This, after we’d just tried on Sunday to reschedule our appointment to a later date, but ended up having to cancel it, not only because no other slots were available, but because we’d received a notice sent out to all cruisers to remain calm and that the Malaysian cruising sponsors were preparing documentation of all yachts stranded in Malaysia and would be meeting with immigration on Tuesday, as well as receiving advise from one of the sponsors that without an official announcement and attending an appointment without an agent “would be a waste of time”. This advise turned out to be very wise and accurate based on the experience of other individuals who had attempted to seek clarification at various immigration offices.
With that, more hectic days unfolded as we scrambled to get our ducks in a row, but trying to work in the baking heat and humidity was absolutely brutal. Although we were both up early on Sunday morning, when temperatures were somewhat cooler, to get a start on all our preparation activities planned for the day, by noon we were exhausted, not to mention, completely drenched in our own sweat. Afterwards all we could muster was a nice cold shower and a nap in the coolness of our air-conditioned saloon.
The day started with Roy scrubbing the decks, while Elaine cooked breakfast, following which we finished cleaning the cockpit and transom areas together. Next tasks were to run both engines and ensure the gears engaged as expected, test all the instrumentation and then haul our new headsail around to the trampoline, from where it had sat in the cockpit since last September, but now needed to be installed. First, however, the new furler drum had to be fitted, along with the new furler line. Getting the sail up was the bit that nearly killed us both off and emphasised the fact that all this sitting around in marinas for more than a year has resulted in our cardio fitness levels being basically nonexistent. It took us forever to get it up, given the number of breaks we both needed, as Roy winched and Elaine fed the boltrope into the furler track. Our efforts were well worth it, though, as we had our seating area in the cockpit back and we had completed a number of tasks needed before any departure could take place, but when Elaine hauled out the cruising guides, we definitely knew a departure was eminent. Roy, however, still mustered up the energy in the afternoon to bake Elaine muffins, which definitely went down like a treat!
First task of the day on Monday was to reschedule Elaine’s appointment on 28th April to a much earlier date. Thankfully an appointment was available for yesterday. Then while Elaine took stock of all her medications we had onboard and prepared for her final rheumatologist appointment, Roy prepared the dinghy and took it for a drive around the harbour area. Afterwards we both got stuck into clearing out the starboard cabins, which had basically become “dumping grounds” over the months and stowed everything back in its original place, including packing away all the tools, returning all the cushions to cockpit, putting the flagpole back up, clearing and sorting out our cupboard that stores all our domestic cleaning products and toiletries, etc.
Once that was all done, provisioning started in earnest and continued all week, including sterilising everything before stowing and getting the butcher at Sam’s Groceria to deepfreeze our meat purchases.
As confusion and conflicting messages came out from the various embassies, we kept plodding along; dive tanks were dropped off to be filled, all the initial paperwork required for entry into Thailand was completed and submitted and our spare jerry cans were delivered.
By Monday night, the official announcement eventually arrived providing us with a week’s notice to depart the country. This was certainly not the way we thought we’d be leaving Malaysia, but we can’t help pointing the finger at the embassies either, who were clearly asleep at the wheel.
By Tuesday morning our plan of action was in full swing, including early morning emails to the agent in Thailand to bring our entry date forward, scheduling appointments at the immigration office in Langkawi as an attempt to obtain some extra time in Malaysia and preparing all the additional documentation required for that, getting dinghy fuel and obtaining police permission to move Paw Paw to the Langkawi archipelago, the latter a fiasco, although we attempted to ensure we had all the documentation requested and copies thereof. Guess you know what comes next; yep, the one document we didn’t have a hardcopy of, was the one they wanted and refused, not only to accept the electronic confirmation, but to print the document for us, resulting in Roy having to come all the way back to the marina office, get it printed and return to the police station. Fortunately the housing for fuel filters required for the redesigned fuel polishing system arrived, along with the spare battery water.
Yesterday started out the same way; early morning start for Roy to get more dinghy fuel, complete the last of our provisioning and start getting the running rigging in order, while Elaine headed to the hospital for her back-to-back appointments and collected her supply of medications. To take a break from the mayhem, lunch was enjoyed at the Nomiya Japanese restaurant before Elaine completed the last of the paperwork required for our appointment with immigration in Langkawi, printed out all the additional documentation received from the agent in Thailand and installed all our safety equipment on deck, while Roy filled the water tanks and spare jerry cans, stowed the dive tanks, replaced our windlass controller, which decided to develop a last minute issue for some obscure reason and checked all our navigation lights and anchor light. Elaine’s return Grab ride from the hospital, though, was definitely not an experience she needed; with Ramadan started, her driver actually fell asleep at the wheel. Needless to say, Elaine was not amused and insisted he turn up the fan on the air-conditioning temperature as well as continued to chat to him until she was back safely in Straits Quay.
Spooked by the experience, Roy then accompanied Elaine today to her final appointment at the Gleneagles Hospital, from where we headed to the mall for some last minute shopping and purchased a gift for ourselves, as a reward for all our hard work over this past year. We, however, first enjoyed lunch at our favourite Dim Sum restaurant before returning to Paw Paw to complete our final preparations. These, of course, included yet another fiasco of trying to clear out. While we had managed to have lunch, complete all our shopping and get back to Paw Paw before 1400 after leaving the hospital just after noon, by 1500 we were still messing around with inadequate computer systems to get our clearance from the harbour master and we hadn’t set foot in customs or immigration yet. Fortunately the marina office was able to assist us and by 1520 we were at immigration, but, if neither of us end up with COVID-19 after that visit, it will be a miracle; there were cargo ship crew members everywhere. Next stop was customs and by then we were truly over all the officialdom and mountains of paperwork, but we still had another mountain of it waiting for us; the next pile of documentation from the agent in Thailand. All we kept imagining were the number of trees that were being sacrificed for this bureaucracy. Our day ended as it started; busy. Once we’d cleared out of Penang and back on Paw Paw, Elaine got the laundry done, but using the marina’s facility, as it was just easier by this stage, before having a nice hot shower and settling down to complete the additional documentation for Thailand, while Roy remarked our chain, since our new windlass controller doesn’t have a chain counter. It was well past midnight before we both flopped into bed, exhausted, but delighted we’d got everything done.
While this week has been extremely stressful and not what either of us wanted or needed, not to mention, how exhausted we both are right now, the bright side is that we get to go sailing again, even if it’s only as far as Langkawi initially and seeing the entrance to Straits Quay mall, as well as the Gurney mall, beautifully decorated for Ramadan, was a lovely surprise!
