Koh Muk-between Malaysia and Phuket

The Andaman Islands- beautiful beaches with an undercurrent of danger lurking beneath the ocean surface....

Neil Island-a rock bridge-
Andaman Islands

The other night, after everyone on Micah had gone to bed, I made myself a cup of tea and went outside to stare at the night sky. There was a crisp chill to the air but the heavens were jammed with galaxies of stars that sparkled so furiously...that the sky seemed to have a heartbeat of its own! Gazing at them was like eating a sumptious meal and left me feeling so connected to all of nature and infinity and everyone...it was magical and spellbinding, peaceful and exquisite-intoxicating...

Indonesia...waves-taking these photos gives me a sense of achievement because of their sheer beauty being captured in time and also because getting too close to these breaking beauties fills my core with panic:)

Similans....

Lagundri...Tsunami damaged building.

Seagulls getting ready to sleep on the rails...until the Boys came back from their surf:)

These two dolphins jumped out of the water ONCE and I got it:)

Micah moored for the night:)off a perfect white beach...

I always thought it would be nice to have a streak of grey hair:)...and now I have got it!

Caden wakeboarding like a champ at Havelock Island -Andamans at Sunset...

Sunset-Indo...
Tonight, the sky is lit up with a blaze of stars...and our yacht Micah is rocking gently. We are still in the Andaman islands. 

Anchored neatly off Button Island-Andamans..

One of my favourite memories:) The timer is on....smile!

Sailing into Lagundri-Indo...

The only other yacht anywhere near us is Barbara Ann. We ate a great dinner and homemade Rum cake on board BA:) What a treat:)

Caden loving swinging around the mast:)

It is not all fun and games...but at least the broom brightens up the day:)

I cannot tell you how much I love this way of life...
 I love the water, the sun, the wind, the stars and sunsets and the few sunrises that I have been awake to see:) I love the people we meet along the way .

Happy Days...with Austin.

Camelia and her coconut:)

I was very happy to catch this photo...but were they?:)

 This is truly a magical experience and I am so happy that our children are getting this wonderful opportunity to experience a different way of life... I can breathe here:)!

Barbara Ann moving with style...miss BA:(

We spent a night or two anchored off Havelock island and now we have sailed and anchored this afternoon off a small island. I am not sure if I like this island.... The limestone cliffs look very interesting but, because the Andamans have so many salt water crocs, it makes it hard to visualise diving into these waters and frolicking around:)  


I am also suspicious about all the caves leering at me from the bases of the cliffs- I can almost imagine the eyes of the crocs peering at us:)... 

Is this not the most beautiful girl you have ever seen????:)

Caden is watching the dolphins swimming at our bows:)

Micah off Phuket-Surin beach..Have a look at the dog on the surfboard:)

We have not seen any crocs yet- thank goodness but the beach that we just left at Havelock , is a popular tourist destination as the beach is long and pretty. The local water police boarded as we dropped anchor off that beach, and warned us that we could swim here but to stay out of the water to the left and the right of this beach as the crocs were there.... Um... how do the crocs know that they cannot go to this stretch of the beach??

Our first stop in Indo after two days and nights of sailing over the Malacca Straitts from Phuket.

A local lady on the back of a motorbike,Sibolga Indo. 

Last year, an american tourist was snorkelling in aqua waters with a group of friends, when a huge crocodile came out of no-where and attacked her...they found her body a few days later... Brent went to have a look at the area where this tragedy happened and was horrified to see that the water was not murky but crystal clear with a sandbank and pretty little rocks around... So...we all swam with great awareness and unease:)

Children of Sibolga loving the rain:)

We had an unpleasant moment when a dutch family who was anchored near BA and ourselves..had a frightening experience.






 Leonie was in the yacht with her two little ones and suddenly she could not find her husband Adam. She started to radio us frantically that she thought Adam had been taken by a croc while under the boat! 
The hysteria in her voice was spine chilling...Luckily, he was found:) In the water, checking on something under the boat... and safe:)

Jackie from Barbara Ann and myself:) Good times!

They have been sailing for two years with a two and half yr old son and a 4 year old son. That is hard work! Their most frightening experience happened when they were on the open seas, fortunately all inside the yacht, when a freak giant wave hit them hard side on. Leonie says that she flew through the air across the boat -inside, as the yacht slapped hard sideways  and then bounced back up!! Now that would be it for me !!!

I miss my friend and tea buddy Jackie from the yacht Barbara Ann!

I did yoga tonight on the bimini roof to the setting sun and the first appearance of the evening star and a sliver of moon in the darkening sky. 

My travelling Bulgarian friend Chamelia, gave me some beautiful yoga classes a few days earlier , and although she is not here... my yoga was very therapeutic:)

 

Travis Haulzhausen surfing Indo with us.

Every now and then- I get the perfect photo:)

Chris up the mast:) Indo.

We are trying to plan our next move with Micah...I really want to go to the Med but the route is either have it shipped there at great expense or we would have to sail it back to South Africa and around...it is just too far for us to take on that challenge...but Fiji looks like an option for next year:)))

Look at the large swell coming from the back:) Jack and Jackie with video camera ready to film Austin catching maybe this wave:)

I still have so many stories to tell everyone:)

 As we are leaving the marina and my internet signal in the next few days and sailing to Phuket to stock up food,then doing the big sail to Indonesia adventure4 for many many months- I am going to finish off this blog with one of  our scariest experiences in a huge storm in December this year.

