Officially Phang Nga Bay is the area bordered by Phuket to the west, Krabi to the east and Phang Nga to the north and has more than 100 islands in its territory. Our Thai chart number 333 named Ao Phang Nga (or Phang Nga Bay) starts north of just where Phuket ends and I think the majority of people mean this area when they describe Phang Nga Bay. It is an incredibly unique area with most of those 100 islands still contained in these confines. Many of the islands are limestone sheer sided sea mountains which tower out vertically of the shallow water. Many of the islands are littered with caves, grottos and arches and thus offer some picturesque sightseeing. The navigation is also a bit tricky as the bay is often very shallow. However close in to these towering islands is where the deep water is usually to be found. One literally sails with the boom nearly touching the cliffs to stay in the safe water. Years ago while cruising with a dog we anchored close enough to one island that the dog kept hearing the echoes off the island wall. She barked only to be totally confused by a dog barking back at her. This of course ignited a major barking frenzy. I have always enjoyed this area of Phuket and any visitors that have come to see us here have indeed done this trip with us.
Pauline had never been up here so before our departure from Phuket, the trip was part of the items that had to be checked off the ‘To Do List’. We departed Ao Chalong and motored straight into the wind for over 20 miles and anchored up at the southwest corner of Ko Phanak. This is always the first island I use when we go up there. Ko Phanak has a few caves that open up into grottos but I think the one up on the northwest corner is the most unique of all the caves and grottos I have been into. After anchoring we shot in the dinghy to the cave hoping that we had not arrived too late on the rising tide. We worked our way through the cave with flashlights in our mouths as we paddled through the long cave network. Looking at the rock formations (stalagmites and stalactites and the unusual wear patterns from the continuous tidal wash in and out) as well as the bats hanging upside down enjoying their afternoon slumber. We eventually made it to the end of the cave only to realize we had missed the tide and if we did get through we would probably be stuck in the grotto until well after the high tide. No problem we could return in the morning. And back we went to the boat for an enjoyable night at anchor. The next morning after an extremely long sleep in, we were off again and this time just entering in time. We made it through on a falling tide and had enough water left in the grotto to make it into a second chamber of the grotto, which I had never been in before. Beautiful!On our way out we bumped into a family trying to make their way into the cave. We coached them through and told them to hurry and make it to the second chamber before the water dropped too much and they would have to wade through mud. They said thanks and announced when they saw us go in that it had given them the courage to give it a try. When we got out we passed their yacht and discovered they were from Cape Canaveral and if we had known, we would have chatted longer. And we have been watching for them since but guess we really were two ships who passed in the night, well ok, in the middle of the morning!
Our next anchorage was a whopping 5 miles away and is labeled as Ko Hong but in reality is an area bordered by 4 islands. It is the anchorage of the barking dog incident mentioned earlier. The nice thing about Ko Hong is that it has some neat caves and grottos as well as a beautiful lagoon with a pinnacle standing straight up right in the middle of it. From the lagoon there is one cave or series of arches that you can dinghy through to get through the middle of the island. Also there are paddling paths that allow you to enter another small bay or lagoon on the inside of same side of the island. I not only like this area for the rock formations but it is a completely protected anchorage and is very pretty at night under the stars and the moon with the cliffs all around you. The next obvious sight-see island is Ko Phing Kan or James Bond Island which was featured in the bond movie “Man with a Golden Gun”. I managed to talk Pauline out of an excursion up here. It is a nice trip but has been over commercialized and also rather pricey. I was more worried about the tricky navigation through the channel to get up there only to have to turn around and come back before we do what I consider my scariest crossing south of Ko Daeng Yai and Ko Yao Noi. This stretch of about 12 miles is quite shallow and all the guidebooks talk of boats coming to grief hitting rocks. I myself remember making one crossing watching the depth sounding registering out pretty continuous readings of 0.7 meters when I know full well that we are aground when it read 1.4. But it is very muddy and as long as you do not hit one of those uncharted rocks you just kind of push your way through. We decided to head out at near high tide and followed some of my old tracks on the 20-year old chart and we never had less than 1.5 meters under the keel. Wow, what a difference proper planning makes.
We wanted to stay the next night in Ko Yao Noi and chose an anchorage with an exclusive resort that was supposedly yachtie friendly in the bay called Ao Muang. Indeed the resort was happy to have us but I think it was more for the fact that we spent money in their fairly pricey restaurant. But the service was impeccable and the food was very nice. We were debating whether to return for the seafood BBQ for dinner when Mother Nature decided we should save money as she sent a rather large storm our way putting us on a lee shore and standing around praying the numerous lightning strikes would stay well clear of us. All was well after about an hour and we decided to stay aboard and have dinner and watch a movie.
The next day we changed our plans slightly and decided to head for the south end of Ko Yao Yai. Remember Ko means island, Yao means long, Noi means little and Yai means big. So literally these two islands are little long island and big long island. The south end of Ko Yao Yai has a very sheltered anchorage from the northeast but the weather god decided to have a little bit of a southeast storm that evening which though we were still pretty protected, did have a little swell and some fairly large gusts. Luckily we knew the anchorage had great holding. As a matter of fact it took a lot of work to get the anchor out of the ooze the next morning. This was the first anchorage we ended up sharing with other boats. Two showed up just before dark to anchor in beside us and ride out the storm.
The next morning we made an early start and headed back to Ao Chalong.
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