Mermaids in Malaysia
01 June 2012 | Tioman Island
Jo
It seems a long time ago that we packed the house up in Norfolk in chilly end of April weather, climbed onto a train in Norwich and headed off for Heathrow and Kuala Lumpur. We arrived in Langkawi, particularly shattered, with a bare 5 days to get ourselves sorted and moving southwards.Our final day was a real treat to go out to a lovely lunch party with Tony and Serena Bolingbroke, fellow RCC members, who have settled in Langkawi, and built themselves a beautiful house there.
Early next morning, with no time for nostalgia, we slipped out of Rebak marina in the dark, finding the familiar channel by torch light, and made course for Penang. Farewell for now to our Malaysian base since the end of 2007.
Our rush to get to Penang in time to get our new batteries delivered proved unnecessary, as May 1st is Labour Day, and a public holiday for all, but we found the new Straits Quay Marina a marvelously convenient stop, and the batteries were duly delivered and installed the next day, allowing me the time for a quick wander up to Tesco, the biggest I have ever seen - Amazing how the familiar at home becomes a treat when it is a rarity!
The next few days were long hours of motoring, with very little chance of sailing. Our worst moment came somewhere south of Penang, when quantities of smoke from our exhaust revealed that there was no cooling water emerging from the engine, and after checking impellers etc, we realised that the water intake was blocked. We were in a choppy sea, so thoughts of going over the side were not appealing, luckily there was enough wind to sail, and Giles decided to get the dinghy pump out, seperate the raw water intake at a joint, and pump it backwards to see if we could clear any blockage. The ensuing gurgling noises were an enormous relief, and soon the engine was happily making its wooshing noises and cooling water was flowing.
Danga Bay marina was the beginning of the Sail Malaysia rally which we have signed up to for the next 4 months, and we arrived with a few hours to spare for the rally briefing, in a 'sumatra', the local storm, 35 knots of wind and lashing rain, and a channel we could not find!
Never mind we got there in time, and a couple of days later set off to the Republic of Singapore Yacht Club, where Flora and a friend were set to meet us for a long weekend break from Hong Kong.
All went well until our last night there, when 40 knots of wind on the beam and a big chop had us lurching and plunging. The pontoon and our gunwales were inches apart in the swell as we rolled violently, while the motor boat tied up on the other side of our pontoon did its best to leap across and join us at each roll. Finally there was a loud bang, as one of our fairlead bolts snapped. Happily the wind finally died, but it left us feeling very shaken.
The rules and regs of Singapore mean that you can only go into one port without AIS, and passing a Singaporean test on line, Changi where Flora left us had to be reached from the Malayasian coast!
Our next rendez vous was Tioman Island, some 130 miles north on the east side of the Malay peninsular, where daughter Poppy, Giles's niece Rachel, and my niece Philippa came bumping down at the tiny airport, a convenient 5 minute walk from the marina, where the dinghy was tied up.
We spent several days pottering around Tioman in a couple of different anchorages, lots of snorkelling, eating, laughter and sunbathing as well as an unscheduled 2 hour jungle hike to find internet, and before the two nieces got too keen on dinghy rides in the dark to a certain beach bar, we thought we had better move on!
We headed back to the picturesque twin islands of Babi Kechil to give the girls a desert island experience! Rumours of 'Survivor' being filmed at the next island invoked threats of mutiny from the crew, who were very keen to have a look! The 3 mermaids landed on the beach, where a set had been built, but sadly no crew were available, so we reverted to plan and moved fifteen miles north to Sembilang Island, to gear up for an early start next day.
Fortuitously and with great excitement we spotted the 'Survivor' team filming on a beach there. Unfortunately the mermaids were waved away, so we had to continue on!
We needed to be moving northwards, and next day set course for the mainland at Cukai, with one interesting overnight stop off the river mouth of Kuala Pahang, where we landed for a walk, and a delightful meal at a very local restaurant who had clearly never seen foreigners before!
Another fifty miles north is the river entrance to Cukai, and the town of Kemmaman, where we had a rally meet, and we thought would be a convenient place for the girls to get buses to Kuala Lumpur for their homeward journey. This proved to be more tortuous than we had hoped for, but they all left together for a night in K-L, and varied onward journeys.
We would miss the buzz chatter and fun that they had all been, but we hardly had time to feel sad, as a reception and meal was laid on for the rally that evening with delicious local food. Margaret on Atlantia, who was a G.P. kindly looked at my ears which had been giving trouble, and took me off to a Pharmacy.
Annoyingly we were in Kemmaman on a Friday, which is Holy day, and shops are closed, but the excellent market was in full swing, and very convenient for our river mooring. We needed to crack on in order to place ourselves somewhere for the arrival of Mikey and Georgie Gurney.