Thursday 13 th

Today we checked out with customs and immigration in Telaga harbour. All very easy. However Chris informed us that the swaged fitting on the headsail stay was the wrong size for the furling gear, we could wait a few weeks to get a new one sent out from the USA, or pick one up later in the year on our way through, or get one swaged locally later that day, which meant missing our departure. I went for the latter option, and as it turned out we were able to use the stay we had, with a modification to the furling gear. This still meant a delayed departure, so for one evening, we were illegals.
Also I found that the dinghy stayed inflated, except for the floor, which isn’t essential. I can have a go at gluing that myself. Still I do fancy a nice new, bigger dinghy.
Another nice thing, or sad, depending on how nostalgic you are, is that contracts and money changed hands today for Lady Stardust, so she has a new owner. He bought her on spec and hasn’t even seen her yet.

Friday 14th
So with all shiny new rigging, we left Telaga. The plan was to go west to the group of islands with Koh Lipe at the southernmost tip. However it was hard going, the south west monsoon was mostly from WNW, so we had to tack upwind, this is not this boats strongest point of sail, and after the second tack it was obvious we weren’t going to get far. I had a reef in the main and the headsail half furled and the staysail all out. Some of the squalls were quite strong, 20-25 knots, and 2-3 m waves. Also it was worse on one tack than the other. I think this is because the mast isn’t tuned yet, in fact I think it’s leaning to starboard, like the boat itself.
Somewhere along this journey Kathy shouted out that the Genoa (headsail/jib) was in the sea. This perplexed me, as it’s quite difficult to achieve this. I was hoping she meant the sheets, but a quick look and sure enough the staysail is in the water not on its furling gear. You can’t actually see the sail easily from the cockpit as it hides behind the mainsail when beating upwind. So up to the bow to investigate.
First I had to get the sail back onto boat, as I was hauling it onboard I remembered watching Dame Ellen MacArthur doing a similar operation on the TV, however she was in tears, and took all day. I had mine back on board in a few minutes. Mind you she was in the Antarctic doing 40 odd knots, and her sail was the size of a small cricket pitch, whereas I’m having a pleasant time in the tropics, with a hankerchief size of a staysail, even so….
Anyway, back on board I could see the head attachment had ripped off, and the sail split down the luff behind the luff rope for a couple of metres. The sail had then lowered itself down the furler, popped out the bottom and over the side. No point in worrying now, I grabbed some rope and lashed it down to the deck to worry about later. I don’t have any spare sails on this boat, unlike stardust that had 3 of everything. Still with the stress on the rig so far, I know everything has been tightened up. I also found out why the swim ladder was removed, or at least another reason, with it lifted up out of the water, the headsail sheets can catch it and rip it off it’s mount, which they tried to do several times.
Soon after this I gave up trying for Koh Lipe and swung her around to sail off the wind over to the Lee side of Koh Tarutao, this isn’t very far north of langkawi, but was going to have to do for the day, we were relieved to get into calm waters and found a lovely spot near a jetti to anchor.
Lost my cap at some point today, so went for my spare, got two spares so all is ok.
I’m not sure if I have been in the med too long without tides, or I have a terrible memory, but I was surprised at how much this boat doesn’t care about the wind. Or should I say, how she doesn’t like to lie at anchor to the wind, and the current flowing has a massive effect. Consequently, a lot of the time the anchor chain is running under the bow, and making hideous sounds as it grinds away at the bob stay. I now run a long bit of nylon rode to an anchor hook I lower over the anchor roller, this takes the strain from below the water line.

