Yep, back at our temporary home, Rebak Island, Malaysia. It feels good and yet rather… ok. Oh… we do have some projects. However; for us, it feels like much of the world has stopped. Fuel prices up, more conflicts in the seat of civilization, disease outbreaks. So here we wait. Here it is calm. Yes, we are effected by what is happening in the outside world but the effects in Malaysia and Thailand seem minimal.
The dinghy engine. Wow! I’ve rebuilt the carburetor several times and finally I have it working. Well, close; it is about 90% correct. I’ve replaced all the old fuel with fresh, I’ve cleaned out the fuel tank, I cleaned everything with Carburetor Cleaner and boiled the jets. Not in that order but the heart of the engine is looking damn good. After we arrived here I went to connect the fuel line to the fuel tank; damn! The round brass fitting on the tank was bent. How that happened? I’ve no idea. So off to town we went. There are two Yamaha outboard dealers and we knew of one. I went and asked for a new fill connection. Nope. No one in town has them. I checked another place and nope, none, nada, zip. Ok, buy a new tank. Which we did and now I have a new fitting. While getting a new tank I asked about cleaning the carburetor. 15 RM. About 4 USD. The following day I brought the carburetor into the shop. After lunch it would be ready. I hate to say it; we had comfort food for lunch. Pizza Hut. Yes, in most countries we’ve visited there have been Pizza Huts. No need to ever worry about US culture being usurped. After lunch we returned and they located an issue; the fuel pump. It needs new gaskets and they only had one. The other would be in next week.
As for us, we need to get the dinghy engine working properly so we can sell it, we have an wind speed indicator to install at the top of the mast, and I need to replace a galley water pump.
Well… I thought I had the correct one on the boat. Yep. Another trip to town and I handed them the needed gasket. Waiting I headed off to the market for some needed food supplies. Peanut M&M’s count as food don’t they? 🙂 After the load of food I picked up the completed carburetor and headed back to the boat. With new fuel, a new tank and a rebuilt carburetor the engine started right up. Oh… it did take a couple of pulls to get the petrol up to the cylinders. But; she now purred like a kitten. Off I went for a test run. I putted out of the marina to the entrance channel and throttled up. Whew ! Instantaneously I was up on plane and flying. Just like it ought to be. I motored back to the boat and picked up W/ with a camera. A video or two and it will listed for sale. Hopefully we can sell it and pick up our newly ordered one.
We thought we had a great place to hide from the winds and the errant seas. I understand now how we didn’t. Odd sea state combinations are caused by the Karst mountains. These rock structures rise up from the shore with few if any beaches and no vegetation. Any wave action reflects off the rock walls, returning an opposite sea. Here we have for the most part a constant rock and roll while anchored.
Langkawi Fjords
We found a place on the charts others had recommended. It is called the “fjiords”. This place looked very good. A smallish opening on the N and S end blocked by the mountains all around. Two things we didn’t count on. First: this is such a beautiful spot that daily there are 50-100 jet ski tourists stopping by. They begin around 11 ish and end by 6 ish. For the most part that was tolerable and provided us entertainment. The second is much worse; the Katabatic winds.
When a squall blows through (we are in the rainy season) the wind pressure builds up on the other side of the mountain. At some point the pressure is great enough to overcome the height of the mountain and any restraints by the gap. Winds then scream forward and slams us. I had anchored in the shallower water on the E side of the small inlet. When the winds screamed, the rocky reefy shore was close. Luckily our anchor held fine as we were blown N, S and E. Back and forth as the winds found their way through or over the opening. One gust was so intense it ripped an eye out of our awning. Needless to say, we removed that awning and didn’t put it back up while there. Additionally, I didn’t get in the water to clean our boat bottom.
Danger to any boat anchoring
We’re still looking for clean water and a respite from the winds and wave action. As a stop gap we choose to head back to the Kuah town anchorage. While the winds blow there, they are not squeezed through an opening and blasting us from opposite directions. We picked up our anchor and discovered another lucky moment. While the anchor held through all the winds, as we picked it up we snagged an old mooring line with a thimble. Had we accidentally dropped the anchor on that line caught, I doubt we would have stayed put. We could have easily been blown aground. Our time would have been spent moving Elysium back to deeper water. We hauled that line with us offshore and I dumped it well away from where anyone would anchor. It is now a haven for sea life. It was much, much too messy for us to bring aboard and carry ashore somewhere for disposal.
