After returning from the Tucson gem shows we were in Bali for two weeks in our new villa and then up to our sailboat, Cuchara, on the island of Langkawi, Malaysia.

Langkawi is an island on the border with Thailand and only 5 hours sail to Koh Lipe island which is in a group of islands with some of the clearest snorkeling water in Thailand. All the islands here are less than an hour's sail away. So we tried all the anchorages and developed our favorites. The North East Monsoon dominates this time of year, so the winds were mostly non-existent. Next year during this monsoon we hope to sail farther up towards the Burmese border. Robbin is all ready to check out the islands of Burma. But of course, she is always raring to go to the next island. I suppose that's how we ended up across the Pacific in the first place.

So it was a month of a little boat maintenance, a lot of snorkeling and exploring and every few days we sailed over to the inhabited island of Koh Lipe with its restaurants, spas and groceries.

We saw some corals and fish we hadn't seen in all our travels before. I guess being in the Indian Ocean for the first time is why.

 Above is Cuchara, our home since 1992 on our mooring in the UNESCO GeoPark mangroves on Langkawi.

 Here we are on a mooring off the beach near Koh Lipe.

 We would leave our dinghy on the beach here while we re-provisioned in Koh Lipe.

 Every evening the squid fishermen would put on their sodium vapor lamps for a night of fishing.

 A common sight in the Thai islands. Tourists being driven in a long tail boat.

 Another joke.

Here's the squid fishermen at night. And below is sun setting behind the distant island.