Waking in the anchorage at Kuah, the main town of Langkawi Island, is always the same. Chris thinks is sounds like a big fry up, for me its more like a heavy downpour. We have heard it before but not for some time. The waters are full of pistol shrimp which make an amazing noise as they hunt down their prey, usually smaller shrimps.

The top part of the large claw can be cocked like a pistol when prey is found, then it snaps together creating a jet of water that converts to high velocity bubbles with supersonic sound that stuns the prey which is pulled into a burrow and devoured. The blast of noise the pistol shrimp creates can be heard over quite long distances as well as through the hulls of boats, it is thought that the sound is used for communication as well as stunning prey. Certainly when swimming underwater there is a lot of popping sounds, no doubt many are from the explosive pistol shrimp.

As well as being a well-equipped predator these creatures have developed a clever way of improving their tactics against possible attack. The pistol shrimp will share its burrow with a larger fish that is able to ward off predators such as a goby; in return the burrow is kept clean and well excavated so that it creates a good habitat for its partner in defence. Fascinating little creatures and apparently though very rare in the U.K. they have been caught by fishermen off the coast of Cornwall.

The other early morning greeting is from the mullahs calling the faithful to prayer from below the beautiful golden onion domes of Masjid Al-Hana mosque. This happens throughout the day as well but is always most noticeable in the quiet of the morning. The mosque towers over the CHOGM park which is studded with plaques commemorating a meeting of Commonwealth leaders here in 1989, it is a good reminder of just how many countries are involved right from Canada, the biggest, and India, the most populated through to Namibia the driest and most sparsely populated to the smallest which is the Pacific island of Nauru, lying north of Tonga and the Solomon islands, with a population of less than 12,000 people. Nauru is in dire straits since its only natural resource of phosphates has been exhausted by strip mining leaving environmental devastation and no alternative source of viable income. The island’s Commonwealth cousin Australia is trying to support new strategies to develop the economy. Let’s hope something comes of this.

Our evenings are again punctuated by the mullahs’ calls but almost as regular is the 18.55 whip up when the breeze gets refreshingly brisk but then increases, usually with thunder and lightning, until the wind starts roaring into a short gale with a good downpour which later gives way to darkness and flat calm. Yesterday we were caught out as this happened at 16.45, just a mini version but it did clear the heat and air a little.

This giant bird overlooks the anchorage. The sea eagle is the emblem of Langkawi and in most of the island’s anchorages there will be sea eagles seen circling the sky.

When we anchored here we dragged a couple of times in Bass Harbour’s slimy mud so we moved about until we found the right spot which happily was next to Cheree and Georgio on Argonauta whom we last saw in Thailand, January 2012. It has been good to catch up with them, they are soon off to the Andaman Islands which belong to India, we shall be going in the opposite direction.

Kuah is mainly of interest to us because it has good shops with chandleries, hardware and technical stores. We have bought numerous amounts of hardware and plumbing items for the new water maker which Chris has been able to finish in this very calm anchorage. Our solar panels are much the worse for wear so we have purchased two new ones. We will collect these when we return in the New Year as we haven’t time to fit them before Christmas and we need to sort out where they will be installed.  The boat has been stocked up with duty free alcohol; it seems odd being able to buy litres of Gordon’s gin and good quality rum for less than a bottle of wine in U.K. Diesel is also very cheap at 2 Ringgit a litre…about 40 pence! Other stocking up has been on fresh produce, there are wonderful mushrooms here which we don’t often find, good salad including lettuce and a very good selection of Dutch, French and Australian cheese not always available in these climes. The locally grown produce is very good but Langkawi also imports from Thailand, its next door neighbour, as well as Hong Kong, Japan and Australia all a bit further afield. There are other goods that have travelled half way round the world but we try to avoid them.  All in all Kuah has served us well.