Singapore to Phuket (April 2008 passage)

Dep Raffles Marina and passaging Singapore Strait

Kalizma left Raffles Marina early in the morning so as to get the maximum range out of daylight hours. We planned to sail right through till we got into Thai waters so that we could avoid visa issues in Malaysia. The passage was calm with some swell and wind against us - just enough to let us know that we were at sea. We averaged 9.5knots and sailed through two nights till we got up to Koh Lanta.  Traffic was mainly commercial but since we stayed at the outer edge of the TSS we had a peacefull sail with not much fishing traffic

Anchorages  for overnight stops and route distances

In case of heavy traffic and weather, we  had decided to do day sailing only  and drop anchor off Port Dickson and Langkawi, both protected anchorages in the NE monsoon. However, with sailing as comfortable as it was we decided to head straight for  Pimilai Resort in Koh Lanta (south west coast)

Koh Lanta and Pimalai Resort (Captain’s last dinner with the crew

Pimilai resort had a floating jetty and what seemed to be a great beach when we got there at around two in the afternoon. The Bos’n decided to run in the new speedboats and jetskis and I decided to check out the resort. I decided to have the crew dinner ashore – a kind of Captain’s farewell as  this may well be my last sail on Kalizma

Evason Resort at the South end of Phuket

From Koh Lanta we had decided to head to Koh Racha (12nm south of Phuket)but looking at the high tide time at the Marina we decided to press on to Phuket, finally deciding to drop anchor off the Evason Resort at the South end of the Island

The trip up to Yachthaven and the entry passage

High tide at the Marina Bar was at 1230hrs so we heaved anchor at 0600hrs to make the 40nm passage up. We dropped anchor at 1030hrs outside the entrance to wait for the tide and finally made  the entrance and berthing at 1315hrs.

I must say it feels good to have made the passage without any drama and be safely tied up at the Marina getting ready for the handover at the end of the month.

         Captain Avnish Dhall