lantamarineservices.com » Moorings

Laanta Lanta Festival 2010

Steve — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:23:19 +0000

In a world where culture and religious differences often divide communities and countries, Ko Lanta in Thailand, provides idyllic proof that people of diverse and varied ethnic groups can live together in peace and harmony for hundreds of years, welcoming foreign visitors with their arms open in welcome.
The Laanta Lanta festival, held every year in Lanta Old Town around March, is a celebration of this harmony and a chance for locals and visitors to enjoy unique cultural facets still prevalent on this unspoiled island today.
Authentic food and traditional entertainment is the mainstay of any Thai celebration and the Laanta Lanta festival doesn’t stray from this successful formula, with an abundant choice of delicious snacks and meals available throughout the three days. You can enjoy traditional local coffee and exotic drinks while sampling a wide variety of local cuisine at over 50 food and beverage booths.
The festival site is very large and runs from the main street to the market area and playing field. The main street is closed to traffic and lined with all manner of stalls, selling everything from food and drink to arts and crafts, cloths and local products. The whole street is beautifully decorated and lit by many Chinese lanterns, creating an atmosphere that lifts the heart.
The rest of the festival site is given over to entertainment with two big stages and many temporary bars built by some of the larger establishments from the west coast. The stages host many different kinds of performances . Rong-Ngen, the traditional music and dance of the ancient Sea Gypsies, can be enjoyed on the main stage, as well as acts presented by groups from all over Thailand. A second beachside stage features contemporary jazz and reggae performances nightly, in a relaxed party atmosphere.

Protection for a safe and happy event is sought by the Sea Gypsy ritual of casting bad spirits out into the sea, at a traditional boat floating ceremony. Side-street cultural booths display and demonstrate the making of traditional arts and crafts including Pa-the, traditional Muslim cloth weaving and Toi-pa-nun, a handicraft made from Toi leaves. Other booths throughout the festival grounds feature organizations and individuals dispersing information about special projects on the island.
Since the festival is an evening and night-time event, sailors will have plenty of time to explore the many beautiful islands surrounding Ko Lanta. There 19 islands within easy day-sailing range, offering excellent snorkeling and diving, beautiful beaches, caves, mangroves and the fantastic ‘Hong’ at Ko Muk. A gentle sail back to Old Town as the festival comes to life, and you have a perfect pleasure cocktail. The good thing is, you can do it all again the next day!
Boats should head mid channel between Ko Po and Ko Lanta and anchor anywhere within range of the Old Town pier. (Pos 07° 32’ N 099° 06’ E)
There will be ferry services from the pier throughout the evening to avoid problems with dinghies. (make arrangements with Lanta Marine Services, +66 (0) 831043109, email admin@lantamarineservices.com )
Dates of the 2010 Laanta Lanta festival have been confirmed as March 7th, 8th and 9th. We look forward to seeing you there!

See Laanta Lanta on You Tube

Free WiFi for LMS customers at Orange House

Steve — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:29:42 +0000

We have recently upgraded our internet speed and added a WiFi router so that our customers can come ashore and relax on our back deck while catching up with emails or website updates.

The Back Deck

If you’re cruising from Langkawi to Phuket, Ko Lanta offers a safe haven while en route. Don’t forget to bring your laptop though as the signal is only strong enough to reach the immediate surroundings of Orange House at the moment, we hope to extend this to cover the anchorage as soon as possible but we would need a range of about 500 metres to cover the anchorage, so if anyone knows how we can do this economically please contact us and let us know.

Second phase under way

Steve — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:46:22 +0000

After our first successful season we are now adding additional moorings to give increased capacity for the forthcoming Low season. Numbers of enquiries are on the increase and we are anticipating up to 15 yachts for the 2009 season. Advanced booking is recommended to avoid disappointment but we are also able to sink new moorings as they are required, however this can take from 4 -6 weeks depending on tides and availablity of materials etc.

Phase 1 Moorings completed!

Steve — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 08:09:36 +0000

Lanta Marine Services is pleased to announce that the first phase of the moorings project has now been successfully completed.

We started by building an ‘A’ frame pontoon for placing the moorings. This is a very robust pontoon made from wood and steel, and for the floatation we have used 6 x 200lt heavy plastic barrels. The whole lot is bolted, nailed, epoxied, and tied together.

We plan to replace this with a larger, multi-purpose pontoon later which will act as a work dock to be taken along side boats needing repairs etc.(more on this later) The steel ‘A’ frame will then be attachable to this new pontoon and, having more floatation, this will enable us to pull the mooring blocks up for annual inspection.

The mooring blocks are made from steel reinforced concrete and weigh in at a hefty 600kgs! The eye is 1 inch steel which is interwoven with the 12mm re-bar in the block. To this block we have attached 10m of 1/2 inch, close linked chain, an over-sized swivel, and another 10m of 1 inch warp. This gives an overall 4:1 at MHWS.

We had the blocks delivered to the beach 2km south of the town, as this offered a firm base for the delivery truck to drive on, and was also the place where we had built the pontoon. The rest of the tackle was added and, on a rising tide, we floated the pontoon over the blocks, secured them, and let the tide do the work of lifting them. Once afloat, we towed the pontoon to the moorings area and the blocks were released without any problems.

Over the weeks that have passed since then we’ve been checking the moorings as they sank. They’re now about 1.5m below the mud, we’ve had 30kt+ gusts and consistent 20kt winds and, not surprisingly with 600kgs and sticky mud, nothing has moved.

Given the protection from extreme weather that the moorings area provides, our daily checks on the boats, and our annual checks on the moorings, we are very confident that LMS can boast the most secure moorings in the region.

LMS moorings and services really do offer you ‘true peace of mind’ while you are away from your boat.