We spent five nights in Straits Quay Marina on Penang Island.  Both of our toilets were blocked so we had to sort at least one of them, but we also wanted to visit Georgetown. We had enjoyed our previous visits to the old town which is a mix of old and modern, with the modern shops and cafes possibly increasing to the detriment of the old.  We love the old buildings with their shuttered windows and covered walkways with tiled floors.  Sarah also loves the gelato shop near to the clan jetties, this time discovering their chocolate sorbet: delicious.

Around Georgetown
The northeast monsoon was due to arrive the day we left, but it was too light to be useful, and we motored the 60 miles to the southern end of Pulau Dayung Bunting, in Langkawi,  where we anchored alone in a peaceful bay with just the birds and monkeys for company.  Langkawi is home to huge numbers of eagles and it's amazing to watch them diving for fish alongside your boat. The next day we motored the final 12 miles to anchor off Kuah on Pulau Langkawi and check in with the authorities.

Teluk Ayer Tuan.  Just us and the birds
Over the next few days at anchor we continued with jobs, on one day walking six miles round the town on a mostly unsuccessful search for parts.  We did manage to buy a new outboard for the dinghy with a bit more power.  After a few tweaks from the workshop at the store it will now get the dinghy on the plane if just one of us is on board - great fun.  Tim and Nancy on Larus arrived next to us in the anchorage bringing Sarah’s new glasses from the optician in Pangkor and we had a nice evening with them.

Lunch stop at a food court while out shopping

Kuah town from the anchorage

After all the work done in Pangkor our fridge was still consuming too much power, and we realised we had to replace it.  We were on the verge of ordering new from the UK when Phil discovered that the small chandlery on the West Coast of the island sold compressors and plates.  We caught a Grab (Asian Uber), drove out there and returned with what we needed.  A couple of days in the Marina followed while the local refrigeration technician fitted it all for us.  The change to our power usage is dramatic. We stayed an extra couple of nights in the Marina while a depression, a rare occurrence in the Malacca Straits, turned into a cyclone.  So close to the equator, with no Coriolis effect to get them spinning, cyclones are almost unheard of.  This one was weak, but bought devastating floods across Indonesia and Malaysia, and a Marina we had stayed in was destroyed (partly down to poor maintenance). We had an evening out with the Laruses, and Bill and Zoe from Into the Blue before they left for Thailand: the crews of three British boats in a Syrian restaurant in Malaysia!  We also met with Sazli, organiser of last year’s rally, for lunch nearby.

Cyclone Senyah starts spinning.  Langkawi is the island just north of the A in Alor Star

We shifted anchorage to one of the tourist beaches for a couple of nights for a change, and also so Sarah could buy a new bikini: not too easy to find outside tourist spots in Muslim Malayasia where men and women swim fully clothed.  In the background is Rebak Island, home to the marina where we spent so much time earlier in the year

Our walk to the supermarket or the authorities took us through this pleasant park with some shade from the heat of the day

For our wedding anniversary we had lunch at Fat Frog, which serves lots of vegetarian options and were also celebrating their 10^th anniversary that day

Our autopilot had started playing up on the trip to Langkawi and we bit the bullet and ordered a new one from the UK.  Because, as a Yacht in Transit, we can import duty free it was significantly cheaper than buying locally, but we had several anxious days waiting for it to clear customs at Kuala Lumpur as the clock ticked down towards our visa expiry.  It arrived four days before we were due to leave and Phil fitted it in good time.  We put the motor on to lift the anchor and go out and test it and the bilge alarm went off.  The exhaust pipe had come off the engine and the sea water that cools it was pumping into the bilge.  We quickly switched off the engine and pumped the water out by hand as the electric pump wasn’t working!  Much sweating and trimming of the ragged pipe end and Phil had it re-fixed with a bigger pipe clip, and it seems secure. However, this process loosened the other end of the exhaust which also started leaking the next time we used the engine and had to be put back on too.

Refitting the exhaust pipe 
We checked out of Malaysia on the 10th of December and finally departed on the 11th. It was not somewhere we had anticipated spending time, but it has been good to us. We have been able to live well and cheaply, the people are lovely and we have never felt unsafe. We have eaten at local restaurants and never had a dodgy meal. We have seen beautiful places and some of the diversity of the cultures, landscape and animals.  We will miss the many people who made our stay special.

 

Anchored near Telaga, on the northwest coast of Langkawi, on our last night in Malaysia
Since leaving we have had a couple of nice sails with Meikyo beginning to show us what she can do, which gives us a glimpse beyond the current situation where we are constantly troubleshooting to cruising on a sturdy, capable and comfortable boat.

That will do nicely thank you Meikyo

We celebrated our first night in Thailand with drinks on the deck, after an easy day sail to Ko Tarutao

While watching the squid boats get to work with their bright green lights to attract the fish

Last night we had a peaceful night with just some quiet fishing boats for company.  This morning, we were able to see close up how the net fisherman worked.  They drove the boat at speed in a circle while throwing out the net, then once the circle was complete pulled it in laboriously by hand.  The first boat to arrive obviously found the big shoal and their net was full.  Later arrivals got much less.

The Thai fishing boats are known as longtails, because of the long shafts from their motors.  You can see the effort needed to turn the engine in the top picture.  It seems like very hard work and often for little return