The day after arriving in Langkawi we moved Senta into the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club. We had several maintenance jobs that could be done more easily in a marina.
High on the list was to renew the ultra violet protection layer on the leech of our genoa. It was of the stick-on variety, which we had chosen because of its light weight when we bought the sail. But now after five years it was hanging in shreds. I decided to replace it with Sunbrella and do the job myself. Ten meters of Erin green cloth were ordered from West Marine, a USA based mail order chandlery service. When it was delivered a few weeks later I settled down to six weeks of finger abuse! Twelve meters on the leech and eight meters on the foot had to be hand stitched. Very little of the stitching was through only two layers of cloth. Most of it was three, four, five and even seven layers. Each stitch hole had first to be opened with an awl before the needle could be pressed through with a sail maker’s palm, a heavy leather strap with a large thimble like metal surface at the base of the thumb. Altogether about ten thousand such stitches had to be made. I set up a mini sail-loft in the cockpit with shade nets to keep the sun out and a fan to cool things down. The sail was of course too enormous to fit and I had to keep it rolled up, only opening the small area to be worked on each day. So I toiled up to ten hours a day and six weeks later the job was done! The cockpit faced the walk way and many people stopped to chat and find out what I was doing. Once they knew they were all convinced that I was mad and I could see that many of them thought I wouldn’t manage to finish the job. But, as with all big jobs, if you do them well and patiently step by step, they eventually get done and you are proud of what you have accomplished. A happy by product of this finger exercising activity is that any arthritis pains I had in my hands were now a thing of the past. Now no one is allowed to visit Senta without oohing and aahing over the wonderful new bright green UV strip on the genoa.
Our next big problem was refrigerator related. We had to be careful about the times when we could run the engine to cool the fridge. Smoke from the exhaust had to be directed away from the other marina dwellers. Early morning was the best time as the remains of the night land breeze carried the smoke away. This was OK for a few days until an obnoxious German yottie complained that we were waking him up too early, even though the sun was well up and the birds had finished their morning serenades. So we bought a bar fridge and installed it on one of Senta’s saloon berths. Now we could keep a few drinks and a minimum of fresh food cold. We still tried to cool the main fridge when the wind was right and the German awake. But after a while we started to hear bubbles and gurgling coming from the region of the heat exchanger. The fridge stopped cooling and we were sure we had lost the gas from the system through the copper coil in the exchanger. Pressure gauges and a consultation with Rolf of Schnuckleputz, the local refrigeration expert, confirmed that this was so. The coil we had made in Kota Kinabalu should have been copper/nickel and not pure copper. The old coil was now more like a tea strainer with corrosion holes everywhere. As the saying goes, ‘Too soon old, too late clever’. Luckily Rolf had a suitable length of copper/nickel tube left over from another job and was able to make us a new coil. Touch wood the fridge has been working well ever since, more than a year later, which I can tell you, is a record for Senta’s fridge. Rolf is married to Kate, a vivacious Irish lady, who runs a cleaning, minding, maintenance and general gofering service to the yachts in the marina. Pierre always teases Rolf and asks him if Kate’s brothers and father are still searching for the wicked Hun who carried their beloved Kate away over the hills. Rolf just smiles to himself, knowing that, however it happened, he is lucky to have Kate.
Shopping in Langkawi is a pleasure, with most things being obtainable. The twice weekly night market on Wednesday and Saturday keep us supplied with fresh fruit and vegetables and the nearby Billion supermarket, almost everything else. To make it easy to get around we each purchased a bicycle and sold my old 24” frame one. I made pannier bags for each bike and we continue to be amazed at the amount of stuff we can carry in them. For a really big shopping expedition we hire a car for the day, or else taxis. These are plentiful and reasonably priced as they cater for Langkawi’s busy tourist trade.
We were pleased to visit our old friends, Mr and Mrs Kahn who run SK Intertrade. Their business has changed over the years from purely a stationer and copy shop, to a general service for cruising yachts. They receive mail and parcels, supply charts, flags, tide tables various items of chandlery and copy charts, cruising guides etc. They also have a lending library of mainly English language novels. The system is that you pay a price for the book and, if you bring it back within a month in good condition, you get your money back minus RM5. They were excited about the recent birth of their first grandson, Aryan. Each time we went to borrow more books we spent time admiring the baby, much to their delight.
