... try and find us

The 2016 Royal Malaysia Selangor International Race is now finished.  Popeye finished a very respectable 2nd in her division and the owner was very pleased.  We only had one casualty (Richard dislocated his shoulder but is on the mend now) but the boat, its sails, rigging and equipment are all intact and accounted for. Delivery crew (Julie as the special guest) arrives in Port Klang with no new scratches on Popeye Port Klang is cleaner, but still not pristine.  Should we be worried about that Biohazard bag in the water? It was good to see the crew from last year.  There were a few things that needed to be collected (provisions, anchor chain, beer, etc.) before we started the first passage race, but we had arrived early enough to do all this. A picture is much easier to take than 48 metres of chain when you go shopping. The teksis (taxis) in Malaysia are loosely regulated (like everything else) and I got into one to do my errands that I thought was...

Bobbing around the bay in Pangkor, we planned our next port of call - the Royal Selangor Yacht Club.  With a 12 - 15 hour sail ahead of us, we decided to depart at midnight and take advantage of the supermoon.   Super Moon Heading on down the coast... Super moon at dawn With a name like Royal Selangor Yacht Club (located in Port Klang), you'd expect something quite grand but according to the sailing website Noonsite ,  'Port Klang sits in a soup of sludge, sewage, debris and other detritus, stirred by fierce currents and the wash of a myriad of tramp steamers.  It lies at the antithesis of the crystalline waters which await just around the corner of Peninsula Malaysia, however its one redeeming feature is the oasis of the Royal Selangor Yacht Club.'   Just makes you want to head on down, doesn't it?  89 nm later, we made out way south down the channel into the infamous channel.  It was a bright and sunny day by the time we ente...

On dead calm seas, we headed south to Penang.     Happy at the helm  The sky started to turn a little dark and soon we were enjoying 35kns and driving rain.   Once the wind died to below 20kns, we unfurled the heady, picked up a knot and bounced our way across the Bay of Bengal.   Storm clouds Just look at that horizon! We could see the high rises of Penang for a couple of hours before we arrived.   Ships began popping out of the channel, cruise liners, cargo ships, tugs towing barges, as we tiptoed in through relatively shallow water and anchored off the Straits Quay Marina (SQM as it is known).   Sadly for us and our 2.85m draft, SQM is far too shallow and even anchoring in a depth of 5m means we are a good 300m from the entrance.   Penang skyline Penang is a very busy port, made busier by the construction of two islands just to the south of SQM.   Penang is in need of a new marina so they are creating...