We enjoyed a fairly leisurely final week at Langkawi’s Royal Yacht Club. Paul concentrated on engine and mast work while my days were mainly spent practising route-plotting on the Navionics app, looking up places to visit in Thailand; daily trips to the shop for dinner ingredients; creating my own vegan meals, and reading while listening to music or radio programmes – not a bad way to pass a week :). Below are a few pics of food items I’ve discovered and grown fond of here, either as snacks or in recipes.

Learning the Navionics app presented a few frustrating challenges for me.  The first and foremost one being that I couldn’t distinguish between zooming in and zooming out!  Whenever Paul told me to zoom out, I spread my fingers out, which created far less detail than intended, while zooming in had me drawing my fingers together, thus honing in on a place instead of looking at the wider perspective.  Another problem was that I found the iPad to be hypersensitive to touch: an inadvertent brush with my fingers on the screen might transport me from the map’s fine detail of a marina berth to a vague spot somewhere in Southeast Asia. Once I’d conquered those challenges, I had the task of remembering the sequence of commands necessary to create waypoints, check water depth, any hazards in the area, location of buoys etc.  As with most things technical, I’ll get the hang of it eventually and it will be a useful contribution to plot future passages, and rewarding to steer a course that I’ve plotted myself. This time, with Paul’s help, I created a route from Kuah to Rebak and I went to bed on Thursday night looking forward to following those waypoints from start to finish on the iPad in its stand in the cockpit, for the two and a half hour journey to Rebak.

Since it was only to be a short journey, and we had to arrive at the marina before 3pm (all the staff finish early on a Friday to prepare for prayers), we weren’t in too much of a rush to get away. It was about 10 15 by the time we were ready to depart, which would get us there around lunchtime.  It was quite windy and I knew from past experience that this can cause problems when steering slowly away from pontoons but Paul said it would ‘be a doddle’ when I expressed concern.  I turned the bow thruster on and waited at the helm while Paul cast off the stern line. In the short space of time he was walking to untie the bow line, the wind was blowing the stern away from the pontoon – creating a wide gap. I yelled at Paul to get on the boat but it was too wide by then and the boat began drifting further away with only me on board.  My cries of alarm (which Paul says sounded hysterical and he was probably right, to my shame) must have alerted a guy from a nearby yacht because he appeared on the pontoon and proceeded to stop the bow hitting the power sockets.  I was worried about the stern hitting the edge of the opposite pontoon but Paul told me to get to the bow and get a line to take back to the stern to attach to the cleat so he could narrow the gap and get on.  I was struggling to cleat it properly, my head bowed in concentration and Paul was telling me it would be fine as long as it was attached when I heard a loud splash that could only be a person hitting the water.  My first thought before looking up was that I must have really fouled up if he’d had to resort to jumping in.  For a few seconds I didn’t know what had happened and all I could see was Paul’s cap floating away on the surface and then his head came up and after taking a breath, he quipped ‘who shortened the length of the pontoon!’  I knew then that he’d fallen in and he was having a bit of a struggle to get out (it’s really tricky to get out of the water at a marina because the pontoons are high, move a lot, and have sharp shells attached). He ended up having to stand on the line I’d attached to the cleat to heave himself up but my hand was in-between the rope and the cleat, causing me to yelp a bit as it was momentarily crushed. My main concern was obviously that Paul was ok and when I saw him standing on the pontoon, dripping wet but engaged in polite sailing chat with our neighbour I knew he was alright. With grateful thanks to the guy, we managed to manoeuvre the boat out of her berth and achieve a smooth departure.

