After 13 weeks in Boat Lagoon, Phuket, Dreamcatcher is finally back in her berth in Straits Quay Marina, Penang. It was a worthwhile but exhausting time exacerbated by the record temperatures and un-relenting heat. We were splashed from the hard stand at the end of April and spent a week in the water before departure - primarily for in-water testing and jobs that couldn't be done on the hard (e.g. hanking & hoisting the repaired headsail). We also needed to vacate our little apartment and re-stow all our belongings from the past 3 months. We enjoyed some final dinners with friends, said farewell to the kitty-cats we'd become so fond of, got the boat passage-ready and said our farewells to Boat Lagoon.

We felt like birds set free from a cage when we arrived at open water after being piloted out of the shallow river - a blue sky breezy day on the 7th of May, bound for Penang 200 miles away. It was (thankfully) a benign passage but without our normal stop at Langkawi. We ploughed through dozens and dozens of fishing boats - mostly brightly lit squidders - on the overnighter.

A pre-arrival overnight stop at Pulau Bidan proved restful and welcome, and we felt able to relax for the first time in months. Our 3 hour motor into Penang to make the high tide entry was followed by a fish & chip dinner at the Blue Reef and drinks at the marina's Irish bar, to catch up on dock news.
We got several admirers at the dock - we must say we are so pleased with how Dreamcatcher looks - she's glossy and looking very lovely.

The next week was spent on little jobs that had been side-lined in Phuket, like replacing the galley counter lights with strong LED strips. The only downside was the arm-wrestling required to get the new awning to fit - unlike the old one, the Sunbrella was stiff and un-cooperative but we eventually got all 3 sections to marry up after about 3 hours of huffing and puffing with the odd swear-word thrown in!

With the onset of the SW Monsoon, we'll leave Dreamcatcher in her berth for a couple of months, but head up there in June & August essentially as liveaboards, and explore some more of Penang.

Evenings at the marina in Penang were spent enjoying our great new cockpit table - photo attached.

If anyone wants any references for work/processes in Boat Lagoon, don't hesitate to contact us on dreamcatchervoyage@yahoo.com.