by Judy Handley | Dec 1, 2008 | Malaysia, Sailing Logs Year 4 |
Day 40, Year 4: Back Home at Rebak
Date: Monday, November 1, 2008
Weather: Another Beautiful, Partly Sunny Day
Location: Rebak Marina on Pulau Rebak Besar, Langkawi, Malaysia
We had the greatest Skype conversation with Heather, Jed, and Sam late last night in Pantai Cenang. After a bit of a rough start on our computer, we switched to one of the house computers after we noticed they had webcams hooked up and Skype online. Finally the video from Cape Cod was coming in as clear as we have ever had and the delay in sound was not bad. It was early morning and Sam is quickly recovering from a cold and double ear infection. Jed played with Sam while we talked with Heather and we got to see all the silly antics Sam could cook up. First he put his sock on his hand like a glove and brought that over to the camera for us to see. He and his granddad played sock games everyday while we were home last year, so we’ll pretend he was trying to show us he remembers that. While we talked about a book he has where a turkey puts clothes on the wrong body parts, Sam ran into the other room to get that book. He is a smart little cookie and a busy one. Jed must have been totally worn out when the call was over, but we so appreciate his patience. We really got to watch the “updated” Sam in action. He is growing up fast and we are so anxious to have him on the boat in Thailand in January.
We took a nice long walk on the beach this in Pantai Cenang before returning to Rebak. I mentioned yesterday that it is school vacation here, and there were so many families on the beach early this morning. The Muslim women and young girls go in the water in their clothes with their head scarves on, but the little boys wear bathing suits. But all with squealing with delight when they ran into the water. The beach looked much like Fort Myers Beach, Florida looked before the days of high rises. There is just one beach resort after another with tiki huts on the beach and funky little rental shops here and there. We stopped for a quick breakfast and then drove back to the ferry to return to Rebak.
Once home things started unraveling a bit. The dinghy motor that we thought we had sold was returned. The folks on Milliways wanted it because they thought it would make their dinghy plane, but the old Suzuki needs a carburetor clean out and until that is done, it just doesn’t have full power. So we are glad that we decided not to buy the Yamaha yesterday. We’ll just have to work harder at selling the motors we have and buy the new one later. But the story doesn’t end here. The Suzuki engine was returned to us on Milliway’s dinghy. They just left it tied to our dock so that we could raise it onto Windbird when we returned. I raised the motor and when I was done, I was coiling the line. I didn’t see that Mark had put the twisted piece of aluminum toe rail on the deck just where the line was, and as I coiled the line flipped the piece of toe rail overboard. Having the piece to take into a shop that might be able to refashion it is almost a requirement, so Mark spent the next two hours getting out the dive gear and trying to find the piece. We don’t have a good underwater flashlight and the water was just too murky. He could see nothing and after feeling around in the muck and mud for about 30 minutes, he gave up. Our young neighbor, Magnus, on Lazy Bones was not home today, but his dad says that when he returns tomorrow he would love to dive and try and find the piece for us in return for using our Snuba gear. So we’ll keep hoping we find the piece. As we found yesterday, having the real item is so important as the stainless and aluminum guys need it in front of them to be able to fashion a new one. Oh well, one way or another we’ll get a new piece of toe rail made eventually.
Then, after that fiasco, we realized that we don’t have the parts we need to repair our leaking forward head. We didn’t buy a new electric flush pump yesterday to replace the one we have with a cracked base as a new costs over $500US. We decided to just reinstall the manual pump that used to be in that head. But then when we got home, we realized we had used parts of that pump to repair the pump in the aft head. So Mark is back in Kuah late this afternoon trying to get to Peninsular Marine in time to make a West Marine order. Orders have to be made in person before 5 pm on Monday in order to receive the items the following week. We will be leaving here late next week, so the order had to go in today. If that doesn’t work, we will just buy a whole new head which is almost as cheap. It just seems so wasteful to throw something away that is fine with the exception of one little piece, but that might be the answer.
