Ko Muk/Mook - Thailand

Ko Muk/Mook – pleasant island with steep granite cliffs, rain forest, rubber plantations and wide white sandy beaches. The anchorage was quiet and calm with only a few other yachts in the sheltered bay. “Mister Percival” was at anchor there so must have survived the anchoring challenges along the way from Langkawi. We spent new years eve on the boat watching some of the fireworks. I was in bed by 10, being an early riser I struggle to stay up later than 10pm. I also rationalise I would rather see the new year in and watch the sun rise as opposed to seeing the old year out by going to bed late.

The passengers/crew Elad and Andrea liked Ko Muk/Mook so much that they decided to stay.
I left Ko Muk early morning (4.00am) on January 2 and headed to Phuket - Au Chalong as I needed to check into Customs and Immigration before to long otherwise I would have to answer a few questions as to my whereabouts since leaving Malaysia. Taking more than 10 days after leaving Langkawi is, allegedly, questionable.

Ko Bulon Le - Thailand

Ko Bulon Le – Small island with fishing villages and rubber plantations. Finding a sheltered anchorage proved interesting with the prevailing north east monsoon winds. The night we arrived the anchorage was very calm and we all had a good nights sleep. It rained in the morning, we played Banana-gram – a type of scrabble. Andrea won most of the games. We went ashore wondered through the rubber plantations and had lunch at one of the quaint resort restaurants. After lunch we stopped for a beer at the Marina resort on the way back to the boat. We bought some squid in the fishing village and cooked up salt and pepper squid with a cucumber salad for dinner. During the night the anchorage became so rough with the increased swell that at 4.00am we left to head north. I enjoy sailing at night, this was a new experience for Elad and Andrea. It was also there first experience of sailing without the motor. They enjoyed the relative quiet, with wind blowing in the rigging and the water lapping against the hull. This was short lived as by 9.00am we were back motor sailing again. There not being enough wind to make a decent passage to Ko Muk/Mook. We dropped anchor at midday in the sheltered bay on the south west of the island.

Ko Turatao - Thailand

Turatao – large island east of Ko Lipe is a National Park with no resorts. It rained most of the time. The beaches were, sadly, littered with human detritus – plastic, fishing nets styrene foam etc. We ventured ashore and clambered over slippery rocks and boulders for several kilometres to see a water fall. It is a beautiful island and is worth a longer visit when I head back to Langkawi. The boat was bobbing in the water like a cork when we got back to it. Several other boats that had been at anchor had departed. We decided to head to more sheltered anchorage for the night.

Ko Lipe - Thailand

I dropped anchor at Sunset Beach Ko Lipe at 12.30pm. A very pleasant sail. Ko Lipe is a small island, one of the Butang group of islands I used the Powerdive or hookah unit to dive and check the anchor in 8 metres of very clear water. I was also able to see the bottom of the boat so cleaned barnacles off the rudder, keel and prop. Other than some scarring on the front of the keel where we connected with a reef around the islands off Sumatra the condition of the bottom was not too bad. The day before leaving Telaga I had taken the dingy to a beach and scraped off the barnacles. The marine growth in this part of the world is phenomenal.

In the evening I met up with some of the Aussie lads I’d met in Phuket when I was there three months before and had a few beers at a beach bar.

Christmas day I planned on meeting up with Steve from “Inesfail”. I first had a beer at the Boom Boom bar where Mr Man, who keeps an eye out for the dingies on the beach. While enjoying a quiet Singha beer and getting into the Christmas spirit a very happy, newly married bloke from South Carolina offered rum shots. There were only three people in the bar at the time. Against my better judgement and dismissing past painful experiences I accepted. And it was Christmas after all. As you can imagine it went down hill from there. One is supposed to learn from ones mistakes. However, this ‘one’ obviously doesn’t. It was a good afternoon and evening with Taylor, Lindsay, Elad and Andrea. I woke up on the boat on Boxing day morning feeling a little jaded. The roar of the unsilenced, ubiquitous long tail boats is almost enough to wake the dead. The tranquillity of the morning quickly evaporated as the long tail tripper boats take tourists about the Butang Islands.

There are many beach bars and resorts on Ko Lipe. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to do a pub crawl of all the beach bars and try to recall the bars that one may have frequented. I’m sure this has been attempted many times.

