This is the sixth and final installment of my experiment of trying to work while taking a sailing adventure in Thailand.
I have previously discussed the challenges trying to get work done while underway or at anchor with very little success. Our boat was moving a lot and thanks to some rainy and rough weather I was not able to be very productive.
What did work well was my telecommunications. The cellular service in Thailand is extraordinary and we never really lost service. My Nighthawk M5 WiFi router paired with a local sim card did the work of the wifi system for the boat keeping excellent connectivity and high speed data throughout the trip.
I cannot recommend an adventure where one is moving as much as we were or at sea on a relatively small boat as a good solution for getting work done. I had hoped to get some strategic presentations built, my Q3 board report completed and generally be much more productive than I was able to. I was very much limited to reviewing others work and keeping in touch through email. I suppose the good news is we have a 20 hour plus ride home and will get some of this knocked out along the way.
Today’s Journey: Naka Island Marriott to Yacht Haven Marina. This was not a long sail but we had very strong winds on the bow and intermittent rain that was sometimes heavy. As such we motored all the way to the marina where a local captain met us to dock the boat. The winds and current were both strong and it was impressive to see to the pros at work.
Closing Thoughts: We chartered through Dream Yacht Charters who we have used before. This is a great outfit and the base manager in Phuket is outstanding. The base manager and lead mechanic are both from Ukraine and wonderful people. The base manager is from the area that is actively being retaken by the Ukrainian army and her family and friends are very much in the middle of the conflict. For me, this really brought the war home from watching it on CNN.
Thailand as a destination is worth it. The people are helpful and kind, and the country runs efficiently. Once you get here it is very inexpensive. We stayed at 3 different hotels and the most we paid was $225 USD for an amazing room at the Marriott on Naka Island. At local restaurants, dinners for 6 generally ran less that $125 including drinks. The food was very good and the service excellent. At the bigger resorts, we paid about 3x the off resort price for dinner but still, inexpensive and of excellent quality. If you go, hopefully you will not be caught in the rain for as long as we were as that became the biggest challenge.
