We spent the morning exploring the hotel pools and the beach.  Real warm water in both.  We had to be checked out by noon but didn’t have to be at the marina until 3 so lots of time to explore.  We walked to the end of our hotel and then past the next one and just beyond the resorts was a little stand with a friendly local selling drinks and snacks.  He had several tables out by the beach so for half the price of the hotel beer we had a lovely time enjoying beer with a beautiful view of the sea.  Plus, he had really fresh peanuts that he had just roasted.

We made our way to the marina in a much tamer taxi ride and met our fellow crewmates.  Eleven young people from Scandinavia and one wonderful woman from the UK.  Our captain is Willie, and we have a chef and a skipper.  The catamaran is huge – 80 feet long and 35 feet wide.  Very small quarters but we won’t be in them much.  Chris says it looks like it used to be a racing cat in it’s day; the mast has been chopped and amenities added.

We left the dock around 4:30 and motored to our first destination, Kho Hong Pangnga Bay, about 2 hours away.  Remember the little islands I saw from the plane all sprinkled about?  Well, that’s where we’re headed.

Most of the Scandinavians were not interested in the scenery.

Anchored off shore in the dark, had a good Thai dinner and called it a day.

At the big kid’s table we shared a bottle of sake to celebrate the start of our trip.  Most of the group was dog tired having been up more than 24 hours flying straight from Finland to Phuket.