In my happy state on Christmas day I had offered Elad and Andrea a crew spot (I don’t take passengers) on Sadiqi heading toward Phuket. They had been staying at the Porn Resort in a small palm frond hut. On December 28 we loaded up their backpacks and headed toward Turatao island. There not being much wind we motor sailed most of the way. We anchored in the relative calm on the west side of Turatao island. Dinner on board was Thai massaman curry on a bed of rice with some cardboard Californian red wine – a pleasant evening.

Langkawi to Ko Lipe

Thursday December 23, 7.30am I hauled the anchor and departed the Telaga frog pond. Not much wind. The wind soon increased 10 to 12 knots from the south east once out of the shadow of the Langkawi hills. The destination was Ko Lipe, Thailand around 20 miles. Shortly after leaving Langkawi I changed the time back one hour to +7 hours GMT/UTC. The asymmetrical spinnaker was hoisted, Jimmy Buffet lamented on the stereo – it was so good to be sailing again.

Langkawi - Telaga

On December 10 I returned to Telaga frog pond from a little jaunt around the islands - beautiful place - pity the water is not so clear. I spent more time working on the boat - fixing boat in exotic locations - than motoring. There is not much wind in this part of the world so more motoring than sailing is done to get anywhere. I thought I had found the leak that caused the fo'c'sle to become a swamp - with unwelcome new life forms, cultures etc!
There was not a great deal of space available in the frog pond when I arrived. The Darwin Ambon and Malaysia Rally boats had arrived. It poured down with rain all day Saturday which thoroughly tested the deck for leaks - here are only 2 minor leaks - the fore cabin is dry. Must be the first time since leaving Carnavon :o) I’d had to undo most of the aluminium toe rail and epoxy the bolt holes. It was too bloody wet to do anything else other than put the boat back together on the inside and have a few beers.

The outboard motor had become increasingly difficult to start and eventually on the way to the marina cut out all together. While rowing back to Sadiqi past yacht “Chandrika” out of Maine USA, I met Grahame and Sue. Sue’s comment was “you are showing us what we will have to get used to” as they were just in the process of buying a second hand outboard. Subsequently, some wine was drank and stories shared. Sue and Graham are keen Rock Climbers. I hope to meet them again in Thailand.

I stripped down the carburettor on the outboard – a few profanities at Rex – before finding the problem. Somehow water had leaked into the small 5 litre filler tank, I had been pouring water into the outboards internal tank. The outboard is now working very well after having dismantled the carburettor three times. The engine still sounds like an angry little cement mixer.

Monday December 21 – Telaga frog pond – it’s still raining and I thought this was the dry season. Many of the boats have headed off to Thailand. I had been spending a fair bit of time provisioning the boat for the trip to Ko Lipe Thailand for Christmas, then Phuket in the new year. I had also been trying to find and plug the elusive deck leaks - still! Water was still streaming into the forecabin when it rained. I keep thinking that I may have found the source only to find that water is still feeding the swamp monster that has taken up residence there.

The wind picked up a fair bit yesterday and caused some havoc in the frog pond. One large catamaran was seen dragging anchor toward on of the small sheltering islands. Fortunately the owners arrived to rescue it in time. I learned, well thought I did, from previous experience not to get involved. During the night, reading a book “Prey” by Michael Critchon, The wind was gusting up to 25 knots. I heard a slightly different noise outside. On getting up to investigate I saw the hull of a yacht less than a meter from Sadiqi’s starboard side. A few profanities muttered! A yacht was dragging anchor and fortunately had not hit Sadiqi. I proceeded to shout and shine a torch on the yacht to wake the occupants if they were onboard, which they did not appear to be. I then grabbed the fog horn and blew into to it several times to attract attention.

The yacht by this time was heading to the rocks of on of the sheltering islands. Hmm, dilemma. I decided to try and rescue the boat, against my better judgement. I rowed over to the yacht in the dingy. I usually remove the outboard motor from the dingy at night if there is a chance of rough weather. One of the things I learned from “No Rules Ron” a few years ago. Dingys and outboard motors, being perversely human, are apt to conspire to some sort of truancy.

I tied the dingy to one of the side stays on the runaway yacht and climbed on board, moved forward to the foredeck to assess how I was going to let out more rode/chain. There was no snubber line. Probably, why the anchor had broken free. A snubber is a short length of nylon rope, that has some stretch, connected to the anchor chain and the boat, to reduce the snatch on the anchor from the boat rising in waves. I manually pulled the anchor chain off the gypsy and let out about 20 meters of chain. The yacht fortunately stabilised and stopped dragging toward the rocks. I had a look around to see what else I could do and saw a dingy heading toward the yacht. The owners arrived, I helped them raise the anchor and move the boat back into the frog pond. This meant the boat was upwind of Sadiqi again. I made sure they let out more chain when the anchor was dropped. The yacht was from Scotland and the skipper’s wife kept muttering; there is always a first time. I left them, then rowed downwind to Sadiqi, as rowing an inflatable into the wind can be hard work. Oh the joys of being a “Boat bum”. Driving on the Freeway in rush hour traffic is still very much less appealing than the cruising adventures so far.