The one really great thing that happened to day is that our friends, Tory and Piet Hein of Double Dutch are here. They came in late night before last, but we left early yesterday morning. They kept coming to the boat all day yesterday to find us, but finally met up with Barbara and Cory on Increscent Moon who told them we wouldn’t be back until today. And they were leaving today. So as soon as we returned this morning, we read their note and went to visit. As it ends up, they are spending another night here and leaving in the morning, so we will also have dinner with them if Mark ever gets back from his late afternoon trip to Kuah. We often talk about the fact that his repairs seem to get done quickly and my more mundane work of cleaning, cooking, and keeping our sailing records by writing logs and naming the photos seem to never end. But this is one time when the repair jobs seem to be taking a huge amount of time and energy just because so much energy has to go into finding the things you need or finding the right people to do the repairs. But late next week, repairs done or not, we will be preparing to leave Malaysia and head to Thailand.
by Judy Handley | Nov 30, 2008 | Malaysia, Sailing Logs Year 4 |
Day 39, Year 4: Another Whirlwind Island Tour
Date: Sunday, November 30, 2008
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Rebak Marina on Pulau Rebak Besar, Langkawi, Malaysia
We did it again. We took the ferry to Langkawi Island intending to do a little boat shopping and then tour the island. But what we ended up doing was being lost most of the day searching for places that weld stainless and aluminum, and well after 4 pm we did another fast drive around the island. This time we drove all the way north and then back south again. It is a tiny island, so it doesn’t take long to get from one end to the other without stops. So we are learning our way around the island and have a feel for the topography, but delving deeper will have to wait for another day.
Here’s what did do. We got off the ferry at 9 am and drove south to Pantai Cenang to find a place to spend the night. After boat shopping and touring, our real reason for today’s trip was to spend the night in Pantai Cenang so we can talk to and see Sam via Skype after 10 pm. There’s no way to get back to Rebak at that time of night, so finding a place to stay was the first item on the agenda. The motel right next to the internet caf� was totally booked for tonight, so we walked up the street a bit and found another place that looked just fine. The more expensive rooms are on the beach side of the street, but we chose the less expensive rooms on the other side of the street, less than $20US per night with a refrig, air con, TV, and fan. Not bad. Once that was done, out next stop was the stainless Your Way shop. I think I mentioned in a previous log that we need to get the stanchions on either side of our gate straightened and reinforced. We followed the directions and didn’t the place, but we ended up at a great overlook where we could see the whole west end of Langakawi. We also met a very friendly Muslim family visiting from the mainland. It is school vacation time here, so the island is crawling with families on holiday. This family was particularly friendly, however, and we met the two little girls (probably seven and eight years old), the little boys (nine, four, and two years old). The mother was nursing the two year-old and we talked to her about our grandson who is close the same age. It is so heart-warming to meet such friendly local people. They always want to know where you are from and how many children you have. When we explain that we have sailed here from America (no one ever knows where we are from if we say the United States) they just can’t quite understand. But we all shook hands and bid farewell, and we continued our search for Your Way Stainless. We finally found it and left the stanchions for repair. We had hoped they would also be
able to fashion a new piece of aluminum toe rail for us, but we had no luck with that. So on to the next stainless shop to see if they could do the job. Again, we followed the directions we had, but we just couldn’t find the place. We drove down the highway, did a legal U-turn (felt like I was in New Jersey), back-tracked, did another U-turn, and went around two more times before finding the place. And, of course, Mr. Teik was not there. He is the owner and man we needed to see, so we left the
twisted piece of toe rail and said we would return later in the afternoon. By the time we reached Kuah it was noon. We stopped at the bakery and drug store, went to Peninsular Marine, the West Marine outlet, to get a new hand pump for our forward head and another fan (it is really hot and humid here), and then went to the Orkid Food Court for lunch. This is where we first had lunch in Kuah with Ben, the canvas guy, and we had another great lunch of Mee Prawn Soup. We made a stop downtown to try and buy some Schweppes’s ginger ale at a little shop where we had seen it a few days ago, but this quickly, they have stopped carrying it. Mark also made a quick stop in a hardware store and then on we went. It was just one of those days when every stop you want to make ended up to be a major expedition.
