Day 28, Year 4: Arrival in Langkawi
Date: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Weather: Wind NNE 15-20; Rough Seas; Rain Early; Overcast Day
Latitude: 06 degrees 18.642 minutes N
Longitude: 099 degrees 50.904 minutes E
Location: Kuah, Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia
According to Malay folklore, Langkawi derived its name from the beautiful eagles that live here. Helang means big bird or eagle and kawi refers to the reddish-brown color. So basically Langkawi means “reddish-brown eagle.” When we sailed into the harbor here today, we were greeted by a huge eagle sculpture that looks over the harbor. It is mountainous, but the beautiful turquoise waters are not here in Kuah. They are on the northern side of the island. But still, it is a beautiful place and we are so glad we made the decision to come here directly. We had a little difficulty getting here, however. When I recorded the data in our log at midnight last night, the seas were silky and the winds were light. Thirty minutes later we were bashing into heavy seas with 15-20 knots of wind right on the nose. Windbird was hobby horsing through the waters and then the rains came. When I talked about the Northeast Monsoon in last night’s log, I guess I jostled some memory and made the winds come alive. But even with the adverse conditions, we still made it here by noon today. We spent part of the afternoon cleaning up a bit of seawater that came into our forward head through the hatch that was not dogged down tight. We then went over to see Eric and Robyn on Scorpido as they are leaving in the morning, and then went into town for dinner. We will have to fully explore Kuah, the main town here on Langkawi, in the daylight, but at least we found the people to be extremely friendly. We’ll stay in this location for another two or three days and then move to a small island to the west to Rebak Marina. Tomorrow we start the search for things on our “To Buy” list and for people to do the things on our “To Do” list we can’t do ourselves. So it is early to bed tonight as we have a big day ahead of us.
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| 081119 Day 28 Langkawi, Malaysia–Arrival in Langkawi |
