5th April, 2009

Here we are again, on another longer passage to Penang, a distance of 60 miles and we left at 4.30 this morning. For once we have a lovely easterly breeze and getting along at between 5.5 - 6.5 knots, a lovely sail, let's hope it keeps up!!

When I last updated the blog we were en route to Koh Yao Yai and we had a lovely evening there, having a barbecue on our yacht with Solan, Tonic and another boat, This Way Up who has been on both rallies.

The next day we left the three other boats and made our way south, spending a roily night at Koh Phi Phi Don. Next day we headed for Koh Ha Yai which was a lovely spot and we had some lovely snorkeling there. It was not a recommended overnight anchorage but we were able to hook on to a mooring buoy and it was okay. From there we went onto Koh Rok Nok where we spent two nights and had some nice snorkeling in a few of the bays and both nights were able to hitch onto a mooring buoy in two separate bays. Once leaving Rok Nok we had a 43 mile trip down to the Butang group of islands and spent the first night there on a mooring buoy on the southern end of Koh Adang, then moved the next morning to the northern side of Koh Lipe for a night and then another night on the southern side of Lipe. Lipe is a popular tourist spot and the southern side shore front was lined with restaurants and tourist accommodation, both high class and middle of the road. We had a very nice meal ashore for just a few dollars. Was a noisy anchorage though and there were just dozens of longtails going too and fro taking tourists on various trips.

We had planned the next Dave to leave for Kuah, Langkawi, Malaysia in the afternoon when the breeze generally got up but we woke up to find there was a good breeze so took off at 6.30am. Well we did have a nice breeze for awhile and then the wind started to die and the direction changed as usual and came around on the nose so ended up heading for Telaga Harbour, finally dropping anchor there at 3pm. We did our customs clearance etc. at Telaga the next morning which was a breeze and only took us half an hour.

It is a miracle here if you are ever able to sail the whole way to any destination. We can have a nice breeze for an hour or so and then you can virtually guarantee that the wind changes and you end up with it on the nose, and it doesn't seem to matter in which direction you are sailing in the wind will always come around on to the nose!! Very frustrating indeed.

We had a lovely week in Telaga Harbour as it is a nice spot and we caught up with Julie & Steve on Samsara 11 who had Xmas day with us and we met a few more yachties that we had not met before and we would gather ashore each night on a little man made island and have sundowners under the trees in the cool and had a barbecue ashore one night. Julie & Steve have set up a nice little area with tables and chairs etc. that have been made out of things that have washed up from the sea. Dave also helped them plant a little vege garden as they are planning to spend the rest of the season there.

While in Telaga we had several days of doing fuel runs with jerry cans to fill the boat and did a few maintenance jobs. Also had problems with our deep freeze so had to get a guy to come and look at it. Had a leak so he had to take the plate plus the compressor away to see where the leak was so for a week we had no fridge or freezer other than a little mini chilli bin fridge that we have on board in case of emergency. Had a few more problems once fixed so the repairman ended up coming back to the boat three times but the last two were in Kuah, the last time he needed to put more gas in. We actually left there on Sunday 23rd March and headed for Kuah, stopping off en route at Rebak Island and then dinghied into the marina to get our gas bottles filled. Fortunately they filled them straight away so while waiting caught up with some friends and finally dropped anchor in Kuah at 8.30pm.

We have just had two weeks in Kuah where we have had to restock our stores as by the time we got back there we were down to rock bottom and with having no refrigeration was just as well we had run out of meat etc. It is amazing what one can rustle up with next to nothing when you have to. There are no shops at Telaga other than a garage which has a few basic supplies, although there are a few restaurants but we didn't even go ashore to eat.

We took our bikes ashore at Kuah and did a fair bit of cycling. Dave even has a job keeping up with me now. Friends, Fien & Hans from Pelikaan took us out for dinner one night on Hans's birthday and we had a lovely meal at a restaurant close to the jetty. Caught up with La Passerola before they headed south that first week in Kuah.

On Wednesday night we had a pot luck sort of farewell dinner for the rally yachts that were in Kuah, on our boat, in all 12 of us. Thursday night we had a Malaysian guy, Anaur come for dinner and had a very interesting and informative evening with him. Anuar had done us a favour in December when we needed someone to take our old dinghy several km away for repair and Dave had seen him with a van at the jetty so asked him if he could do us a favour. From that he has helped out a few of our friends as he is a boat builder, engineer and many other things as we learned on Thursday night. He did his engineering degree and an MBA in America and at present he is building himself a 30ft yacht. He has a website which is very interesting as he has a few other talents as well so do have a look at it - www.anuar.net

On Friday, along with friends on Oema, the four of us biked several kms to visit Anuar at his yard where he is building his boat and a fibre glass dinghy. Very interesting and Jerry from Oema has a major job to do on his boat so got a lot of information from Anuar. Anuar's family have been shipbuilders on the East Coast of Malaysia for generations.

Yesterday we did our clearance with the harbour master, ordered and had delivered about 6 mths supply of duty free beer ($NZ.60 cents a can). Elsewhere beer in Malaysia is very expensive so everybody does the big stock up in Langkawi as it is a duty free port. While in Malaysia we have not been able to have much time with our friend,
Wendy as she has not had a lot of time off during the busy season. However I told her that we were heading south so needed to see her but she was to be working this weekend. However, she came for dinner last night and at 9.30pm we heard that she did not have to work today so we said how about coming sailing with us to Penang and she can catch a ferry back so she decided to come so we have her on board at present. I took her ashore in the dinghy and went with her back to her house to get some things and then we all finally got to bed at midnight and then were up again at 4am to leave!! Wendy will catch a ferry back to Langkawi first thing Monday morning.

We are looking forward to catching up with friends, Janine & Garth (Catala) in Penang.

We are heading south and are going to join the Eastern Sail Malaysia Rally to Borneo (www.sailmalysia.net) and join it in either Danga Bay or Sebana Cove. We have booked a week's timeshare from 24th April up in the Cameron Highlands which is where all the tea and coffee plantations are and is supposedly lovely so we will leave the boat at Port
Dickson and catch buses up to there. It will be nice to have a break away from the boat. We will probably do the odd day trip to Kuala Lumpur from Port Dickson as well. Leith is going to join us for a couple of weeks at the end of July in Borneo.

That about brings us up to date and it is hard to believe that we managed to sail for 4.5hrs but now the wind has died and we have had to start the motor as we don't want to be arriving in Penang in the dark!!

6th April, 2009
We finally dropped anchor off Penang outside the marina at 5.45pm after coming through a big storm just as we approached Penang Island - had the whole nine yards with poor visibility, thunder, lightening heavy rain and 30 knots of wind. We had dropped all the sails before the wind hit us and fortunately the wind didn't last long. Later n the early evening we caught up with Janine & Garth and went out for a Chinese meal whch cost us $NZ2 each - certainly can't cook for that.

This morning we were ashore early for Wendy to catch the 8.30am ferry back to Langkawi and then Janine, Garth and us went to the market to ge a few bits of fruit and vegetables. It was a great market and we will go back again before we head further south.