Totem is not aground, but happily anchored in a wide bay fringed by a soft beach, backed by palms and cashew trees. Welcome to sleepy Koh Phayam, antithesis to Phuket’s noisy traffic and crowded beaches, where dogs sleep in the street and cars have yet to arrive.
About three miles long from north to south, and maybe two miles wide, life on the quiet island seems to center around rustic tourism sprinkled with cashew and rubber tree plantations. Guest houses peek from behind the trees, where one advertises “special: electricity, 6pm-6am”.
gas station, Koh Phayam styleA single lane road accommodates the odd motorcycle, and is paved for about half the length of the island- between the wide bay on the northwest corner and the commercial center on the middle of the eastern shore.
Treating ourselves to sundowners at a beach bar the evening we arrived, our friends tell us it reminds them of Phuket in the 1980s. No touts, no vendors on the beach…heck, no power or water utility! Just a handful of open-air restaurants and the odd fishing boat, and no light pollution to hide the stars at night.
kids play on the beach, parents enjoy sundowners above, everybody's happy
Quiet as it is, it's hardly undiscovered. During the couple of weeks we’ve spent here, at one point there were 18 boats in the wide curve of the northwest bay at the NW corner, additional boats along Ao Yai, the long beach to the southwest. Little development is apparent from the water, but rustic bungalows and open restaurants dot the shoreline. With beautiful sunny days and a cool breeze at night, it feels perfect.
One of the first landmarks we see on shore appears to be a shipwreck when we scan through the binoculars. On closer examination, it’s actually a beach bar.
With construction style that takes rustic to a whole new level, a collection of airy spaces are made entirely from wood that washed up with debris after the tsunami in 2004.
During the day, the kids spend hours on the beach playing with their mates from Utopia.
At the same time, Jamie’s been spending hours over on their boat- trying to get Utopia grounded. Oh, they’re well grounded humans, confident and level; the problem is the boat. There’s been some stray current on board that’s apparently not grounded, and it’s the root of some growing problems. They’d been to see an “expert” in Langkawi, who dismissed it as “just spurious voltage”.
Well, that “spurious voltage” is dissolving aluminum parts on the boat: the toe rail, the mast, aluminum tanks, and more all show signs of increasing corrosion. The Utopia crew has their eye on crossing the Indian Ocean, and had to take this seriously.
Part of the problem with diagnosing the problem is that the electrical system on board was kind of a mess, despite spending thousands of dollars with electricians in Australia to have wiring done. What finally became apparent is that the electricians had neglected to wire in an earth ground on multiple devices. It took days to unravel all of it, one piece at a time, but the stray current sources were all finally locked down and fixed: just in time for a birthday.
Bocce, barbecue, cake, beach, and no worries: a perfect birthday celebration! Just a few more weeks along the continuum of cruising in Southeast Asia.
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Electrifying followers know that reading this on the Sailfeed website charges up the Totem cruising kitty!