Once we were out in the bay, and the fenders and lines were in, Paul was able to get out of his wet clothes and assess his water-damaged items. The table was soon strewn with notes of various currencies, credit cards, receipts, and more worryingly, his sodden passport.  Meanwhile, in the cockpit, I was a bit concerned about the amount of traffic around us and discovered that the iPad was difficult to see without reading glasses and I found I couldn’t steer and keep us on the course at the same time. Once we’d got all that sorted and it looked as though we were finally on our way, Paul noticed that that the engine temperature gauge was showing it was in danger of overheating and we’d have to do without the engine.  This meant Paul having to put the headsail up to give us some steerage, all of which took another hour and we were still in sight of the yacht club at 12pm.  I wondered if we’d have to go back there but Paul was keen to do the journey to Rebak under sail even if we might be cutting it fine to arrive by 3pm.  The next couple of hours were spent ‘tacking’ our way along because the wind was head on and as you can’t sail into the wind you have to ‘zigzag’ your way around it.  It’s crucial to get the steering right while the other person adjusts the sail and all Paul’s instructions about wind direction, angles and judging the correct time to change course just wouldn’t go ‘in’ my head.  I floundered, fouled up, panicked and felt so useless I burst into tears of frustration, too upset to even take in the beauty of the islands we were sailing past.  Amazingly, after a few more attempts and a concerted effort to understand the basics, something clicked and I finally grasped what I needed to do (a lightbulb moment indeed :)). Nevertheless it was a relief to learn that the marina was near (also a relief to learn that the gauge was wrong about the engine overheating so we would be able to motor in after all).  The waves were strong and high and it was still very windy right up until we were in the shelter of Rebak’s marina. I felt I could finally relax a bit then and in blazing hot sun we followed a member of staff’s signals to guide us in to our berth.  When I looked around me and saw all the palm trees, the lush rainforest opposite and ‘heard’ the silence around us I realised just how beautiful a setting it was. A can of Tiger beer and a glass of wine later and the trauma of the journey began to fade. As Rafiki in ‘The Lion King’ famously said ‘it doesn’t matter; it’s in the past’.  I’m still eager for the next trip (I just hope Paul is) 😉

Paul’s passport dried out and is fine, as is all his money. I wish I had thought to photograph of some of the day’s events – the wet money being laid out carefully on the table to dry was a sight to behold. We couldn’t stop laughing later that evening at the thought of Paul walking off the pontoon – it would have been exactly the sort of thing Harry Hill’s funny video programme showed.  Anyway Rebak’s delights have been well worth the trials of the journey. We’re here for a few days and I intend to make the most of it.

Kathy

I had a few titles going through my mind, like “Not my finest hour” or “How Embarrassing” , but on hearing snippets of Kathy’s forthcoming blog, I thought I should get in first, damage limitation being the main aim.
We are currently in Rebak Marina, which is a luxury resort on a private secluded island just off to the north west of the Main Langkawi Island,
It’s a short 2 hour hop from our last port at Kuah town, but due to unforeseen circumstances I managed to make that a little bit longer and a lot more interesting on Friday when we left.

