Pulau Penang and now Pulau Langkawi Lat. 6 degrees 18.1' N Long. 99 degrees 51.1' E

Well, it's now 11 days since our last blog - that must be a record!!
We raised anchor from the Jerejak anchorage at around 1230 on the 15/04 as we had been told that we shouldn't start north to Georgetown and Straits Quay Marina until one and a half hours after high water. We figured that by the time that we had re-rounded the southern tip of Jerejak to head north we would be exactly on time. But - WRONG!! The tide remained stubbornly against us almost all the way past the passenger ferry terminal which was three and a half hours!! But not to worry - we had a fascinating trip between Penang and the mainland passing under the famed Penang Bridge on the way. We couldn't help a feeling of some disbelief that here we were on Tiare passing through these historic waters.
Penang was named Prince of Wales Island by the British way back in the early 1700's and of course has had contact with many nationalities well before that. There have been Indians, Arabs, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, British and now - the "Tiare Taporo III"!!! The Tiare's arrival is by far the most significant of course.
As in other parts of Malaysia, the development evident everywhere is most noticeable, especially since our last visit three and a half years ago. So many high rise buildings, the new bridge 9 miles long south of the original one, the port at Butterworth - the list goes on.
We continued on around the NE end of the island until we picked up the waypoint for the approach into Straits Quay. On the way we sailed past many moored ships and managed to make out the Eastern and Oriental (E & O) Hotel very similar in style and historic age to Raffles in Singapore. At the waypoint we turned 90 degrees to port to approach the marina entrance still about half a mile away. As we approached, it was fairly choppy with a strong onshore wind blowing and it started to get alarmingly shallow. At one point close in we had only 2' under our keel. We could see John Fergusson, the marina manager waving to us from the end of the breakwater and telling us on the VHF to pass two black poles to port. We kept the faith and pressed on until we were opposite the entrance where we turned hard to starboard to enter then almost immediately hard to port to enter the basin proper. We had to go astern as we made the final turn to ensure we cleared the rock wall. It's always stressful entering marinas when one hasn't been there before. Not so bad in this case but trying to decipher Malaysian English (Malenglish) on the VHF over engine noise and relaying half understood instructions from the cabin to the helm is character building to say the least. We berthed next to "Spirit of Tara" owned by Philip and Sheila originally from the U.K. They were very pleasant neighbours and gave us much useful information about Langkawi and sailing further north to Thailand.
Straits Quay is quite small (only 40 berths) and is always in great demand because it's now the only marina on Penang. There was another one but it was largely untenable due to ferry wash and finally completely broke up. SQ is surrounded on 3 sides by very upmarket apartment buildings with a most impressive tower at the entrance. There are restaurants galore - all fairly expensive. John Fergusson runs a tight ship. Everything is spick and span and everything works!! The facilities are spotlessly clean too which hasn't often been the case in previous experience. Access to Georgetown (the original historic part of Penang) is easy either by a 101 bus or taxi (10 Ringitts - NZD3.65).
The two things on our list to do during our stay were to get our anchor chain re-galvanised and to obtain our visas for Thailand. So we contacted Steelway in Butterworth who have a good reputation for chain galvanising and they collected the chain from the boat in the marina - all 175 kgs of it. On the 17th. we went to the Thailand Consulate-General to apply for our visas. Had to wait in an endlessly long queue as the previous few days had been holidays in Thailand and so a backlog had developed. By a great coincidence we met Tanya and Don from "Pedoja" there doing the same thing, although their boat was already in Thailand. We agreed to meet them again the next day when we would collect our passports and visas. This we duly did and enjoyed a bit of time together.
The chain came back to the boat a few days later all shiny and new looking - 1030 Ringitts (NZD375). No more rusty flakes on deck during anchoring!!
We also decided we had to take afternoon tea at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel which is a quaint ritual left over from the British colonial days. It was very pleasant. Jean had Jasmine tea while Jim had Assam. There were cucumber sandwiches, and petits fours. Not quite up to the standard we had expected but worth it for the experience. Somerset Maughan must have been out visiting because we didn't see him! It is a very grand building and we had a good look around while there. There is a grand ballroom and conservatory just outside. All still used we were glad to see and very evocative of a by-gone age.
