... try and find us

A week of sailing takes its toll After breakfast, some last minute provisioning and some work on the alternator to ensure charged batteries, we headed back to the RLYC, checked out of Malaysia and sailed north to Ko Ro k . The return crew is Craig, Richard, Lisa, Bruce and ourselves. Beautiful sparkling weather called for the mandatory swim off the boat as soon as we cleared the harbour. We hoisted the heady in a light breeze and took turns in snoozing in the various shady patches on the deck. fatigue ran rampant Around 6pm, a storm descended. The wind increased to 20 knots, whipping the sparkling sea into white caps and the rain pelted down. We went to hourly watches to save us all getting wet and bounced through the twilight and early evening. The wind had picked up to a brisk 30 knots so we were relieved to pull into the shelter of Ko Ro k , wet, tired and hungry around 10pm.  Five hours of the bow of the boat smacking down onto the water off three metre-high waves, r...

The first race was a passage race, meaning that it takes place between two ports. We are one of five boats in our class (based on size). The race director was on a 20 metre-long police boat at the start and was giving five minute, one minute and start countdowns on the VHF radio. We were across the line for the first race exactly as we wanted, and we were then off to Penang. As we had the wind coming from behind, all the boats had their biggest sails (their spinnakers) up – what a spectacular sight! Some of the other boats in our class had gone to great lengths to lighten their boats – removing anchors and chain, personal items, seat cushions, etc. – which we chose not to do. Light boats go faster in light winds, but they can get tossed around if there are strong winds.   The lighter boats began to pull away from us in what seemed to me like slow motion. The top speed of our boat under sail varies from 4 to 13 knots (7 – 21 km/h) depending on winds, but the 72 nautical m...

Race 1 was a passage race from Port Klang to Pangkor. We were pleased to leave the rubbish infested Klang River and start racing. We had a great start but the dodgy steering played up and we lost steering just after the start in front of tanker.  Now well versed with the steering gear, it was promptly fixed and we were off again.   In the dark, within a few nautical miles of the finish, the steering failed again.  We did manage to finish and motored to the anchorage in the rain.   We awoke to a beautiful morning and found ourselves anchored in a stunning, blue, sparkling bay.  It was a slow morning after the late finish, swimming, having breakfast, swimming.  We then headed around to the other side of the island to the marina near our hotel.  Our girl is a little leggy, pulling up at 2.8m draft, so we were unable to enter the marina and anchored off the entrance.  We checked into our hotel, showered and changed and a...

Entering Port Klang in the morning fog Four days ago we left Langkawi and started towards Klang.   As the mechanical issues had eaten into our slack time, we needed to get to the yacht club where we were meeting the others, so we made way under motor and travel through the night.   I’m glad that I had night sailing experience, because otherwise, I might have been terrified.    One’s depth perception doesn’t work when all you have to focus on is a tiny spot of light.   There are different colours of lights, different configurations, different rates of blinking, different numbers of flashes and each should mean something.   Mariners have worked out and agreed upon a system of how lights look to others to make traveling at night to be less harrowing – unless you are a subsistence fisherman in Malaysia or Thailand.   These guys just figure a few red blinking lights (think: bicycle warning lights) is enough to be seen, so hanging a ...

We arrived on beautiful Pulau Langkawi where we were required to clear both boat and crew into Malaysia.  Since last Friday, we had been 'illegal aliens' in Thailand! The process to check into Malaysia is: Immigration (to clear the crew) Harbour Master (to clear the boat) Customs (to ensure nothing naughty is carried) Unlike in Krabi, these three are located in the same building in the ferry terminal in Kuah. Straight forward, one would think. But no, this is Asia afterall! We established that we needed to follow the outbound ferry passengers towards the ferry. Just before we hit customs, several immigration officers were standing behind a barricade. They moved this to allow us to enter once it was established we were off a boat. Several forms and chop, chop, stamp, stamp later, we are now legal! The next step was a little trickier. Go out, turn left and up the stairs were the instructions. No mention of having to squeeze through a gap in the barrier onto the inw...

Shake-down sails are just that – a test of all systems to find out the problems before a race.   A few hours after we motored out of Krabi marina, we decided to bring up the brand-new headsail (the headie) and see how it looked.   As sheets were pulled and , a terrible rrrriiiipppp-ing sound came back from the front of the boat.   The track the sail travels up had jammed, the sail filled with wind and headie had torn all the way along the leading edge! Storm clouds in the distance Suddenly, we had repairs to make and a situation.   A VERY ominous-looking cloud and rain squall had been developing behind us, but we hadn’t been too concerned because we expected to sail away from it. As well, we needed to get underway as we really shouldn’t take our illegal alien selves back to Krabi Marina to get another headsail.   Craig was able to negotiate the marina staff jumping in their runabout and meeting us halfway.   Cam volunteered to be hois...

Today, we head out on our big adventure.  We are not too worried about pirates, fishnets or submerged containers sinking the boat nor are we that concerned about the chances of being thrown into either a Thai or Malaysian prison.  We carried a bag into Thailand for Craig that we did not pack ourselves, saving him a fortune in excess baggage. Despite him calling me Schapelle , we made it through so no Thai jail for us!   As we are taking the boat from Thailand into Malaysia, we had to get clearance to do so.  This involved most of the day on Thursday running between Immigration, to clear the crew, Harbour Master, to clear Popeye and Customs with huge amounts of paperwork.  We circled Krabi many times, getting lost on several occasions, as these authorities are not located in one handy location but scattered around the town.  Bu eventually, Craig had signed at least 40 documents, we had stamps in all the right places and the boat and crew were cleared to ...

We are about to embark on an adventure . Craig, a buddy of Kate's from way back, lives in Sydney.  He likes to sail and the boats he likes to sail are difficult to manage single-handed.  Daysailing is OK, but he really loves to do longer outings.  Multi-week outings.  Earlier this year, Craig broadcast to all his mates that he had a very nice boat in Thailand and wanted to do a yacht race in Malaysia and was there anyone that could spare a month to do the race with him?  Not everyone has the flexibility that Craig's life affords, or is able to negotiate with spouses, partners, employers, children, educational institutions and other obligations to arrange to be away for these lengths of time.  We, however, have a flexible schedule and we are very susceptible to suggestions. "Sign us up," we said.  That was March of this year.  Two days from now, we are flying to Krabi (where the boat is).  We are going to do some checking out of the ref...