06.17.822N 099.41.844E Tuesday 14th January 2009 With
only a couple of days in Telaga Marina before sailing to Rebak where the hard
work commences we hiked up to Seven Wells Water Falls and swam in all seven
pools – fast flowing water cascades but interestingly with fish in
them… up a mountain in fresh water!! How unusual!
Wandering around to restaurants in Telaga
A quick pit stop half way up to the Seven
Wells rock pools
Pool number one….
…..with fish swimming in the pure mountain water!
Pool number seven flowing over the edge……
…..with the water flowing swiftly behind us
…..amazing feeling
…and surprisingly we had the whole place to ourselves –
It might have had something to do with the climb up!
We provisioned for our month ahead on Rebak where there are no shops,
whacked 100 golf balls down a range, with tuition, for 13 Ringets (divide by
5.5 to get £s) including hire of golf clubs, revisited our hippy beach where a
local Malay ‘reggae’ band strummed the night away and ate a funny
old meal by the roadside before collapsing into our bunk…….
Candlelit evening on the hippy beach…..
On Thursday we motor sailed across the bay from Telaga Marina on the
mainland of Langkawi Island to Rebak Island – a glorious day with a
gentle breeze – which took us all of one hour! We have our 90 day visas
in our passports and just have to leave the country and recheck back into Malaysia
within this time to gain another 90 days extension
Arriving at Rebak Marina…….
Picture a beautiful tropical resort island with stunningly pretty
grounds, white sandy beaches and a ‘secret’ Marina completely hidden from the sea in a
totally protected lagoon. The Taj Group manage the whole complex now and you
just cannot imagine the impeccable and welcoming service we are
receiving……..complimentary buffet, live band and cocktails last
evening which is extended to all yachties once a month, gratis cookery classes
on a Thursday lunchtime, a motor launch to the mainland four times a day with a
produce and vegetable run each Friday, car hire for shopping trips just 40
Ringets (£7 a day) palates classes each morning at 9.00am and the full use of
the luxurious and spotlessly clean swimming pool with smiling attendants and
towels provided, it gets better – soft material hammocks with plumpy
headrests swinging between the palm trees, golf buggy cars to whisk you around
the island, a happy hour each evening (20 per cent discount for yachties)
followed by a talented musical duet, dinner for three in the Hard Dock Café
£10 in total, cinema night once a week and all this surrounded by stunning
flora and fauna and wildlife…… toucans, eagles, monkeys, monitor
lizards…...it feels like a dream!
The pool to the right…….
…..the sea to the left (no crocs, sharks or jelly fish)
We spent a whole day preparing for the big haul out – the mast
hasn’t been removed for ten years and is quite a performance. It stands
sixty feet from the deck with another two meters inside and has to be lifted
out absolutely vertically so as not to damage the saloon structure and deck
We took down the genoa, stay and main sails, checking the furling
systems, put all the halyards away, took off the boom, loosened all the
rigging, tied off all the running rigging to the mast, undid the SSB cable,
took down all the biminis and loosened the mast
‘seat’….. hell of a day!
Folding away the sails
SSB cable coming down
All the wiring down the mast had to be disconnected which we did at
7.00am on the morning of the lift out – this included radar, VHF, bow
navigation, anchor and spreader lights, TV aerial and wind speed cable. The
whole operation went perfectly and according to plan at 9.30am - thankfully the
marina staff are extremely competent here and caring, even diving on the boat
to make sure the strops were in the right place..…..
Diving under the boat to make sure the strops in the
Right place
Once we had manoeuvred the boat backwards inside the travel lift (to
get the mast in the right position for the crane), but still in the water, we
slackened off all the rigging and removed it whilst another strop was secured
around the mast just above the first set of spreaders (but tied underneath to
stop it rising upwards). To watch the mechanics of such a daunting exercise
was very interesting if nerve racking to say the least.
A strop going around the mast to keep it
In place
…Its lift off - Paul sorting out the wires which go
up with the mast – unattached that morning
….and out she came – see the kayak bottom right?
I know not a thing of beauty but a duckling which
will soon become a swan……it was a gift!
This is a shot of the ‘before’ product
….safely to the shore
Once we were up on the hard shoulder alongside our mast, without any
hitches, we could relax
….the Yard did a perfect job
…lots of life on the bottom – encrusted bow thruster
…a barnacle off the bottom – they cling like glue!
And for some reason our grounding plate looked like
A rock garden!
We are going to have a few days rest – Oscar flies home on the 15th
and then the work will commence in ernest!