Never in my life had I imagined that I would be level with huge waves and looking into the barrel:) I feel so lucky to be able to capture these moments...and survive them:)

And this one happened right in Phuket in seas that are normally as calm as a lake...

We were with my sister who was competing in the half Ironman in Phuket...we had been having dinner at a local restaurant and unlike at home where you just get in your car and drive home after..

My beautiful sister Jacqui and I in Phuket in December 2011

.we had to walk along the beach, find the rubber duck still safely tied to a tree,
 launch it in the pitch dark night through the suddenly big shore break (not fun) and head out to sea to find Micah in a howling wind....When we had anchored the yacht earlier in the day...it was a perfectly calm summer day...and now as the four of us-Brent and myself and Caden and Cody,

(Cally was away doing a tv commercial shoot with Austin)..

.We headed out from Laguna beach in Phuket,
through the bay and out to sea and around the point...the wind was strong and swells were getting higher and higher around us...I started to panic inside. This was scary. It felt like we were in  swells that were actually going to break and I could not see clearly if they were!

Micah anchored between the cliffs at Koh Muk.

Phiphi don island.

We came around the corner and got hit smack on by roaring winds around the point and monsterous seas....Now I was petrified for Caden and I , for Micah, for all of us...Brent was handling everything really calmly on the outside -thank-goodness.
Through salt water lashing at our eyes, we strained to find our yacht in the tossing seas. In my mind I thought- the yacht has to have run aground..the anchor could never have held..it was nowhere...

My special friend Jenny from the South African catamaran Blue Moon:)

Suddenly out of the spray and swells, we spotted her...Micah was like a wild horse on a leash! 
I cannot describe more clearly how frightening it was to see our 50 ft catamaran soaring up a swell-bow high in the night sky and then she would fall over the swell-plunging nose first down with her bumcheeks sitting high in the sky and empty space under her two back hulls...

It took Brent one hour to get us all safely aboard Micah. We could not just come up alongside Micah like we normally do as when we got too near to the sugarscoops so that one of us could try and get a grip on the rails and get on...the back of this huge yacht would rise up  and leave a gaping space under the yacht that sucked us and the dingy under the stern!!! 

Brent eventually got Cody on board and gave him instructions to get some ropes..In the mean time we had done a circle toward shore where the waves were even bigger...and we seemed to be running on one motor only...all I could hear was this desperate DAAAAD! from Cody as he thought we were abandoning him on a wild yacht to fend for himself:(

When it came to my turn to get onto Micah..Brent warned me. I had one chance and a split second to get onto the yacht. All those times where he never extended his hand to help me on board:))- were for this one moment...make it aboard or fall in.... And Brent had already shown me the lights faaarrrr away on the shore and he told me that if I fell in - he would not be able to come and get me in the dark- I was to swim toward those lights and head for shore!! 

I cannot tell 
you how far away shore looked to me in a storm...I was determined to not fall in!

When Brent finally got Caden, Cody and myself on   board Micah...Caden who had had his palms pressed together in prayer in the storm ...
just passed out into a deep sleep- drenched and cold outside in the cockpit...I on the other hand was so seasick that I was throwing up violently -much to Cody's disgust... Interestingly enough, Cody is like Brent in a drama...he does not panic at all. In fact , I heard his words as they got whipped away in the wind..and this is in the peak of the drama..he asked  his Dad if we were going to get waves in Indo:)))

To conclude...we survived the night and the next day the sea was back to dead calm...It looked like the storm had not happened and when we told my sister the story...she just could not even imagine how frightening it all was:) But we know it happened and I for one am very glad we lived to 
tell the tale.

 

 ps... We did battle to get the anchor up the next day and Brent had to dive to see what was going on 6 metres below..The anchor chain had got tangled around a rock down there and that is most likely what spared Micah from being swept onto the rocks:)

Jackie and Jack from BA.

So all is well that ends well:)
My next blog will be a long time from now I think as we are heading for Indo shortly:) ...but my next blog will be filled with new adventures and wonderful memories of our lives on Micah:)!

Our precious sailing friends with whom we have sailed to Indonesia with and to the Andaman Islands:)

Look how huge the swell is that came into the bay where we were anchored in Lagundri Indo...I was driving the dingy and taking surfing pics...this is from the back of the swell which stretched right across the bay...

Family Photo- things to come-
 A real live active volcano behind us and we are standing on the volcanic spill into the sea:) The last time this volcano erupted on Baron island...was when there was that devastating tsunami...

Here are cody and caden fighting over who is going to show me the fish that they just caught!!

Well that is it for now...we are busy getting the yacht ready for a few months in Indonesia via Phuket now...It is a lot of work to stock up for the wild islands:)
Just by the way...if anyone would be interested in sharing this life on a catamaran experience with us,  please send your enquiry to brentcoetsee@gmail.com
Take care until my next blog which will be all about the fun,trials and tribulations, magic and adventures of 4 months in Indonesia.....