Last week, I went sailing with a group of friends in the Andaman Sea, off the coast of Thailand. It took me most of this week to recover from the constant feeling of sea legs and overall wobbliness, but I already miss being out on the ocean.

5 days. 8 people. 1 catamaran.

The Trip

We hired a captain for the trip, because we shouldn’t be trusted with something as valuable as a boat. We left from the north of Phuket the first day, taking the scenic route, and did a bit of island hopping.  We sailed around the north side of Koh Yao Noi, hitting Koh Panak, Koi Yai, then scooting around to Koh Hong and Koh Roi, and sleeping at Koh Kudi. We explored some lagoon caves, did a bit of local prawn shopping and dragged a few free loaders off the back of the boat.

After sleeping in the front nets of the catamaran (less comfortable than I had hoped for) we set out for Koh Roi and Krabi. En route, we stopped at Koh Nok where we were able to “hike” up the side of a very steep hill, and look out over the sea and all the islands. This was also the place where we took photos to post when it is snowing in North America.

We were able to sail the rest of the way to Koh Roi that afternoon, which is also known as Chicken Head Island. This is because the island looks like a chicken head. Very clever.  We pulled in and decided to take a stroll on the beach, and ended up with one of the best sunsets in the history of the universe. See below.

The next morning we did our fair share of snorkeling, an important daily ritual on this trip, and then picked up a few free loaders in Krabi.  We spent most of the day playing around Railey Beach, and of course, had to explore the Cave of Dicks. The Cave of Dicks is technically a shrine to fertility, but doubles as a haven for obnoxious tourists to take silly photos.
The night was spent checking out the phosphorescent algae along the quiet side of Koh Phi Phi. Well, it was the quiet side until we got there and got a little crazy with the coconut juice. There will be no photos.

Because it is insanely gorgeous and I never get tired of it, I made everyone get up early and go to Maya Beach. This is the beach where the movie, The Beach, was filmed, and it still smells like Leonardo DeCaprio. It’s almost as pretty as he is. Because we knew we were going to hit some weather the last few days of the trip, we took off as the Russian tour boats were pulling in and sailed into Koh Phi Phi for some dry land and noodles.

Koh Phi Phi was hit hard by the Tsunami in 2004, so I am fast to forgive the tackiness, but I can only take so many sunburnt tourists and Full Moon Party t-shirts. After filling up on pad thai and crazy spicy curry, we grabbed our supplies and got out. We sailed to Koh Rachi Yai, famous for its sunshine and snorkeling, and it rained for 500 hours.

We got in some amazing snorkeling the next morning off of Koh Racha Yai. The water was perfect and the rocky night on the boat was worth it.

Sadly, there aren’t many pictures worth posting after this, which is ok because it was the last day. The storm moved in on us, we remained soggy and wishing the rocking would stop. Then lightning hit our boat. We didn’t sink or drown, but I did learn how thankful I am for wind shadows, Xanax and Kahlúa.