Saturday was a somewhat slow day for Elaine, although she completed the last of her yacht projects. These included replacing the frayed bungee with a rope to secure our step ladders to Paw Paw, which we use to get on and off her; definitely didn’t want them ending up in the water. She also added the last of the items to our Grab Bag, including our new satellite phone and a smaller waterproof bag with a strap to hold the copies of our passports, yacht papers, insurance documentation, etc, some money, our spare credit cards and a charging cable for our phone and Iridium-Go, to be taken with us in the event of a rescue at sea from our liferaft. Obviously ending up in our liferaft to begin with, is the last situation we ever want to find ourselves in, but loosing our friends, Del and Craig, off Ohana-Uli, last year refocussed our minds on all our emergency procedures aboard, to ensure we are prepared as best as humanly possible.

On the other hand, Roy woke up full of beans on Saturday morning. After filling the water tanks, given that the leak was definitely fixed in the one tank, he then got stuck into getting our generator up and running, having replaced the coolant, unblocked one of the fuel pipes and fixed the temperature sensor, although a spare has been ordered, to be sure, to be sure. After that, we gave both engines a fresh water flush, gave the engines a wash, completed some cable tying and packed all the tools away.

On Sunday morning, after a terrible night’s sleep, Elaine woke up feeling less than human, exacerbated by her weekly dose of Methotrexate, but cleaning Paw Paw’s interior was completed, nonetheless, while Roy did the exterior. It didn’t take Elaine long thereafter, though, to make a beeline for her bed. Thankfully, after a few hours of sleep, she woke up this time feeling as right as rain. The deck, however, was filthy, primarily due to the soot from the practice of burning the sugarcane fields on the mainland, which has also created such a haze that we can barely see the coastline of Peninsular Malaysia. This is something we experienced in Fiji as well, but fortunately it’s seasonal and doesn’t last too long.

It didn’t help matters, though, that Mount Sinabung, located in the North Sumatra province of Indonesia, erupted on Tuesday, spewing columns of ash and smoke as high as 5 Km. This latest eruption of the 2,460 metre high volcano, which became active in 2010 after being dormant for 400 years, is the latest in a series that began in 2013. We just hope the southerly winds currently blowing continuing for a few more days so we’re not having to deal with volcanic ash too.

We also received the disturbing news that the motor yacht, Epic Princess, which left Straits Quay marina a few days ago to collect the Sultan of Kedah, hit rocks just south of Pulau Lalang in the Langkawi Archipelago, tipped onto its side and partially sank soon after the Sultan had disembarked on Langkawi Island. Fortunately the captain and the three crew members, a group of men we’ve become familiar with over the months, were rescued by a patrol vessel and there were no injuries, thankfully.

On Monday we both enjoyed a day indoors after our walks. Besides undertaking the only yacht task of the day; cleaning the waterline during the afternoon high tide, Elaine worked on our latest website video and Roy continued working on the enhancements to his Anchor Plus application.

By yesterday, though, we were back to the grindstone, albeit for two entirely different tasks. Roy installed our new Victron SmartSolar controller working in the usual tight places of a yacht and Elaine spent her day dealing with various agents and the Thai Embassy in Kuala Lumpur trying to obtain visas that would allow us entry to Thailand by sea, but, more importantly, allow us to stay until at least January 2022. Although we’ve been given a myriad of options, none can be pursued at this time; we can obtain a Tourist Visa (TR) through an agent in Thailand which allows a stay of 60 days initially, extendable by a further 30 days at a cost of BHT60,000 each; that’s $2000USD each, just for the visa, when we obtained the exact same visa directly from the Thai Consulate in Penang last year for a cost of RM150 ($40USD) each. This visa, however, can then be converted to a Covid Extension Visa for a further 60 days, but this latter type of visa is only valid until 30th May 2021 and we have no idea at what cost. Then there’s the Special Tourist Visa (STV) which provides an initial 90 days, extendable twice by 90 days at a cost of $150USD, but the stay cannot exceed 30th September 2021. What we weren’t told until we read the Checklist is that you have to apply for this visa from your home country or your country of permanent residency or be in Thailand. These criteria apply to the Non-Immigrant O Visa and the Retirement Visa too, although the application information we received stated that, if your visa is denied, all monies paid are forfeited, which would definitely have happened to us had we not noticed the caveats, since were in Malaysia as visitors. Another agent is able to get us an initial 45 days visa on arrival (30 days plus quarantine time), extendable by 30 days, allocated as part of the yacht clearance process, but, after that, there are no guarantees that we could obtain a different type of visa, including an Education Visa to remain in Thailand. So, we currently have no choice but to stay put in the hopes that Malaysia continues to extend their gracious visa amnesty to us, since the hope of the East Malaysia rally seems to have died a terrible death too, with the continuation of the travel restrictions.

The frustrating aspect of this situation is not only the constant uncertainty, but our last three remaining yacht projects, the replacement of the engine mounts, the servicing of the clutch cone on each engine and fixing the saildrive oil seal which is leaking on our starboard side, can only be undertaken by an experienced Yanmar technician, who, yes, you guessed it, is in Thailand.

On a brighter note, we had a number of family “celebrations” over the past few days; Evert’s christening, Chloe’s first birthday and our beautiful granddaughter Capri’s birthday.

Additionally, we received the good news that the MCO (Movement Control Order) placed on Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang will be moved to a Conditional MCO from midnight tomorrow night, while the other States of Kedah, Kelantan, Negri Sembilan, Sarawak and Perak will remain under the Conditional MCO and Melaka, Pahang, Terengganu, Sabah, Putrajaya, Labuan and Perlis will move to the Recovery MCO. Although inter-district travel within a State will be allowed, with the exception of Sabah, interstate travel remains banned, but, regardless, there’s light at the end of the tunnel again, especially with the vaccination programme underway too. We’re so looking forward to getting out and about!

Today was all about getting the laundry done and filling our gas bottles, neither an easy task on a yacht these days; the laundry is hauled about 400 metres to the nearest laundromat, where it cannot be folded once washed and dried due to the MCO restrictions, so Roy charges back to Paw Paw while the cloths are still warm from the dryer so that Elaine can fold them straight away. Then, since Penang State, unlike Kedah, doesn’t fill gas bottles, but delivers pre-filled ones, we then have to transfer the gas to our bottles, using a special pipe, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to use our barbecue; that would be sacrilege on Paw Paw!

A chat to Maria, off Cattiva, this morning however, helped take our minds off yacht projects, chores and visas, albeit for a moment in time.