Circumnavigating Langkawi

 

As usually, the busier we get the further behind I get on blog posting. The last month has primarily been consumed with getting the boat ready to go to sea, including stocking the boat with provisions for an indefinite time frame, with a little bit of being a tourist in Langkawi. I'll fill this blog with some pictures and random comments covering our time in he SE Asian heat.

I've probably mentioned this on the blog before: my theory that boat that is laid-up for 7 months has just as many things break as one in use over that time. Here is a fine crack that I found in the bobstay (on the bow of the boat). Fortunately the builder, Phil at Outbound Yachts, was able to supply me with new one.

Now this next item isn't really maintenance, it is enhancement. Our new insurance company that covers us for the Indian Ocean requires an automated fire extinguisher system for the engine room. The red bottle in the upper left is ready to leap into action if needed.

We haven't used the dinghy outboard for almost a year. We dropped the outboard on the dinghy, put in some fresh petrol and fired her up. She ran for maybe a minute and half and then died and would not restart. So I did wat I have always done with these 2-cycle Tohatsu, pull the carburetor, take all the way apart, soak it over night in some cleaner, blow it all out, reassemble and try again. Pretty disappointing when she didn't fire back up and I was soaked with sweat from playing tug-a-war with it.

So, we put the outboard on our trusty, 10 year-old, Costco foldup cart, flagged down a taxi and headed into town to the 'motorcycle shop near the KFC' ---- that being the exact directions we had to find the place. Worked perfectly. They had the outboard for a day and sent me a Whatsapp message that it was ready. 90 Malaysian Ringits (USD $22), 2 new spark plugs, new gear oil and gasket, a carburetor adjustment and it was running fine. Very good investment. 

When we arrived back on the boat we found our lower backstay parted. It was made of 9mm Dyneema and broke in an area that has nothing to chafe on. Strange.

We found a good rigger, Chris at YachtWorx, over in a nearby marina, Telaga. That inspired us to get of our berth in Rebak and motor over to Telaga, not a long trip but a real break from being in one place for so long. Finding a rigger who knows what they are doing is one thing, but a rigger gives you specific dates to do the work and actually shows up on those dates is golden.

We got out a on some day excursions to check out some of the local handicrafts.

Chris and Anne got in a complete blur checking out the Batik cloth.

We did buy this recently finished batik. We now just need a wall large enough to display it --- someday. 

Chris and Anne (from Time Bandit) got out to a fancy lunch at local upscale hotel.

This is what they called lunch.

We even got dragged out on hike up to the waterfalls before the new MCO (Movement Control Order) went into effect.

With the MCO they closed the swimming pool at Rebak, putting an end to our afternoon relaxing swim. Must be time to leave?

With less people around the monkeys take over the hiking trails again.

Here we are in the back of a taxi waiting to get past a police roadblock. During the MCO you are only allowed to travel a maximum of 10km from your house and have a mx of 2 people in the vehicle (plus driver if a taxi).

We decided that we really needed to do some kind of a shakedown cruise before we leapt into the Indian Ocean. That brought us to circumnavigating Langkawi Island. Since we had all the sails off the boat during storage, everything had to be re-rigged. It is simply amazing how many lines there are on a sailboat and how ways there are to run them wrong. Every sail we raised needed at least one line rerun or adjusted.

Our first night at anchor we had nice view of he western horizon looking at the Andaman Sea (the eastern side of the Indian Ocean).  You can see the horizon is covered with bright green lights. These are the local squid boats out for their all-night squid hunting.

Hole-In-The-Wall was the most interesting anchorage we had while going around Langkawi. This is the narrow entrance.

Georgia anchored under the towering cliffs.

There are miles and miles of mangrove creeks to dinghy explore here.

Not that much wild life around, but these Brahminy Kites (at least I think that's what they are) like the updrafts.

Getting ready to raise he anchor and head back out of Hole-In-The-Wall for a good days sail.

One thing about Langkawi that is disappointing is the water just isn't clear. Pictures like this fool you.

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Now we did hear that there were a few changes back in the US.

That's the end of a pretty random blog post. I'll get one out in a few days discussing our upcoming Indian Ocean passage.

Paul