As you can see above we had a double berth at Kuah, so there was an empty space for a boat to fit in on our starboard side. This meant we didn’t need to worry about being pushed onto anyone when we left. So at 10:00 AM we decided to depart, Kathy was on the helm ready to slowly reverse us out, ready to use the bow thruster if needed.
The wind was quite strong now, about 20-25 knots and blowing onto the port quarter of the boat, pushing us away from the pontoon, so a quick reverse and then the bow would blow down in the direction of the exit and away we would go. In theory…
With just a single bow line, and a stern line I let go of the stern line, the boat stayed still and I walked to the bow line and started to un-cleat it. Now the drama starts. Kathy is shouting “Get on the boat Paul” in quite an agitated way, I’m used to this, she doesn’t appreciate just how nimble my ancient frame is, and how I like to jump on at the last minute, but as her cries got louder I looked back and sure enough, the stern was heading of to Rebak on its own, at quite a rate of knots. I re-cleated the bow line and walked back to the stern, sure enough, there was no way I was going to be able to get on. I asked her to throw me the stern line, but when she held up the line, it was obvious it would never reach the pontoon finger. So I walked around the other side of the berth, onto the other spare finger to stop the stern having a big bump when it got there.
By this point Kathy was quite agitated, she has a fear of being on the boat drifting off without me, then she thought we were going to smash ourselves on the other finger. It was all getting a bit much for her, and her cries of despair had alerted our neighbours to the predicament I had created.
No panic, I can handle an audience, usually, after all this isn’t the first time I have messed up mooring or leaving, after all we just needed to pull the stern back and try again, but maybe not let go of the stern line so quickly next time. So I got Kathy to walk to the bow where there was a nice length of rope, pass it to me, I uncoiled it passed the end to Kathy, and instructed her to go back to the stern and tie it on somewhere. This was harder than I expected, Kathy had the gist of it, but didn’t understand that anywhere would do, any cleat or winch would do, but she tried to feed it through the hawse which was full of a big fat (short) mooring line, I was walking back to the end of the pontoon finger with the rest of the line looking at Kathy and giving instructions as to where to tie the line, and just as she got the line around the cleat everything changed. Suddenly I couldn’t see anything, my hearing was odd, my body felt strange, for a split second I was very confused, then it dawned on me I was under water, a few split seconds later I realised the pontoon finger must have shrunk since I last looked, and I had walked right off the end as Kathy was cleating. Part of me found this hilarious, then horror, but a quick pat of my pockets, and Hallelujah, I didn’t have my iPhone on me. Then I remembered how bloody difficult it can be getting back onto the pontoon. The underneath is generally covered in razor sharp barnacles. The Malaysians aren’t the hottest on safety ladders, and my first attempt showed me I couldn’t pull my own weight up. Then a stroke of genius, I still had hold of the mooring line, so I swam to the cleat, cleated Kathy off and used the line to stand on, thereby getting ashore and bringing the boat a bit closer. I did think of trying to pass this off as standard practice for the situation, but looking at the onlookers realised that wouldn’t work. Best just act like this is normal Paul I thought.
So back ashore, I started to pull the boat back over, our neighbour came to help me and joked that he thought I must have jumped in to cool down! that was generous of him, but I felt an idiot. I made idle chat with him, then once we had the boat back I let go of the stern line, he did the same for the bow and off we popped without further issue. We completely forgot to boat hook my cap as we motored past it on the way out of the marina. That was my favourite cap too.
So that should have been enough drama for the day, but no, more was to follow.
As we left the marina we had to cross the entrance to the ferry jetty, at certain times, this gets very busy, and this was one of those times, ferries were queuing up and approaching at different angles, we were motoring though this area just fine when I thought I had better check the engine temperature, as due to the recent problems and the air lock I was a bit concerned. When I looked it appeared to be way too hot and rising. This is bad news. I told Kathy to throttle back, and as soon as we cleared the ferries I stopped the engine, hauled up the staysail, and told Kathy to steer us ahead through the anchorage.
Kathy hadn’t quite seen the funny side of the days activities yet, and was perplexed at the latest development. I wasn’t too concerned as there was 20 knots of wind so we could sail anywhere, I did wonder how you get the mainsail up in 20 knts with no engine to get your nose into the wind. I went below to look at the engine, I had hoped that opening the water filler cap would reveal the air lock had cleared and I could top it up and that would be that, however the water level was fine. Water was exiting the exhaust just fine, I was confused. But no matter Kathy was now shouting that she couldn’t steer and we were going to hit the fuel barge, which to be fair is a lot scarier close up than from shore.
I showed Kathy how we could tack around the anchorage with just the staysail, but she wasn’t a lot happier, some of the gusts now were getting quite big. She continued to steer us around while I scratched my head, opened the air bleed valve on the engine and crawled around the rear of the engine to see if there was anything obvious where the pipes went to the water heater. but everything seemed fine.
So after an hour of prating around, we re-started the engine, and put up the mainsail, with the engine just at tick over, we made course for Rebak.
The engine wasn’t overheating now at idle. Due to the wind direction, which was basically coming from Rebak, we had to tack all the way there, I had one reef in the main, and just the staysail. The genoa might have been better, but I need some more practice in tacking with the Genoa, it’s so big it often has to be manhandled around the inner headsail stay, and under the current circumstances I thought better of it. We also had the problem that it was a Friday today and the Marina office at Rebak shuts early so they can go to Friday prayers, so we were no pushing it to get there on time.
I was now loving this bit, the gusts were pushing us over at times and at one point the rail was just in the water, yet the boat felt very safe, It seemed she would heel so far then be really stiff and heel no more, and there was not much issue with weather helm either.
Looking at the chart plotter, which Kathy had programmed up the night before, I could see some very strategic tacks we could make through the small islands/rocks around us and save a few minutes, definitely worth a try if we were racing, but in each case we would be just half a mile from lee shores , rocky ones at that, so again, I didn’t think it worth it.

For the last tack I pumped up the engine a bit, just to give us a few more degrees and we made the entrance to the marina with about 3 minutes to spare.
We arrived out of the pounding Andaman sea int a tranquil lagoon, and Kathy seemed most relieved, in fact I’m not sure she will want to leave here.
On checking the engine, the air lock had now worked it’s way through and I was able to replace the missing coolant, and as a bonus, the water pipe wasn’t leaking and the oil scavenger connection wasn’t leaking either, so the sump tray was completely dry and clean.
We did have a good laugh about events later, Kathy had thought I had jumped in to swim over to save her, that would have been very gallant of me 😉

Yesterday she spent the day at the poolside reading, I spent the afternoon doing computer / techie things on the boat with a thing called SignalK and openCPN which was great fun. I also found out how much more I can achieve without the internet to help me. I deliberately didn’t buy any internet access for the boat just to see how we get on. We have it at the pool for emergencies 😉 but I found not being able to follow interesting tangents, made me reach my goal much quicker. More on that in a subsequent techie post.