Finally around 4 pm we headed out of Kuah and drove to the north side of the island. There are breath-taking views, but unfortunately they are shared with huge concrete factories and other evidences of modern life that totally take away the charm. As we drove west across the top of the island, we saw some villages that looked interesting and we stopped at Komplex Kraf Langkawi. Yes, it is a local arts and crafts complex, but it is huge. It looks like a national monument and is full of beautiful things made in Malaysia. We didn’t have time before closing to visit the museums, but the shopping areas felt like a museum. We bought a beautiful batik painting on silk from an artist named Jasni. We loved his work and he was most engaging. Then the trek continued and we finally got back to Pantai Cenang before dark.
I am writing this log in our motel room and will send it from the internet cafe later tonight. It is now time to go out and “forage” for dinner and then we will have our Skype call with Sam and company. I’ll have to report on that in tomorrow’s night log.
by Judy Handley | Nov 29, 2008 | Malaysia, Sailing Logs Year 4 |
Day 38, Year 4: Surprisingly Busy Day
Date: Saturday, November 29, 2008
Weather: A Day with No Rain–Yea!
Location: Rebak Marina on Pulau Rebak Besar, Langkawi, Malaysia
We actually made it through an entire day with no rain, and no rain overnight either. Of course, the forecast was for stormy weather, so it seems no one can really predict the weather here right now. We had no major jobs on the list for today, but we have worked hard all day. Mark had to take down the life lines on the port side of the boat in order to get the stanchions on each side of the gate removed. These stanchions were bent in a storm coming from New Zealand to Fiji, and although we had
them straightened once, they have bent again with time. So we need to get them straightened again and get reinforcing bars welded in. I spent part of the day finishing my cleaning of the dinghy and applying the UV protectorant. Once that job was done, I started in on the stainless. It is an easy job when we are at a marina with water. I just brush on the “Grunt”, a product from New Zealand, take a scrubby pad and rub over the stainless, and then use the pressure hose to spray it off. I then
take a towel and wipe done the stainless, and it shines beautifully. In between working on projects outside, I also did a major straightening job on the inside of the boat. I had moved everything from the aft cabin to the v-berth when Mark started his aft shower stall renovation, but the v-berth was a mess and all of the stuff needed to be tidied up. This was precipitated by an early morning visit of a fellow Tayana 42 owner just down the dock from us. I was mortified to think that Barbara might
want to come aboard and see the inside of our boat. So the straightening up process began.
Increscent Moon is a Tayana sailing out of California. Barbara is originally from Poland and Cory is originally from Romania, but both have lived in California for the past twenty years. Barbara came by this morning to say hello to a fellow Tayana owner and she and Cory returned later in the day to visit for a bit. We haven’t visited their boat yet, but it is so much fun to share ideas with people who have the same boat and the same issues as we do. We hope to spend more time with Barbara and
Cory while we are here at Rebak Marina.
As we are learning by being here, Rebak is really a special little place. The beautiful Hornbills fly in to roost in the last afternoon. There are monkeys here, there, and everywhere if you just know where to look. And Brahminy Kites, those majestic eagles that we have chased from Australia all through Indonesia, fly overhead constantly. And although there are no services here, anything you need is no more than a 15-minute free ferry ride and then a 30-minute car ride away. Tomorrow morning
we are leaving on the 8:45 am ferry, renting a car, and taking in stainless in to be worked, going to Kuah to buy a new dinghy engine, new life lines, and who knows what else. If time permits, we will do a bit of the tourist thing, and then return to Pantai Cenang, the touristy beach area close to here, to spend the night. We are doing this so we can go to an internet caf� late tomorrow night to talk with Heather, Jed, and Sam. The wireless internet connection out here on Rebak is just not good
enough for Skype calls, but when we can connect our computer directly to the internet on the main island, we can do a Skype call with video. We talked with Justin and Jo a couple of days ago in Kuah, so we will now hope to make a good connection with Heather, Jed, and Sam. We’ll return to Rebak the next morning and continue our jobs on Windbird.