Saturday
We make an early departure for Liang, in the rain and squalls, I had hoped to go further today, perhaps to Koh Rok , but I decide to be less ambitious. Again heavy weather, but I spend the morning in the cockpit repairing the broken sail. I manage a reasonable repair, but the weather is to heavy to think of putting it back on the furling gear, and I don’t want my delicate stiching to be flapping like crazy in the wind. The plan is to keep a turn on the furler all the time so as not to stress my repair.
We arrive at Liang late afternoon, anchored off a lovely beach, but rolly and still getting hit by squalls, but anchor worked well. I paid a lot for this anchor, but already I’m pleased at how it sets first time and doesn’t seem to budge once it’s in.
Lost my cap at some point today, so went for my spare, got a spare so all is ok.
Sunday 16th
Up early, need to push on and find somewhere sheltered to mop up and get my staysail back on. I love this staysail in heavy weather, it’s quite powerful, and with it being close to the mast it doesn’t have such ability to destabilise the boat as the big Yankee headsail can. In fact the Yankee headsail is more like a high cut Genoa, I like that too, it’s very powerful but difficult to furl in a blow for me with my knackered shoulder.
So Kathy takes the helm as I raise the anchor, a bit blowy but ok, then out of nowhere , or rather from around the headland, comes a mini squall of 30 knot winds with pelting hard rain, I can see Kathy working hard at the wheel trying to keep the boat moving forward while I raise the anchor, but within seconds she is drenched through, not a great start to the day. I don’t remember ordering such weather.
Again tacking into the wind is hard, normally I would hope to tack when my target is on the beam, but no chance as things stand, plus we make lots of leeway. I understand this boat class has won racing trophies, would like to know how, perhaps when it’s tuned and new sails are on it will point better.
Now it’s Kathy’s turn to mention the other thing I’m not mad on hearing, that water is coming into the boat, the way she says it makes me a little worried, it seems to be getting in from under the bunk at the side.
A difficult place to work as the water tank takes up this space, but I suspect it’s probably the water tank that’s the culprit, so I taste the water and sure enough it’s fresh. So next I have to dismantle the woodwork that somebody has added over the tank to make extra storage, they did a bad job and it’s on my list to fix one day. Then I can see that the water level gauge sensor is leaking, as the water sloshes around in the tank it’s squirting out the side of the sensor mounting flange, no big deal, I tighten it a bit, but suspect the gasket is shot. It can wait, we have loads of water and a second tank anyway.
So two long tacks and we arrive in a bay protected by Koh lanta. We anchor in 3 metres of water some way from the shore of Koh Po, nice and calm here, but grey and little squalls still pass through, but they just keep everything nice and damp ?

Monday 17th
Up early, I get the repaired staysail onto the furler while it’s calm. Then off to Koh Phi Phi and guess what, the weather is awful again. Loads of squalls, 20-25 knots of wind and rough seas. I tack out on starboard, heading away from phi phi towards Koh Rok as that’s the best I can manage in the headwind, then after several hours, maybe 5, I tack and head for phi phi. It was so calm at the start I didn’t bother with the reef in the main I had had so far, I was curious if the main would point higher without the reef, I also got both the headsails out and was pleased my repair is holding out. Of course that was the cue for Poseidon and his mates to have a go, 30 knots of wind, and a building sea and boy was that fun, I wondered how far we would heel, I also wondered if every stage in the new rigging had been tested and inspected. I’m afraid it rather bothered Kathy, who worried about me shouting to take the helm while I tried to quickly reduce the sail area out there. It took about ten minutes but it was all back under control and we were belting along. So far we have been doing about 7 knots close hauled at best, but generally about 6. We had to travel nearly twice the distance the crow flies and ended up arriving in the dark, another first for me with this boat.
The bay at Phi Phi Don is sheltered from the sea, but not the wind, it’s very deep and near the shore at 12m depth it is coral all the way to the beach. The trick is to anchor in mud just after the coral which can only be seen in daylight. We found a shallow bit some way from the shore, near the middle of the bay where all the work boats here race up and down, but by now they had finished for the day, so we dropped the hook in 13m of water, put out 60m of chain and called it a day!
Along the way, the waves and gusts took their toll, both lifelines snapped, port and starboard, the port signal halyard snapped, some diesel spilled from a Jerry can and washed along the deck into the cockpit, only a tablespoon or two, but that’s enough to make a right stink. The anchor locker door in the v berth flew open and ripped itself off the hinges, and the oil lamp unscrewed itself from the spot above the sink and spread itself around the boat in bits. Thank goodness it had no oil in it.
Oh and I lost my cap in one of the squalls, hope they sell caps in Thailand.