I look forward to seeing Kathy’s take on the events of the day

Paul C.

Finally for the first time in many years I suspect, I had all of the lights on the boat working, and on at the same time. The starboard bow light was intermittent, and it was down to the contacts on the bulb, although they looked fine, they didn’t feel completely at home allowing electricity to pass through.  A new bulb resolved that for now.
I was very pleased to fix the steaming light, after sleeping on it (the problem, not the light), I thought I had to investigate the end of the wire at the bottom of the mast, about a foot sticks out and sure enough the positive wire was corroded so bad it had parted. I might have hinted at the wire quality before and slagged of Ancor, the makers, or so I thought, but looking closer, this wire is standard 2 core american domestic wiring, just like UK twin and Earth 1.5mm², but without the earth.

So with this wire patched up, I expect it will break again soon, all the lights now worked. I have the hose waiting to go on the water heater, but it’s not leaking now and can wait until I next feel in an engine work mood.
I heard the rigging shipped from Florida a few days ago so should be here by Monday, so tomorrow we leave to travel just a few hours north to Rebak marina so Kathy can enjoy the delights of a luxury resort, then on Monday if the rigging is here we will take the boat down to Telaga marina to have it fitted. This will be the last of the jobs planned for here so we’re off to Thailand, really, except we have to come back to Kuah to check out of the country. This may prove tricky as the boat has changed name, registration number, and owner so it wont be on the system as ever having checked in, they could just stamp us out on my passport, and give the boat an exit paper, or they could make life quite difficult, we shall see.

There’s nothing in Rebak for me, well the pool is nice, but I’m going to have fun playing with my new Signal K setup. I plumbed most of in tonight, and I can connect to it via wifi and see the data server (iKommunicate), but no data, I can see an LED flickering on the data server telling me it’s getting data from the AIS, so it’s just a computer thing I need to fix. Once this is going you will be able to connect to Sister Midnight from the internet and see all sorts of exciting data, like the obvious location, course, speed, depth, wind data, battery voltage, but soon I hope to add the dinner menu, latest fish caught etc. the possibilities are endless. However I read today that I have to watch out for foreign states taking over the boat and using it as part of a botnet, or is it a yachtnet/boatnet to bring down other governments. Exciting stuff!

I used to try to document stuff in word, or draw or some other computer package, but more recently I have gone for hand drawing with a pencil and paper and then taking a pic with the iPhone and storing this on the mac. I like this as I generally have the paper backup handy if the mac is in use. Also it’s the only way I practice handwriting these days.

So we had a farewell drink in the marina bar tonight, didn’t need to order the drinks, they knew our round off by heart, other than to check if I was on the diet coke or weak shandy option. Definitely time to move on.

A last sunset picture from here

Paul C.

So today I wondered how best to sort the problems. Firstly the air lock, I got out the manual for the water heater and after reading it, I realised it’s either plumbed in incorrectly, or I don’t understand the system very well. This has nothing to do with the air lock, and this wasn’t mentioned anyway. However after reading the engine manual, it does say to open a certain valve before filling with water to avoid air locks. Duh!! RTFM Paul. So I did that and it helped, but didn’t completely solve the problem. I ran the engine for an hour and the temperature stayed constant, so I think it’s ok. Anyway, I’m going to be replacing the hoses shortly so can go through the whole process again then.
Yesterday I traced all the wires for the solar and wind generators to make sure I understood how they are wired in. then last night I turned off the charger before bed, and just left on the equipment we would run on a normal night passage, mast head light, AIS, radio, fridge etc to see how much power we consumed. The charger said 25Ah over about 8 hours, which seems very reasonable. Once up I put the solar back on, and we were fully charged within a few hours, thats with my rubbish solar panels that only generate 200W in total, and then only in very bright sunshine. Typically they put out about 5 amps total. The big thing is the wind gen, this is wired into the main battery without any switch, or even a voltage regulator. It’s hard to know what it’s doing, it can generate up to 30A of charge at 14V, it’s basically a car alternator with windmill sails. It has been quite breezy the last few days.
I’m looking into the whole battery charging business thing, as this will be important when we head off, many cruisers spend an hour or two running the engine each day, this is a very bad idea as it costs a lot, is noisy, makes heat and doesn’t do the engine any good. The problem is that boat batteries are very complicated to charge, you have to work within very tight restraints to get the charged fully but without damaging them. Generally you spend most days discharging to 50% then recharging to 80%, however you need to get a full charge in every so often to stop them degrading. On top of that they should be equalised once in a while to stop sulphation. As I see it connecting 3 or 4 generators of power, via individual intelligent regulators that measure current flow and voltage, before determining what voltage to try to generate or current to supply, is asking for trouble. Also I have two banks of batteries, 4 for the house and 1 for cranking, both banks are never going to be in the same state.
Still I’m enjoying learning about these subjects. Ask me any question you like about lead cell construction 😉

