11/16/2010, lankawi beach
today we finally got out of the marina in anticipation of slapdash arriving. it seems so easy to get sucked into these places but we wanted to swim in the ocean again and be on anchor. we had found a cool beach the day before on a land excursion so we headed over. here you see slapdash arriving just as the rain is dying off with a perfect rainbow. folowing this we adjourned to shore to the palapa bar we had found the day before. we had a crazy evening with dancing on tables. karli and jamie dancing and singing along with the band. we somehow ended up with a tambourin at the end of the night!
cheers, roger
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11/12/2010, lankawi
well it is amazing it seems every marina stop is better than the last, i am sure we have some miserable passages and anchorages coming our way but so far so good!. we ventured over to the resort side of the island for breky i had a delicious indian thing for 16 ringets (5$) karli had the opulent buffet for a whopping 45 ringets ($15). after breky we walked over to the pool/beach, i could see getting stuck here for a bit! on top of this we are only paying about $12 a day for the slip and you can get a case of beer for 12$. we headed back to palapa to get ready for the going away party we had promised bill and janet on airstream. we decided to go with pizzas on the bbq and gin and tonics with the last bit of gin left from tin soldier. we had them invite all their friends over (turned out to be only 3 of them) and had a nice little event. the anchovy and pepperoni pizzas got progressively better as i got into the hang of the "flip" process. we did make one none anchovy one for a few of the light weights. we managed to stay up until 11pm and then declared victory for the evening.
cheers, roger
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11/11/2010, lankawi
i managed to get up for my 3am conf call and sound reasonable coherent. we finally got some good news on parts availability and fcc testing so i was happier than i have been in a while about work! around 4am we finished up the call and i got the anchor up and under way. it was dead calm with only a few fishing boats out in front of me. as the sun came up i ducked down below to do a couple emails. when i glanced up at the screen next to me a saw a big flashing dangerous target warning. i jumped up on deck and found myself closing on two fishing boats. i clearly need to get the louder remote alarm hooked up as i can not hear it under way!
while i took my morning nap karli took a photo of our very tiered hitchhiker. he had take off by the time i got up but had left behind plenty of bird poo on the forward hatch! we actually where able to sail for most of the day until around 3 in the after noon when the wind kicked up and clocked around on the nose turning the trip into a little bash. in no time the boat was again covered in salt. we powered along until we got into the lee of the island and then pulled into the marina just before 5pm. the marina is actually the middle of the island so it was quite protected. bill met us at the dock and we had another flawless docking event.
that evening we met at the "hard dock cafe" for dinner with jan and bill. as we had dinner a huge storm blew through with torrential rain and 20 plus kt winds. it was great to be in the marina and great to get the boat washed off. tomorrow we explore the 5 star resort side of the island!
cheers, roger
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11/10/2010, island south of penang
so i was able to stay awake until 8am doing some blog entries and email and then finally crashed until noon (unfortunately due to my sleep deprived state i screwed up something and the blogs did not post). karli took a nice shot of one of our nemesis fishing ships while i napped. fortunately we made good time and pulled into this cool little island at about 4pm. we had a nice swim around palapa followed by totrtia chips for happy hour and then a steak and potatoes dinner on the grill. very good! during happy hour we watched the monkeys jump around in the trees but where to tired and jaded by monkeys to take any photo. we went ahead and watched a movie which i fell asleep during as i had to get up for a 3am call on the status of xgen. tomorrow we will head out once i am done with the call and should be in lankaui in time for dinner with jan and bill on airstream
cheers, roger
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11/09/2010, underway heading to penang
so last night we had a huge storm which kept us up and caused us to sleep in. we where not sure we wanted to still go but decided around 830am or so we might as well get underway and get on with things. it was a bit rough with the boat pitching quite a bit early on but by sunset it had calmed down and we where motoring along between 6 and 8 kts with some favorable current and light winds. you can just see karli napping just before dinner in the lower right corner. if you look closely at the picture you can see the maratron display showing 8.1 nm per gal and .8 gal per hour, this is finally coming in handy with all the motoring here.