Tuesday, wake to survey what is supposed to be the third most beautiful island in the world, not impressed. Rammed with day tripper boats and long tails, these are boats used as taxis and general work/fishing boats. They look like they have an auto engine mounted on the rear on a frame up in the air, with a prop shaft about 20ft long sticking out the back, the whole thing pivots and that’s how they steer, a bit like an alternate design for an outboard. Will post pictures later.
I could see we were lucky coming in as local boats have mooring for the day trippers they use when dropping them off to snorkel on the coral. These moorings consist of a length of polypropylene rope floating on the surface which they get with a boat hook and tie to. Presumably they go down to an old engine block or something just as heavy, anyway we may have motored past or over a few in the dark, that could have been fun. Later we popped ashore in the dinghy, which worked out well, the outboard was reluctant to start and stay running, but got into it after a while. It’s on my list to give it a service. It’s actually a very lovely place and we will come back and spend more time here.

Wednesday 19th
Tried to leave, but the sea was very rough and 10 knots of wind on the nose quickly became 20. After 40 minutes and not much distance, I turned her around and headed back.

This is a pain, the forecast from the Thai government service gives us 25-30 knt winds from the west with 3.5m seas, but other sources say this is only for offshore areas, and here it is 10-15 from the Sw which would be great. Anyway, it seems the gov forecast was more true when we went out. Also we have had some tremendous squalls blow through here in the anchorage, had to start the engine for fear of hitting other boats as every one swung in very different directions.

I’m not sure when things will improve, we may have to wait a few more days.

Will try to upload pictures later, but my MacBook has flat batteries and I haven’t got round to fixing up a charger on the boat yet, so it’s difficult to do from my iPad, will try some anyway.

Paul C

Just a quick update. We are in Thailand now, but yet to check in at our port of entry, which is Phuket. We are anchoring at various islands/rocks en route. It’s taking a long time to get there as we can’t sail at night, there are far to many unlit fishing boats and nets, and the weather is against us, so we do 25 mile hops each day. Now we are in Koh Phi Phi , Koh means Island, and phi is pronounced pee, better know as the location of the file “the beach” with some guy called Leandro de capricious starring.

We did plan to leave tomorrow for Phuket but I just saw a forecast on the navtex saying small boats should stay ashore! The forcast I was working to, based on grib data from the GFS model made it look like a nice passage. So I need to do more research.

No pictures as data or wifi is difficult here, but we took some great pictures the last few days.

The boat is working well, we have been in some quite heavy weather and I now have a lot of confidence in our new rigging which is holding the mast up, I also know how she handles in big 30+ knot gusts with full sail up, which is surprisingly well. But I don’t want to experience that again.

Had to deal with Kathy shouting the headsail is in the water and that water is coming into the boat during the big blows, but it all worked out fine in the end. Graphic details to follow ?

Paul C

Just a quick post, we had a few hiccups with the rigging, the eye for the bobstay was just a little to wide to go in the fitting on the boats stem, so had to be taken away and ground down a few thou. The staysail furling gear would not come apart easy to give access to the turnbuckle that needed to be loosened to get it down. The rigger used an angle grinder to cut through the turnbuckle in the end. I’m not sure he quite realised how much tension was in the rig because it split with a lot of force and the mast vibrated so strongly and a twang shook the boat, that down below Kathy thought someone had fallen off the mast!