So off to town to buy the bits I need, I was very pleased to buy a relay and associated cable from a garage on the edge of town, without speaking any Malay, and him not speaking English. 

From the garage I bought a litre of acrylic paint for the boat, this should be good for 6 years apparently, the blue paint I put on the side in May has faded on the side of the boat that gets most sunshine. It wasn’t a fancy paint, but I have been assured that normal acrylic paint is by far the best to go with. Very cheap too.

I also picked up 8 metres of radiator hose for the water heater, this should leave me with 3 metres spare I can take for a trip around the world before throwing it away. I picked up a strip of 12V LEDS that I plan to install in the cockpit so we have a bit more light for dinner, but yet to work out where or how to install them.

Finally, back to the mast problem, I mentioned how I’m putting 12V into the cable at the bottom of the mast but getting nowt out at the top, well I had an idea, if I swapped the positive/negative of the wires around at the base, and use the mast as a ground I could work out which wire had the break in. Sure enough, it was the positive wire, because by sending +12v up the old negative wire, and using the mast as the negative, I could light up the lamp. Of course I don’t think I can use the mast as a return, sending an Amp or more through the rigging might cause some corrosion. But I’m thinking I could drop a wire down to the spreader lights and use that as the negative return. It’s not often I have both lights on anyway. The cable that has failed is the expensive Ancor pre-tinned ‘Marine’ cable !

The rigging hasn’t shipped from Florida yet, so I expect we are here for another 5-7 days min. So on Thursday we’re going to leave our berth here and head to an anchorage called “The hole in the wall” for an overnighter, then onto Rebak Marina for the weekend, or longer, until the rigging arrives, when we will drop down to Telaga Marina where the rigger is based. Hopefully the rigging will be fitted in one day, and early next week we will be off to Thailand.

Paul C.

 

 

I have found the location of the starting problem, it’s the starting relay, or the connector on it.

This is not meant to reflect on the QA standards of Ireland at all 😉
I can’t work out which is faulty, the connector or the relay, as every time I unscrew it from its location to test it, the relay works fine, but once back in place it fails, I can’t get my multimeter onto the pins when it is in place, right at the rear of the engine by the gearbox. I suspect the connector more than the relay, but I will change both. Suffice it to say it’s working now, but I expect it will stop when next needed. Fortunately Car ownership 101 taught us how to start a car without the key, a basic Scouse right of passage, so I have kept a short length of wire near the starter. I’m off up the mast now, but wanted to share the following with you…

Congkak
I have seen a lot of lovely carved  wooden creations which I wondered what they were used for, now I have found out that they are for a game called Congkak.

I have included the rules below should you want to try this one at home.

 

Paul C.

The postman came late yesterday with goodies, but I missed him at the office, so collected the bits, a new water gauge and a bow light, this morning. So after a couple of poached eggs with Kathy I got stuck into the jobs.

1. Battery Charger
   Yesterday I was doing some testing to understand how much power I was getting from the wind generator and solar system. During the testing I noticed the battery charger was overheating and shutting down, further investigation showed the fan was broken on the charger. I picked one up yesterday and fitted it this morning. Job done, lets hope it lasts a while.
2. Engine Water coolant leak
   I spent some time yesterday in hardware stores looking for hose fittings to improve this connection to the engine, but there aren’t any. I will probably post on some sailing forums to see what others do. I noticed the hose was quite brittle and I’m going to replace it all next week. For now I cut back the bad hose and re-fitted it. 
   This worked, but a lot more cooling fluid poured out of the hose than I expected, I think the calorifier must hold a lot, and be located higher than the pipe. Managed to catch most of it in a 5 litre jug, but when time came to refill it, I had a litre left over, which in my mind means there is an air lock in the system now. I was expecting to have to add an extra litre. Anyway, I hoped that if I ran the engine a bit then it might work it’s way through.
   The engine wouldn’t start, turning the key, gives a click from the engine, but the starter doesn’t turn. Really disappointing and I assumed the solenoid had jammed, so a gentle tap on the solenoid was tried, no luck.
   I hot wired the solenoid and the engine started, the water level dropped, but not enough. So now I have two show stopping faults, when before I only had an intermittent drip.
3. Water levels
   The port water tank level gauge had packed in, the float didn’t float and its magnets didn’t magnetise, so Kathy replaced it for me. I have wired up the switch that used to just show the starboard tank level so that it now switches between port and starboard. I’ve never had such sophistication on a boat before, very posh. Hopefully we can top up now before the tank gets empty, that will save the pump running on an empty tank, and air spurting out the taps when we are empty.

