So with the good comes the bad. Yesterday was awesome. Today had some annoyances. Crys felt a bit puny upon waking this morn, probably due to dehydration and wine, though other factors may also be involved. Not horribly bad but a bit icky. She pushed through though. We decided to go scope out a local beach to kick things off. We grabbed our cameras, lowered the zodiac, and took off. We started coming around the edge of one of the little islands there when we started hitting heavier wind and bigger chop. We took a small hit of sea spray and I made the comment that it felt good. The fates decided to up the ante on my comment and within seconds we bounced a wave and took a large spray head on, giving us (and the cameras) a good soak. We laughed it off, but then took another's direct hit a few moment later. Dad judged the chop would likely only get worse before me reached our destination, and we didn't want to get the cameras wet enough to damage them, so we decided to turn back. We made it safely, if a little damp, back to the boat, stowed the gear, pulled anchor and set sail for Koh Lipe (Pronounced Ko Lippy).
The six hour sail started fine, then as we cleared further away from the shadows of the isles and into the open water we started hitting some serious white capping. The Silke handled it well, but there was a good bit of bouncing involved for much of the trip. Worse yet, despite heavy and frequent sun screening, Crys and I both got hit with some sunburn. I got the top of my feet. Annoying, especially when I put shoes on, but I can deal with it. Crys got her feet and legs, a good bit more area than me. It's very unfortunate. We're keeping aloe vera slathered on in hopes that it kills the issue off quickly,
Despite the bad, however, there is good. We picked up a moor (attached the boat to a buoy) a hundred and fifty yards off the coast of Koh Lipe and took the zodiac to shore. It's a beautiful little island with white sand, crystal clear water, and a long series of tourist spots. It is the quintessential South Pacific island. We checked back into immigrations since we're technically back in Thailand now and stopped in for a extremely tasty Thai dinner at a local eatery. Stir fried pork and cashews for me and some Pad Thai Kai for Crys. Tasty stuffs. We decided to stay here for the night since it was getting late. We'll go back to shore tomorrow and do breakfast and maybe a bit of shopping before going on to a more secluded area that I can dive. In the mean time I'm sitting on deck listening to the huge beach party that apparently goes on there each evening this time of year and watching the beautiful sky again. Good to know that a bad day of vacation can still be better than a good day at work :-)
9 days left. Here's hoping they're all better than this one!
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