So now we have everything except the forestay and the backstay done. This needs to be done in the morning and early, as I have checked us out of the harbour with the port police. this was remarkably easy, hats off to the Malaysian harbour master who handled the change of ownership, and change of boat name/registration very smoothly and quickly. Now I have an exit paper for Malaysia with my name and the boats name on it, the rest should be plain sailing (no pun intended). Just need to do customs and immigration. This is a great port to do it in, as I may well be the only customer they have tomorrow, it’s so sleepy here, I had worried I would need to go to Kuah and join all the ferry passengers in a long queue.
The only real shock was that you have to pay light dues for every day in the country. He said the last 3 days in Langkawi would cost 8MYR (about £1.50) but I also owed for the last 3 years since the previous owner had brought it here. I was thinking quick, 50p a day, 1000 days, £500 Crikey! I was very relieved when he told me the total came to 100MYR, or £20. I didn’t hang around for an explanation of the maths just handed over the money pronto.

So the blog may go quiet for a few days, I don’t know when we will reach Phuket, the plan is to sail there, so the wind needs to go more to the west, right now it’s either calm or mad squalls from the NW, not the best, but there’s plenty of islands to hide behind. If the rigging completes tomorrow, we will rush over to Koh Lipe, or Koh Tarutao, then Friday to Ko Lanta, or Koh Kok, then Saturday to Phi Phi, then Sunday or Monday into Phuket.  or something like that, there’s plenty of options available. However I don’t know how we will fair for wifi/3g coverage, and I have no way to charge the MacBook, so I guess Kathy can post to the facebook page where ever we get some 3g coverage.

Childish humour follows…

 

Paul C

I love those two words together.  It sounds like a song or a story.  Anyway, we are here in Telaga after an unexpected extra couple of days in glorious Rebak. Due to our food supplies running so low we just ‘had’ to resort to eating in the restaurant for two nights.  It’s not often you get to eat in a place where the waiting staff are eager to lay the napkin on your lap as you sit down, and wait nearby to attend to your every need.  The food and the setting are sublime, too.

Sunday was quite a wet day. The showers are spectacularly heavy during monsoon season, and leave a shimmering plain of water on the stone pathways, which the sun deals with fairly quickly. Unfortunately the wetness brings out the caterpillars, too (or seems to).  I went for a walk to take some pictures and they were all around, wriggling across wherever I went to step. It made me realise how much I’ve been sheltered from my phobia of ‘wrigglies’ and that it has got worse instead of better.  My yelps of alarm drew some strange looks from other people and there was nothing else for it but to return to the sanctuary of the boat.  The internet was a bit haphazard in the marina but there was a good signal in the main part of the resort so we spent our final evening on Rebak at the beach bar so that Paul could catch up on emails and then walked back along the coast just as it was getting dark.

We were up early on Monday morning to prepare the boat and check conditions for a departure.  We’d more or less decided we’d just go for it whatever the weather since it is only a short passage and we were keen to move on – Thailand is beckoning.  It was overcast and humid when we left at midday.  We had one very heavy squall about 30 minutes after leaving but apart from that the journey went well. I was able to see how the route I had created panned out. This was useful because it turned out I had plotted us a bit too close to the land, and when the wind is strong and blowing onshore it’s necessary to give it a wider berth to avoid being blown on to it.  When I do the next route I will take that into account, but the finished ‘lines’ on the navionics didn’t differentiate too greatly.  The ‘kink’ near the number 2 at the bottom is where we discovered the autohelm wasn’t working.

I’m becoming more proficient and confident with the steering but sadly,  it seems I still have a way to go with the cleating and line-throwing.  The cleats on the fuel pontoon were double bollard type ones – I wasn’t sure which part of them I had to cleat on to and my hesitation meant they came undone (not a disaster as we were secure by then but frustrating for me).  Once we’d filled up with fuel we headed to our berth where two guys were waiting on the pontoon to help us in. As we drew closer I threw the stern line to one of them and I was so pleased that it didn’t drop in the water and that he caught it, I didn’t notice that (as Paul told me later) I almost knocked the poor guy over by throwing it straight at him instead of to the side of him! Well I’ve always thought it’s good to learn from mistakes.  Hopefully none of the above blunders will occur again ;).