We got the estimate on painting Windbird today and it was a bit of a shocker. To paint the hull (topsides), the cabin top and cockpit, and the mast and boom will cost $48,000 RM. That’s about $13,000US and way more than we had hoped. The estimate in New Zealand was about $25,000US, and didn’t include the mast and boom, so this is better, but it is certainly more than we have. Yet the job needs to be done, so we will continue to consider this one. I mentioned in the previous paragraph that we
will be buying a new dinghy engine when we go to Kuah tomorrow. The price of a 15-horse Yamaha Enduro here is just hard to pass up, so we are trying to sell the two old dinghy motors we currently have. We think we have our Suzuki sold after only one mention on the local morning net here and we will work harder to sell the other. We really don’t have the room to be toting around two dinghy engines, so it will be nice to have one new one that will hopefully be reliable. We learned when Justin and
Jo were here, that the old motors just don’t move four people very quickly. So with Kevin and Claire, and then Heather, Jed, and Sam coming, the new motor should move us all around easily and quickly.
by Judy Handley | Nov 28, 2008 | Malaysia, Sailing Logs Year 4 |
Day 37, Year 4: New Address, Same Marina
Date: Friday, November 28, 2008
Weather: Sprinkles and Rain All Day
Location: Rebak Marina on Pulau Rebak Besar, Langkawi, Malaysia
We moved from A Dock to E Dock today. So the new address is E Dock. We are now closer to the marina office and restaurant and to the laundry and shower. The laundry and shower are in a complex that is also accessed by the tourists staying at the resort, so it is very fancy. It was quite a long walk from Dock A to any of these things, but I liked the walk and would have preferred to stay there. But the marina office wanted us closer for whatever reason, so we moved. We met our new neighbors
to starboard and across the dock from us. Next to us is Envy out of Brisbane with Audrey and Bruce onboard. We met but really haven’t had a chance to chat. Across from us is Lazy Bones with Steve (father) and Magnus (son) from north of London. They bought the boat in Malaysia eighteen months ago and are preparing for a trip to Antarctica. Steve has sailed to Patagonia previously and Magnus has sailed to Antarctica multiple times. He doesn’t look old enough to have done it even once, but he
must have gotten an early start. They are totally refitting Lazy Bones and work from first light to dark. When they get the boat ready, they will leave here and south outside Sumatra to Perth, Australia-4,000 miles south of here. From Perth they will go around the south of Australia to Tasmania and from there they will leave for Antarctica. Most ambitious!
We feel a bit lazy after talking with Steve. Our only project for now is laying up layer after layer of fiberglass in the shower stall. I continue to do laundry and name photos, but nothing major. We are spending a lot of time looking at other boats and trying to decide what we want to do about either building a hard dodger and bimini or just replacing the cockpit enclosure that we have with canvas. More and more we are thinking of going with the hard dodger and bimini, but if we do, we need
to decide if we will build it ourselves or if we will have it done. We are also watching closely the boats in the yard that are being painted as we hope to use the same painter when we return here in February. The weather right now is not very paint friendly as it seems to sprinkle every 45 minutes, so paint progress is slow right now. It should be dry in February, but we would love to see a finished job while we are here.
