While Roy washed the decks, thankful for the help from Mother Nature, Elaine completed the last of the items on our pre-sail checklist. With each step, including the removal of the tarps, which had been covering the saloon windows, Paw Paw came to life. What we suddenly realised is that we’d been living in a cave of sorts to keep the baking heat out. It was wonderful to have all the light back in our home and even better to have our full galley countertop back once the portable air-conditioner was removed. A top up of the water tanks, a top up of our fresh produce and settling the bill at the marina office completed the To Dos. By 1230 we had cast off the dock on the rising tide and we were heading north.
Still exhausted from the mayhem we were, nonetheless, delighted to be out of the marina and sailing again, although it was hard to believe 10 months had passed since our last sail. Our hope, however, is that this is the first leg in restarting our circumnavigation and that we can get back on course; we’ll know more by the start of next week. In the interim all we can do is enjoy each day until the final cards fall and yesterday that included a nice donder up the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia to our anchorage for the night off the idyllic Bidan Island.
It was, of course, idyllic until a fleet of squid fishing boats arrived and started their generators to power their bright green lights. Then, at midnight, diving out of bed with a howling 33.5 Kts of wind screaming through the anchorage, as squall after squall passed over us. It was 0230 before we crawled back to our beds, but we’d barely got settled when we turned side-to and the boom started clonking around. With a huff and a puff Roy got back up to secure it, coming back to bed muttering: “2:30 in the morning teething problems”.
Amongst these teething problems have been remembering how to use certain functionality on our instrumentation, like how to reset the cross-track error, resetting up all our alarms for high wind alert, shallow water alert, etc, and remembering what a great core workout sailing gives you. All things considered, though, we haven’t done too badly; it was just a case of getting back into old habits.
However, by this morning, it was starting to feel like a “baptism by fire”, sailing into the wind, fortunately a light wind, but in very uncomfortable lumpy seas, which had us bouncing over a horrible ground swell. Fortunately, by 1000 the wind had come around a little bit, so up went the mainsail. Feeling brave, we then unfurled our new, larger head sail to see how that faired reefed in a beat, all of which, at least, allowed us to motor-sail. We also knew we were in deeper water when the Andaman Sea changed from shades of jade to a deep navy blue, under sunny skies.
By 1530 we were anchored off Kuah on Langkawi Island. In the months we’d been away the beautiful new mosque on the waterfront had been completed and we had the pleasure of seeing a friendly face we knew; the South African, Chris, off Trigger, whom we first met in American Samoa in 2016. After a quick dinghy ride over to Trigger, Roy was able to glean a bit more information on the appeals process at the Langkawi Immigration Head Office, which was very helpful. For now, we’re happy to enjoy a quiet evening on board, at anchor, in the fresh air, topped off with a stunning sunset, our first in 10 months, but five minutes with a fellow South African and Roy’s drinking a “rum and coke”!