Paul went off to check us in once we were tied up and I set about getting the boat shipshape.  Sitting on the end of the pontoon, waiting to be encouraged nearer was a lovely-looking cat, so encourage it I did. He or she (I’m inclined to think female) was very friendly and as curious as cats are supposed to be. She came onboard and sniffed around every bit of the boat, including an open drawer in the quarter berth where I was worried she’d trapped herself for a few moments.  She allowed me to fuss her for a while and then decided she’d seen enough and off she went. I haven’t seen her since, although there are quite a few ‘boat’ cats in this marina – and dogs, too.  Paul’s still not keen on the idea, though.

We had a walk around the marina late in the afternoon.  Lots of boats here, but the area around it is fairly deserted and some of the shops and outlets are closed or never opened in the first place.  Still it’s peaceful and pleasant enough, and we’re only here a few days while the new rigging is fitted. There is still nowhere to buy fresh produce, however so it looks as though we will have to get a taxi or hire a car to stock up on provisions for our next leg of the journey.  We will probably be at anchor for several nights so it will be a ‘big’ shop.  Until then, it was time for another meal out. There are restaurants all around the harbour but we chose one nearest to the boat.  Another Indian one – definitely my favourite food.

 

This is the Telaga Marina, as viewed from the back of the boat, it’s actually very pleasant here, very quiet and sheltered.

 

The rigging has arrived and is laid out here on the finger, don’t ask how much it cost, but you can probably buy a house in Birkenhead for the same price; That’s more of a statement on the cheap houses in Birkenhead 😉

So I started the day by looking at the Autohelm, I measured voltages and determined a possible fault in the system, but that turned out to prove the point that if you are happiest fixing electrical faults, that’s where you will look, and possibly find problems, as I did. Fortunately before I got too carried away, I noticed the motor was turning, and not the cog attached to it. I was thinking CLUTCH_ENABLE signal not going low, but I should have been thinking, key in groove fallen out. Which I found under the motor. I popped the key back into the shaft, tightened things up and made a note to get some locktight and all was woking again.

Next onto the monitor wind steering system. I had a reply back from the manufacturer Scanmar, they are very good with their support. They pointed out that even an expert would have problems removing the bend in the strut and that they can ship me the parts I need, but that would cost about $600 + shipping. They explained I would need to remove the pendulum to make sure it was the bit that was sticking and that their wasn’t any other damage. I took the monitor off the boat and into the cockpit, then I dismantled it. The bent pendulum bit was actually working fine, it was just compressing another spindle which wasn’t turning. I called to Kathy, who duly brought me a large hammer and a very large hammer. Now some people think this is my style of engineering at it’s base level, but with a few strategic bashes, and a bit of jumping up and down on the bent strut, and the pendulum, everything was moving freely, in fact so freely I can’t see any reason why it wont work perfectly now.

Now just before we left Rebak, I had a look at another tashiba 40, who also has a monitor windvane, but his was gleaming, so bright, it could have your eye out. I was full of Monitor envy. So now seemed to be the best time to strike back, and Kathy helped me get our’s nice and shiny. I’m going to give it a final polish in Fiji or Bora Bora ;-), but it will do for now. Just needs connecting to the wheel and testing. Hopefully I can use it in our trip to Thailand.

I also took this as an opportunity to get the dinghy out to access the monitor. Sadly the repairs I had done to the dinghy don’t seem to keep it inflated. It could be new holes, but I suspect not. It’s not much better than when I put it in for repair a couple of months ago and it hasn’t been used yet. Everyone tells me it wont last anyway and it has to be made of Hyperlon to survive in the tropics. Looks like I need to buy a new dinghy, which is OK, I can get something fast in Thailand.

Tomorrow the rest of the rigging to goes up, then a big shop for the next 2 weeks travelling, and a few shopping chores, like photocopying passports for the authorities we have to deal with in the ports, and also a trip to the moneychanger to buy some Bhat (Thai money), paying for stuff in sterling is costing me more everyday thanks to brexit. Fortunately I have a few $ I can use until sterling recovers, if ever.

Paul C.