Heaps of jet ski’s pass through here
We had an easy motor to Kuah. I would like to say sail but there are limiting conditions here, no wind, no wind with rain, and too much wind with rain. We choose the no wind option. Motoring is not all bad. Our batteries get charged and it is easy. In Kuah we dropped the hook and I set it with the boat momentum. Once Elysium swung toward her anchor W/ put the engine in reverse to double check. Bang, Bang, Bang, etc. OH SHIT ! Now what? Did we pick something up with the prop. She nudged the shift into forward to see it that would clear it. Bang, Bang, Bang, etc. We were never in gear longer than one second each time!
One of the many tools carried aboard Elysium
Good thing we are anchored in the Kuah harbor. If we need anything; here we can find it 99% of the time. We currently have no squalls, and it is the middle of the day. We dig out my dive gear and I enter the water expecting to find our propellor snagged something. The prop is clear. However it is sitting a wee bit farther back than normal. I try to manually rotate it. Very difficult. I try to push it back into place and that I can do. I try to rotate it again and much easier. Something inside the boat. I am not sure yet if that is good or bad news.
Out of the water I shower off and we get ready to check the drive system inside the boat. W/ empties out the requisite locker. We remove the floor board and another oh shit moment. The coupling has one bolt through it and no nut. There ought to be 4. The banging was the prop lock knocking against the hull. The coupling only connected by one bolt left a shaft oscillating. Now was the time to repair.
Nothing was technically broken. And all the parts must be in the bilge. I temporarily replace the one bolt reducing any stress on the shaft or shaft log. Next I use a light and a grabber extension and begin hunting for the other 3 bolts and 4 nuts. We need 4 nuts. Remember one bolt was still in place. It wasn’t easy finding stuff in our bilge. Dirty water from the anchoring system runs through the bottom of the boat to the bilge and it was dirty water. Since Indonesia all the anchoring in Malaysia is in a mud sand mix. We tried flushing the bilge with clean water. Not enough. In the end; an hour later, we found the three missing bolts and…. 3 nuts. I can make it work and hopefully I hope I’ll locate another nut in town. These nuts are fine thread. If I am unable to find the correct nut I can use some stainless steel hardware for a solid, albeit temporary fix. Now that we can use the engine again in an emergency, tomorrow I will head to town and look for the fine threaded nut.
Again, we were lucky. I found the correct size fine thread nut. Back aboard I completed the repair. We are whole again! Now just to resupply and find a place to clean Elysium’s bottom.
During our resupply I took a good tumble. Immediately after purchasing some breakfast pastries I was walking through the terminal storing them in my backpack. Walking and doing something is normal for me. What is not normal is how building architecture is applied in Malaysia. Not normal for an American. Everywhere there are changes in foot altitude. From one store front to the next the floor may be 3” higher or lower. One must be all the time conscientious of where and how you step. I was putting the goodies in my backpack which I had in front of me. From my view the steps were hidden by the floor pattern. I wasn’t paying close attention. I missed the first step. Not huge. I’m good at falling and recovering. Not good enough. There were two more steps. I missed the second step too. By now I wasn’t able to recover. I went over the third and down.
Look carefully! I didn’t
There is a saying: You’ll know you’re old when you fall and people go “OMG, do you need help”. If you’re young… they laugh. I had several people concerned asking if I was alright. I was, a bit shaken up but nothing broken. In the end I didn’t even get bruised. I said I was good at falling. Lesson learned; I hope. Slow down, you move too fast.
We must be crazy. We choose again to head to Singa Besar. That is where I had added the zincs two weeks ago. All of the cruisers were gone. We anchored closer to the beach this time hoping to avoid some of the current. We did. But, we didn’t miss the heaps of jet skis. And we didn’t miss the crossways swell. The day the racing fleet was to be coming through (we didn’t know this) we left an hour before they arrived. We could have at least had some great drone shots of them! You don’t know what you don’t know. We watched them sail through the huge anchorage as we headed back to Kuah.
