Langkawi, Telaga Harbour

May 12, 2011 I returned to my simple little floating world. The boat was in a reasonable state, thanks to Wendy and Rob from Aja, who kept an eye on her and opened the hatches every now and again. There was some mould and mildew,  not as much as last November. This may be due to the boat being dryer than I think it ever has been before. I seem to have fixed quite a few of the deck leaks. The fore cabin was very dry.

At low tide on Friday 13 May I released the mooring lines in Telaga Harbour and headed out to the anchorage. It felt like coming home as I knew quite a few of the people out at anchor. I decided to postpone the sailing plans I had for this year until next year. I had hoped to head to the islands off Sumatra again. I have been looking through the Loony Planet guides for ideas of where to go to do some overland travel.

Maybe I’ll just head south toward Singapore, hoping it will be a little cooler and dryer.

Langkawi

I had chosen Kuah (Bass Harbour) to meet up with Rob and Tricia on “Bluet” for Chinese New Year on February 3. Rob, Tricia and I spent a pleasant few days together. Unfortunately, they are heading out soon to try and find some work and continue their adventure. This is definitely one of the more difficult parts of the adventure – saying good bye to people whom have become very good friends.

I replaced the house bank batteries with two Trojan TMX27, 105 Amp Hour, Deep Cycle batteries. I was tempted to go for the modern technology and buy Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) batteries. At more than twice the price than that of the TMX27 lead acid batteries I baulked. Also, the old charging system can not easily handle the charging requirements of the more modern batteries. The AC Delco deep cycle batteries had done well lasting just over 5 years. These batteries are cycling everyday to keep, mainly, the fridge running.

Rob from “Bluet” mentioned that he still had his charging alternator from the Volvo penta, single pot, engine that they had had on their boat. He removed the inboard engine ten months ago as it deceased or was about to. They now use sails or the outboard motor attached to the stern to move the boat. The alternator is similar to the one on my Volvo engine. I purchased this from him along with an Adverc smart regulator. This gives me more spare parts to rebuild my battery charging equipment should it fail.

Langkawi

Langkawi – a duty free archipelago made up of 99 islands on Malaysia’s north west coast – is the country’s best-known holiday destination. Surrounded by stunning turquoise sea, the interior of the main island is a mixture of paddy fields, rubber planations and rain forrest covered hills. Despite the number of resorts dotted around the islands it was not over crowded as Phuket appeard to be. Exchange rate – roughly 3 Malaysian Ringgit to $US1.00

Friday night I had dinner on "Black Swan" with Nelson, Claude and friends of theirs; Rob and Trisha. Rob and Trisha had sailed their Sadler 25 foot yacht "Bluet" from the UK. They have been living on "Bluet" mostly in the Mediterranean for the past 10 years. Heck and I thought Sadiqi’s 30 feet was small. Amazing a difference a few feet can make. Saturday was a very slow day nursing a sore head for some reason. It was a very pleasant evening.

Nelson had to go to Phuket to get some engineering done on his engine. He lent me the motor bike he had hired. I would not attempt to ride a motor bike in Phuket as I’m sure my guardian angle would abandon me. Nelson visited a friend in a Phuket hospital who had almost not survived a motor cycle accident there recently. I had the pleasure of Claude’s company for a few days. Riding a motor bike in Langkawi was relatively easy – the roads, traffic lights and general infrastructure are all very good. In fact after Indonesia and even Thailand Langkawi is very civilised by comparison. I did, however, have two disconcerting flat tyres while riding the bike.
November – a Tropical Depression passed in a North Easterly direction over Phuket, with strong winds affecting Langkawi. Many yachts made for the safe havens of Telaga and Rebak Marina’s anticipating the worst. Black Swan headed to more sheltered and a less crowded anchorage. I chose to stick the storm out in the “frog pond” outside Telaga Marina. As usual around midnight the wind howled. The CQR anchor dragged not once but twice! After the second slide down the anchorage, fortunately with out hitting any other boats, I changed over to the Admiralty/Fisherman’s anchor. B-anchor just was not holding in the mud and what ever else was at the bottom of the frog pond. The Admiralty/Fisherman’s anchor held fast.

I finally found the leak that nearly caused me to abort the trip to Cocos Islands back in June. Some bright spark had sealed the limber holes with epoxy that allows water to drain from hidden compartments into the bilge.