Not a lot to report today, and I didn’t take any pictures.
I went for a little spin this morning to get the feel of the boat and bow thruster, I felt much more confident, and returned the boat back to the pontoon on my own and stopped it about a metre upwind and it drifted down perfectly into place so that I could step ashore and tie off without any fuss.
I then took her out again, and brought her back in, but went inside the marina. I had to turn the bow to port, doing a u turn in quite a tight space and into a stiffish breeze. This would have been tricky with Lady Stardust, but it was simple enough with the bow thruster.
The shore crew who had arrived, mostly to protect their own boats I think 😉 from this gung ho brit, all shouted I was going too fast, but I didn’t think so, anyway she turned perfectly, the only problem was the bow sprit came very close to a pile on the adjacent finger as she swung around. But in fairness it missed by quite a few millimetres, and the boat stopped alongside without any drama. Again, I struggle to see the whole boat from any one position because of the all encompassing sprayhood, also the bowsprit does stick out further than I’m used to.
There is no available power on my pontoon, but I had already worked out that it was only 80 metres to a free socket, so Erik kindly drove me to a shop that sold cable, I’m not sure it would get a EU certification, but it conducts electricity, which is the main thing. I got a 90 metre length for £22, plus a 32 Amp Marina plug and socket for a fiver. Can’t complain at that, and now we are sitting in our own berth, with gas, free power, and water. Just perfect.
I checked in with the office and there is no problem with me being here, however the big chief here has decided that power will only be available from 8AM to 5PM, which seems odd. Many of the residents are most unhappy about this, and it seems a negative thing to do if you want to promote yachting tourism in Malaysia. There may be a delegation!
No thunderstorm yet tonight, which will make it the first dry evening in a few days now.
Tomorrow is all about cleaning and making the boat pretty, I have no excuses now.
Paul C.
PS Just took this picture of the old bridge as seen from the marina
