6th January 2009 It is quite some time since I updated our blog and I hope all our family and friends had a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We finally started to leave the marina in Penang at 7am on 13th December, backed out of our berth, put the boat into forward gear and then the motor stopped and the drama began. The motor would not start and the tide was running pretty fast. We yelled out to the boats on the opposite side and they just managed to push us off their boats and fortunately no damage was done. One of the fleet had had a similar incident in the same place when he was trying to leave at 6am and they bent all their stanchions and did some damage to one of the boats we ended up on. We sat there held off for an hour and a half until the flat tide and Dave managed to ascertain what the problem was. While working behind the engine control panel he had accidentally knocked a wire from the fuel pump while putting a new fuel gauge in. It was an easy job to fix but you do not want things like that to happen when you are going in and out of marinas. Several boats had got into trouble while we were there as there was a strong tidal flow. We then motor sailed 29 miles to Pulau Bunting where we spent the night.

Had an early start next morning, leaving at 6am for the main town on Langkawi Island, Kuah. It was a 40 mile trip and we sailed all the way except for the last 8 miles when we came into the lee of the islands around Langkawi. It was only the third good day of sailing since we left Darwin at the end of July!! We arrived in Kuah at 2pm and managed to do a bit of a spring clean on the boat before we had our friend Wendy Chin for dinner. It was great to see her again after five and a half years and catch up on what she has been up to in that time.

Wendy had the next day off so she picked us up at 1pm and took us out for lunch as well as dinner and showed us around a good part of the main island of Langkawi. Visited Telaga Harbour Marina plus did a little bush walk to a waterfall and had a fresh water swim in the pool below the waterfall.

We spent several days anchored off Kuah and on the evening of the 18th we had a Sail Malaysia function at Makam Mahsuri which is in the middle of the island. Several of us went by mini van taxi to this venue as it was a half hour drive from Kuah. We had a lovely welcome and a nice meal there and then time to have a look at the place.

Makam Mahsuri is a Langkawi legend with Mahsuri being the most beautiful girl on the island and while her husband was away fighting a war several of the men and women in the village said that she was being unfaithful to her husband so they designated that she should be killed. Several attempts were made to kill her but all failed until she could stand it no longer and said that the only way she would die was to use a weapon from her family. When they killed her white blood came out of her body and as she was dying she put a curse on the island and said that the island would not prosper for 7 generations. So for 7 generations Langkawi did not prosper and it was only in 1968 that the island started to prosper again. It is only relatively recently that the local government has actually put her remains in a tomb.

On 19th Dec we went a few miles up the coast to join La Passerola and anchored off Pantai Tengah which is where a lot of the resorts are based. Next morning we were invited over to La Passerola for a pancake breakfast before we headed on up to Telaga Harbour for the final Sail Malaysia function. Most of the fleet attended the function and all in all it was a fabulous night with a superb meal, great band and all free as all the functions were. It cost us $A50 to join the rally and we certainly received more in return for our $50. Have hats to burn, plus 3 shirts each and various other goodies and all the free meals.

We came back to Kuah the next day as we had a few things to organize as well as food etc. for Christmas. Some of the markets are quite some distance from the anchorage so the bikes came out and one day we did three trips to the supermarket, market etc. as we could not carry everything at once on the bikes. By the end of the day I was pretty weary although we still managed with a bit of persuasion from friends to join in the drinks, nibbles and a little fun gift giving from unwanted things on our boats.

Christmas Eve Bill and Lyda from Viajero (Bill was the one who ended up in Port Klang Hospital with Dengue fever) and us went to the night market which they hold on Wednesdays and Saturday nights. Wendy had taken us when we first arrived here and is a great place to go to. There is no point in cooking a meal those nights as we can eat freshly cooked in front of you meals for $2 or $3 each. Also can buy fresh fruit and some vegetables there.

We ended up staying in Kuah for Xmas day and had Xmas dinner on shore under trees with Colleen and Les and daughter Amy from La Passerola, Bill and Lyda and Julie and Steve from Samarand 11 whom we met through Colleen & Less. We didn't eat until about 2pm but had roast pork, roast chicken, prawns, meat balls, roast vegetables and various salads and vegetables. It was all very relaxed and believe it or not I did not even have a glass of wine although I took a bottle ashore but it came back unopened. Julia had made some sangria so had a couple of small glasses of that instead. We then had everybody back on Pied A Mer around 6pm for my "Nanna Christmmas's" Xmas pudding and the others bought various dishes and treats to add to it and we finished off with coffee and Xmas cake that I had made. A pleasant and relaxing day but not the same as being with family but we spoke to all the family during the course of the day.

