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isdatu

I’ve got a mate who has been building a couple of ‘high-end’ holiday villas on a few rai of waterfront land. He lives on the southern end of Koh Lanta Yai (east of Phi Phi), down south in the Krabi region. He'd been trying to get me to come and check his project out for months now, but when he mentioned that he could use a hand putting his boat in the water, I saw the opportunity for a bit of R & R.



Self contained, western kitchen with big rooms. Nice to look around, but I wanted to get out sailing

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If I'm late start without me..........

splitlid

nice one, is it right on the beach?

isdatu

Nice location with great views, still more work inside and outside to be done yet...... i.e money, money, money



Upstairs B.B.Q and sundeck area with washroom and private pool. Work in progress.



View of the neighbours above



This is what I was looking for. No sandy beaches on this west coast of Lanta, but only a stones throw to a deserted island with all the beach to yourself

jandajoy

Very nice.

isdatu

Plenty of wind as we loaded on a few cold ones and took off. THis Tri- is 24 foot and grabs any gust of wind.



I'm a novice sailor so I just took orders, like "get me another beer"



Great feeling moving with the wind.



Smooth sailing in great weather around the islands....... then I checked out the sky behind us. There was a big storm chasing us

isdatu

Skipper seems to not give a rats about the pursuing storm.



Sailed around heaps of island outcrops.



We swam into this cave. It oppened out ito a huge caven. It had fresh running water and it looked as if the local fishermen stayed there prob. in big seas and bad weather. Pity my camera is not waterproof.

isdatu

Not far from the cave was this great little beach. Perfect little cove for an overnight beach party.



Change in the weather and the squall is starting to hit us



This long-tail fistherman went by and called out to us to head back as there was a big storm coming. No Way. We go storm chasing.



The swell was picking up as we headed for open seas and black skies. This boat of his gave instant response when the gusts began to hit. Made it near impossible to hold onto a beer.

Norton

Nice thread. Green on the way. Maybe it should be in the construction forum?

blackgang

Never saw a boat like that before, looks nice tho.

isdatu

Starting to put on some speed as I hang on and try to take a photo. This pontoon thing I'm sitting on is about 1/2 meter out of the water

isdatu

Heading out towars the action we came across these Gypsum tankers.


Tugs drag a whole string off full barge's to the motherships



Not sure what that made of the crazy farang headin into big winds



A bit of fishing off the back for dinner



Local 'Off Shore' work for the boys. A bloke was telling me that they stay out here for long periods filling the tankers, and that on days off they bring out a boat load of lass's for recreational purposes. Makes sense to me

isdatu

Here we come. Picture doesn't show it but we are moving........ straight at that squall in front. Like I said earlier I'm only a weekend sailor but we had three storm fronts around us and this boat loved the conditions.



The yank mate is telling me we are doing about 14-15 knots at this stage as I hang on. That righthand pontoon is in the air like a wing, while the left hand side is like a sub-marine. The design of the boat gave you some sense of security as you felt you would not tip over, even at the speeds we were hitting

isdatu

I put the camera away for the next couple of hours as we ran through a couple of strong stormfronts. It was a blast I can tell you, when instantly there is an increase in the swell size and the rain is driving down on you.

Coming back in on the edge of the front



We ran into another sqaul about 3/4 of the way home, so we spun around and spent another hour out amongst it. I tell you its a buzz, and its still legal



Coming in after a great day out. No a bad spread he's got. I think I wouldn't get much work done on the villas if I knew this was sitting un-used out the front

Jet Gorgon

Nice in Western style, but looks like farang circling the wagons in hostile native territory. Bet everyone shops at air-con Foodland, too.

jandajoy

Marvelous. Thanks

peterpan

Wonderful pictures, I'm dead envious of your mate, but as for squalls, not really, looking at the appearance of the waves I would say you had a windspeed of about 6 to 7 knots, enough to make a multi hull move along sharply enough.

Muadib

Very nice story & pics... Have a green on me...

baldrick

multihull sailing - marvelous

24 ft is about the biggest trailerable tri

can't see any swell in your pics at all though

Rural Surin

Sunset views must be fabulous!!