   

   

 

 

 

 

4. Steaming light on mast

The new light finally arrived, and I popped up the mast for a fitting 😉 Well the mast is sort of oval shaped in cross section and the light has a flat back, I took the old light down and worked out a way to use its bracket for the new light. It looks like it will work well, but by now the sunlight was going so Kathy and I headed off to the pool to watch the sunset and have a cooling swim.

Tonight I have been studying the wiring diagrams for the engine, I now know far more about the Volvo MD22 (AKA Perkins M50) than I ever wanted to know. Things like, the engine ground is isolated from the boats electrical ground when starting or stopping the engine. Doesn’t say why, but might be related to galvanic corrosion caused by heavy currents.
Anyway the click I can hear when I turn the key to start, isn’t the solenoid, it’s a separate relay that switches the starter solenoid. I found that 12v leaves the control panel, and the relay is clicking with it, so it must be the wire or relay contacts from there that leads to the solenoid, as there isn’t any voltage getting to the solenoid. I’m very disappointed with the electrical side of the engine. It’s only ten years old, very low hours, yet the electrics are giving me too many problems. I think the control panel is damaged because it’s out in the cockpit, the UV caused the corners to crack so moisture gets in and has its evil way. How long should water hoses last, these are only 10 years old. The engine on Stardust is 8 years old and still looks new.

Not looking forward to tomorrow, the relay I need to get too is in a most inaccessible place. I will do the mast light first before it gets too hot. Hopefully if I can sort the engine tomorrow we can get out of here on Tuesday and go for a sail and anchor overnight somewhere nearby for a change. I’m hoping the rigging will arrive in a few days time and we can depart for Thailand.

 

Paul C.

 

Not quite the same as the events in Willy Russell’s tale, but it would have been nice to take a monkey from the park if they’d only been more friendly ;).

We hired a car last Thursday so that we could explore more inland places of Langkawi.  The process of hiring a car turned out to be a lot less of a hassle here than in any other country.  Apparently the lady on the desk just took a cursory glance at Paul’s driving licence, charged him the equivalent of £12 for 24 hours, asked for a £10 deposit, and asked if he’d return it with the same amount of petrol. There was no inspection of the car’s condition; in fact she merely pointed to one, seemingly at random, gave him the keys and said ‘there you go, take that one’.  It was small, automatic, air-conditioned and comfortable, even if it did struggle to work out which gear it should be in sometimes. Our first stop was to get some petrol so we stopped at the first one we saw in Kuah Town.  Paul couldn’t work out how the petrol cap came off and was trying various buttons and levers while I searched compartments for a helpful manual or leaflet until an attendant with a world-weary expression came over, reached inside and pulled a lever near the handbrake (I have a feeling he might have had to do this before). Petrol is a lot cheaper here (the equivalent of 40p a litre). Paul put £4’s worth in and could have got away with a lot less for the day’s use.

We’d worked out a rough itinerary of where we wanted to go.  We were heading to the western side of the island, where the Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest Park is located, taking in a few other places on the way.  There is a road that cuts through the island’s rural middle and we drove along that after leaving Kuah’s busy centre.  Soon, lush rainforest was on either side of us, and as we climbed higher, there were steep rock faces (no protective netting or warnings of loose rocks here).  There was hardly any other traffic so we could slow down to look at anything interesting.  The houses in the tiny villages we passed looked just like Swiss chalets or the more ornate sheds and cabins found in garden centres. Other places were made up of ramshackle buildings that looked as if they might fall in strong winds. On the roadsides we saw several stray dogs, beautiful red roosters and chickens, cows and the ubiquitous monkeys, which I’ve since found out are mainly Dusky Leaf or Macaque. On one stop, quite high up, we stopped to look out at the Andaman Sea and on the beach below I was most excited to spot what looked like a crocodile or alligator but it could well have been a Komodo Dragon.  You can just about see it in the picture below in the middle of the beach.