Our wish for world peace was shattered this morning when we learned of the terrorist bombings in India. We have also learned (from Jed’s father back in Washington, DC) that the Bangkok airport is closed. The Thai nationalists wanting a new government have totally taken over the airport. This is nothing new in Thailand as this struggle goes on and on, but the timing is not good. Our friends Kevin and Claire are slated to arrive in the Bangkok airport in mid-December as are tons of relatives of
other cruisers. This is exactly why the take-over has happened at the height of the tourist season but I sure hope they get things resolved soon. Then there is the crazy increase in piracy of cargo ships in the Red Sea. We have so many friends headed that way this year and the current increase in piracy, even though it is targeted at ships, is still a huge worry. So each of us needs to step up our hope (and activism) for world peace. One person at a time we can do it, but we have a lot of individuals
to convince to go our way.
by Judy Handley | Nov 27, 2008 | Malaysia, Sailing Logs Year 4 |
Day 36, Year 4: Giving Thanks from Malaysia
Date: Thursday, November 27, 2008
Weather: Partly Sunny Day with Sprinkles Here and There
Location: Rebak Marina on Pulau Rebak Besar, Langkawi, Malaysia
We are far from home and there are no other Americans here at Rebak Marina, so we kept up the Thanksgiving tradition all by ourselves. In our “tradition”, we worked all day. Mark layed in the new shower stall floor this morning and then continued to put layers of fiberglass on throughout the day. I worked on trying to get mildew stains out of all of our extra sheets and pillowcases. I thought I had mentioned the discovery of this problem in a log a couple of days ago, but in a quick review, I
can’t find the mention. We have kept the extra sheets and pillow cases in the same place for three years, but for whatever reason, water got into that locker and wrecked havoc. After using every mold and mildew remover I have, most of the linens must be thrown out. I had not put away our very best sheets since Justin and Jo’s visit, so I am ever so grateful that I was lax in putting those away. We have been searching for days for our dinghy repair kit, and I found it this morning. So Mark also
patched the dinghy. Late in the afternoon, I started cooking our Thanksgiving meal. We just finished eating our Malaysian turkey (chicken) with stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans with almonds and locally grown baby corn. Everything was delicious and just like it would have been if we were back home. We decided not to have the prawns we bought yesterday as there was just so much food, so we will have those tomorrow. We are now getting ready to have steamed plum pudding with a Fiji custard
sauce. It’s not pumpkin pie, but it sounds good to me.
Busy as we were, Thanksgiving Day is a time when we stop and reflect on all that we have to be thankful for. Our family always comes first on that list, and then, of course, all of our friends. We recently got an email from a friend back in New Hampshire whose mother had just died a few days shy of her 92nd birthday. Our friend, Judi Stuart, sent out an email explaining that her mother, Marge, believed right up until the day she died that if all women of the world prayed for peace, it just might
happen. Judi’s email expressed that if all men and women “say a little prayer for peace to whomever your higher being might be” that maybe, just maybe, we can make it happen. On this Thanksgiving Day, we can think of no better wish. There is so much unrest in the world, yet all of the people we have met in our travels express the wish for world peace. One person at a time, we can make that happen.
So wish with Marge . . . her daughter Judi . . . and with Mark and I that we can find ways to reconcile our differences without resorting to violence. Please take a few moments out of your Thanksgiving Day to hope for a world at peace.
by Judy Handley | Nov 26, 2008 | Malaysia, Sailing Logs Year 4 |
Day 35, Year 4: AQuick Tour of Pulau Langkawi
Date: Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Weather: Partly Sunny Day
Location: Rebak Marina on Pulau Rebak Besar, Langkawi, Malaysia
The free ferry that takes us back and forth to the mainland is wonderful. It runs both ways about every hour and a half from 7:30 am to 8 pm. Almost no one takes the 7:30 am as it is barely light here at that time of day. The sun rises at 7:15, but it is really almost 8 am before it feels like morning. So we took the 8:45 am ferry to the main island, met Din, who gives you the keys to a car and tells you to put the keys under the floor mat when you return and “don’t lock the car.” So off we went.