Arrived safely in Telaga, strong headwind NNW kept us under 4 knts for the 90 minutes that we took to get here. Rigging got here an hour before us and we have been given a berth, but only for 3 days, so must start on the rigging tomorrow.

I’m sure Kathy will put pictures up, but for now here are a few, oh nearly forgot, I tried the autohelm and it didn’t work. It’s not even trying to drive the wheel, hopefully something simple.

Paul C

It’s Sunday afternoon, we had planned to leave at lunchtime, but the fact that the rigging still hasn’t arrived, the marina here is cheaper than Telaga, and that we had some quite fierce squalls blow through earlier, tipping the boat some way at its berth, that we have decided to stay another day. It’s quite wet and overcast so I am doing some route planning for Thailand today.

I spent time yesterday running ropes to the windvane steering, this is a monitor windvane, that will steer us everywhere over the next few years. It works with little effort, uses no fuel or electricity and understands the quirks of the wind at least, if not better, than most humans. Sadly it’s broken. I’m wondering when I will stop finding broken things on this boat. The pendulum arm at the bottom is bent, reading the manual, this is not uncommon as it can easily be bent by reversing into a high pontoon or being hit astern by another boat. It’s only slightly bent, but enough to stop the whole thing working, Everything looks ok, and moves the right way, but the curve on the pendulum means there is too much friction for the windvane part to turn the auxiliary servo rudder. This mechanism has to be almost friction free to work in light winds. I’m waiting to find out if the manufacturer thinks it can be repaired or needs to have the arm replaced.
We loved the Hydrovane on Stardust so much we called her Harriot, because she looked elegant and started with H. The mechanical electrical autopilot was called Simon, as it worked well with its maker ‘Simon Simrad’.
On Sister midnight we pondered on what to name the electrical auto pilot. It’s not very sophisticated, but sturdy and reliable. old fashioned but got a few years left in it, so we went for Captain Mainwaring. when thinking of the companion Monitor windvane, which is more elegant, quite clever we thought perhaps Uncle Arthur. For those reading who are confused, you should watch any episode of Dad’s Army for a better understanding.

I made this video of a 3-4ft thing, lizard? having his morning beach stroll earlier

Paul C

 

 

It really would be rude not to rest and relax here. The whole resort is created exclusively for comfort and the promotion of that ‘away from it all’ feeling.  On our first evening here, we had a delicious meal in the restaurant that overlooks the pool, with palm trees and a fairy-lit terrace. We made the most of the lavish, all you can eat hot and cold buffet which consisted of soups, noodles, sauces, curries, rice, pizzas, salads meats, vegetables, breads and an array of desserts, all laid out in an elegant restaurant.  One of several chefs was quick to point out all the vegan dishes on offer when I enquired, and it was all very tasty ( so much so, we went back for seconds and a dessert, most unusual for us).  As marina guests we get to use all the facilities in the resort, and also get a 25% discount on food and drink bills. The photos attest to the stunning beauty of the place, and it’s very peaceful. Several of the guests are clearly on honeymoon (it’s an ideal resort for one), and the rest consist of other ‘yachties’, and a few family groups from Australia, Malaysia, China and America. The staff are mostly Indian or Malay, Taj being an Indian company. The holiday lodges are in the form of attractive, dark wooden chalets complete with balconies and gardens – some of which are right next to the beach. I really can’t fault the place (apart from the frequency with which Ed Sheeran is played on the sound system by the pool, but I can block him out with my iPod ;)).

 

 

Most afternoons have been spent on sun loungers by the pool. It’s so pleasant to lie there with a book, doze, ‘people watch’ (and ‘listen’) and have an occasional swim to cool off.  One afternoon while Paul worked on the boat I went to the loungers on the beach instead where it was quieter, and lay on one under a canopy to shelter from a gentle rain shower. There were sand crabs all around me, scurrying in and out of their holes – too quick for me to capture them on film.  Near the marina is a swampy area called Mangrove Pavilion. The viewing place looks a bit like a bird hide with no walls, with seats set out to look at the trees and muddy ground unseen by birds or creatures within. We haven’t seen any exotic wildlife there yet though.