There are adverts everywhere for ‘Crocodile Adventureland’, the pictures on the banners show people variously prising open the mouths of the crocodiles (to place a head or an arm inside), riding on their backs and possibly getting them to perform tricks ‘seaworld’ fashion, and as neither of us are in favour of that form of entertainment, we passed that one by and instead headed for the nearby Handicraft and Art Village.  As well as the usual hand made souvenirs and other unique items, this complex contained a couple of museums about Langkawi’s heritage and culture.

Our next destination on the map was the attractive-sounding Seven Wells Waterfall.  It was a picturesque journey through more thick woodland where all the luxury tourist villas are located.  It was still a surprise, however to come upon an exclusive golf course and resort as we rounded a corner. Suddenly all the jungle-like vegetation had disappeared and it was like we were in the middle of the rural Surrey.  The waterfall was a little way after the golf club according to the map.  Thinking we’d missed it, we had to double back and check the location again and discovered from a roadside plaque that it was still being built! Once finished it will be the biggest man made waterfall in Malaysia apparently.  The climb to its source was open though so we decided to do it. A group of workers on the opposite side (in the pictures behind us) cheered us on when they shouted to check we were climbing to the top and watched us all the way. The pictures don’t show the steepness of the steps – some of the were so steep I nearly had to pull myself up with my hands.  The view from the top was stunning though.

Refreshment was in order after all that exertion so we drove to Telaga Harbour for a late lunch.  We’ll be coming back to this place before going to Thailand and Paul’s getting the rigging done here by a guy he knows.  It’s a modern-looking marina with classy restaurants, cafes and bars around it and although it’s not Paul’s ideal place, I was too hungry to search around so we settled on an Italian restaurant with a view over the marina where we had a very nice pizza (for Paul) and fries for me.

Finally we visited The Oriental Village in the heart of the Geoforest Park. This is laid out very much in the style of theme parks such as Alton Towers, but without the rides: lots of handicraft and souvenir shops, a ‘feed the bunnies’ area, cafes, play areas, a huge lake with a wobbly bridge over it, pretty gardens, oh and a plastic, roaring dinosaur which had people queueing to be photographed next to it.  The Oriental Village is also the gateway to the cable car ride which takes you to the peak of Langkawi’s second highest mountain, and the hugely popular Langkawi Sky Bridge attraction, but we decided to save those treats for when we return to the area.

The best part was the monkeys. There were scores of Dusky Leaf Monkeys there, and we sat and watched their antics for ages. They run wild and free within the park, jumping on fences and climbing the trees to feed in large groups.  Some of them had tiny babies clinging to their tummies and they’re not in the least bit bothered by hordes of people photographing and staring at them as they go about their business. Obviously I took loads of pictures in an attempt to capture their cheekiness/cuteness but Paul’s video just about sums them up.  Watch how one of them knocks another off the fence 🙂

 

 

 

 

Most of the ‘big’ jobs have been ticked off Paul’s list now, so we’ve been concentrating on the smaller tasks this week (ok, Paul has done most of those, I admit it ;)).  The first couple of days after we arrived in Langkawi, both of us took it fairly easy.  Even the trip to the supermarket is quicker and easier as it’s a lot closer than the ones in Penang.  There was a lot of heavy rain during the first few days, especially at night.  In the daytime, Paul worked on the engine, trying to find  and fix the location and cause of the oil leak. My part was to hand various tools and things in the fashion of hospital theatre assistant (‘screwdriver’, ‘kitchen roll’, ‘hammer’ etc’) while Paul contorted his body to access the intricate inner parts of the engine.  The same procedure took place when he worked in the cockpit locker to fix the bilge pump, with the added complication of my not being able to hear him very well from my position at the electrical control panel in the cabin when he was shouting instructions while squeezed inside the locker itself.

I’ve taken to going to the local shopping mall daily here as it’s only a ten-minute walk, and the roads to get there aren’t as hazardous to cross as those in Penang.  The walk is pleasant and it’s always a joy to see the monkeys in the trees opposite the marina. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of watching them. They stare if you get close to them, and when one yawned I saw just how long and sharp its teeth were, but they run off when you get too close.  They tend to pick up discarded crisp/food bags in their search for food, and I often see them scampering over a roadside cafe’s tables when it’s empty.