With access to video shops we bought a few DVD’s and were pleased at how easy it is to watch these on our computer. With ear phones we can watch movies at any time of night and not disturb each other. The only problem is the content of the videos. Precious few move out of the usual run of fighting, sex and car chases. A few of the exceptions we have enjoyed have been, Miss Potter, Paper Moon, a Beautiful Mind and An Inconvenient Truth.
While in Kota Kinabalu we had flown to Kuala Lumpur to visit the South African High Commission and apply for new passports. Our old ones had not yet expired but were completely full and we were tired of disgruntled immigration officers complaining that they had no where to put their stamps. Commission staff told us that we would have to wait six months for the passports to arrive in KL, and were issued with temporary passports to use in the mean time. The waiting period was up in January 2007 and we had hoped that we would be able to collect them as we sailed past Port Klang in early March. But this was not to be. We kept phoning the high commission and they were embarrassed to report that, although my passport had arrived, Pierre’s was no where to be found. Eventually in May they informed us that the missing passport had been sent to the Hong Kong embassy and would be re-directed to KL. I guess to the ‘New South Africans’ in the Home Affairs department, anywhere east of India would be good enough to find us. So I flew to KL to collect the new passports at the end of May, nearly a full year since we had applied. Ah well!
For a long time Pierre had been suffering from back and hip pains. They were so bad when we put Senta up on the slip at Kudat in April 2006 that Pierre was almost not able to help with the work. Although the pain retreated from time to time it always came back and seemed to be getting progressively worse. By mid 2007 he eventually agreed to my pleas to seek medical help. Pierre was terrified that he might need major surgery, e.g. a hip replacement. I argued that if it had to be done, Penang, just fifty miles away was one of the best and cheapest places in the world to go. But luckily this was not needed. The GP we had been consulting for minor problems, Dr Rahmat, immediately correctly diagnosed an infection of the sciatic nerve. After two weeks of medication the pains went away and have not come back for more than a year.
During July we prepared to haul Senta out for bottom cleaning and maintenance. Along with the paint, rollers, sand paper etc we also bought a small step ladder and two plastic stools. These last two items are essential to make life easier. The ladder to get to the hard high places, and the stools to sit down and admire what you have done so far. In the past the rollers we had used were the normal big ones used for painting walls in houses. But, in Kudat we saw the fishermen painting their boats with small rollers, about 6” long and 1” in diameter. We have since then copied them and find it makes the job much easier and quicker. Your arms don’t get quite so tired carrying around a load of paint in the roller, and you don’t need a paint tray. Just dip the small roller into the paint tin.
Young Angelo the first born son of friends, Claudia and Eddie, whom we had met at Bonbanon, in the Philippines two years before, was born in July. We helped them celebrate this event at a large surprise party thrown for them by the other cruisers in the marina. Everyone had a wonderful evening and Angelo slept through the whole event, not surprising at only ten days old!
After a visa run to Satun in early August we took Senta to Rebak marina and hauled out. After three weeks of hard work and in the middle of September Senta was back in the water and we returned to Royal Langkawi Yacht Club.
During September I saw Dr Rahmat as I was having dizzy spells and occasional left chest pains. A blood test revealed high cholesterol and uric acid levels. Since then I have been taking daily medications, cut dairy products out of my diet(except for ice cream of course) and both problems are now well under control.
Our faithful Rutland wind generator was on its last legs, so we ordered a new one from Marlec Engineering in the UK and installed it. We marveled at its silent operation compared to the old one, with its much worn bearings.
John and Judy Ryder had accepted an invitation to join us in Thailand at the end of the year and so in October and November we started preparations. We made sure that everything on Senta was in working order and stocked up on provisions.
A tooth started troubling me so, to avoid interrupting our Thailand visit I saw the Langkawi dentist, Dr Chew (really that IS her name). Before letting her look in my mouth I said, ‘I am terrified of dentists and if you hurt me, I will cry such a volume of large tears, that your consulting room will be flooded. You, your staff and your other patients will all drown in the tears.’ By the time the speech was ended they were all convulsed with laughter. Needless to say she didn’t hurt me.
