The second year begins : Langkawi to Port Dickson ; June 2016

Family arrived on the 17th June.

The intervening  home alone time had been occupied with the initial dozen blog posts being created.
Each night the predictable squalls - up to 30 kts some evenings, came rushing down the mountainous terrain along with the rain- the days were hot and humid. Writing the blog was the ideal way to spend the days, not to mention, fun, remembering all the adventures to date.

Now however, it was time to move again.

A repeat tour around the island, but this time including a trip up the cable car. Having done various cable cars around the world, I was admittedly in two minds about this one. Definitely worth it. A view all over Langkawi and up into Thailand.

not really doing the steepness justice, but there it is, looking down on Telega 

Revisit Kraf Complex Langkawi, where it seems I'm now recognised as a regular visitor by the batik man. I purchased a couple of small batik hangings the first time, Ros and Peter also purchased one. This time another purchase, Jo was as taken with them as we had been, and decided upon a beautiful reef scene.- it looks fabulous now it's been hung.

Back on board and I changed the sw impeller on the starboard engine,now that an O ring had come in with my new crew, and we were ready to set off south.

The decision that I had eventually arrived at, was to take K'Gari back south to Port Dickson to lay up , whilst I returned to Australia once again.

Steve likes to sail, Jo had wanted to do "a passage, including perhaps some overnight sailing", as she never had. Chris didn't have much choice, but it would, hopefully, be a fun  experience for him.

Now if you have been paying attention to the blog thus far , what may have stood out, is the complete lack of wind, which means a lot of milage is done , "motor sailing".

Early in my new "cruising life" I appreciated that when cruising, the worst thing you can do, is set deadlines- that's when it could get nasty, making decisions under pressure. Jo had booked their 'plane tickets to and from Langkawi, as at the time that was where I had planned to leave K'Gari. Needs must however, and now I was returning to Port Dickson. Jo had managed to change her tickets, at no penalty, to joining the return flight in Kuala Lumpur.
All we had to do was cover the 300 odd miles in the same easy hops I had done on the way north.

Hmmm- what could go wrong with that plan?
The alternative scenario  to no wind, is  "wind on the nose". This we were about to encounter!  There had literally been no wind for three months and now, as it turned out it would be strong and  "on the nose"

Left Royal Langkawi , and an easy motor sail to "the fjord" anchorage. A magnificently secure from any of direction of the wind anchorage, found in what appears to be a cleft in a mountain, but is actually between two islands.

another seawind - Thomas from Pei Pei arrived in" the fjord"

Tucked away for the night safely,we had basically left the boat open, (but fully flyscreened) when we turned in. That was a bit of a mistake.About 2am, with no warning- because the wind didn't precede it, in our safe snug anchorage, the deluge hit.The roar as the rain approached was amazing, loud enough to give me 30 secs advance warning. Perhaps the roar of the approaching rain had been magnified by the echo chamber properties of the gorge, which we had checked out the previous evening whilst at anchor, the gorge echoing to cooee calls.
Trying to shut down the cabin hatches and more importantly the huge windows of the saloon, before the boat was completely inundated, was somewhat exciting, not to mention wet! Chris, being a teenager, slept through the pelting rain, despite it coming in almost horizontally!

This piloting under bridges is a synch!

The next morning we set off and had  good run down to the northern end of Penang Island, sailing and motor sailing, and another pleasant overnight anchorage.Not an early start the next day as we were going to try to carry the tide through. Well that was the plan , but it didn't seem to have changed by the time I had calculated it would , A windless, motor down through Penang Harbour and under the bridges and clear by 1300.

Buffy needing steering practise, took us under the bridges!

Work out the clearance.Line her up.....

Good positioning but getting  nervous-but still got all nine lives left!
33m bridge clearance  - 19m mast height = heaps.  Hmmm, is now a good time to wonder how high the tide is at the moment???

relax!- no  probs Cap'n

 Then at last some wind, light and just enough to sail, a little too close on the nose , but cooling at the very least. It kept increasing to 20-22kts and from the south- this is not what had been planned for!
Soon enough the sea state pretty well made motoring a waste of fuel issue. So we reefed down the main, putting 2 reefs in and settled down to beat our way to Pangkor.
Well at this rate, Jo was going to get her night sail  experience  in!

Steve and I split the watches between us and Chris stayed up with me until he had had enough and Jo was going to offside Steve on his watches. Chris saw the delights of night sailing for the first time. The difficulty in trying to see through binoculars, when standing on a moving platform with a height of eye of about 2-3 meters, exactly what the lights of the fishing fleet, who were all around us, were actually indicating. He quickly got the hang of which ones to really  look out for- those on the starboard side especially, and how to judge visually, if they were likely to cross ahead or astern of us.
I showed him the basic concepts of how  the chart plotter and the radar worked, a bit at a time is the easiest way to grasp it all.

This is what an approaching Sumatra squall looks like on the radar.- the pink part is the rain. We are reefed down in anticipation  and still sailing at 8.5kts

The next morning 24 hours after leaving the Penang anchorage, we arrived in Pangkor and anchored once again in Teluk Nipah bay. We had tacked our way south, covering 121 miles, to make the 66 that it would have been in a straight line!
Spent the day at anchor and the next morning departed. The plan had been to stop overnight at Port Klang, but the wind was still not co-operating so in the end we  just kept going, tacking south, until the wind eased enough to make motoring a better proposition arriving off Port Dickson about 30 minutes to late to go alongside there and then.
Next morning the 24th, we berthed and it was time to start bedding K'Gari down again.

I had suggested to Jo, that they go down to Melaka stay overnight, and then proceed from there directly to KLIA to catch their flight. Whilst she was arranging some accommodation on the 25th, for the night of the 26th, it dawned on me, that I had lost 24hrs in my estimated time for putting K'Gari to rights before going home  myself.
The next two days were BUSY. This time the freezer would be completely defrosted and turned off- never again the potential disaster of leaving it on. Problem was with only 36 hrs left it would be touch and go.Its a great freezer- believe me!

Finished off the final clean  and shut down checks about 0900 on the 27th. My prearranged transport to KLIA , the wonderful Sashi, and his beautiful airconditioned car, was due at 1000.Phew , just in time!
Sashi had taken Peter,Ros and myself to Melaka, months ago, and picked us up again. I suggested to Jo, that it was the easiest way for them to get to Melaka, she decided it was as well. The following morning when he picked me up to take me to the airport for my mid afternoon flight , he told me that after dropping me at KLIA he was back to Melaka to pick them up for their evening flight. Lucky I kept his number following  the first experience!

Leaving K'Gari for 14 weeks this time, hopefully to return to no disasters.......