It was a tad lumpy upon our immediate exit from Admiral Marina, but that quickly settled down. Hoisted both the sunshades, the main and the jib, and settled down.
Routines develop pretty quickly, especially when everyone has a grasp of what's going on.
The first and most important routine decision is, who is going to snooze first?
A quick basic run through the different 'pages' of the chart plotter, that I could remember , the how to go in and out of autopilot, how to cancel alarms, how to make sure the gori prop is in "overdrive", etc and it was already time for that first nap!
The lead up to departing from Australia, making sure I have everything, actually getting to the airport, confirming I haven't gone over the baggage limit- not that I haven't checked this a gazillion times already- the last few days of activity since arriving in Port Dickson, combined with the movement of K'Gari and the heat of the day, make it really very hard to stay awake..........
Arrived on time and budget at the anchorage off Port Klang. A totally successful first day.
The next leg to Pangkor was about 90 odd miles, so allowing for our usual economical 5 kts motor/ sailing progression rate, it would be about an 18 hour day. As you can see I'm no longer expecting 8-10 knot sailing speed, I'm becoming accustomed ,to the "the prevailing circumstances and conditions", of cruising in low equatorial latitudes.
As luck would have it, although perhaps that wasn't what Lynne was actually thinking at the time, the tide running North, would help us in the first few hours, if we left at, oh, let's say, about 0130 !!!
Guess who was awake then? Both of us, once I had made enough noise making coffee!
Practically, I can if necessary, heave the anchor unassisted , but the noise as the chain comes in and the wash down pump running, and the electric winch, would wake anybody - except perhaps, my teenage nephew.
My preference for arriving or departing anchorages is, that I'm happy to depart in the dark, I always have the escape course noted down , once we have arrived safely, but prefer to arrive at anchorages in daylight. That hadn't happened too often- well once I think, on the way north last time, so I planned to try harder this time to get the timings right.
Skipper awake and up, means its time everyone is, even if only briefly, whilst we get underway.
So it was.....
Knowing the waters for the passage ahead this time, also helped as, I knew that the fishing fleet which I expected to encounter about 20 miles to the north, would then be found around about dawn, and probably heading home with their catch, instead of randomly trawling around innocent yachts making their way north.
Sure enough, that was how the cunning plan panned out. Daylight just makes it so much easier to manoeuvre around and 'through' the fishing boat fleets.
Lynne reappeared about daylight and I retired for a wee snooze.
On time and again on budget, we anchored off Pangkor town on the Eastern side of the island, with the last of the daylight, just in time for the "duelling" mosques calls to prayer.
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| First anchorage at Pangkor |
The forecast for the run north had not been looking all that encouraging when we left Port Dickson after the first two days- which was now. No wind followed by Northerly winds up to 15-20 kts. This would be right on the nose again.
Which weather god have I offended?
The plan so far executed precisely, was to get to Pangkor and there we could wait and see how the forecast had updated.
There were anchorages either side of the island depending on what developed. There is also a marina which I've heard rave reviews about for being able to get boats lifted out of the water for work. Its also a good place to access the Cameron Highlands from I've been told. So plenty of options.
The forecast appeared to have toned down a bit, but was probably going to at best, mean hanging around for at least two days.
Rang the yard to see if there was there was remotest chance of a lift out over the next couple of days. If there was, I could change the saidrive oil and the anodes again. After a quick chat with the very helpful manager James, who was just getting on a plane himself for the weekend, I decided to abandon this idea , as it was a lift mechanism I hadn't encountered before and I think it will take some under hull photos to the yard first, to see if their system will be ok for my particular boat, on perhaps another occasion. I know they gets cats out there, but it seems dependent on the underhull configuration.
Decision made, we relocated to Teluk Nipah on the western side of the island. Here I figured there were enough protected anchorages from the north or the south depending on which way it blew.
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| https://youtu.be/pYjsWLtk8a0 |
Enroute as we approached the northern end of Pangkor Laut, we copped the down draft from an inbound helicopter- looked very official to us. The resort (luxury) in the notes I had, said yachties not welcome. I have since read in the latest addition of the SE Asia Pilot (2016), that the management are hospitable and it has great restaurants and spas, if you have money to splurge!
As the water was a bit clearer in Teluk Nipah than at the marina in Port Dickson , I was again in the water - having a squizz and gave the hull a quick clean off. Didn't seem to bad, but it's still really a bit of a touch and feel inspection, rather than 20/20 vision.
Mounted the outboard on the dinghy and gave it a whirl, worked perfectly, if a bit smokily, as it burnt the oil off, which meant we could whizz ashore without rowing and get some lunch and or dinner as desired.
Lunch turned out to be somewhat forgettable kuey teow goreng, with a child waiter who has obviously studied keenly at the Basil Fawlty school of service. It must be the only thing in his life, he has studied keenly, I suspect.
The second and far more pressing need was tonic water!
The provisioning in Port Dickson had been fine, except for the complete failure to remember to get tonic water.
Alas the 7/11 inconvenience store didn't have any.
RATIONING was going to be the order of the next few days until we could restock. Loads of gin, just not loads of tonic, or bitter lemon, or anything really.....
So the first to be subjected to rationing - by unilateral decision was Buffy! Perhaps then we would have enough tonic to make it through until replenishment could be accomplished.
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