We discovered that we could buy South African Boerewors. Ex Kwa Zulu Natal farmers Jean and Don, cruising the area in their catamaran, Katrine, have started a business making and selling the wors and other meat products through the local supermarkets. So our continual longings for juicy boerewors rolls could now be satisfied.
In mid December we sailed slowly north towards Phuket. The first stop was at the Butang Islands and the second at Rok Nok Islands. There we experienced three days of fresh to strong southerly winds making the anchorage incredibly uncomfortable. The remainder of the trip via Phi Phi Don was uneventful and enjoyable. Once at Ao Chalong on Phuket Island we checked in through immigration and customs and then prepared for the Ryder’s arrival by laying in fresh food.
On December 30 we collected John and Judy from Phuket airport. After unpacking all of the goodies they had brought for us, we fed them and all had a good night’s rest.
Next morning we motor/sailed around the southern tip of Phuket and up the west coast to Patong Bay. This is a popular beach resort, usually shunned by us and only worth a visit on New Year’s Eve, when the change of year is welcomed by an amazing firework display. The display lasted from 2100 until well past 0100 on 1 Jan 2008. It is hard to describe the sights and sounds which reached a crescendo in the ten second countdown to midnight. John’s comment, ‘Now I know what it must have been like to be in a battle in World War 2’ says it all. The weirdest sight was thousands of paper bag hot air balloons which were launched behind Patong and floated slowly out to sea on the light evening land breeze. Just after midnight one of these landed in our dinghy! But luckily the small flame creating the hot air had gone out so there was no fire danger. Pierre leapt into the dinghy over the pulpit, snatched the remains of the balloon and threw it into the sea.
For two weeks we loafed on Senta or in the sea, snorkeling. We spent almost half of the time at a delightful anchorage we called ‘the chicken islands’, because of two or three larger mother hen islands and many more smaller chickens dotted around them. The water was clear, not too many tourist boats and the place all to ourselves from late afternoon till mid morning the following day. We interrupted this Idyllic time for an afternoon sail to a beach at a nearby Sheraton resort, where a baby elephant visited the beach each afternoon to entertain the children, of all ages. We anchored Senta nearby and watched as the tiny jumbo waded in the water. Then he bent down onto his knees and rolled over onto his back, kicking his legs in the air and waving his trunk. This he did over and over again to the delight of the people swimming with him. Some brave youngsters were persuaded to climb onto his back and he paraded around giving them the ride of their lives. Once his swim was over his trainer took him high up the beach to where the sand was dry and he treated himself to a sand bath, filling his trunk with sand and then squirting it back over his shoulders and on to his back.
All too soon it was time for John and Judy to leave and we sadly said farewell to them after a last lunch at Jimmy’s Light House.
During our time in Phuket Pierre had not been well and we were anxious to get back to Langkawi to see Dr Rahmat, so we did not dawdle.
After checking that Pierre did not have a bladder infection, a blood test was done and revealed an extremely high level of PSA (prostate specific antigen), a marker for prostate cancer. Dr Rahmat told Pierre to go and see the specialist urologist on the mainland at Kedah Medical centre in Alor Star. Pierre said Ok he would go tomorrow. Rahmat replied in his sternest voice, ‘You go NOW!!’ We realized it was serious and so it turned out to be. Pierre’s PSA level was 743, compared to a normal healthy level of below 4 and a maximum level on the scale of 1000. An ultra sound scan showed that the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes in his upper abdomen, which were very swollen. This explained why Pierre had great discomfort when leaning on his abdomen to raise the anchor into the chocks, or on the fridge top to reach cool drinks.
Mr Muralhi Mahon, the consultant urologist, pulled no punches. He told us how severe the situation was, and that, even with the proper treatment, the estimate was that Pierre had a year or two left to live. Muralhi was astounded when Pierre laughed at the news. He continued to be amazed at Pierre’s positive attitude during the following weeks and months of treatment. He asked Pierre to meet a colleague who said that with Pierre’s fantastic outlook he ‘could well beat this thing’.
Female hormone injections were started almost immediately to stop the production of testosterone, which stimulates the cancer cells. Pierre opted to discontinue the hormone treatment and have his testes removed. This would completely eliminate testosterone and avoid the necessity of monthly hormone injections, which were keeping us locked in to the Langkawi area.
