Tuesday 31 January 2012

Phuket, the King’s Cup Regatta and homeward bound

December 3 – 16, 2011
 
Once more we found ourselves zooming across the water in a high speed ferry, this time headed for the infamous island of Phuket. We’d timed our visit to coincide with the running of the King’s Cup Regatta with idea in mind of socialising with a number of cruisers we’d met on the Indo Rally that would be in town at this time. That all changed when we received an offer to crew on Steve and Trish Brown’s beautiful Oyster 56, Curious, in the regatta itself. We’d be sailing with great people we knew from the rally,  Jim and Barb Wallace off Contrails, Alan and Noi Hogg off Rogue, Brian Calvert off Further and a friend of his Chris Cowman and of course our crewmate from Nae Hassle Marc (Meerkat) Beerts.  We were sailors again instead of tourists.
By the time we checked into our budget accommodation in Patong Beach it was already dark so we headed out and had a great feed garnered from a range of the food venders located just at the end of the street and then turned in for an early night to be up bright and sharp next day.

Steve & Trish Brown's Curious
We grabbed a taxi over to Chalong Bay to meet everyone for a practice sail on Curious around to Kata Beach where the regatta is based. Sally had been invited to come along for the ride around the island so away we went. We set off finding our way in our various allotted positions and learning the boat. For many of us this was the first time we’d stepped foot aboard Curious so the learning curve was a little steep as we worked together to find the best and quickest ways to achieve things.
 
Rob was assigned a dual role of bowman assisting with the set of the big cruising chute Curious flies rather than a spinnaker and of hauling the slack sheet ropes in during tacks and getting them onto the electric winches. Karen got the job of sewer rat, being below in the forward cabin feeding the chute up on deck when needed and gathering it back in when it came down.  Unfortunately on the trip around Trish had a recurrence of a stomach complaint that had laid her low the previous week so by the time we reached Kata Beach the decision had been made that Trish would sit out the first few days of the regatta to get over things. Karen was reassigned to the critical role of controlling the mainsail which indicated how highly Steve regarded her sail trim abilities. Sally suddenly found herself no longer a one day passenger but now part of the crew taking over Karen’s role with the cruising chute.


Post practice team bonding Phuket style
The next day we tried to get a morning’s practice in before heading for registration to be followed by a big welcome party at the Kata Beach Resort but an almost complete lack of wind limited us to just going through basic procedures and refining our individual roles. We did run through the process of raising and lowering the cruising chute but couldn’t even find enough puff to go anywhere near getting it to set so we just motored back into the anchorage, tidied everything up on the boat ready for the first race the next day and headed in to get our registration process finalised and then enjoy the party. Brian decided that he really was a motor boat guy after all and elected to drop out from the crew but Steve was comfortable that we really would be able to cover all the roles between the crew on board anyway so there was no problem.


Even the resort pool got the King's Cup treatment

WOH! Do these guys know how to throw a party. The King’s Cup Regatta was established in 1987 to celebrate the 60th birthday of His Highness the King of Thailand and in the 25 years since the organisers have obviously been refining their event management skills in the hospitality area. Over a thousand sailors  can attest to the good time had by all with excellent live music, a massive array of very good food from suckling pig to Thai salads and just about everything in between and FREE DRINKS thanks to excellent beer and wine sponsors.  It was a great welcome to the regatta and the Curious crew certainly had a great time, ever mindful that we were racing in the morning of course.

The entire fleet took part in a cermonial sail past to honour the King on the way to the startline area next morning as a Thai Navy aircraft flew overhead scattering rose petals over the boats. Very cool.
So to racing. A few nervous souls on board but with Jim calling the shots as tactician Curious had a good start hitting the line just seconds after the gun. We stayed in touch with the fancied boats on the first leg of the 23 nautical mile course but with the light winds not suiting the 30 ton Curious we were helpless to do much other than watch them progressively disappear off into the distance. Oh well we had a nice days sailing and all learned our jobs a bit more.


Karen hard at work in light conditions
Back on shore we headed to a different resort for the presentation of trophies and guess what, party time again. This resort seemed determined to outdo the previous nights efforts and once more we were rocking the night away with more food than we could eat and more bubbly than we could possibly drink, although we did try.
 