The only calm anchorage Near Kuah
In Kuah we choose a new spot. Around the corner off a smallish fishing village. Just as we made our way through the cut with a rather boisterous counter current a light squall hit. What a PITA! Still, 30 minutes later and we were safely anchored in the bay. We anchored on the outer fringe. There we came across a couple with their 3+ year old daughter we met in Lombok almost 2 years ago. It is always a joy to touch base with other cruisers from before. From them we picked up the scoop on where to leave the dinghy, get to the grocery, do laundry, and the easiest way to town.
Here too we discovered that evenings there was entertainment. Between 7 and 12 tourist vessels paraded into the bay. Their clientele would swim, use water slides from the boats, run around with jet skis, be towed on huge rubber ducks or a rubber wiener. A few tourist boats had bad Karaoke and others big boom, boom music. This lasted close to an hour before sunset where they again paraded out of the harbor to find a good spot to see the sunset. Afterwards things were calm. That was a blessing. A good nights sleep.
The following day we dug out the dive gear and I dove in to clean the barnacle cities growing on the boat bottom. The water was still filled with nutrients and cloudy. Still, I did my best. I hope I have 99% of the bottom clear. What is not cleared is the slime. Somewhere, in cleaner water I hope to wipe the bottom down. Till we find clear water, we’ll live with this.
Last on the list is to clear out of Malaysia. Next country… Thailand
It is a partnership not as one you would expect. This partnership is between the yacht and the owners. If the owners take care of the yacht, the yacht will take care of them.
We put our partnership on hiatus for a few months. Elysium had a wee bit of love. Not enough however. Like any partnership, some is not enough. We make excuses. It is “hot” out. We’re tired. It looks like rain is coming, etc.
We know these things. Thus we knew we needed in what the cruising community calls a “shakedown”. Take the boat out, see what works and fix any issues before a longer passage. We’re on our shakedown, and we’ve found Elysium has some needs.
Before we left the marina our bottom growth was blossoming! A fouled bottom is bad. It slows the boat down. Not that we ever go fast. But we want Elysium being responsive to the helm, sails, and any power we might need. Sitting for months in the marina, the nutrient rich water of Rebak; there was growth. We paid two divers to clean the bottom. They video’ed it all and things looked good. The week before we left I asked them to again give it a good wipe down. Life got in the way and for some reason the bottom wasn’t cleaned. Ok. Looks like I’ll be diving and clean it during our shakedown.
Our first stop was to fuel up. We headed north to Talaga where there is dock side fueling. In Indonesia everyplace we needed fuel we jerry jugged it. We are tired of hauling jerry jugs for fuel. After all, we needed near 100 gallons. Oh, and I forgot to get more gasoline for the dinghy engine. However, I had thought ahead. In prepping for this shakedown I had purchased and jerry jugged some fresh gasoline. One cruising issue with petrol is that it ages and will not burn properly. Car owners never worry about this because their cars don’t sit long. For us, our gasoline has sat close to 9 months. I can mix the old with good; but using it alone has created an issue. I’ve done that before and there is far more frustration than reward in trying to use old fuel. The bottom line: keep good clean gas for the outboard. So off we go. Plenty of diesel. And still enough petrol for few days. At the moment there is a long smooth swell rolling in. With no wind or winds counter to the swell the boat rolls side to side. Not pleasant. Neither of us like this. Not at all. We have roll stoppers. They don’t “stop” the roll. They reduce the roll and make it tolerable.. Thus, we choose to head down to Singa Besar. Party central; a lovely beach with a makeshift Singa Besar Yacht Club facility. While there I’ll clean the bottom.
Singa Besar a Hot Tourist Stop by Day
A day later I jump in to wipe down the bottom. Wipe is not the correct word. The barnacles have blessed- actually cursed us with babies! The bottom is covered with thousands of new small barnacles. Yeah, yeah, I know the bottom paint should stop them. Our paint is ablative which means that the boat must move to keep the paint fresh and active. Remember: we didn’t move for months! Ok. W/ hands me the scraper and I begin removing the baby barnacles. As I do this I start at the stern and check the prop and zincs ! SHIT ! We’re missing the prop zinc. I expected two zincs. A prop zinc and a shaft zinc. The shaft zinc too is over 1/2 gone. Not good. They need to be replaced; immediately. I scrape a bit longer and then exit the water. W/ and I search for the right zincs aboard. We find what we need and I prepare to dive again. I remove the old shaft zinc and clean the shaft, then install the new. With the shaft now protected I attempt to put on the new propellor zinc. I can’t get the screws in the holes tight enough to hold the zinc in place. SHIT! And in one hole I discover that the screw (these are plastic) was broken off. The prop needs to be removed to extract this screw. SHIT !
