Kata Beach, Goodby Thailand

Team Sandpiper Update 27 Jan 2008
7'49.1N/98'17.7E

Anchored Kata Beach, Andaman Sea, Thailand

After finally making it out of the nasty smelly slipway and back down the dead mouse/fish floating channel we made it back to fresh air and clear waters. We motor sailed back to our favorite anchorage, Kata Beach, where our friends from back home Ben and Katie Brown met us(above photo). Ben and Katie got married last October and have yet to celebrate with a proper honeymoon since Ben's been stationed on a seismic ship off the coast of Australia ever since. It was a pleasant last minute surprise for all of us to be able to see each other again and especially such a wonderful place as Thailand. Of course with Katie coming from the States she offered to be a mule for us and brought us many goodies. The most wonderful of those goodies was a laptop which we so needed. The laptop was donated to us from a special coast guard friend Mr. Dave Holder all the way from Washington, D.C. A HUGE shout-out to Dave, thank you so much, you really saved us from being lost at sea and will help us make it home safely, we greatly appreciate it!!!!!! Since arriving back at Kata Beach we have been busy showing Ben and Katie all our favorite hangouts, ie; restaurants, bars, pools and beach chairs. It's been fantastic being able to hangout with the two of them, they are both such positive people to be around and just a breath of fresh air. We keep threatening when we return we will move into their condo in southern California. We hope however with Ben's job his next ship is somewhere in the Med so we can hook up again before returning home.
Another great surprise just after arriving at the anchorage was the arrival of our friends from S/V Sunburn. The day of their arrival was Brendan and Di's wedding anniversary and Di's Bday which we promptly celebrated with a cold one. Just two short days later we helped celebrate there daughter, Sophie's, 11th Bday on the beach along with their son, Finn. We had a blast, swimming, eating chocolate cake, getting Sophie's hair braided and all while enjoying our beach chairs and the refreshing clear water of the Andaman Sea.
Today, Sunday, is our last day here on Phuket, our plan is to leave this evening for an overnight sail to the Similan Islands. The Similan are a group of islands protected by the National Park and we have heard many good things about the surrounding nature of the area. We will probably only spend a few days there and then start off on our 1500 nautical mile journey to the northern islands of the Maldives where we will spend a week or so. The next month 'Team Sandpiper' will cover thousands of nautical miles across the Indian Ocean and eventually starting up the Red Sea. It most likely will be hard for us to communicate while out there but we will try our best to keep everyone informed of our whereabouts. Don't be alarmed if our entries our few and far between.

Much love to all,

Amy