Race two and another solid start for Curious but what was a promising wind faded away to leave us all but becalmed by early afternoon. Skipper Steve then had a conversation with the committee boat that provided one of the quotes of the regatta. After being told that the race was not being shortened and we had a bit over three hours left to reach the line to be classified as a finisher Steve replied “Well we’ll just have a bite of lunch here and then we’ll probably start the motor and go home. I guess that means we’re withdrawing.”


Sorry no photos of the windy days - we were too busy

Starting to suffer from late nights-early mornings sleep deprivation and not being in a party mood we decided to give that evening’s function a miss and get some extra sack time which proved invaluable. Some of the crew did go along however and said it was yet another great event.
Wednesday – race three and at last there’s wind. 20 plus knots of glorious wind in fact and Curious was loving it as were we. Even better was that Trish had got over the worst of her stomach bug and was back on board with us. 

Now we were actually up with the leaders and racing them. Despite being in the cruising division some of these boats had been all but stripped below decks and were way lighter than our 30 tons. Heck we even had a washing machine on board which proved invaluable in making sure we were spick and span in our crew shirts every morning but certainly add to our speed. However when the wind blew we came into our own. Although this was a shorter race around the buoys we had a ball and ended up in a very tight battle with a light weight Bavaria, Linda, that saw us going tack for tack around the course with the advantage swinging back and forth. We knew a fast Hanse, Odin,  was out ahead of us but our focus was on this fight and in the end we lead Linda over the line by just 16 seconds.

Steve collects our second place trophy
 A check of the results page on the internet later in the afternoon confirmed we had scored second on handicap by 4 minutes 22 seconds. Tonight’s was a party we were certainly not going to miss. We started long before Steve went on stage to collect the trophy and the whole Curious crew celebrated long and hard after taking comfort in the knowledge that Thursday was a lay day and we could all sleep in. Which is exactly what we did.
 
Friday’s race four was another short race around the buoys but unfortunately the winds were again light and not to Curious’s liking. So light in fact that at times we found ourselves drifting backwards in the current. 
Where's the bloody wind?


After fighting the conditions all day we rounded the final mark for the last leg to the finish line only to have the wind completely desert us again. With the finish line coordinates entered in our chart plotter the GPS showed the line to be just .8 of a nautical mile away but at current speed our ETA was just over 17 days away. BUGGER! Fortunately this time the race committee awarded finishing positions based on where everyone was located on the course at the time and sent us home but sixth was a good as we could manage in the  conditions. Still it was another great party that night at yet another resort with much more merriment.
Saturday was the final race of the Regatta and we were all feeling a bit subdued as we headed out towards the start line area in very light winds. We were expecting the race committee to nominate one of the short courses so everyone could get done and back in for the big grand finale night but were surprised we were to be racing over one of the longer, round the islands routes. The wind began to increase ever so slightly as we zigged and zagged in our prestart manoeuvres and by the time we again hit the line right on the gun we had enough for Curious to start getting motivated. The wind continued to strengthen and even before we reached the second mark we knew we were again in a good fight for second spot with the same boat, Linda.
Steve with his harem - 5 of the 11 on board were girls


We actually lead them around the second mark and as we beat to windward tacking towards the bottom mark were edging a little further ahead each time we crossed. Preparing for the last tack to make the mark and head for home and just as we started to feel very good about our place in the world the gods of yacht racing gave us a wake up call. On the tack the slack in the sheet rope flapped wildly as the genoa came around the inner forestay and managed to wrap around the chartplotter monitor in the cockpit. With thousands of dollars worth of electronic wizardry at immanent risk of being whipped overboard by the flapping sail we spent all of about 45 seconds untangling things and getting back up to speed. Unfortunately that was all our rivals on Linda needed to seize the upper hand and get in front. Then on the long downwind leg we found the wind almost dead behind us which suited their spinnaker a little more than our cruising chute and we found ourselves slipping  back ever so slightly.

The Curious crew knew how to party
 A small windshift towards the end of the leg brought our chute fully into play and gave us hope but when we rounded the mark set just off an island that had obstructed the view of Linda we realised how much of a lead they’d gained. However the wind was again around twenty knots and on the reach Curious was charging at near 10 knots through the water. Ahead we saw the Bavaria overpower and lose some ground, then another little mistake cost them some more time. Meanwhile Steve and Karen were working together with helm and mainsail trim while Alan and Chris were constantly  tweaking headsail trim to coax every ounce out of the boat as we watched the gap continue to close. We knew two things. First up, they would have a slight speed advantage on the short, upwind run to the line after the final mark but more importantly, we didn't actually have to pass them because on handicap they needed to cross the line a about six and half minutes ahead to beat us. We just needed to get close enough.