At this time Ingrid, our daughter visited from Germany and the testes removal operation was delayed until after her visit. It was great to see her after about four years and, although she was only with us for ten days or so, we took her on a sailing tour to the three marinas in Langkawi, Royal Langkawi Yacht Club, Telaga Harbor and Rebak.
When Ingrid’s visit was over, and to prepare ourselves for Pierre’s further treatment we took two weeks out to do a sailing circumnavigation of Langkawi, anchoring every second day, with lay days whenever we felt like it. We visited many of our favourite places and had an enjoyable relaxing time.
At Pierre’s request the operation to remove the testes was done under local anesthetic. Pierre, ever on the look out for a leg pull, noticed a lead from the top of his finger driving the monitor showing his heart beat. Quietly he slipped the clip from his finger and waited for the operating team to say ‘Oh dear, the patient seems to have died. We had better sit back and have a cup of tea while they wheel in the next one.’ But one of the nurses, now used to Pierre’s nonsense, just put the clip back on his finger and the patient was alive again … beep… beep. Another miracle of modern medicine. Pierre continued to tell stories during the almost two hour long process and Muralhi remarked afterwards that it was the first time he had been entertained by a patient during surgery.
The effects of the surgery took a long time to heal, maybe in part caused by Pierre’s insistence on riding his bike immediately afterwards!
At the moment all is well and latest blood tests show that the PSA level is down to 3.3. Remember anything less than 4 is healthy. But we know that in time the cancer cells will become used to the absence of the testosterone stimulation and will start to become active and agressive again. Then they will penetrate bone tissue, their preferred location.
But that is in the future, for now we live each day to the full.
We have no plans to leave the Langkawi area, but this could change. There are three good marinas here. We have many friends and a good support base. We can buy almost anything we need, and if necessary can go to Alor Star or Penang for medical matters.
We meet many South Africans here. Recent arrivals have been Ingeborg Klaar and her children, Julian and Mauricette on their boat, Galadrielle. They sailed across the Indian Ocean from Tanzania, with a young black man as ‘nurse maid’ for two month old Mauricette. Inge’s middle child, Erik, was removed from her custody without her permission by his father, and the two of them are now in New Caledonia aboard his catamaran. Inge is desperately trying to get Erik back and has now taken the other two children to visit her parents in Switzerland, where she hopes to get things moving with Interpol to rescue Erik.
Paul and Vanda have just arrived aboard Grand Cru, a Dudley Dix design which used to be Keljen based in Richards Bay. It is a steel boat and they are having problems with hull corrosion, so they have hauled out at Rebak to sort out this alarming problem.
We think back to 1997 when we first arrived here and were almost the first South African boat to do so. Now there is a South African around every corner.
May and June were very sad months for us. Towards the end of May our very dear friend, Colin Craig of the yacht Déjà Vu was killed on his boat about 150 miles off the coast of Australia. Preparing for a gybe in heavy seas and 30 knot winds the strop holding the main sheet broke and the boom hit Colin twice, killing him instantly. Glynn, his wife, was left to get Déjà Vu under control and on the way back against wind and seas to Gladstone, the port they had left just 24 hours before. After seven hours Glynn realized that she needed to sleep and would not be able to bring the boat safely back to port on her own so radioed for help. She and Déjà Vu were rescued by the Australian marine police and taken back to Gladstone. Pierre and I were heartbroken, shocked and devastated. Our hearts went out to Glynn as we admired her courage and strength.
All through June and July as Glynn visited her sons in Singapore and South Africa and made plans to move Déjà Vu from Australia before mid August when customs would demand duty to be paid, we tried to come to grips with what had happened. We still can hardly believe it.
We would dearly have loved to help Glynn sail Déjà Vu back to Malaysia, as is her plan. But Pierre’s health made this impossible. Right now she has been about a week on her way from Gladstone to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo, with a crew of other South African friends, Johan, Mike and Liberty. We think of them often and are hoping that all will go well.
As nothing too much exciting will happen in our lives for a while, the next newsletter may be a long time in coming. But if something interesting occurs we will write about it.
Kind regards, Faith and Pierre.
