Plain Sailing
Casamara
John & Susan Simpson
Sun 31 Aug 2025 02:20
Plain sailing: smooth and easy progress in a process or activity. Whoever came up with the definition of plain sailing mustn’t have spent much time actually doing any! We were delighted to get back to Casamara and start the process of getting her shipshape again but were surprised at just how much stuff there was to fix. First she had to be pulled out of the shed where’s she’s spent the last 8 months, then her mast had to be lifted into position and secured, and finally she was towed across the boatyard and reversed gently down the ramp into the water. The engineers who’ve been working on Casamara’s engine whilst we were away checked everything was ok to move and off we went - chugging all of 50m to a pontoon berth. Sadly, we were soon motoring back to the ramp again as one of the engine’s seacocks was leaking. Not a good start, but we were quickly pulled out of the water and the leak was stopped within a few minutes. Back to the pontoon we went and there we stayed for a week whilst we restored Casamara to sailing mode. She had been cleaned and polished whilst we were away so externally she sparkled in the sunshine. Inside I set about unpacking everything that had been vacuum-packed to protect against mould in the hot, humid conditions. Meanwhile John worked his way meticulously through his list of boat jobs, checking every system and putting right any snags he found - and there were quite a few! Casamara squeezed into a pontoon berth in Pangkor Marina We were joined after a couple of days by Wayne, a New Zealander who has lived in the UK for many years. He had contacted us via the Crewseekers website when we advertised for someone to join us on the first leg of our journey, from Pangkor Marina in Malaysia to Cocos Keeling Islands, an Australian territory south of Indonesia. Wayne is planning to buy his own boat in the not too distant future so joining us gives him an opportunity to gain experience and to try sailing on different ocean-going yachts. I was very pleased that Wayne arrived just before we were due to put Casamara’s new set of sails on. He’s much more handy with a winch than am I! The week we’d assigned for recommissioning passed by in a flash; a whirlwind of equipment fitting, fixing stuff and trips to the supermarket. Our elderly taxi driver, Krishna, insisted on lifting the heavy bags for me into the boot of his car and I was a bit worried one day when one of the bags was so heavy he had to sit and catch his breath before we could drive off. I was just wondering how to call an ambulance in Malaysia when he announced himself recovered and we started the drive back to the marina. Finally, Casamara was ready to leave. Our route would take us south from Pangkor, through the Malacca Strait to the tip of the Malaysian peninsula at Johor Bahru, opposite Singapore. But first, we motored the 5 miles to an anchorage the other side of Pangkor Island to spend the night there and leave at first light the following morning. It was an idyllic evening - once we’d fixed the non-functioning anchor windlass! - but it turned into a wild night. A thunderstorm blew through with high winds and lightning flashes, causing us to up anchor in the dark at one point and move into deeper water. Calm, windless days and wild nights at anchor would turn into a theme of our passage down the Malacca Strait. Having made the journey up to Pangkor Marina the previous year, we were well-prepared with night-time stops where we’d felt comfortable on the way up the Malacca Strait. We anchored near to Port Klang, Malaysia’s largest port 25 miles southwest of Kuala Lumpur, and marvelled at the size of the dockland area as we motored past the next day. We spent a night at Admiral Marina, Port Dickson, a major Malaysian tourist town, before anchoring first at Pulau Besar (Big Island) and Pulau Pisang (Banana Island). We’d had terrible nights at anchor at Port Klang and Pulau Besar so it was a relief to have a calm, still anchorage all night at Pulau Pisang. This was indeed fortunate as Casamara’s Genoa forestay (the wire holding the biggest forward sail) had broken 25 miles from Pulau Pisang and we’d had an anxious few hours trying to avoid losing the mast in the lumpy sea state. A repeat of the wild thunderstorms in the night, accompanied by big seas rolling into the anchorage, could well have been a disaster. Casamara in Admiral Marina, Port Dickson Anchored at Pulau Besar. During the night a storm blew through with 30 knot winds and 1.5 metre seas! Thankfully, disaster was averted and we completed our journey south to Pinetree Marina, Puteri Harbour, Malaysia, without further incident. Once tied up in the marina we established that we are unable to fix the damage to the forestay ourselves and we are awaiting the arrival of the riggers from Pangkor Marina on Monday. They are driving 350 miles each way on a bank holiday weekend to give us a hand and we are very grateful for that. Hopefully we’ll be under way again very soon.
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