We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant that we had favourable recollections of from our previous visit but, although still good, it didn't measure up the same. One should never go back. We walked past the entrance of the hotel we had stayed in before but sadly the female motorcycle cops were not in evidence. Probably just as well because at Jim's even more advanced age the health effects may not have been desirable! We also met another couple in the marina - Vivian who is of Indian ancestry and born in Malaysia and Christian originally from Germany. In the past they have lived in NZ for around 30 years. There was also an organic food market one morning and a wonderful organic vegetarian restaurant. They also run an organic fruit and vegetable farm in the hills behind and have a homestay there. When we return we will spend a night with them up there. Even Jim thought it was quite good and the vegetarian lentil dumplings to die for!
All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Penang and will definitely be back. But all too soon it was time to continue north to our haulout date in Thailand. We left on the morning of the 22nd. and had intended to sail/motor all the way to Langkawi non-stop. But we decided instead to break the 60 mile passage in two and so sailed more of a northerly course to Pulau Bidan 25 miles away. This would leave 42 miles for the next day. The anchorage was very peaceful and we caught up with much needed sleep after the excesses of Penang! Bidan is quite close to the mouth of a major river with lots of nighttime fishing boat traffic so we lit ourselves up like a Christmas tree. We had bought some flashing white lights so we clipped 2 onto the genoa sheets and had another 2 at the stern. In addition we had our lower nav. lights and masthead anchor light. All strictly illegal but no-one gives a damn about the rules here and the name of the game is BE SEEN. We now also have 2 solar powered flashing blue lights so we'll look like a Malaysian fishing boat anytime soon.
We left Bidan at daybreak (0700) and motored away on 322 degrees True. Uneventful except for trying to judge whether or not we'd squeeze ahead of trawlers coming across our course and dodging circular structures in the sea made of a collection of sticks. These are FAD's (fish aggregation devices) but different from those we had seen in Indonesia. Here the sea is relatively shallow (50' - 70') and they appear attached to the bottom whereas in Indonesia the depths were anything from a few hundred feet to a few thousand feet deep - and there they were floating. After a few hours we passed Pulau Paya to starboard and then began to make out the outline of Langkawi looming up in the haze. The wind had been some help earlier but now had dropped away to nothing and it was HOT! The approach to Langkawi is very pretty and scenic with many small islands all very green and heavily wooded. Very reminiscent of a tropical version of the Bay of Islands. We wended our way through the islands following the channel courtesy of the chartplotter and soon had the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club Marina in sight. We called them on VHF 69 and received our berth allocation as well as the information that we would be tying up starboard side to, so we then knew which side to rig our fenders and mooring lines. We followed a small scruffy Austrian yacht in and evidently they hadn't contacted the marina at all but nevertheless tied up at a berth on our starboard side as we approached. We were ascertaining just where our berth was when they suddenly shot out in reverse just in front of us which necessitated some serious revs astern on our part to avoid a collision. At moments like these one hopes that everything still works!! They then inexplicably shot into "our" berth and tied up. This occasioned Jean shouting at them to get them out. Otherwise we were going to have to shift all our lines and fenders to the port side to enter another berth and as that's mainly Jean's job, she wasn't having a bar of it in the heat!! They eventually got the blunt message and buggered off into another unauthorised berth! But not before nearly colliding with us again. All this kerfuffle which is typical of Malaysian inefficiency together with the actual berthing in the extremely hot conditions took a toll on us though and after we'd cooled off with a beer in the RLYC we suddenly felt we had to get back to the boat where we virtually collapsed. It's likely we were suffering from heatstroke and no amount of water seemed to fix it.
Still, we came right and the next day hired a car for 60 Ringitts which enabled us to do some necessary errands and shopping - not least of which was for duty free booze as Langkawi is totally duty free everywhere. You don't have to be arriving or departing to take advantage of that. This also extends to many other areas other than alcohol. We will buy our antifouling paint here too for the same reason. Neither do they have "plus plus" on restaurant menus - this is a 6% "service" charge and a 10% GST everywhere else. So, if one was going to stay in Malaysia, Langkawi is the place to be.
It's now 1830 on the 25th. and we are wondering where to go for dinner. What a life! However, we do have quite a route march to get ashore from our berth. We estimate around 300 metres to walk so it's not all beer and skittles!!
On a more sober note we usually read the NZ Herald on-line and of course we were aware that today is Anzac Day. Certainly a time for reflection.
More fascinating newszszs to come during the rest of our odyssey.
Love to all
Jim and Jean
s.v. Tiare Taporo III
Royal Langkawi Yacht Club Marina
Pulau Langkawi
Malaysia.
www.tiaretaporo3.blogspot.com

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