24th - 30th November

Pankor Is to Penang

Finished off small jobs in Lumut, such as servicing winches and rigging genoa furler and sails.

Then motored down Dingdings river past the town and navy dock, out into the Melacca Straight and around the back of Pankor Island to a small beach.

Swam down and scraped off all the barnacles from the hull, which took a couple of hours of duckdiving and resurfacing for breaks. A sucker fish seemed to nibble at my back, which I didn't quite appreciate, so jabbed at it with my steel spatula, but it kept pestering me. Cooked up a spaghetti bolognaise dinner, and finished off with ice icecream and mangoes. Felt pretty good to be starting out again, and unshackled to the land. At last, free to roam or anchor where I want.

Oops, may have been a bit over idealistic, after I started feeling the first twangs of seasickness later that night. In this open-seaway achorage, Weatherly rocked and rolled all night. At 3.30am, I'd had enough and decided to get sailing. At least the sails dampen the rolling motion.

With a light breeze from the North, I upped anchor, and motored out of the bay. Ran a few knots faster without the barnacles dragging through the water. Had a light breakfast of porridge and fruit juice on the way. Pretty uneventful trip, had to motor the whole 78miles, with very light winds on the nose, and then swinging astern. Took short naps during the day. At one stage I had to reef, when the wind briefly piped up to 20 knots - then unreefed 20 mins later as it dropped down to 5knots again.

Passed by a fishing trawler very closely. I hadn't been keeping a continous eye on him and between naps, he'd closed the gap between us considerably next time I checked. Waved and took a picture of him as I cruised slowly past.

Sailed past the lighthouse entrance to Penang Straight at about dusk, and anchored at Uncle Quah's by Jerejak Island, south of the bridge, at about 7.30pm and made dinner. A little bit sunburnt and exhausted from the odd jobs around the boat, so turned in early and slept deeply until about 9am.

Rented a motorcycle from 'Uncle' Quah and drove around to varous places - Chulia St to Mr Ong the Chemicals man, for waterproofing solution and water-maker biocide. Then to Komtar shopping tower where I found a cheap computer mouse and a great rubber keyboard which is waterproof and rolls up. Useful when using my laptop for navigation. I'll sticky tape plastic over the laptop's keyboard and mousepad to try to prevent seawater getting into it from the top, and use the external appliances for using it at sea. Tied down the laptop using light line to stop it crashing to the floor. Best I can do at this stage. It might not be 100% reliable, so I'll be very careful when using the computer, and navigate from my paper charts when encountering rough/wet weather.

Bought some outdoor fluros for the cockpit and engine lamp. Also found a bright but efficient LED torch to replace the Maglite which seems to have karked it.

Had a ride around the island one day, after giving up looking for a decent Admiralty anchor. Climbed up a very steep hill in an effort to find a waterfall, which looked like it would be at a creek I passed. Ended up finding it at another creek 2 kms down the road, which had a sign and a well maintained track, but the waterboard had fenced off access to the waterfall itself. Still, enjoyed walking through the forest and looking at butterflies and a large yellow/black spider. It really pours here when it rains, so everything grows very well. Stopped at a tropical fruits farm and had a fresh mixed fruit juice of durian, mango, pink guava, dragonfruit, papaya, and other tropical fruits.

The northern coast is very scenic with small beaches with smooth boulders scattered around. Visited the northern fishing village where I'd had a dinner last year, and the little village still looked ok after the tsunami, though people looked very poor there. I ate some fruit and some cute little girls giggled at me - they were perhaps 4 or 5 years old, and I smiled and said hello which brought on more tittering.

Uncle Quah was very helpful while I was there, and very generous - taking me around to look for anchors, and lent me his bike, which I insisted on paying some rent for.
I took a look over his small passenger ferry to check what the problem was with his alternator and deck leaks.
Quah showed me the tide chart for leaving the anchorage, but the tide motion has a 3 hours lag which oddly, Quah didn't realise. So while waiting around, topped up fuel tank from spares, then thought it would be a good idea to refill the fuel drums while here. So put dinghy back in water and rowed back to Quah's jetty. Unfortunately the government is now restricting diesel use, and will not allow drums to be filled (only vehicle tanks) so back to the boat again, with empty drums.

When the tide eventually turned and I weighed anchor, a big storm blew up, restricting visibility to 30m. Luckily it was all over by the time I reached a mile from the bridge, but used radar and donned my wet weather gear and diving goggles to peer through the stinging rain. I thought I must look pretty funny if anybody could see me.

Enjoyed roasted lamb, garlic, onions and potatoes cooked on way to Bidor Island. Yum. Pulau Bidor full of fishing trawlers, but manouvered amongst them using radar and a high powered searchlight. Ran the fridge for an hour while updating this webpage.

Selamat Malam !