A great dance, a girl that wasn’t, a cave with a surprise and the land of Thai.

The last night in Rebak Marina saw a fantastic cruisers party. As I have said this is one of those places that cruisers seem to get stuck at, hard to find a reason to leave. The community of resident boaters and the influx of more transient cruisers made for great socializing. The dance was well attended and costumes of tropical attire were abundant.

As soon as I arrived I plugged in the SG and joined the house band, a couples act that does typical lounge tunes. Tonight they were rocking above the normal gig. We blasted out rock tunes and I was thrown into a set of Latin tunes, another first for me. The dancers inter wound with us as we played and one Asian girl caught my eye. She danced very close as I tried to keep playing. After the set I joined her for more dancing and fun. All was looking good, with hindsight too good, as she seemed to guide my hand for an intimate encounter. What I encountered, to my total shock, was evidence that I had been dancing with one of the famous Asian he/she’s. Yikes!!!!

After the initial shock and realizing that she was actually really fun to dance with combined with some fascination and a dedication to non judgmental cultural immersion, we danced all night. As I bid good bye I got a kiss on the cheek and walked home, again very glad that I do not drink!!!!

The next morning I joined the local pickers for some acoustic jamming, way more my style that lounge music. We sat in the traditional circle and took turns picking folk songs to sing. The pickers ranged from beginner to really good. We did old Kingston Trio stuff and all the tunes l love. Again this was hard to leave, but Thailand was calling.

We left the marina and headed to Kuah to check out. Troy had gone back to Penang with Kim to investigate a potential job so it was just Maggie and I now. We anchored and found some other cruising friends who gave us the scoop. We took the dinghy to shore, walked around and had a great dinner on the water front.

The next day I went about checking out and connecting with Troy. The process was a bit muddled as you must schedule around ferry arrivals to get to see the immigration folks.

Checked out, found Troy and headed back to the boat. Troy was offered an immediate position so he was disembarking that day. With a late start Maggie and I headed up the coast. We arrived at a quiet anchorage just inside Thailand for the night, arose before dawn and headed north again.

The trip up the coast was done in sunny weather, off shore breezes and calm seas. We noticed the sun shown more and the humidity of the equatorial zone had diminished. We are now at 7 degrees north and just crossed the 100 degree east longitude. The coastal area is dotted with magnificent rock islands jetting straight out of the sea. These pinnacles were absolutely breath taking as we passed one after another.

I had been giving a tip on a small island, Ko Muk, by Peter on Peregrina. The tip turned out to be a winner. We dropped the hook and launched the two kayaks. A short paddle away we found the very low entrance to a cave. Ducking to enter we found it dark but I had taken a dive torch along. We found our way through the cave with some swimmers and after a few turns saw the light at the end of the tunnel. The cave opened up into a small lagoon with white sand surrounding the pool. Massive vine covered the huge cliffs encircled the lagoon. This was one of those top list amazing places. We joined a Dutch couple with their Thai guide swimming about and exchanging pictures. I small monkey dashed about the vines above. We left the cave as a larger group entered thankful for our good timing.

With a few hours of daylight we headed northwest to get in a few more miles and anchored off Ko Langa and a large resort. Again up before dawn we made the sunny and smooth crossing to Phuket. The next adventure awaits us.