February and March 2007 Singapore to Langkawi
After two days rest at anchor in the entrance to the West Johor Strait we left for our first day hop on the way up the Malacca Straits to Langkawi. Our destination was Pisang Island, just under twenty miles away. The light north easterly wind, under ten knots most of the way, meant a long hard morning in the cockpit trimming sails. The shade net drop sheets I had made for our bimini in Kota Kinabalu helped us endure the burning sunlight. We eventually reached Pisang at lunch time. A welcome rain squall from the east interrupted our hot afternoon siesta. We checked that we were not dragging and settled down to enjoy the cool wetness.
On the following lay day we planned how we would manage the next step to Tanjung Tohor, a distance of about fifty miles, the limit of what we can cover in a day sail. (Tanjung means Cape in Bahasa Malay).
We were timing our departures to tie in with the tides which can be extremely helpful, or otherwise, depending on whether you get them correct or not. The flood tide streams south east and the ebb north west. The ebb tide is by far the stronger of the two, carrying as it does a great deal of the South Equatorial current from the Pacific into the Indian Ocean. Going north we had this strong ebb tide with us. This contrasted with our journey to Borneo, three years previously, when we had to carefully judge departure times and anchor when the ebb tide got too strong. We remembered our tide-dictated departure from Pangkor at two am three years previously. We had dodged the small islands littering the exit from the anchorage, for a happy fast sail southwards, only to hear on the yottie’s grape vine, a few days later, that a fishing boat had been attacked by pirates off Pangkor that same night and two of the crew had had their throats slit!
The tide tables showed that an early pre-breakfast departure would suit and the ten knot north east wind kept us moving along at between four and six knots. Not screeching along but good enough progress. On arrival at Tanjung Tohor we made a big mistake in anchoring too close to the cape itself. Twenty five knots of wind from the south, backing to the east, mixed up with the tidal current to make an uncomfortable night, during which we had to interrupt our attempts to sleep to do several anchor checks.
At 0830 next morning we decided to leave the ‘washing machine’ seas, forsake our usual lay day between hops and left for the Water Islands, thirty five miles ahead. The wind had abandoned us, leaving only a few whispers from the south. We motored all of the way and the favorable tide helped us average just over six knots, arriving at the beautiful islands in the early afternoon.
There we had a welcome lay day before setting off again. Just after lunch we reached Cape Richado. The rounding of this cape was especially exciting. With a good south west wind, strong current and turbulent seas Senta passed the rocks off the point, powering along at eleven knots. Soon the adrenalin rush was over and we could calmly negotiate the sand banks between us and the entrance to the Admiral Marina just outside Port Dickson. This entrance is quite scary as you have to sail almost onto the beach before the entrance of the marina to starboard shows itself.
We had not been in a marina since Miri in Sarawak, just over two weeks before and welcomed the peaceful sleeps. No worries about anchors dragging, pirates, squalls or collisions with fishing boats. We stayed there four days during which a fellow cruiser, who had access to a car, took us into Port Dickson to shop for fresh provisions. We were grateful for this help as the marina was too far away to walk or cycle, and there was an indifferent bus service.
Loaded up with fresh goodies on Wednesday 7 March Senta was on her north seeking path again. At first there was no wind and the tide was against us, so we struggled along under motor at four knots all morning. At mid day the wind came through, but from the north west, right on the nose. Soon after that the ebb tide started to make itself felt and we motor sailed, tacking northwards with the tide lee-bowing us on both tacks. This tactic and an over the ground speed of over seven knots allowed us to reach the southern entrance to Port Klang at 1630.
We anchored for the night close to our previous spot near the leading markers for ships entering from the south. But, remembering the frightening sight of red and green port and starboard lights coming straight at us out of the dark, we anchored further to the west away from the main channel. There we had dinner in the cockpit and watched the sun set and the stars start to show themselves. We soon became aware of an unlit boat sneaking up on us. We wondered what they were doing and hoped they were not pirates. We sat still and took no defensive actions as the craft slowly came closer and closer. By the time they were about to touch us Pierre had his legs overboard to fend them off. There were several young men on board who introduced themselves as marine police. After quizzing us about our identities and our reasons for stopping where we had, they assured us that it was OK for us to remain there until the next morning and that they would be on duty all night to ensure our safety.
After breakfast next day we left to traverse the Port Klang channel under motor. We enjoyed seeing all of the harbor activity and eventually anchored at the north end of the port on the inner edge of the Angsa Bank at 1830.
