Harmonie - There and Back Again - Rebak Marina, Langkawi, Malaysia

There and Back Again - Rebak Marina, Langkawi, Malaysia

Harmonie

Don and Anne Myers

Mon 25 Apr 2011 15:07

06:17.707N 99:41.852E

April 4, 2011 - April 25, 2011

After the excitement of our northern Thailand tour, we returned to Harmonie at Yacht Haven Marina on Phuket to find all was well. Sue and John were off visiting friends in Singapore when we first arrived, but they returned a few days later to re-join us on Harmonie (Storyteller was still being worked on in the Boat Lagoon boatyard) for our last days in Thailand. We arrived back to Yacht Haven on a Sunday, and scurried around the next four days with John and Sue running errands we knew would be difficult to complete in Malaysia. Things like finding the right kind of fiberglass for some repair work Don had in mind, buying the right kind of 3M wax for hull polishing purposes (you know, wax on, wax off, that whole routine), etc., etc.. The prospects of finding this kind of stuff in Phuket are about a hundred-fold higher than in Langkawi, Malaysia. Not that the stuff can't be found in Langkawi, just that it would probably take several days of scavenger hunting to do it. One last trip to the really spiffy Phuket supermarket and we were ready to roll. None too soon as Don's Thai visa was due to run out the next day. We cleared out of the country on the 7th, and left Yacht Haven Marina on the 8th headed south to Langkawi. In doing so, we left John and Sue behind, but the timing wasn't too bad as Storyteller went back in the water at Boat Lagoon the following day.

We pretty much retraced our footsteps over the next four days, day sailing (mostly motoring) south to Langkawi. We stopped one last time at Phi Phi Don (Pee Pee) - long enough for Storyteller to meet us there for one last hurrah before going our separate ways (us back to Langkawi, John and Sue back to Yacht Haven where they left Storyteller to fly back to Australia for six weeks). No worries though, we'll see John and Sue and Storyteller again when we return to Thailand next November for the start of Season Five. After Phi Phi Don, we continued south to Koh Muk (home of the Emerald Cave), sailing nearly four hours(!). After that, it was a full day motor back to Koh Tarutao, and then a quick hop to Telaga Harbor Marina on Langkawi to clear in to Malaysia. After one night at Telaga, we anchored one last time overnight off the coast of Langkawi before making our way back into Rebak Marina on April 14th, which will be Harmonie's home for the next six months. Essentially that's the end of our sailing (what there was of it) for Season Four. But never fear, the season isn't quite over for us yet. We've still got a boatload (literally) of projects to do, and some land travel before we head home for the summer on June 16th.

Being back in Langkawi is certainly no hardship. This is the first time we've returned to a place we've been to before for a long term stay. We decided it's nice to come back to a place we are already familiar with. We know the drill here. It's comfortable. We know the yachtie restaurant menu almost by heart (and just so you know if you ever come here, the lamb marsala and char kiew teow are good, but skip the fish and chips and the chicken burger). We know the mobile fruit and veggie man visits the Rebak Resort ferry dock on Langkawi Island in his van every Friday at 9am. We know if we want to rent a car on short notice, Abby in the marina office will rent her tiny roller-skate to us for the day for $13, no questions asked and no license viewed. We know the Chinese wine lady at the warehouse will not steer us wrong. We know the pool is best visited after 5pm when the resort guests clear out and the marina boaters move in. And last, but not least, we know to look out for monkeys and giant monitor lizards when we do the circuit walk around Rebak Island. See? Piece of cake. We've got this place down. Oh, and best of all? We can actually read the signs here, and when we are feeling ambitious, understand a few of the words. Ahhhh, it's good to be in a place where no one speaks or writes in Elvish.

So, on to boat work. That's the trouble with marinas. When living in one, you generally feel compelled to work on your boat. There are three reasons for this. First, when your boat is tied to a dock, suddenly you are looking at it from the outside all the time, whereas when the boat is at anchor, you are on or inside it, and by and large don't notice when the hull gets filthy. The second reason is the comparison factor. Instead of viewing your boat from afar where it looks lovely while floating in a beautiful anchorage, your marina neighbors see your boat in close proximity to other boats, which allows them to more easily compare the flaws of your boat with others. Comparison factor motivation increases exponentially when boats of the same make and model are tied up near each other (when your neighbor's boat is exactly the same as yours, it's much easier to identify the flaws). There are currently five Amels other than Harmonie housed at Rebak Marina, therefore comparison factor motivation is running unusually high for us at the moment. Third, and less importantly, a marina is an extremely convenient place to work on a boat. There's unlimited power and water (within reason since we pay for both), air-conditioning, easy access to other boaters when tools need to be borrowed and easy access to stores when supplies need to be purchased.

Harmonie (left) sitting head-to-toe with Amel sister ship Bootlegger from Germany - just one of the five other Amels moored in Rebak Marina.

So far, Don has scrubbed the deck, part of the hull and the cockpit, repaired the circus tent sun cover and a canvas hatch cover (yes, the marvelous maintenance man can sew and we do carry a sewing machine), repaired a leak in the anchor wash-down pump, started re-glassing a stiffener attached to the hull in a bilge just forward of the mast, and started re-building our propane gas locker so it will accommodate 10 lb cylinders instead of 5 lb. That's just the beginning. The list goes on. While Don sweats every day in the hot sun and humidity working toward a more favorable comparison factor, I've been dilly-dallying on the computer catching up on email and blog entries. A fair distribution of boat work in my opinion.

Proof that we do have a sewing machine and that Don can sew. In this case he is repairing a favorite pair of shorts that have split six times in the rear due to excessive sun damage. He initially repaired them with sail tape (what sailor wouldn't?), but found the sail tape doesn't wash well.

After tomorrow (4/25), boat work (and dilly-dallying) will be suspended while we land travel to Hanoi, Vietnam for eight days. We've heard fabulous things from many of our friends who have been there before us, so we are really looking forward to the trip. We suspect it will be more challenging than land travel in Thailand, but hey, we're always up for an adventure.

Anne