We were headed to Panti Cenang, the most popular beach resort (popular because it is not as expensive as the resorts on the north side of the island) to the TCY Internet Caf� that we had read about in the Lonely Planet. In fact, it is the only internet mentioned on the whole island, although we know there are more. But where? We got there at 9:15 am which was going to give us plenty of time to get things set up for a 10 am Skype call to Justin and Jo. Foiled again. TCY is not open until 10:30, so we decided to drive across the island to Kuah, go to the wet market (veggies and fresh meat) that is only open for a few hours in the early morning, and then go to an internet caf� in Kuah. This sounded like a good plan to us. Kuah is the biggest center of population on the island, so we thought that most assuredly it would have internet cafes. We unfortunately hadn’t checked this out when we were anchored in Kuah. Since we had told Justin and Jo we would call at 10 am our time, we were in a rush. But we barely got started when we realized the rental car was on empty. I guess they don’t come with a full tank here. We had to back track to get fuel, but then the trip to Kuah was really fast. It is only 25 kilometers from the beach to the wet market in Kuah. We arrived, bought veggies and the chicken for Thanksgiving. I had them cut the feet and head off, but when I got home, I found they had included the treasures in the bag. They packed the chicken in ice and we bought some prawns on the way out of the market, also packed in ice, and both packed securely in our little cooler bag. Chicken and prawns for Thanksgiving sounded good to us-a great substitute for turkey.
We were still on track, only 10:15, so we hoped Justin and Jo would still be standing by for our call. Then we hit a brick wall. Everywhere we went we asked where we could find internet. No one knew. We couldn’t believe it. We got a few vague directions, followed them, and found one place that was not open. We finally headed to the town center, parked the car, and walked to the shop where we had bought charts and bottom paint. The son of the owner of that shop is young and I was pretty sure he would know. He was busy, but another young man immediately directed us to the closest internet shop. Okay, we thought, we still might reach Justin and Jo. We found the shop, but then we could not get connected. An hour later Mark was still struggling to figure out the problem, and just when I was on another computer emailing Justin and Jo to tell them we were not going to be able to call them, he got things working on our computer. I should mention that in order to have a hard wired connection for Skype, we have to connect our computer as the local computers do not have Skype as an option. Mark connected with Justin and Jo and we were finally able to do a Skype call with video. There was a bit of a delay, but it was so much better than any wireless connection we have had recently. It was so wonderful to see Justin and Jo. Jo is almost five months pregnant and really doesn’t look it. She has a little bit of a belly, but not much, and if feeling great. Justin assured us that she really looks bigger in person, and since I know she has a most hardly appetite, I know “wee gerbil” is growing. Justin has cut off his beard as I suspected for the glimpse I got yesterday, and they are loving the new house in Santa Fe. So all is well in New Mexico and we feel so much better after talking to them and being able to see them via the Skype web cam. As frustrating as it has been to get connected with them, it was all worth it. Unfortunately, calling them is easier than calling Heather, Jed, and Sam due to Sam’s bedtime. We have to call Heather and Jed late at night our time in order to see Sam in the morning. So we’ll work on that next. The internet caf� that is closest to us on the main island is open until midnight seven days a week. We’ll just have to spend the night there as there is no transportation back to the island after 8 pm (5 am on the East Coast and not a good time of day for a phone call), but that should be a fun outing.
Once we had our Thanksgiving chicken and prawns and had talked to Justin and Jo, we turned around and headed back west. We stopped at our favorite Kuah restaurant and had prawns in Thai sauce. They were delicious and we were now ready to do a bit of touring of the island. We drove back to the west coast to Telaga Harbor where we checked in with the Harbormaster and checked out the Telaga Harbor Marina and the newly built Perdana Quay. This is a very upscale little quay with megayachts “parked” right next to the row of restaurants. It all looked great but was very expensive, so we traveled on. We then checked out a couple of tourist attractions that we will definitely want to visit on another trip and made it back just in time to catch the 4:30 ferry to Rebak Marina.
I forgot to mention that I was able to buy California celery at the wet market this morning. Now I’ll be able to have my favorite Thanksgiving stuffing. It just wouldn’t have been the same without celery and celery is a seldom seem item out here. Celery, a chicken, and a successful video Skype call to Justin and Jo . . . I feel thankful already.
