Ahhhhhh....this is more like it! - South Dayang Bunting Island, Kedah State, Malaysia
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Sat 27 Nov 2010 02:15
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06:11.109N 99:47.196E
After the
almost-but-not-quite-dodgy-marina-without-a-break-wall night from hell in
Penang, things calmed down the next morning (November 12), and we left as
soon as we could. The trouble was that we had all given our laundry to the
marina on the 11th, to be sent out and returned the afternoon of the 12th.
That morning, we pleaded our case with the marina staff, asking for our laundry
to be returned as soon as possible so we could start the 10 hour / 60 mile trip
north to the famed Langkawi group of islands in Malaysia, just south of the
Thailand border. We even offered to take our laundry back dirty - a huge
concession on our part given the state of our beyond sweaty pile of sheets,
towels, shirts and Bryan's dirty collection of commando shorts. After
jumping through a few major hoops, the marina staff returned our laundry to
us clean and partly dry (after having personally picked it up from the
cleaners for us). We turned the cabin into a clothes drying emporium,
untied the 18 dock lines holding us in place and set off at 1pm for Langkawi
without a single backward glance.
The day was clear, hot, but not drop dead hot, and there
was a tiny bit of breeze - not enough to sail with, of course, but quite
pleasant anyway. The water cleared and turned a milky shade of green soon
after we left the Penang channel. Ahhhhhh.....we were finally out of
the Melaka Strait (or Malacca Strait as it is sometimes spelled) and
officially in the Indian Ocean. Bryan and Michele thought a big
tuna might be nice for dinner, so we put the hand fishing line out with
Don's lucky two-prong industrial sized fish hook and pink plastic squid lures
attached.
We don't often (in fact, never) set off for a new place
knowing we will arrive well after dark, but we've found the charts in Malaysia
to be surprisingly accurate, so we decided a little anchoring-in-the-dark
adventure might be fun. The 60 mile motorsail was no problem and when we
approached the group of small islands just to the south of larger Langkawi
Island, a partial moon appeared to help us navigate. Our destination was
what is known in the area as the 'fjord' anchorage. It's a very narrow
channel between two small islands. The channel itself is not deep - only 5
or 10 meters - but limestone cliffs rise straight out of the
water giving the place that really cool 'fjord' feel. To get
there, we had to wind our way around several other small islands, all of which
were tall with limestone cliffs. In the dark, the islands looked like
giant, dark hulks, shadows of their real selves. It was eerie
and amazing all at the same time as we puttered slowly through the narrow
channels dodging the occasional fishing boat and what was usually (thankfully) a
submerged net that we could float over. Don was at the helm the whole
time keeping a close watch on the chart and radar - mostly making sure that the
two agreed, while Bryan and I were on the bow, squinting into the dark with the
help of the night scope and binoculars. We made it in without a lot of
fuss and after attempting to set the anchor once, we tried again and got it
right. It was 10:30pm and very dark. We could see the lights of four
boats anchored in front of us, and the glint of moonlight on the cliff faces
above us. It was quiet and still, a huge contrast from the night
before. The four of us sat in the dark for a little while just taking it
all in, then went to bed knowing the morning sunlight would reveal spectacular
scenery.
I should take a moment here to mention that we didn't catch a
tuna with Don's lucky two-prong industrial sized fish hook and pink plastic
squid lures. When Don sent Bryan back to the stern to retrieve the fishing
line before it got dark, the fishing line was gone. Gone! Either a
giant tuna came by and snatched the whole line away, or the line mysteriously
worked its way free of the cleat it was tied to. We chalked it up to more
bad luck (probably caused by our guests, but we didn't dwell on that supposition
at the time). It was around then, or maybe a few days earlier when
Harmonie's guest blow dryer bit the dust - catching Michele off guard
mid-hairstyle. More bad luck? Maybe, but when Don picked up the
dryer to try and fix it today, it inexplicably roared back to life.
Hmmmm...
 The 'fjord' anchorage.
 Bryan posing while Michele and I snapped pictures of the
Langkawi islands.
 Harmonie in the fjord anchorage. If you look closely, you
might see the boat smiling.
 Another view of the fjord.
 What was it Lady Macbeth said? "Out damned spot!
Out I say!" Which is exactly what Michele was saying as she rubbed
at the peculiar brown spots that appeared on her clean laundry upon
inspection the next day in the fjord anchorage. So, why did the spots
appear only on Michele's clothes and not the rest of ours? It's a
mystery.
Coming up next: another Langkawi anchorage, a visit to
the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club, and a collection of quotes summing up Bryan
and Michele's visit.
Anne
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