Day 33, Year 5: Contact with Justin, Jo, and Ziggy
Date: Saturday, November 28, 2009
Weather: Beautiful Day with Blue Skies; Thunder in the Evening but No Rain
Location: Rebak Marina, Pulau Rebak, Langkawi, Malaysia

Where did today go? I had great ambitions, but they seemed to fade right away. Mark made one tremendous step forward today when he attached the new 3M Keel Guard to the bottom of our dinghy. This was a West Marine purchase while we were home in the US and we sure hope it works. Much of the gelcoat on the bottom of our dinghy has been rubbed away by dragging it up sand beaches, so this new rubber guard should help protect the bottom. I just hope it will not be a hindrance when we try to drag the dinghy ashore. At least the application went smoothly.

I spent a great deal of my late morning, early afternoon walking around trying to borrow a couple of green peppers from friends. I need them to make the spaghetti sauce that I plan to can for the long Indian Ocean passage. The young woman who runs the little store here told me she would try to get some by tomorrow, and that will be my only hope as no one had any to loan. My trek took more than an hour and half as there are always things to talk about, and in the meantime, Justin, Jo, and Ziggy made a Skype call to Mark. I missed it and when I returned home, the internet connection went away for almost two hours. By that time, it was way past midnight in New Mexico, so I missed them today. Hopefully I will get to see Ziggy tomorrow. Justin and Jo have completed their move from Santa Fe to Cerrillos and they posted great photos on Picasa for us to see. Their new home looks spacious and beautiful and there was one video of Ziggy eating Thanksgiving Dinner that is a true classic. I have never seen such an attack on food. Ziggy is full of life and his photos show it. Look out, Justin and Jo.

The friends who came over for drinks last night left the marina today, but not before we snatched a great bit of information from them. Ed and Lynne of Constance (a US boat) have been out here since 1994 and they have learned all the tricks of the trade. And add to that the fact that they are avid National Public Radio (NPR) listeners. They have a WorldSpace radio that allows them to receive all NPR and BBC news programming, news from all parts of the world, as well as music from around the world including classical and jazz. They bought the radio in Singapore for $70 US and they pay about $5 US per month for the satellite service. This morning I heard all those familiar voices from NPR on their radio and decided that I just have to have one of these. We will try to contact the guy in Singapore where they bought their unit and hope that we can have one sent here. You can receive NPR and the BBC on HAM radio, but the times are strange and the connection is always noisy. This satellite version is as clear as can be. So we’ll hope we can purchase one of these units for the upcoming months of . . . who knows where we will be.