BACK IN DANGA BAY

Moored 01°28.3 N 103°43.4 E

We arrived back in Danga Bay marina 23 May eleven days after leaving the anchorage at Kuah, Langkawi.

On leaving Admiral marina in Port Dickson we moved another 40 miles further along to Pulau Besar. The trips continue to be the same, motor sailing along. The wind ranged 10 to 12 knots and just 20 to 30 degrees off the bow. We get help from the main but can't truly sail. We had a calm night at anchor and were up the next morning for another long 68 mile day to Pulau Pisang.  Our weather and wind continued and after twelve and a half hours we were anchored at Palau Pisang. Only one more day of 40 miles to go.

Being the SW moonson season we anchored on the northern side of the Palau Pisang. This our last night we experienced a squall at about 0200. The wind piped up to 35 kts along with some lite rain.  The swell seemed to bend around the island and we had some quite rocky and rolly conditions. Our anchor held fine but it was uncomfortable and not much sleep was had the rest of the night. It was much nicer once we got under way again in the morning. We managed the last part of the trip under the normal motor sailing conditions. Arriving in Danga Bay in the early afternon. We were greeted by "Capt. Ron" the dockmaster and secured in our slip. During our previous stays here it has been free. They now charge 100 Rm per week or about $33 US. Then you are given a voucher for 50 RM that can be spent at one of the marina restaurants. so it is really only about $17 US per week a real deal.


We have now made four trips up and down the Malacca Straits always with little or no wind and lots of local fishing boats. We never bother trolling a line as the locals using either drift gill nets or nets drug behind must have vacuumed up any possible fish.

A LOCAL GILL NETTER

 These fishermen drag nets behind scooping up everything from prawns and squid to any type of fin fish they go by. On a forty mile passage we would see perhaps 200 or more of these boats plying the waters. they work both day and night.

Here are some other photos from the various trips.

                     A lighter and tug anchored outside of Port Klang waiting to head in to off load

KATHY AND HAZEL ON WATCH IT MUST BE COLD, PERHAPS 80 !!

OIL PLATFORM OFF PORT DICKSON

ANOTHER "S----Y" DAY

A BIT OF NET THAT WE PICKED UP ON ONE OF OUR TRIPS

A SINGAPORE PATROL BOAT



FISH FARM NEAR DANGA BAY



THE GUY HANGING THERE HAS A LOT OF PAINTING TO DO !!

APPROACHING SQUALL



WE DO GET TGO SAIL A LITTLE



A SHIPPING LANE MARK OR PERHAPS MOORAGE FOR A FISHING BOAT



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EVERY WHERE FISHERMEN EVEN AT THE ENTRENCE TO A MAJOR PORT



Now back in Danga Bay we are keeping busy. Kathy will be returning to the states on 5 june for five weeks amd I'll continue with the never ending list of boat jobs.

                                                                                                                                                                                       

ANOTHER LONG DAY

Anchored, Selat Lamut 02° 54.613N 101° 18.830E

We had a very quiet night at the "Roadstead" anchorage and were up bright and early, well it was still dark so I guess just early and headed on further south. As the norm here it was a motor the entire way. In the last edition I said we usually traveled between 5 and 6 kts. ,here that's not totally correct as current plays has a huge impact on the passages. An example today was from 4.3 to 6.6 kts. never changing the throttle. In our past transits of the Malacca Straits it has always been the same. For you or against you!

We'll continue along tomorrow, weather permitting, with our next destination in the Port Dickson area.

ROADSTEAD ANCHORAGE

Middle of No Where, East Coast Malaysia

Anchorage Spot 03°38.010N 100°58.806

As you can see from the above from google earth our anchorage is definitely the middle of no where.

On Wednesday 16 May we traveled 67 miles further south from Penang to the Turtle Rock anchorage on the east side of Pangkor Island. As we continue moving the next big and protected spot is Port Klang, but it's about 85 miles and for us only normally making 5.5 to 6.5 kts to far for a day trip. Our choice was to stop here in the middle. We spent a night here last November and were fine. Of course everything is weather dependent so we'll see how the night goes. We are about a mile offshore and anchored in only twenty feet of water. There is plenty of room if we should drag.

Today's passage was quite nice as we actually got to sail for three hours, unusual for this part of the world.

As usual most of the day was spent trying to figure out what the various fishing craft were doing and how to stay out of the path. No matter what they always try  to cross in front of you and most are dragging long trawl nets.

WET and MOVING AGAIN

Jerejak Anchorage, Penang Malaysia
05° 18.710 N 100° 18.124E

We managed to splash on 6 May and best of all Miss Perky, our faithful Perkins engine, started right up and on engaging the transmission Miss Velvet we had both forward and reverse. We motored out of the travel lift area and into a slip. For the next several days we made ready to head over to the anchorage in Kuah Town. This would serve as a sea trial. We spent the ninth of May till the thirteenth in Kuah prepareing to get underway back down south to Danga Bay in Johor Bahru.

So finally we have an internet connection to send some photos. These come from being on the hard in Rebak Marina.

Heading for the travel lift

UP PO GOES

MOVING THRU THE YARD

THE CATS BELIEVE THEY HAVE BEEN PICKED UP BY A MONSTER

OUR NEW HOME "THE HARD"

SCRUBBING THE TOPSIDES



WORKING ON THE TRANSOM



A HAPPY PAINTER

A COAT OF PAINT FOR THE TRANSMISSION

LIFTING THE TRANSMISSION OUT

INSTALLING NEW REAR MAIN SEAL

THE TRANNY GOES BACK IN

REPAINTING THE AKUA

WE BOTH GOT TO TRY

A REST FOR ME

A REST FOR HAZEL

EVEN TRADER JOE'S BAGS GET REPAIRED

ALMOST READY

We have finally gotten underway again. Yesterday was a 68 mile motor sail from Langkawi to the anchorage
here in Penang. We rested up today with Kathy busy cooking passage food and tomorrow continue on further south. We have Pangkor as our goal but if necessary we can stop at an island 13 miles north of there. All will depend on the weather.

THE END [WATER] IS IN SIGHT

REBAK MARINA, LANGKAWI MALAYSIA

We have now scheduled our SPLASH date, Sunday May 6. Our new main sail arrived on 2 May and thanks to Jack and Sandi of "Zorana" was picked up and delivered to us at Rebaks ferry dock. Yesterday Kathy made the ferry, taxi trip in to Kuah to provision with essentials and pick-up the long awaited exhaust fitting.

While Kathy was on her town trip I finished the waxing of the hull. The topsides look much better but are in need of paint our next haul out.

Today was the Friday "veggie" run for Kathy and I spent the morning installing the new exhaust fitting then re-packing the stuffing box for the propeller shaft. With the exhaust back on Kathy scheduled our SPLASH for Sunday, of course the bill had to be paid as no cash no splash. One more big thing before getting wet was to finish with the anti-foul paint on the bottom. We put one more coat on today and will add another tomorrow before doing the final little stuff before Sunday's event.