Rescuing boats is also one way of meeting people. Peter and Jean from Scotland on board “Mister Percival” were grateful and we had several beers on board the next day. “Mister Percival” is built of steel and is not much longer than Sadiqi.

Some really good news was the arrival of the replacement Tacktick wind transmitter unit. This is a wireless anemometer and wind direction instrument, which sits at the top of the mast. A good bit of kit when it works. As mentioned previously it spat the dummy and was not talking to the rest of the system. I discovered that it was still under warranty and was advised by Tacktick UK to contact Coursemaster in Australia, the Tacktick agents. It was with great relief after picking up the replacement unit that it worked. It was such a relief to receive good service for a change as opposed to the usual indifference and run around. Thanks Tacktick and Coursemaster.

Wednesday December 22 I cleared Malaysian Customs, Immigration and Harbourmaster in preparation to head to Ko Lipe, Thailand. I only get a three month visa in Malaysia having arrived in Langkawi October 22. I only get a month visa for Thailand, unless I travel to a Thai embassy where I would be able to get a 2 month visa with a 1 month extension. I’ll stick to the 1 month visa and keep moving.

Langkawi – Kuah - continued

I noticed the boat batteries were struggling. The Stecca solar regulator showed the batteries, when charging, only reaching 80 percent of their capacity. While I as at Rebak Marina and had access to 240 volt AC power I charged the batteries. At one time I noticed the charging voltage peak at over 15 volts. This is some sort of equalisation charge. Being mindful of battery charging I know this was not good for sealed, no maintenance lead acid batteries. The electrolyte was likely to boil and gas, reducing the electrolyte which can not be added back. Otherwise the batteries, ACDelco (lead calcium), 5 years old, have performed very well.

Just as well I gave up on the idea of going to Andermans. Claude and Nelson went to Penang to get an Indian visa to go to Cochin India and were told that no tourist visas will be issued to any foreigners in Malaysia and Thailand. They are having to fly to Perth WA to get a visa for India. It was sad to say good bye to Nelson and Claude, I cooked up a dinner of Pad Thai for them onboard Sadiqi the night before I left Kuah, Bass Harbour.

Boat maintenance in exotic locations. After a few days in Bass Harbour getting provisions etc,. I got itchy feet it was time to move. I had been told about the fiord like bays and islands to the south of the Langkawi archipelago and decided to head there. There not being much wind I motored all the way in the shelter of the high islands.

I found the leak, well thought I had, that turned the fore cabin fo'c'sle into a swamp with squishy wet foam matrasses and damp wall carpet exuding the odour of damp Labrador. The swamp monster hopefully has been exorcised.

While working on the boat and exploring the islands I watched the sea eagles leisurely soar about the rocky, jungle covered islands. I observed one eagle lock talons onto the prey of another eagle in flight and spiral down for a short distance. This seemed to be more a game than survival tactics. The Sea Eagles had a similar call, not as piercing, as that of the Fish Eagles on the Zambezi river. There are two birds of prey in Langkawi the Sea eagle and a kite. The Kite being more common and brown. It was very peaceful to be away from the hassle and bustle of Bass Harbour. The islands with jungle tenaciously clinging to the steep rocks almost appeared to float on the flat water. Alas, the water was not very clear for snorkelling of scuba diving with visibility at around a meter. I could hardly see the propeller while cleaning it under the water.

I needed to find some shelter form the swell to work on the toe rail of the boat. The toe rail is and aluminium extrusion attached to the edge of the deck with about 60 nuts and bolts on each side. I thought I had found a sheltered cove. I made the unfortunate mistake of dropping anchor near one of the tourist Fish Eagle feeding spots. A procession of small traditional boats, with the so called traditional outboard motor, carrying tourists sped into the bay, for several minutes before speeding away to the next tourist spot. The tour guides throw fish or chicken skins to attract the eagles that then do their performance and take off. After the 50th tour boat came through I had had enough and had to leave. It was hardly a sheltered bay.

Journey so far

The journey so far Fremantle to Langkawi Malaysia