Two second places was a great result given the conditions

We continued to close on them and rounded the final mark hot on their heels but still far enough behind to know it was going to be a very close run thing. Surprisingly they failed to move further ahead on the run to the line and with stop watch ticking we measured the margin over the finish and headed to shore quietly confident Curious had earned another second place.  Sure enough when the results were posted, after almost four and half hours of sailing we’d placed second on handicap three minutes thirty six seconds ahead of Linda and it was party time again for one last fling.
Despite the big night most of the crew came together again for a farewell breakfast next morning as we were all heading off to different destinations. We certainly wanted to make sure we got to thank Steve and Trish one more time for letting us be part of such a great week’s sailing with them aboard their beautiful home. 


Says it all really
Saying goodbye to all and going our separate ways after breakfast really did bring home to us that our South East Asian adventure was all but over. We had one last day in Phuket picking up some last minute Christmas presents for the family and then the following morning  we headed for the airport with Marc to fly back to Singapore where we spent two final days together before again all heading to the airport but this time we were flying south to Australia and Marc north to the UK.
We’d spent an incredible six months together and were extremely thankful that our personalities had meshed so well to make our rough times bearable and our good times great. We had been the three inhabitants of meerkat manor in the bow of SV Nae Hassle laughing, joking and, on many occasions, letting off steam together. We certainly could not of wished for a better crewmate and sitting at Singapore airport, waiting for our flight to be called all talk was of when and how we could sail together again.  That it will happen is almost a certainty.
When finally we did have to break up the party and board our flight home closing the final chapter of our first but not final major sailing adventure there was no goodbye, just a see you later.


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If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway.  We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.


Krabi – Thailand


 
28 November – 3 December 2011

We booked our transport to Krabi in Thailand at a tour agent in Langkawi. Our ticket included being picked up by a taxi from our accommodation and taken to the ferry terminal, where our driver organised our ferry tickets and steered us to immigration to check out of Malaysia. We then had a fifty minute high speed ferry ride to Saturn, in southern Thailand where we were again met by someone to guide us through Thai immigration and customs and then put us on a Tuk Tuk (local taxi) for transfer to the bus terminal and our four hour trip north to Krabi – and all this for a little over Twenty Australian dollars each.  Now that’s value.


After backpackers & hostels the Check Inn Krabi was heaven
We arrived at the bus station in Krabi a little after five and got a car to our accommodation. We were again looking for something a little above hostel level when we searched the web for a place to stay in Krabi and finally settled on the Check Inn Resort at Tub Kaek Beach despite it being a little more expensive than our normal budget at $39 a night including breakfast. It turned out to be worth every cent and a lot more. When we arrived we found ourselves with huge, well appointed rooms in a resort with huge pool, range of restaurants on hand, gym, dive shop, Spa and very friendly, helpful service all located a short stroll through the Sheraton resort to the beach.  (The Sheraton featured as the wedding location in the movie Hangover 2)
Click on any image to see larger versions
Next morning we were joined by Sally, a Brit who had been on Further then Rampisard on the Sail Indonesia Rally and had bussed up from Penang to meet us after travelling on her own through Malaysia. We spent the day exploring, wandering the beach and sampling the excellent food and Singha beer in the local restaurants.

 Day two involved lazing around the pool, more good food and then we were off to trek through the jungle on elephants. On the advice of our resort staff we booked for the late afternoon, last session of the day. They take a maximum of 12 people on this trek then when it’s over you can go with the handlers and elephants to the river for bath time a unique opportunity to help wash these beautiful animals.


Sitting atop the elephant was pretty cool winding our way through a rubber plantation and  jungle river although our elephant did have an over active tail that managed to flick so much mud up and over us we weren’t sure who was going to need bath time more, us or him. After the trek while the handlers were removing the seats from the elephants and getting them ready to wash we were treated to a performance of tricks by a youngster. This included shooting basketball hoops, kicking a soccer ball, playing a harmonica etc. It’s cutest job was picking up a hat and gently placing it on each person’s head, taking a bow and trumpeting after each successful crowning moment. We rewarded our entertaining friend with a feed of bananas. They work cheap in Thailand.


