13th February - still in Nai Harn Bay (Phuket)

Thursday 13^th February

 The beautiful Thai islands must have been used in countless movies and TV shows.  Nicky wrote about this; she said the Emerald Cave at Koh Muk reminded her very much of the scenery in Blue Lagoon, the movie (Brooke Shields) which we watched countless times on video when the children were small. 

 It is also very much like the cave on the TV adaptation of Treasure Island, which was on ABCTV in the 80s.  Michael was only a little tacker and he LOVED this show.  He learned a lot of interesting insults… The children would snap at each other, or at the pirates, Chicken heart!  And they would call the girls wench.  Michael didn’t quite get it right… He would get so angry with his heartless older sisters when they laughed at being called Chicken half, or winch, by a furious young brother…

We are intrigued by this lady, with her big sunbonnet firmly in place.  She swims out quite a distance and spends endless hours bibbing about gently in the water near the boats.  She doesn’t really exert herself, just drifts hither and yon, full clad in sunprotective gear.  The first time we saw her, only a metre or so away from 2XS, I went out on deck and asked if she was OK, with hand gestures – she clearly didn’t understand English.  She looked at me blankly and drifted off towards another boat so I had to assume she didn’t need me to dive in with Bron’s pink noodle to put under her unresisting arms.

Clearly we aren’t going anywhere today… It is 9.30 and Captain My Captain is just beginning to stir… Andrew (Settlement) had offered to spend the day in the heat, labouring away on the battery system, so they both need LOTS of sleep and they will need lots of blackcurrant juice* to keep them going all day.  Sue and I are gong to spend a few hours on the beach, sipping iced water, swimming occasionally, and watching the beach crowd, which promises to be endlessly fascinating.

Another foodphoto from the Chinese New Year festival - delicious pancakes

We had a potluck curry dinner on Settlement last night.  Each curry more delicious than the last – I can say this without fear or favour because Pete made the 2XS contribution; all I did was carry it to the dinghy in a large pan.  When we were leaving Andrew looked at our dinghy and cried out, Oh no!

 So take a look – what is wrong with this picture?  Yes it is patched, and a bit saggy and grubby but…what is REALLY wrong is…one of the paddles is missing.  This is very sad.  We scoured the shoreline but torchlight, but no errant paddle appeared. We actually have a spare but…no spare rowlocks…

* Yes!  I found some, in one of the big Phuket supermarkets.  So once again we are sure not to get scurvy on 2XS!