Skipper Penny's new command.

Skipper Penny guides us through the unchartered waters of Pang Gna at the north eastern end of Phuket island.

The scenery in this part of Phuket is stunning. This was our first attempt to learn the area using a combination of local instruction and chartwork. Very good fun for skippers Penny and Whittall using a dinky chart plotter and miniscule GPS numbers. Remember when we had to use those crappy old Valsat 2000D GPS units along with a magnifying glass to read the damn numbers????

Fabulous scenery, eh? Now I have a boat to use we can explore the area properly. There are some very attractive looking secluded beaches, reachable only by private boat. This area would take a lifetime to explore as there are many islands, caves and beaches...it's opened up a whole new frontier! Very exciting.

Here's our boat. It's a 24' Cat built in Australia and was designed as a fast rescue boat. With twin 200HP Mariner outboards, it's a 40 knot rocket...but with the price of fuel in Thailand (yep, it's the same old problem the world over...rocketing fuel prices V thirsty engines) we had to hold back on the throttle. We still blew away £140 worth of petrol...so, although I have use of the boat we will have to cover the cost of our trips. But, with 4 to 6 of us onboard, it's not too bad and lots cheaper than hiring a local speedboat and skipper.

This particular area does not look very fishy. There are a few longtail boats around setting nets but I get the feeling the area has been fished out. This is all about scenery and picnics on pristine sandy beaches......