Karen and Sally were first into the water with the elephants
 Heading into the water with such huge animals proved a little daunting initially but once we realised how much our elephant was obviously enjoying the hands on attention we quickly relaxed. Splashing water over and massaging an elephant is probably something that not a big percentage of people would get to experience and we loved it. That over active tail did come into play again at one point though, giving Karen an unexpected surprise as it whipped very up close and personal between her legs under the water. Woohoo!

Enjoying another ridiculously cheap but excellent Thai meal at a local resto that night, our elephant experience was all the four of us could talk about as we relived the afternoon over and over. That was until Marc received a text message to say that due to a couple of withdrawals, Rob and Karen now also had berths on Curious to sail in the King’s Cup Regatta. The day just couldn’t get any better.
 
 
The mysterious, disappearing Cheetah 2
Rob was keen to get in some diving and practice what he’d learned on Tioman Island so headed out early next morning for a three dive trip explore the areas underwater treats. Meanwhile Karen, Sally and Mark had negotiated with one of the local long tail boat operators to take them over to the incredible Raleigh Beach for the day. This area can only be reached by boat and is world famous for its crystal clear waters, sand beaches and spectacular, undercut limestone outcrops that attract cliff climbers from far and wide. It's said to provide amongst the best rock climbing on the planet.


Marc in the long tail boat at Raleigh
On the way to the beach, the trio spotted a familiar sight in the form of Cheetah 2, the 30 foot sloop sailed in the Indo Rally by young Kiwi guys. After getting their boatman to detour by they chatted with Mike, the skipper, who said they’d meet them on the beach shortly for brunch. They then headed in to shore and secured a good table at one of the beach restos and looked forward to catching up with the guys we hadn’t seen since Singapore. Karen, Sally and Mark were enjoying some coffee, engrossed in conversation when looking out to sea suddenly realised that Cheetah 2 had upped anchor and sailed away. Hmmmm! Must be time to change deodorant our something. Anyhow they had a great day casually exploring one of the world’s wondrous spots and marvelling at how the rock climbers didn’t plummet down and splash in the sea.

The King Cruiser on her way down to 32 metres in 1997
 Meanwhile Rob was 32 metres below the surface exploring a wreck. The King Cruiser was originally a car and passenger ferry in Kobe, Japan before being purchased by a Thai company to be used as a passenger ferry between Phi Phi Islands and Phuket. In May 1997 the ferry struck Anemone Reef and sank nearby. There were over 500 people on board when she went down but no lives were lost and now the wreck remains as a great underwater attraction surrounded by masses of small fish including the odd barracuda and shark.

The second dive of the day was a little shallower at 22 metres on nearby a Shark Point. It's made up of 3 large rock pinnacles, the largest of which breaks the surface. It derives its name from the leopard sharks that are resident there. These docile creatures grow to approximately 2½ metres, are nocturnal, and sleep on the sandy bottom at the edge of the reef during the day. The sheer density and diversity of coral and fish life makes diving here a wonderful l experience.  Shark Point's most colourful feature is the profusion of the purple and pink soft corals that cling to the rocks, and its huge barrel sponges.

The final dive was on Anemone Reef that had led the King Cruiser to her demise. This is a single pinnacle of coral covered rock that rises from a depth of 20 metres to a hidden peak 6 metres below the surface. Diving here involves heading for the bottom and then slowly circling the pinnacle in an upward spiral until reaching the top for a safety stop before surfacing. Large schools of fish are everywhere on the reef, including various families of snapper, groper and fusiliers. Soldierfish congregate together in the many cracks and crevices which are also a haven for smaller critters such as the yellow tiger-tail seahorses and large numbers of moray eels.


