July August 2018

We left Langkawi on 9 July and motored a couple of hours to Singa Basar where we anchored for a couple of days just having lots fun in the water and playing with all the toys. 

Marta and Guillaum loved the water so we were kayaking, running in the 2horse outboard and sailing Morgs Bic all day.

Days spent doing what we embarked on this lifestyle for!! It’s very beautiful around here, quiet, nice beaches and those groovy limestone islands shooting straight up out of the sea. A few quiet beers at sunset and a bbq on the back of the boat-bliss.

Riding on Guillaum’s shoulders

Having a bathe in the cool waterfall

Heading under the Penang Bridge

After two chill out days here we had a nice motor sail down to Penang. A few more chores to do here so we elected to go into Straits Quay Marina on the western side of Penang. It was spring tides at the time so we were sunk in mud at least to 4 feet in our berth. Topped with a big swell coming straight into the entrance and jerking us around like anything it wasn’t exactly a pleasant stay. Although we do like Penang. It’s a nice place to visit, a mix of Chinese 

Leaving Penang

Indian and Malay cultures resulting in great food and interesting history and buildings. We stayed here for a few days and then headed down to an anchorage on the south western corner of Penang ready for the big haul down to Pangkor. The idea being to arrive somewhere around evening when we could anchor off Pangkor Island. Nice idea.

It’s now August, and we are in Pangkor (Malaysia) the next stop south of Penang. We arrived here after a bit of a challenging night on the boat, the genoa furler disintegrated and we had to take the big heavy genoa down on the deck, glad we had Marta and Guillaum on board. Then in the early hours of the morning the bilge alarm went off, there was more water than normal in the bilge but we weren’t sure how it had got there. That morning as we left Penang and were motoring out from the anchorage on the south eastern corner of the island, we heard a strange sound and found a plastic bag caught around the fan belt. We were in a narrow channel at the time so anchored while this was sorted out, but still a whining coming from the fan belt from the engine driven bilge pump. Impossible to tighten so we cut it. And whadda you know! Needed our bilge pumps that night.

I was manually pumping the saloon pump and Guillaum the cockpit pump, while Warren was trying to find the source of the leak, nothing obvious found, no broken hoses or major leaks.  The level of the water subsided and stayed that way. We figured it had probably come from the lazarette which hadn’t been dogged down and we had been beating with some water coming over the boat. Although theoretically the lazarette should be water tight. Pumped the water out and relieved to see that no more was coming in, so there didn’t appear to be a major leak. But funny what goes through your head at the time, liferaft hadn’t been serviced for quite a few years, epirb hadn’t been updated, nor had our call sign, dinghy had just been sold……………………………Extremely unusual for us as Mustang has always met Cat 1 requirements.

So after several delays and incidents we arrived at Pangkor Island in the early hours and mooched around outside the island till dawn, dodging trawlers, fishing boats, nets etc etc , as we didn’t want to approach in the dark, unsure if the engine would go ( if the bilge water may have been from a broken hose off the engine) and also it is a very tricky narrow channel into the marina itself.

Dawn arrived and we headed into the marina full steam.  No problems. After a bit of sleep and damage assessment along with other variables (such as Warren still needing to go back home frequently) we have decided that as this is our last opportunity to reengine before we head to the northern latitudes. Saying that, the engine has been the one thing that always starts first pop. It’s a 30yr old Perkins. You have to lip read when motoring but once the smoke clears from the initial start-up it goes and goes.

Alas, another delay. There is a nice little cruising community here though. A big hard stand with lots of boats, mainly made up of boaties who do their own work but tradies are available, not the selection provided in Phuket, but a little cheaper. 

Morgan has made friends with some of the boaties cats and takes Max the cat for a walk at 7 in the morning when he’s up. He’s also befriended a Malay boy –“Appie” who is a couple of years older and manages the local toilets in the mall by the ferry terminal, which involves collecting 50c for a pee and mopping the floors. No shame in that I guess. Morg thinks it’s fun.

He also has another friend in the local village where he spends time. It’s a village of 50 houses and they seem to live as one big family, happily or otherwise. There is always some celebration or festivity in the village, weddings, national holidays. The thing about SE Asia is there seems to be a public holiday every second day, whether it’s a national, state or religious celebration, people of all race and religion celebrate.  A communal sand football pitch keeps the boys occupied while the women gather and cook and cook and cook. It’s nice to see this side of life. It’s a little similar to island life (Pacific Island that is). We are made very welcome. Probably something of a novelty. Things happen at a very slow pace, mainly due to the heat I’d say. It’s zapping, at all times except for early morning and late evening. How the women wear long trousers, sweaters and hijabs in this heat defies me. How they get to the end of a long hot day without a cold beer also defies me.

Pete, Tanya, Morg, Warren and me, Singapore

We also had a week in Singapore as Morg and I had to do a visa run which coincided with his big sister Tanya and her husband Pete being there.

We all had a nice time tripping around Singapore. Then we headed over to Jahore for a long-promised visit to LEGOLAND and a 10 hour bus ride back up to Pangkor. Lovely comfy seats. Just you had to eat real fast before the cockroaches invited themselves for snacks.

Anyway, that’s life in Pangkor. Not sure how long we’ll be here for but Morg and I will head home so he can get the last term of school in.