It was Paul’s birthday on the 18th.  We had our usual leisurely Sunday breakfast after he’d opened his presents (and like me, his one and only card) and then it was work as normal for him for the best part of the day. In the evening we walked into Kuah (about 30 minutes’ walk), to revisit the Chinese restaurant we went to the first time I was here.  It was just beginning to get dark as we walked through the park. Twilight is lovely here: the smaller trees are lit up like Christmas trees and there are stalls selling drinks to the families who come to visit the kids’ play area in the cooler evenings.  As we got nearer to the town, I noticed that more construction is taking place here too. The buildings aren’t as high or extensive as the ones in Penang – Langkawi is more of a holiday resort.  Billboards portray what the finished complexes will look like; modern, elegant holiday apartments and retail arenas, all opposite old ruined hotels and restaurants, their facades are full of character but sadly they seem set for demolition.

The meal was excellent. It’s testament to the success of the restaurant that it alone was busy and lively amid several others that were virtually empty. On learning that I was vegan, the waiter went through all the dishes that could be adapted for me, and he even sorted it so that the sauce that came with Paul’s meal could be shared with me.  You can see all the food being cooked to order in the nearby kitchen.  I enjoyed it all much more than the first time, now that I’m more used to the Malaysian way of dining.

It’s Autumn here now and we’re experiencing the south-west monsoon as it blows over the western coast.  This means heavy thunderstorms, windy days and nights and choppy seas.  The average temperature is still 30 degrees, however and this is probably the coolest we’ll get because it will get slowly hotter from now on.  The choppy seas and wind are certainly making the boat rock at times but that is pleasant, as it’s like being rocked gently which is great when you’re feeling lazy and drowsy, especially when accompanied by the sound of heavy rain on the coach roof.  The rain rarely lasts for longer than an hour, though and during one of these rainy afternoons we sorted out all the folders and files on the boat that were crammed with things like charts,  old equipment manuals, yacht rally programmes, receipts and much more.  I’ve also had lessons on chart plotting (using the navionics app on the ipad) so that I can – hopefully – take on the task of planning the itinerary for Thailand next month.  Another benefit of being here is the proximity of Charlie’s Place, the marina bar. It’s nice to sit there after a swim, or a walk and watch the sun sink below the island.

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, Paul concentrated on jobs that needed doing on the boat’s mast.  There was a fair bit of preparation involved in this.  On Lady Stardust he had to hoist himself up in a bosun’s chair, but this boat has rungs to climb up, so Paul had to ensure he had all the necessary tools and fittings for the job in a bucket attached to his safety rope.  He’s related the details of what needed doing in his post. I felt that I should be outside while he was up there in case he needed me to do anything (although I would have stopped short of going up there to take something to him). I took pictures instead, from as many angles as I could. It wasn’t easy because it was hard to focus for long with the sun in my eyes, and also, it made me feel decidedly dizzy looking up at him that high up. I can only imagine what it must be like looking down! I refused his kind offer of ‘having a go’ at getting to the top myself when he came down. 😉 Some pics of the day are below. Next post will be about our trip around the island in a car yesterday.

Popped up the mast today to replace the Navigation light with a new Nasa Marine SuperNova Tricolour/Anchor light.
I’m going to wait until sunset and go to the bar to see how bright it looks. Kathy thinks this a fine Idea.

So a few pics from above.

 

Paul C.

Powerful stuff, must put more lotion on.

I popped up the mast today to replace the spreader working lights, these are lights that we use to light up the deck at night if we need to work in the dark. I also use them to illuminate the sails to make ourselves more visible if I want other boats to see us.

I also wanted to extract the old masthead Tricolour/Anchor light. I was surprised to see how deteriorated the light was. This was quite crazed when I looked at it back in May, but now it was disintegrating, it really brings home how powerful the Uv rays from the sun are here. One of the screws that fixed it down snapped off as I was removing it, so I need to remove that tomorrow.

The spreader lights work well now, I can’t replace the steaming light, which is a white light on the front of the mast we have to have on when we are using the engine for propulsion, because when I tested the light I brought out, it wasn’t white at all but red and green. I ordered a new one today from Austrailia along with a new water tank sensor, should be here in a few days. Tomorrow I will fit the new masthead light which is an LED job from NASA  Marine.
I have also paid for the new standing rigging to be made, it’s being fabricated in Florida and flown out here as I write this, seems crazy, but these wires hold the mast up, and the quality from the USA is very high, so it”s worth it, it’s also quite a reasonable price.

I’m hoping to have the rigging replaced and to depart Langkawi for Phuket in about 2 weeks time. Kathy is working out our itinerary for the trip, so many places to see and events happening there, I can’t wait.

Paul C.