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.
