Gosh doesn't time fly!! It is about a month since I posted here on the blog.

ANZAC day today, exactly one month since we cleared from Thailand. Yesterday we had a taste of the wet season to come, the rain fell steadily all day. The marina was deserted everyone seemed to be ensconced in their air-conditioned boats even the cruising kids were confined to boats, poor parents!!! I spent the day on the internet doing everything but this writing. So here I am today writing while the sun is shining, the air is steamy, the kids are watching TV near me( luckily cartoons are not my thing!!) and even sitting here in the shade of the big Pavilion at Rebak Marina sweat is still trickling down my face, back, legs... well everywhere really!!

We officially cleared out of Thailand on the 25th March, the last day of our 30 day visa. We had spent 90days in total in Thailand, time to go as we are only permitted 90 days every 6 months. Some cruisers choose to spread their 90 days out, coming and going from Malaysia. We had chosen to spend it in one hit. Reluctantly leaving Phuket we sailed to PhiPhi Don then on to Koh Muk where we met up with Roger and Julie (Tradition). Koh Muk has a beautiful hong which attracts hundreds of tourists a day. Luckily for us the early morning tide was just right for us dinghy in through the cave to enjoy the quiet beauty of the hong long before the tourist boats arrived. The Koh Muk hong was the most beautiful we had been in, a gleaming white sand beach with lush green trees clinging to the circular rock walls. Apparently this hong was used by pirates in years gone by to hide their ill gotten gains. The opening into the hong being hard to find made it a safe pirate haven. The entrance cave was short enough for me to cope with only half a minute out of sight of either entrance. Tourists usually swim in, they are given a lifejacket and a couple of guides and away they go. An hour after we had come out of the hong , we were watching as an orange and black line of tourists snaked their way into the hong.

At Koh Muk we had 3 other yachts for company and for a few hours there was a huge Super Yacht , a mini liner really, anchored near us. Julie and I spent morning tea deliberating on who the celebrity was on board. Royalty? Filmstar? Or a nervous rich person? A very powerful RIB shadowed their kayaks to and from the cave and as they reboarded their floating hotel, with faces averted from our direction, a security man kept an eye on us continuing to keep us in view until they up anchored and left. The only thing we really decided was that the woman was the celebrity as she disappeared quickly whereas the rest of the family took a bit more time. More powerful binoculars would come in handy as well.

Two nights at Koh Muk one peaceful the next nerve wracking as a lightening and thunder storm sat over the island for two hours. The lightening crackled around our rigging and the thunder rolling on and on for minutes at a time. The next day we sailed on to Koh Petra where we unfortunately chose the wrong side of Petra to anchor. When we arrived the anchorage was calm and very pleasant but when it was too late in the day to change, the NW swell chose that night to arrive for the season and we bounced up and down making sleeping difficult. But then sleep was the last thing on our mind when another lightening storm sat over us again from 10pm until nearly daylight. This time the lightening got very very close bouncing off the water and giving a sparkler like display between us and the tall cliffs of Petra 20 metres away. I have come to the conclusion that these kaast islands of Thailand have a magnetic attraction to lightening. As we motor sailed away from Petra at the first glimmer of light we could see 2 black lightening filled systems moving towards us one from the north and one from the south. We could also see the flat water on the other side of Petra where we should have anchored. The northern one got to Petra and clung to its high cliffs before moving east. The southern system kept moving towards us but faltered over the small islands just to the south of our route. We were lucky and moved down a narrow corridor between the two, just getting a smattering of rain from both systems. This is the transition season although locals seem to think it has arrived early this year. Some Thai people we have talked to, (one a taxi driver and don't they know everything!) seem to think that since the tsunami the weather patterns have changed in this area. Maybe they are right.

Our last 2 nights in Thailand were spent at Bulon Channel, sometimes called Butterfly Island. Two gloriously calm, storm free, sleep filled nights. Food supplies dwindling it was time to head for Langkawi and check back into Malaysia. The watery border between Thailand and Malaysia is easy to distinguish, 40 fishing boats spaced over a square kilometer on the Thai side and none on the Malaysian side. Since being in Thailand I call these large trawlers cockroaches of the sea. The pair trawling or individual trawling with huge fine mesh nets do not give any size fish a chance. We had just moved into Malaysian waters when I caught sight of hundreds of small dead silver fish glittering in the sun. These had probably been a result of the netting. Such a waste. For a few months now my small protest is not to eat fish at restaurants or buy it to cook myself.

A week at Telaga anchored outside the marina then we moved here to Rebak where we are getting our cockpit painted. We have invested in an air condition unit so that we can sleep. Rebak Marina is in a basin surrounded by hills, not much breeze gets in, well not yet anyway. From next month, so the regulars tell us, it will not be unusual for 70 knot winds to blow through and ruffle the shade covers. We will have to tie everything down well when we go traveling.

Rebak Marina is on an Island just off Langkawi Is here in Malaysia. The Marina is attached to a 4 star resort which makes it a great place to be. We can use many of the facilities for free, the pool, Wifi internet, Cable TV and beautiful grounds. The 10 min ferry to the main island is free and goes several times a day, at the ferry landing we can arrange to meet taxis and hire cars. There is no bus service on Langkawi which is a bit of a nuisance but car rental is cheap. Mr Din has an assortment of cars at 40MYR (NZ16) for a day hire, ring him the day before, he meets the ferry, money and keys change hands. The car is then ours for the day, leave it back at the ferry landing, key under the mat, by the 6 o'clock ferry and Mr Din is happy. 10MYR(NZ4) of petrol is enough for the day, we usually share the car with another couple as long as we all want to do roughly the same thing. Groceries, hardware, oil filters, water makers, dentist, canvas maker, covered the requirements for ourselves and Marlene and Dieter from Callala this week.

This morning along with 10 or so other ladies I took the Friday morning "vege run" ferry to the Ferry landing to get meat and veg from "the vegeman." Every Friday the "vege man" brings a van load of fruit, veges, meat, bread and cheeses to the landing, the ladies of Rebak Marina get first choice then he packs up what's left and goes around to Telaga Marina. Mr Hong has things that are often not available in the supermarkets in Kuah, avocados, broccoli, smoked salmon, he imports food and supplies restaurants so we get some interesting choices sometimes. He is not cheap but it is a good service and fills in the gaps between visits to town. Being a Muslim country pork products are not really available however bacon and ham can be ordered from him as long as it is done discreetly through one of his non muslim staff, then handed to you wrapped in newspaper on the next Friday. Quite a clandestine operation!!

There are several supermarkets on Langkawi at Kuah and Matsirat, each one has the basic requirements then something slightly different than the others, so depending on what you want where you shop each week. We have found that Pl Soon at Matsirat is probably the best, it has good meat and vegetables that the others don't have. The other day it even had a orange and green lizard touring around underneath the freezers.

There are plenty of resident monitor lizards here at Rebak including a huge one which the staff feed with chicken just often enough for him to appear sometimes to give the guests a thrill. We walk past the feeding place everyday on our way for a swim sometimes it is there but never when I have my camera with me. The horn bills also seem to disappear when I have my camera other times they keep gorging on the red berries as we walk past. Thinking of swimming, must be time to go to the pool and check out the wild life on the way.