January 1, 2009-Surf's up at Kata Beach

Surf is Up

Click here To see how it lands.

Phuket's east side beaches are known as excellent anchorages during the NE Monsoon. From December to March the winds are consistently out of the NE and the bays, such as Kata Beach, seen here, are in the lee of the island and calm. The sky is generally blue and the sun shines every day. But this year we were at Kata Beach on New Year's Eve and for a couple of days after and we had a different view: the clouds were heavy, there was rain, and though the winds stayed in the NE the surf was big.

We got our dingy in during a lull but as we ate lunch we wondered if we could get back out through this surf.

Luckily there was a small area at the other end of the beach, where we left the dingy, which was not too bad and we got safely back to Wings without being flipped.

After two days at Kata and another at Nai Harn, just to the south, we sailed back around Phuket Island on Saturday January 3 and we had a very nice sail: 30 miles to windward in moderate seas and 15 knots of wind. It took us 6 hours, which is very good time, and we arrived at our favorite anchorage just near the north east end of the island at 4:00 PM. On Sunday morning we will go into Yacht Haven Marina, 7 miles away.

Judy

Click here for more photos from our New Year's cruise.

Fred & Judy, S/V Wings, Phuket