Sally had the right gear to handle the rain
While the diving was awesome, three in a day was exhausting so by the time Rob joined Karen, Sally and Marc back at the beachfront restaurant near the resort for dinner that night he was a very tired boy. More great food washed down with a couple of G’n’T’s and Singha beers ensued as we all agreed Krabi would go down as one of the real highlights of our trip. Meanwhile heavy rain had moved in from the sea. Trapped in the restaurant by the downpour, there was nothing to do but have another drink and wait for it to pass - except it didn’t pass. It seemed inconceivable that three hours later the rain was still torrential with not the slightest sign of even easing let alone coming to end. Finally about 11.00pm Rob really couldn’t wait any longer and decided to make a run for it which involved negotiating his way through the grounds and lobby of the Sheraton back to our resort.

Now visualise the sight of a soaked to the bone, very bedraggled Rob, suddenly bursting up the stairs from the gardens at full sprint into the huge Sheraton foyer sliding uncontrolled across the marble floor almost into the reception desk manned by a wide eyed Thai girl stunned by this sudden rush of activity shattering her late night solitude. No sooner had this apparition materialised, it disappeared in a traction less, slip sliding motion out the entryway and up the drive leaving only a trail of water across the marble. The next surreal moment happened as the security guard stepped out of his gate house, opened the boom gate and saluted as the mad westerner raced past. Only in Thailand.


The rain was heavy enough to flood parts of our resort
 After also giving up on the idea of being able to wait out the rain, an hour or so later three more mad westerners, one carrying a huge black garbage bag containing handbags, ipads, cameras and associated moisture adverse items,  dripped their way across the marble floor and through the lobby. Be it at a stroll rather than a sprint as, unlike Rob, having realised that speed across the ground would make absolutely no difference to how wet they got, Karen, Sally and Marc enjoyed and far more casual, if equally soaking, trip back to our resort, even taking the time to stop and return salute to the giggling security guard as they passed under the boom gate. No doubt the evening provided the Sheraton staff with the most amount of amusement since the filming of Hangover 2.

The dawn broke to crystal clear skies next morning as we reluctantly said goodbye to Krabi and embarked on our ferry trip over to Phuket and the King’s Cup Regatta.


Who's a clever boy then

Making sure Karen is sun smart



On elephant back through the rubber plantation

Jungle, what jungle?
Negotiating a deal on boat hire to Raleagh - poor guy didn't stand a chance


An unbelievable experience
What's going on back there?

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Thursday 12 January 2012

Langkawi - Malaysia

18 – 28 November  2011
After an enjoyable few days exploring Penang the next and last stop on our Malaysian adventure was the island of Langkawi. Crewmate, Marc, was travelling with us through to Phuket in Thailand. He had a berth organised with Steve and  Trish Brown on their 56 Oyster racing in the King’s Cup Regatta and our plan was to see if we could find a boat to crew on as well or, alternatively, just take in the atmosphere and socialise with the racers.
Thailand has an unusual visa policy in that if you arrive by plane you get an automatic 30 day tourist visa however if you enter the country overland or by boat you only get fifteen days unless you apply for an extension at a consulate beforehand. We weren’t aware of this little trap until we were leaving Penang and it was too late.  With our flights back to Singapore from Phuket already booked for December 12, this meant that we had 11 days to fill in Langkawi before we could enter Thailand to comply with the 15 day limit.


Karen and Marc check the menu at our beachfront bar



With a choice of 5+ hours on a bus or 90 minutes on a high speed ferry, the transportation choice was fairly simple. It’s much nicer scooting across the water looking at the boats and islands on the way than droning along motorways looking at road signs. We arrived at the ferry terminal in Kuah late morning and grabbed a taxi to our budget accommodation on the other side of the island at Pantai Cenang.
We were pleased to find the Kedawang Beach Inn was pretty much as described on the internet, just metres from the water and beach bar/restaurant , clean, air conned rooms, very friendly staff and free WFI, sort of. When we asked about the WFI we were given a piece of paper with all the wfi passwords of the neighbouring hotels and backpacker hostels and told to just use whichever one we could pick up.  One way to cut costs we guess.
Historically Langkawi was under the rule of the Sultanate of Kedah for a very long time. Eventually, it came under British rule during the colonial century and then, for a brief period during World War II, it was controlled by the Thai monarchy. This has resulted in some Thai influence on Langkawi’s culture, evident by the number of Thai restaurants and Siamese-inspired sights.


