Watusi Woman - Blocked Sailor

Koh Hae, southern bay

Life is cruising, literally, along beautifully and I love sharing our experiences but I seem to have lost my writing mojo. The words aren't flowing despite the fact that I spend my days at stunning locations. So, it's time to force my hand and jot down some words.

There are many islands scattered around Phuket. We chose Koh Hae to explore for a day or 2. It was a short 5 nautical mile run from our current anchorage to the southern side of Koh Hae. According to all the information I'd read it was a quiet bay with some good snorkelling to be had. Beautiful! Just what I needed. It's hard to find a good spot and get it to yourself. Anywhere close to Phuket that has good water, beaches or reefs is generally inundated with tour boats.

When we arrived at Koh Hae we were able to pick up one of the two public moorings. There were several other moorings of a more makeshift sort and we should have realised then that this quiet little bay was used to a fair amount of traffic. At first we shared the small bay with 2 longtail boats but apart from them the bay was calm, quiet and peaceful.

We were feeling pretty blessed to have such a lovely spot almost to ourselves. I masked up and jumped in for a snorkel and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of coral bombies and tropical fish there were. Our boat seems to be a magnet for fish and before long we had a large school of tiny bait fish circling around the boat. I practiced my orchestral conducting once again and amused myself as I parted the masses with a wave of my arms.

The quiet didn't last long. A huge catamaran tour boat full of people motored in and picked up a mooring. Followed by another, and another and on it went. With music pumping out, these tour boats took over the bay. At one point 3 big boats were in competition for who had the loudest sound system. This went on for the rest of the day. The highest count was 12 big boats in the bay at the same time, all tied off to each other, disgorging tourists into the water.

By 6pm the last boat left and peace reigned once more.

The morning brought birdsong, a solitary snorkel and a cooked breakfast courtesy of Hubby. There was a pretty big swell coming into the bay and the waves were crashing onto the rocks, creating blow hole effects and waterfalls. Great to watch but with the strength of the surge, dicey snorkelling too close to the land.

It wasn't long before the first tour boats arrived so, for us, it was time to drop the mooring and leave the bay for the endless number of tourists coming in. There's nothing exciting about watching a bunch of orange lifejackets bobbing around in the water.

Until next time, Watusi Woman - back in the game, out.