julia and Lui later, we made it back to an extremely uncomfortable Malallo. Made the move around the corner to Railey beach for the night, which was calm but lots of longtail traffic 🚤🚤🚤🚤🚤🚤🚤. Another 🌬️ blow in the night of 25-30kts. The Rocna held well with 45m out in 8m of water.

Still no wind! Just a short hop across to check out Hong island. Was only a meter or so deep inside the Hong with a sand bottom. Had a swim before a storm rolled in and we had to gap it back to the boat and batten the hatches. Blew 25kts and hammered down rain for about 30 minutes. We caught a bunch of water and all had a full scrub. Marcie washed her hair about 4 times. When it stopped we made our way around the corner to a mooring where we'll stay the night. Bit rolly with a strange wind/tide/current combo. Will check the beach tomorrow morning before the tourists arrive. Edit; woke up to rain and a super rolly anchorage. Not comfortable.

Quick hop after spending the morning visiting Tha Khao. Nice still anchorage. 3 other yachts here. Anchored in 3 meters at low with an expected tide swing of +3 meters. Will leave here tomorrow morning early direction Krabi with a few stops along the way. Might have some wind finally. Looks like storms inbound now.

No wind, motored the whole way. Pretty shallow in places. 2-6 meters. Anchored in 6 meters on mid tide. Was about a 3m tide. Tha Khao had a lot of roll but stayed anyway. Visited the waterfall the next morning and had lunch at Anchor Point restaurant on the beach. Great food.

Ko Panyi is a village over the water. Houses are on stilts and the football field is a floating platform. Really cool to see. However the tourist restaurants are expensive for Thailand and the food is average. Stayed 2 nights. The holding is sticky mud but it's hard to set the anchor.

James Bond Island, Phang Nga Bay, Thailand.

Amazing stop at Ko Sa Ang Yai to look in the cave. Massive main chamber with a secret tunnel into another chamber. Worth a visit. Then made our way to James Bond Island for the night.

Not much wind. Motoring slowly after being away from the yacht for 3 months. Got the head sail up for a bit. The scenery here is amazing. The Hong was great. Couple of big downpours!