On Monday afternoon we hopped on the free ferry to a place called Cenang. Paul had been there before and described it as the Asian equivalent of Blackpool or Rhyl. I was intrigued!  It was a fast and exhilarating five-minute trip across the water to Langkawi where a taxi took us from the jetty into Cenang Town.  The main street is indeed lined with gift and souvenir shops, beachware stalls, fast food cafes and restaurants, and duty free shops with a wealth of chocolate and booze on offer.  The street itself was in serious need of repair: paving stones were being pushed out and up by tree roots, and in some places there were deep holes leading down to foul-smelling drains, creating tripping and falling hazards that would horrify health and safety officials. To be fair, there is a lot of work going on to improve the area and it’s a month before the official holiday season starts here.  After a bit of a browse, we headed for the beach. A short walk down a hill and the sea was before us and a long stretch of clean, sandy beach. It was a glorious contrast after the dusty, rubble of the hot street. We sat at a cafe and had a drink looking out at Rebak and other islands enjoying the sea breeze.  Before going back we had a walk on the beach and a paddle in the warm water.  The sand was full of pretty shells, and one of the cleanest I’ve been on. More luxury holiday homes are adjacent to the beach, and in one spot a wedding had just taken place (see pic below).

I was expecting to have to leave early in the week but Paul discovered that his plans had gone slightly awry by the rigging delivery being delayed.  It came as a welcome surprise to be told we’d ‘have’ to stay here a bit longer. Since we had more time we thought it would be good to follow the ‘Nature Trail’ we’d seen on a signpost. The path led us past the marina and out by the sea, with thick forest on our left.  Paul was keen to venture into it but my fear of leeches and other wriggly things falling on me rather put me off ;).

The following evening, we did the other recommended walk, thinking the exercise would be good after so much lounging by the pool. I was a bit braver this time – I even left off my elasticated-bottomed trousers and socks! Paul wanted to check out a dilapidated building just off the beaten track and I thought ‘why not’. We hadn’t gone far in, however before my eye caught movement on the ground; this turned out to be huge brown millipedes! They seemed to be all around me and I felt panic threatening to overwhelm me.  There was nothing else for it but to run in a rather ungainly manner (with accompanying hysterical squeals) back to the safety of the wider path. It was a great walk actually, and we ended up on a beach typical of the traditional image of a desert island.  It was fantastic, and amazing to see shells walking along the sand. Paul’s video in his post shows them perfectly. We spent ages looking at the debris that had been washed up-sadly there were a lot of plastic bottles and drink cans amongst it all.  Naturally I was reluctant to return through the forested area and wondered if we could follow the coastal route. Paul wasn’t altogether certain but we gave it a go anyway. We had to pick our way over prickly shells and steep and slippery rocks crawling with crabs -it was great fun, real Swallows and Amazons stuff!

Our extended stay meant we were beginning to run low on supplies, especially fresh items like bananas and salad ingredients. The shop on the resort doesn’t have a wide range of choice so we decided to visit Cenang again yesterday to stock up from one of the larger supermarkets there. We asked the taxi driver to drop us at one just out of town, thinking we’d go there, have a quick drink at the beach and then get back in time for an afternoon at the pool. On the way, the driver came to an abrupt halt as a huge creature lumbered across the road. It looked like a crocodile and when I asked him what it was, he said crocodile but I’m still not convinced: Komodo dragons look very similar. It was still thrilling to see anyway. No fruit or veg to be had in the big supermarket, so we walked on into town.  On the way we passed a paddy field, the first one we’ve seen here so stopped to have a look.  Some of the workers were resting on the platforms in the middle of the fields, and each field was in a different stage of growth. In season, it’s possible to do a tour to see how the rice is produced but this one was closed until November. We stood watching a cow and its accompanying bird which was relieving the cow of the insects flying around its head, when I noticed movement to my right and saw another ‘crocodile-like’ animal slithering down a slope into a murky drainage ditch next to the field.  It swam towards us at quite a rate but was unfortunately too submerged and fast-moving to study it or film it.