SternBearing and Autoprop
Back aboard we discuss the situation. We could remove the prop. We have all the tools. We could go back to the marina, get an overnight haul out. Or we could maybe re-tap the two holes cleaning out the growth and install the zinc. That ought to get us to our next haul out. It is tentatively planned in Thailand in 6-10 weeks; weather dependent. We decide on the latter. Our immigration visas are up on the 20th.
Serious cruising boats carry heaps of spares. We are no different. We have a set of metric taps. I use a Vice grip to hold the tap as tight as possible. I only have this one tap. In the water I go … again. I carefully insert the tap and slowly turn till it takes hold. Turn, back off, repeat, turn and clear out the growth. Once bottomed out I remove it and tap the other hole. There are three. Two are now clear and I’ve dropped nothing. Good thing. The bottom here is mud and I would never find what I dropped. I return the tap and Vice grip to W/. She hands me the new zinc, a screw and screw driver. I install the first screw easily now that the threads are clean. Return for the second screw and install. We are back in business. Now to continue where we started. Cleaning the bottom of the baby barnacles.
I am about 30% complete and rise to the surface. W/ points to a line of clouds descending upon us. We call off the bottom clean till another day. Good thing too. 30 minutes later we are hit with a lively squall.
Yep, stuff is beginning to fall into place. Finally; finally we received the correct fittings to finish our stove installation. Installed now, leak checked now, propane tank filled, everything works. All that is left is to install the stove lock and the boat is ready to move again. Before we move however, we will have the topsides and the bottom cleaned. After which we’ll tool around Langkawi.
And even before we leave the dock there are two administrative tasks to do. The biggest is renewing our Passports. That we can do in Kuala Lumpur, the capitol city of Malaysia. We have appointments, We have the docs they require ready. We have the flights scheduled and we have reservations at the hotel. We stayed there a year ago and know our way around…. a bit. W/ has been doggedly good at getting these ducks in a row. Not only has she fought with the websites for reservations and how cumbersome they are so often, she’s had to pull me along whining and screaming. Scheduling multiple stops, with multiple flights and multiple overnight stays is much like; for me, doing taxes. On one day the price is different, the next the airline schedules are different. Not my cup of tea. In tennis, the ball isn’t in or out based on the day. Thus, I’ve not been a big help. Maybe a little help, but definitely not a big help. Anyway…. it is done.
Add to the Passport renewal we decided to tie it into a Visa run. Visa runs are when a country requires you to exit after so many days or months and then re enter; restarting a new visa. In Malaysia it is 90 days. We can exit before that time, however when we return again we only receive 90 days. This will be where we’re at. We’ll leave well before our Visa runs out, however we are looking at the other side, the next 90 days and the ability to cruise this area some. Well, there you have it. Life is getting a bit brighter and we’ll hopefully be leaving the dock soon. Because we hang so long in place our friends on Giebateau will call us “locals”. We will wear that moniker proudly. Malaysia is a wonderful country with great people.
Sharing a last meal with Paul and Carolyn before they take off
A few readers have figured out we’re still in a marina. Yeah, I know. Not the best option for a “cruiser.” I hear it daily from our “real” sailing friends; Paul and Caroline. Mostly Paul. After 3 years away from any quality yacht services, after 18 years of cruising, after 2 years in Indonesia where one is lucky to find knowledgeable and experienced workers for yachts, we’ve had serious work to do.