Then on to Kuala Perak, forty miles of motoring in a boring, hot and tiring 10 hour leg. Although we anchored on almost open coastline, we experienced no rolling and hence a comfortable night.
Ten miles further on the next morning we anchored at Pangkor island.
We now had almost sixty miles to go to Penang Island, a distance almost impossible for us in daylight hours. We didn’t want to sail these waters at night because of the hazards of fishing traps, floats and badly lit boats. But we decided that the best thing to do was to leave a couple of hours before sun set, get out to sea and then head north for Penang. We would have the advantage of any north east land breeze and the absence of the dreaded burning sunlight.
And so it happened. Leaving at 1800 on Monday 12 March we motored for three hours and then happily greeted the land breeze as it made its way across the moonlit sea towards us. It remained with us for the whole night and the next morning until we anchored to the west of Pulau Jerejak, about three miles south of the new marina at Penang.
Two days later we motored these three miles to spend a happy nine days at the Tanjung City marina in Penang. The berthing rates were the lowest we had ever paid, for two reasons. Firstly the marina is new and trying to attract customers. Secondly the stupid designers had not made any allowance for a breakwater. The pontoons were merely stuck out into the strait between Penang and Butterworth, at the mercy of the wakes of the ferries that plied their trade from early morning till late at night. The situation was so bad that each berth, which should have taken two boats side by side, only had one boat in the centre, roped well to all four corners. The marina staff were friendly and did all they could to overcome the problems. Several yachts broke mooring lines and pulled fairleads off in the rolling caused by the ferry wakes. We were worried about piercing Senta’s hull on the large mooring cleats on the jetty. But through luck and good management of the mooring lines and fenders all was well We noticed that a large barge was sinking piles on which to build a breakwater. Hopefully that will be done soon and make the marina tenable, as it is in a fantastic situation right in the middle of bustling Penang.
While in Penang I took advantage of the opportunity to see an orthopedic surgeon. I had damaged the Achilles tendon on my left leg in Kota Kinabalu and although I had had treatment at the Sabah Medical Centre, it was no better. It turned out that the problem was not the tendon, but inflammation of the bursa between the Achilles tendon and the heel bone. There is no real cure, except for never walking! As this is not possible the surgeon recommended that I only walk short distances. Sounded good to me!
The 24” lady’s bike I had bought in Kota Kinabalu helped us get around Penang, although the traffic was frightening. The city has a free bus that does a circuit of the business centre once every hour, and we used it often.
Most of our pocket money was spent on visits to the large book shops in Penang. We always welcome the opportunity to buy English language books, a rare occurrence in Malaysia. We also enjoyed access to wireless internet again.
But enough of city life and we began to think of moving on.
The fifty miles from Penang to Bass Harbor, Langkawi were covered in two stages with an overnight stay on one of the marine park moorings at Pulau Payer.
We anchored for a few days rest at Kuah, while we reminisced on our nearly two month long journey from Kota Kinabalu on the northern end of Borneo, around Singapore and to our old favorite cruising ground of Langkawi.
More in the next news letter about what we have been doing in Langkawi, including a trip to Phuket, Thailand at Christmas 2007
Regards, Faith and Pierre
Anchorages between Kota Kinabalu and Langkawi
Lat Long Tiga Island 05 43.15N 115 38.81E Labuan Island Victoria Harbor 05 16.65N 115 14.31E Labuan Southern shore 05 15.14N 115 11.16E Miri Marina 04 23.10N 113 58.32E Singapore Eastern approach 01 20.51N 104 06.80E Western approach 01 16.06N 103 32.05E Pisang Island 01 27.71N 103 15.92E Tanjung Tohor 01 50.26N 102 44.85E Water Islands 01 06.27N 102 20.40E Admiral Marina – Miri 02 28.56N 101 50.74E South Port Klang Angsa Bank 03 18.49N 101 02.24E Kuala Perak 04 05.04N 100 38.04E Pangkor 04 12.42N 100 33.27E Pulau Jerejak – Penang 05 18.83N 100 18.17E Pulau Payer 06 03.80N 100 02.61E Kuah – Langkawi 06 18.70N 099 50.80E
July 2006 to January 2007
Repairing and Preparing
Hi every one. First of all a big apology for the lack of newsletters from us for nearly two years. We have no excuse other than laziness and a whole lot of other things to do.