Our search for fresh produce in Cenang proved fruitless (pardon the pun). When we asked an Indian lady in one of the small shops where we could buy some bananas and tomatoes, her reply was long and convoluted enough (in terms of directions and reasons for the lack of) for us to realise we weren’t going to find any within walking distance, so went for a drink instead.  It was 3 o’clock by then and ‘The Yellow Cafe’ we’d been to before was just opening up. We were both hot and ready for a drink and a rest so it was nice when a gentle and cooling shower of rain began to fall as we sat watching the jet skiers and swimmers in the big waves.

Back on Rebak later that evening we went to the seafront bar on the sand to make use of the wifi. The pictures I took don’t do justice to how pretty and atmospheric it was. It’s still a novelty to me to be sitting outside in the dark at 9pm in a flimsy vest and shorts without feeling in the least bit cold.  One more day here, then it’s on to Telaga.

Kathy

 

 

We did a bit more exploring of the forest here yesterday, keeping mostly to well worn paths, to be fair. We came across another large building,could have been a hotel or a mansion house, but now being taken over by the jungle. I would love to know the history of this place. I’d also like to see the books, how do you make this place make money when everything has to be ferried in and out on little boats?

This island is very alive, it’s teaming with creatures, monkeys come down to rummage through the bins, and the beaches are literally like moving surfaces comprised of sand coloured crabs, snails, and lots of other little creepy things. I made a little video below to make my point!

Soon we are checking out of Malaysia, and I went rummaging through the stacks of boat papers last night to see if I could find our entry papers into Malaysia, which I did. I’m hoping I have everything I need to depart now. Some ‘tea money’ might be needed to cover the name change of the boat.
While doing this I made a note of the locations I have port clearances for, along with marina bills and spare parts etc, I have pieced together the Itinerary the boat took from Hawaii to Malaysia under the previous owner, Toshi’s command. There are some gaps, but basically it’s as shown below covering the last ten years.

This morning I found out that even though the rigging delivery is scheduled for Friday, they won’t deliver on Friday, prayer day, so who knows!
We went ashore and got provisions for a few more days here. Still I’m enjoying the chance to do some studying on google maps and overlaying them on the chart plotter, can be very useful in remote areas where the official charts can be out by a few miles. Tomorrow I’m going to get the monitor wind vane steering kit out and see how it all goes together. That should be fun.

Paul C.

 

Well the rigging got delayed in China en route here, then more delays in KL, so we have had to just rough it out here at the Rebak resort. Latest is that the rigging will arrive on Friday and we hope to get it rigged, or at least started on Saturday. So I expect checking out of Malaysia on Monday is the best we can hope for.

I took some pictures of the channel into the marina today, you can see how welcoming it becomes as you travel along the little channel after taking a bit of a bashing at sea, not that we did really.

We have had a few walks around the island and spotted monkeys, and lots of this big beaked bird. Need to find out what it is. I think it likes a pint of Guinness maybe?

I climber into the forest a bit, would love to explore more, but within a few minutes things are eating you. should have deet’d up.

One of the tasks I have been working on is the Nav systems and integrating the boats electronics, using a thing called signalK, it’s a modern way of getting everything talking to each other. I’m very pleased with how it’s going. The screen shot above is from my laptop, it’s a program called openCPN which is a very fancy navigation prog. I have it reading the boats data over wifi and displaying on screen, that’s us in the middle with the white dot in the centre. it’s also collecting the AIS data and you can see one boat passing within 3 miles of us, it’s drawn a line of CPA (Closest point of approach). The GRIB weather data is also drawn on the display, but the scale is wrong right now as I downloaded a data set for the whole of SE Asia and the ref points are bigger than I’m zoomed on this sample. I’m just looking at downloading google maps to add into the mix, then it will be very smart.

Time to go and cool down in the pool now, I’m only poolside for the wifi, honest

 

Paul C.