It is a small world - we found out when we were in Belitung that Colleen is our good friend, John Cullen's first cousin. Then just before Xmas found out that her brother is a great friend of Dave & Fran Chown's and has done several sailing trips with them. Colleen is a kiwi but married to an Aussi and lives in Australia.

Boxing Day we left Kuah again for a few days R&R off Rebak Island and went to a musical night put on by some of the yachties who were in the Rebak Marina which was most enjoyable. Came back to Kuah for another couple of days to unpick the UV strip on our genoa as we have it in at a sail makers here in Kuah to be mended from the big rip in Indonesia plus have a new UV strip put on as the old UV has had it. By unpicking ourselves we save 200MYR but it took Dave and I 4.5hrs to unpick and remove all the old.

Since Darwin our Maxxon dinghy which was new in 2004 has been giving us a lot of grief and continually going flat and Dave has had to repair it umpteen dozen times with no permanent fix as we have never managed to get the right glue. With the heat the seams are coming unglued and no matter how many times Dave reglues them they will not hold so before New Year we took it to a guy who is very good at repairing dinghies. However he is only going to spend a certain amount on it and cannot guarantee it. One thing you never read in all the sailing info we read is that when up in the tropics there is only one type of inflatable dinghy to have and that is hyperlon, not PVC. We have another brand new dinghy in our container at home which we had meant to put on the boat when we left for Vanuatu but forgot. A dinghy is like a car for us and at the moment we have a loan of one from Les and Colleen. It is pretty small, leaks a bit but at least doesn't go flat!!

New Years Eve was spent at a function held at Rebak Marina with a lot of the yachties from both the fleets there and we had a nice meal with a really good band and dancing, finally getting to bed at about 1.30am. Also caught up with a few that had not done the Sail Malaysia rally.

Next day we headed up to Telaga Harbour but ended up spending the night alongside Toucan Tango outside the harbour area. We had had an email from American sailing friends, Cam & Marilyn, saying that friends of theirs from Australia, Judy & Bob (whom we actually met in Vanuatu in 2007) were arriving up here on Xmas Eve and leaving about New Year on friends boat, Toucan Tango. We had visited Marvin & Ruth before Xmas but after Judy and Bob arrived never got to catch up so when we got up to Telaga there they were so we ended up having drinks on board and then a pot luck dinner and had a very pleasant evening. They then left at 7.30 next morning and were off on a 1500 mile passage to India and then going through the Red Sea to Turkey.

We have spent the last few days in Telaga Harbour and were joined by 10 other boats to celebrate my 60th birthday on the 4th with a Pot luck dinner on the beach. We had a great night, lots of laughs and a lovely meal. A card was made up for me with the following poem:

"There was a young lady called Jo Who found life back home rather slow So she set off across the sea With a GPS for a TV And a dinghy that caused her some woe Now whatever her age She smiles at every new page As long as she doesn't have to row"

A trick played on me with the following little ditty

"Here's a birthday treat For someone neat With special care Don't let the juice go everywhere Just down the hole Next to this pole The liquid refreshment May bring some astonishment The soil shakes And then it breaks With laughter and cheer Keep the good atmosphere"

All the family rang on my birthday, plus a few friends so that was really neat and made my day feel special.

You will note that it is awhile since I updated photos on the website but at the moment I am having trouble getting them through, spent hours yesterday trying but to no avail. Have sent an email off to see if the person who set up sailblogs can fix it up.

We are currently heading back into Kuah as we have one or two little repair jobs to do and are hoping by the end of the week that our dinghy will be ready.

Leith and Hannah are off to Paris on 7th January and then doing a bit of tripping around Europe. Hannah has earned this trip with her job and Leith also gets to go on her coat tails. Hannah can only be away for just over two weeks but Leith is staying on for another week and will catch up with a friend in Switzerland. They are being put up in a five star hotel in Paris for the first few days!