Our beach and Langkawi local from the water



After the war, the island became known as a nesting ground for pirates. The many islands and dense, verdant jungle provided much-needed cover for their dubious activities while providing an excellent hide-out. Meanwhile, the island’s inhabitants continued to live a sleepy life in wooden villages, pushing bullock carts and harvesting paddy fields. Life remained simple and easy for many years but when progress came it happened in a rush.
Dr Mahathir Mohammad, the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, had practiced on the island as a GP in his younger years. Then in the country’s top job, Dr Mahathir proceeded to work closely with Kedah authorities in 1986 to modernise and develop Langkawi into the tourism he had envisaged all those years ago.


Some of Langkawi's many islands in the background
The huge boost to the transformation of Langkawi occurred when the island was granted duty-free status, attracting tourists and locals alike to cheap goods such as liquor and cigarettes. Soon, Langkawi hotels and restaurants started popping up as the tourism industry began to boom . An international airport and cheap Air Asia flights has seen the  island become Malaysia’s best known tourism destination.

Rather than a single island, Langkawi  is actually an archipelago of 99 islands 30 kilometres of Malaysia’s north west coast. Surrounded by stunning turquoise waters, the interior of the main island is a mixture of picturesque paddy fields and jungle-clad hills and mountains. The offers excellent diving opportunities and contains scores of other sightseeing and activities.

 

The three of us however were more interested in just kicking back and relaxing for a while to fill in time before we headed to Phuket.  As a result, the majority of our days were spent lazing around the beach reading, cooling off with a swim or fourteen and enjoying the duty-free prices at the excellent beachfront bar-restaurant. We did however get active a couple of times. We hired one of the numerous local speed boats to run us over to nearby Reebak Island to visit the marina where we were able to catch up with a few people we’d met on the Indonesian Rally.
We also became bikies again, back on a throbbing 125cc moped to have a look around. Number one on our to do list was the cable car that runs up to the island’s highest peak offering unparallel views, apparently. We never actually found out how good because every time we tried to go up it was closed due to cloud or high winds. Locals told us on average the cable car only runs one day out of three and unfortunately despite numerous attempts we never struck it on the right day.
We did enjoy a great walk through the jungle to a very impressive waterfall and swimming hole. The antics of the monkeys along the way never fail to entertain as they go to great lengths to get the tourists to ignore the Don’t feed the wildlife signs everywhere. Very few visitors can resist the beseeching big eyes and outstretched hands hanging from the bushes. Those that do are at serious risk of having any food or drink they are carrying disappearing up a tree at great speed in a snatch and grab raid by the less well behaved primates. We saw one monkey run off with an unopened Coke can and then watched as it used its teeth to tear the aluminium apart to reach the contents, messy but effective.
Marc emerges from the water after a sunset swim


We also took a taxi ride back over to Kuah to visit the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club. Rob’s cousins, Christine and David have their yacht Eagle Spirit moored in the marina and we were able to check it out and take a few photos of how she’s looking to email back to them in Oz. We were impressed with how clean the water was in the marina which no doubt explained the lack of growth on her hull despite being tied up for an extended period.
One aspect of Langkawi all three of us really enjoyed was the huge range of excellent food of every national origin available from the apparently limitless number of restaurants. Owned by an extremely friendly German woman, the Red Tomato became our favourite breakfast haunt, great service, excellent well priced food and a nice relaxed atmosphere with good WFI for travellers like us.

The Red Tomato became one of our favorite haunts.
Time for drinks with Nathalie from Holland
 By the time we enjoyed a long casual breakfast, checked our emails, facebooked for a while, uploaded a blog chapter or another photobucket album it was usually time to head for the beach out front of our new local, the beachfront bar beside our accommodation.  Great spot for a cold Tiger beer, JD  or G&T and an excellent lunch and dinner menu.
Most nights we tried a different eating place working our way through Thai, traditional Malay, Indian, Italian, BBQ seafood, Cantonese and Western. We never had a bad meal anywhere we went and prices were reasonable by Asian standards which equates to cheap as chips compared to home.
We know there’s so much more we could of done on Langkawi but what we did well was enjoy ourselves. The only downside to our time on Langkawi was being onshore looking at all the fantastic islands and cruising areas around us and not having a boat to sail them on. Next time!


Langkawi beach fashions provide a big contrast between western tourists in
g-string bikinis and the local Muslim girl's swimming atire


Just another sunset from our beachfront bar/restaurant

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If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway.  We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.