Some jobs are cosmetic while others are for comfort. Then there is always a list for safety. And there is not a better place to accomplish these tasks in this area than at Rebak Island Resort and Marina. First; there are quality services here. An excellent marine chandlery in Kuah Town at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (RLYC), Marine Supplies Asia. Another large hardware store with heaps of marine supplies; called Gans. And then a smaller one (Multiquip Trading sdn.Bhd) which deals more with fishing vessels vs “yachts”. On top of that, the yard here is very good, very clean and has a small chandlery. While not as complete as those on the Gold Coast or in Scarborough, they have maintenance items, tape, paint, brushes, rollers, hose clamps, etc. But, the frosting on the cake here is: Langkawi is a duty free port. Anything we need from the US, Europe, Australia arrives with only with the cost of international shipping. Sweet. In addition, we are Amazon Prime members (yeah I know – not a Bezos fan) but; with $50 or more we receive free shipping… to Malaysia! All the while we visit the gym 3 times per week improving our fitness. They have weight machines which makes recording our data and seeing growth motivated. Much better than the alternative; free weights. 🙂
So; what have we accomplished in 3+months? First on the list was ordering items we needed. We ordered a new stove from GN Espace. We discovered a new teak varnish that has been working well, AWLWOOD; and it looks good. We sent our dinghy in for repairs. I found a welder to fix the broken bail on the bow pulpit. We ordered a new Isotherm freezer unit. Bought a new raw water strainer, and purchased some new Hayn rigging screws / hardware. While in Thailand on a visa run we picked up a piece of Teak and Starboard planning to shim out the Sailomat wind vane a wee bit.
The final….. frontier. Really, just the last stop of the Sail Malaysia Rally. We left Penang and made a good days run to Langkawi. On the chart Langkawi didn’t seem all that big; Langkawi is quite large. The rally has a final farewell planned and for us; Langkawi is a great stop. The island / marina is Duty Free. Outfitting, upgrading Elysium will be much easier and except for shipping to Rebak we will have fair prices. And; I hope to find some good marine supplies stores.
We first stopped at a lovely harbor on the S of Langkawi with the express idea of running our water maker. The water in the Malacca Straits side is so contaminated we’ve not run the water maker at all. Finally, here; in Langkawi it is cleaner. Not like on the Great Barrier Reef, nor anything near to what we found in Indonesia. But; the sea no longer looks like river water. We spent two days checking out one of the popular harbors and then on a calm am we moved the last two miles to the Marina.
Singa Besar Langkawi Malaysia
Food at Rebak Resort and Marina
After some time here: we refer to life in Rebak as: Ground Hog Day. But I’m getting ahead of myself. A couple days hence we had the grand finale. The Rally diner was combined with Marina and resort guests. The cultural show here was underwhelming. Or maybe I ought to say overshadowed by mass of attendees. As with all our stops the food was excellent, the camaraderie full of life and the weather; well, it rained. No matter, we were undercover and dry.
While here we hope to repair what issues have shown face over the last few years. We have found a few yacht suppliers here that cater to the cruising community. At the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club there is one dedicated to Yachts and their needs, another in Gans Warehouse which is much closer in style to Home Depot (states) or Bunnings (Australia), and finally a mom and pop store in Kuah town, Langkawi. Beyond those outlets getting supplies in here while isn’t as easy as the states is manageable. Langkawi is a duty free port so any dealing with Malaysian customs is minimal to non existent. We’re able to order from US yacht suppliers and sometimes pay extra international shipping and sometimes not. Amazon Prime often will ship here for free. And we’ve taken advantage of that service.
Marine supplies in Kuah Town
Some supply prices in Malaysia can be silly – some not. For example: Blue Painters tape is 3-4 US bucks a roll. While doing our varnish we use heaps. I ordered a dozen rolls each of one and two inch tape from the US for about a buck per roll and free shipping. Of course with Prime I needed to order $50 or more. Ironically we also needed a new 120 volt toaster. The Malaysian voltage is not the same as the US and our boat is set up for the US. That is one mistake I made when we rewired the boat. At the time it would have been easy to add the extra line for this area of the world 🙁 . And so…. I added a toaster to the order plus a few more items . Yeah, we had free shipping to Malaysia. Sweet.
To cross to the big island there is a ferry service included in the resort / marina fees. The ferry runs from 6 am to 12 pm. However it is not an “on demand” service and has a rough schedule. During peak resort times it ran more than the schedule showed. At a minimum it runs the schedule. We’re able to get over to the Kuah Town for supples; both yacht and personal, and back easily during daylight. We’ve not yet made a night visit. Sometime we expect to.
One of several Hornbills living on Rebak
And so life goes on. There’s a beautiful pool, great restaurant where we receive a discount on food and drinks because we are Marina patrons, wild life, walks, beaches, and all the comforts of home on the boat. The only thing missing is…. living on the hook. We’re taking a temporary pass on that style readying for the next stage….cruising to Thailand.
