On Friday November 26 I departed Rebak Marina and headed to Kuah the main town on Lankawi Island. The plan had been to meet up with Nelson and Claude on “Black Swan” and discuss plans for going to the Anderman Islands. It was a very pleasant sail to windward in 10 to 12 knots of breeze. I passed a fleet of racing yachts sailing under spinnaker heading in the opposite direction. I dropped anchor in Bass Harbour near Kuah town just after midday. It was a real relief to be on anchor again and for the boat to swing into the breeze. At times on Reback I felt like I was going to melt with the sweat dripped off me. Also the breeze has helped dry out the inside of the boat for all the rain leaking through the deck. The battle against culture – mould and mildew was started.
After doing some research into the trip to the Anderman Islands I decided not to go due to extreme bureaucracy, cost and hassle of getting the one month visa. The visa would cost around US$100.00 but required going to Penang by ferry three times to first to fill in lengthy forms, then to leave the passport then to pick up passport and visa. This takes about 2 to 3 weeks. While in the Andermans you have to radio in twice a day on HF with position reports. To damn hard. I’ll stick to scuba diving off the islands in Thailand. Nelson also asked if I would be interested in joining them to deliver a 47 foot yacht from Cochin (India) to the Bay of Islands (New Zealand). I did give this some serious thought even just doing the leg from Cochin to Fremantle. However declined with thoughts of cyclones and leaving the boat for too long unattended. There was no real financial incentive to do the trip. As nice as it would have been to sail to Fremantle in January/February. I’d also miss most the best part of the sailing season in the Anderman sea off Thailand and Malaysia.
