Christmas goodies brought to the boats by the Marina crew.

Christmas lunch in the resort with lots of sparling wine. Phil in his Bollywood shirt from Little India Penang.

We enjoyed the social side of marina life but not the heat in the enclosed harbour so left on Boxing Day and returned to the anchorage at Telaga. We had been told that the climb up Gunung Machinchang was quite straight forward and enjoyable, the path is a continuation on from Seven Wells waterfall walk which we had already done and follows a narrow rough path through the jungle and climbs steeply. Luckily there are some fixed ropes which are useful to pull on occasionally but more important they keep you on the track. There were no views on the way up but as the highest peak in the area the views from the top were good. Not the highest point on Langkawi Island but certainly an interesting walk

Next day we returned to Royal Langkawi Yacht Club Marina as we had arranged to meet our agent who was dealing with clearance for us to Pangkor. She was a bit elusive over where we should meet and when, eventually, it was arranged we met her at the nearby Immigration post in the harbour. Show our passports, one signature and we were free to go. Unlike the majority of countries Malaysia requires clearance between states, a bit of a nuisance but lots of smiles, fill in the forms and stamp them with our boat stamp and everyone is happy.

We anchored at the south of Langkawi and then sailed/motored first to Penang and then on down to Pulau Pangkor before finally heading round to the marina. As we left the anchorage on the west side of Pangkor and negotiated our way through the fishing boats and buoys there was an ominous clunk from under Serenity and we slowed right down! We had a rope round the propellor. Its what everybody dreads happening up here where there are so many fishing boats around. Luckily the rope didn’t seem to be attached to any buoys or boats and we were able to motor slowly into shallow water and anchor while Phil snorkelled under the hull and cut the rope free with our bread knife.

Serenity anchored off Daddy’s Cafe Pulau Pangkor where we had a lovely meal.

This lot wrapped round the prop stopped us on the way to the marina.

We are now cleaning up Serenity before she is hauled out and have rented an apartment from the marina so that we can get away in the evenings and have hot showers and the luxury of air con. We intend to have some work done on the engine to ensure it is fit for another few years and also to employ some help with rubbing down the hull for antifouling and polishing the topsides. In just over a week we will visit Kuala Lumpur and then fly back to UK.

Pangkor marina with the island Pulau Pangkor to the left. This is the view from our apartment balcony.

We are making plans for the next year which don’t involve a Red Sea passage but as always plans are written in the sand.