i made mac and cheese with canned beens, i think i am finally ok with canned veggies again after over dosing on them as a kid! shortly after dinner we entered this fishing fleet from hell. karli did a good job hanging in until midnight only waking me up once or twice to avoid contacts. my favorite light configuration was the all around green light and the flashing red. made rules of the road impossible. it made for a not at all relaxing night watch and i was very happy when the sun came up!
cheers, roger
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11/08/2010, admiral marina
so this am i awoke bright and early to discover my entire body covered in bug bites reminiscent of my last disastrous trip ashore. everything seemed to have gone very well and i was even considering doing it again but today with the all over body spot program i am rethinking. we decided to kick back by the pool after sleeping in a bit, i did my work email and booked larry a ticket (frank i still need your dates). we transitioned to the bar for happy hour and more free wifi where we caught up on our blogs. as the sun was setting we moved outside where you can see i got a great photo.
tomorrow we plan to leave bright and early weather permitting. we still have not checked will see how that plays at our next stop! it was great to get back to palapa, our floating luxury condo compared to the hostel sleeping arrangements!
cheers, roger
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11/07/2010, malacca
so we awoke after a bit of a fitful night sleep (palapa apreciation). the head was down very steep stairs and eveytime i went to the bathroom i felt i was take my life in my hands. we headed across the st to a place with a $5 ringet american breky to wait for the slappers to get it together. the bfast was delicious: 2 eggs, bacon, toast and a free coffee (1 USD - 1/3 ringet) so it was basically free. once we had all completed breaky the others headed out for a couple of hours of "alone" time. i stayed and kept thing under control in the lounge area.
everyone makically reappeared at noon so we elected to get lunch at a great chinees place. again a really cheep meal followed by a cab back to the bus station. karli and i elected to take the cab home for 120 ringets and without two much dificulty made it back to the marina. the slappers stayed to find a bus to KP, unfortunately the earliest on was at 5pm. we had a nice relaxing diner take away from the yacht club and watched a movie from the romper room!
here we are the night before with the tiger beer girl pouring our beer for. you can see i a starting to sport the raccoon eyes like whats his name in avalon due to my sunies alwas being on. ps i am quite tierd as i write this so prob more grammer spell mistakes!
cheers, roger
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11/06/2010, malacca
so this morning i awoke remembering i had signed up for a multi bus trip to malacca with the slappers and so karli could buy her mum and "antique" something there. we started the adventure off at 9am with a 1km walk to the main drag so we would not have to pay the taxi "dispatch charge" (15 ringet or 5$). this worked fine we got a cab who proceeded to take us to the bus depot. from there we found another bus going to saranga and then found an express bus to malacca. while waiting on the bus i went and got some sim cards and some ridiculously cheep street vendor food, yum yum! we had a bit of a miscommunication on the plan and when the bus showed up rather than getting on and saving seats karli hung out with jamai until seth and i returned so we got somewhat crappy seats but it all worked out and by the time i got the sim cards activated we where there.
we grabbed another cab and by 1230 we where sipping tiger beer having a ridiculously cheep lunch in china tow on jonker st. once we finished lunch we tracked down a couple of backpacker joints with open 60 ringent rooms right down the street. while karli and jaimi shopped seth and i located the optimal bar, "the geography bar". we set up camp there in the center of china town and watched the transformation as the main drag was shut down and packed with street vendors. we met two kiwi's in the tolite design business and chatted with them until karli and jamie appeared. around sunset we ventured out and had a variety of delicous food from them. our favorites where the octopus balls (4.50 ringets) and the dim-sum (7 pieces for 3 ringets). we took the food back to the geography bar and had dinner for the 4 of us for about 20 ringets or $7. we declared victory and made it back to the hostels by 11pm planning to get together for breky across the st.
the photo is jamie and i toasting with our free welcome lime juices, would have been perfect with a bit of tequila and tripple seq! you can see my reseeding hairline, no doubt due to all the stress in my life caused by no one commenting on the blog :)
cheers, roger
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Catherine
