Day 32, Year 4: From Kuah to Rebak Marina
Date: Sunday, November 23, 2008
Weather: Partly Sunny Day
Latitude: 06 degrees 17.642 minutes N
Longitude: 099 degrees 41.837 minutes E
Location: Rebak Marina on Pulau Rebak Besar, Langkawi, Malaysia
After an early morning rush to shore in search of paint rollers and fresh vegetables, we pulled up anchor and motored the thirteen miles from Kuah to Rebak Island, the home of Rebak Marina. Unfortunately, our early morning forays were not particularly successful. Nothing was open until at least 10 am and we wanted to leave Kuah no later than that, so we left without everything we wanted. We entered the channel leading into Rebak Marina just after noon. It is hard to believe this marina was damaged by the tsunami in 2004. It is so protected, but I guess nothing much is safe from a tsunami. We checked-in with the office, looked over the haul-out area and other facilities here, and then hurried back to Windbird to start the top-down cleaning in preparation for our Tuesday haul-out. This top-down clean-up was to get the dinghy cleaned and off the deck, then to clean the deck, and finally to clean the topsides if time permitted. As we ate a quick lunch, we looked over the price list for haul-out. Yikes! It is as expensive to haul-out here as it is in the US. Of course, it is the only place to haul out in northern Malaysia and it is cheaper here than in Thailand. But this got us to thinking. We were planning to haul-out here now and paint the bottom. Then, since we have made the decision to stay in this part of the world for another year, we plan to haul out again in February for a major paint job of the topsides. I posed the question, “Why should we pay to haul out two times?” And Mark took it from there. While I stayed on Windbird and gave our dinghy a thorough cleaning, Mark looked into the possibility of not hauling out now. We won’t know for sure until we talk with the yard manager tomorrow, but if there is no penalty for not hauling out after making a reservation, we will cancel and just do one haul-out in February. The decision to stay here for another year is so new to us that the ramifications haven’t really sunk in. But I think we are getting on the right track.
The marina is part of the Rebak Marina Resort. Evidently the resort has elegant chalet-type rooms, but I haven’t walked to that part of island to inspect for myself. The marina side has basic facilities for the resort other than the pool which is down by the chalets. I’ll have to check that out tomorrow. But there is a huge pavilion with very comfy seating and wireless internet, showers, a laundry facility, a resort restaurant, and a shop where you can buy clothes for twenty times the price you can buy the same thing in Kuah. Further along, there is the marina office complex with a smaller outdoor restaurant with yachties prices. The haul-out facility is next to this complex. The whole place is very nice, but it still doesn’t measure up to One15 in Singapore. We really did get spoiled.
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| 081123 Day 32 Langkawi, Malaysia–From Kuah to Rebak Marina |