When you last heard from Senta we were at Sutera Harbor Marina in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, and North Borneo, becoming computer literate again and deciding what to do next.
The first thing to fix before moving off was our fridge system, which had emptied itself of gas on the trip in May from the boatyard in Kudat. We suspected the heat exchanger, a Heath Robinson device, made for us in 1995 in Richards Bay by a confidence trickster whose only merit was that he knew a little more about refrigeration than we did at that time. Once detached from the system the exchanger went to a local refrigeration company for testing. They reported that, sadly, the gas pipe that ran inside the water cooling pipe had a leak somewhere. This was impossible to fix. Because we didn’t really want to believe it, we closed up the water outlet end and ran water into the system. It should have just filled up and then either stopped running in, or blown off the plug at the outlet. But, lo and behold, water started running out of the gas pipe! Curses, now we had to find or make another one.
Pierre designed a cylindrical container through which the cooling water would flow, and a spiraled copper pipe suspended in the water. It all looked good on the plans, so Pierre started the exhausting job of finding someone to make it for us. A major problem was the lack of copper for the cylinder, so we had to settle for a wide section of heavy, thick walled plastic sewage piping. Then the problem was that the guy making the exchanger for us had never worked with plastics or fiberglass. Many visits to the workshops were needed to ensure that the job was done correctly. Thank goodness for our motorcycle that made this possible. Eventually the new system was installed and worked well. Its cost was a quarter of the one made years before in Richards Bay.
We had by this time decided to head back westwards aiming to spend a year or so in Langkawi, Malaysia. Although we had enjoyed our stay in KK and our two trips to the Philippines, we missed the more placid cruising waters and many islands around Langkawi and Phuket on the west coast of the Malaysian Peninsula. Our friends Colin and Glynn on Déjà Vu had decided to once again try to sail into the Pacific via the Philippines, so we were due to part ways. Thanks to the modern miracle of e-mail we would still be able to keep in contact with them and remotely enjoy their further adventures.
But before we could leave the next monster raised its head. We needed to run the engine for an hour a day to cool down the eutectic plate for the fridge, and the engine was smoking too much to be able to run it in a marina. There had always been a small amount of blue smoke after the major repair of a year previously, but it was getting darker and more voluminous. We decided that we had to do something about it. And we had to do it ourselves as we were not pleased with the job done by the local ‘diesel mechanic’.
Before ordering parts we removed the cylinder heads and discovered to our horror a pool of unburned diesel lying in the colloidal crown at the top of one of the pistons. We also saw that one of the manifold gaskets had been installed back to front, and the oil seal had been left out of the raw water pump. In all we found about twelve mistakes made by the ‘expert’! This substantially reinforced our decision to fix the engine ourselves. In an e-mail to Pierre’s brother, Bernard, we complained about this state of affairs. He replied with the sage advice, ‘Avoid oriental gentlemen professing skills mechanical’!
A list of replacement spares was soon sent off to our preferred supplier, Volspec, in the UK, with instructions to ship via DHL. It was getting on towards the end of the year and we were eager to be able to leave KK early in 2007, so we wanted the spares as quickly as they could be delivered.
Sod’s law meant that the spares were shipped via TNT instead of DHL, and were left at Kuala Lumpur, a thousand miles away from us across the South China Sea. TNT told us that we would have to appoint another agent and pay a vast sum to complete the delivery to KK. We immediately enlisted the help of Kevin, in the Volspec sales office, and Julia their dispatch manager. Three days later the spares were delivered to Senta, with no further problems or charges to pay.
To thank them Pierre sent the following e-mail:-
Dear Julia and Kevin
What sort of a rocket did you two put under the bods here? I mean, it was like the Queen’s Birthday Parade today in Kota Kinabalu. There was a procession right from the airport, with outriders wearing white gloves, riding motorcycles with blue lights flashing and sirens wailing. Schools had a half holiday and the pavements were crowded with people waving the Sabah flag, the Malaysian flag, the Union Jack, the Swedish flag and the South African flag.
The actual Volspec consignment was carried on a velvet cushion on a gun carriage, accompanied by a guard of honour. Multitudes were waving from balconies and there was ticker tape everywhere. On the city hall steps, the London Philharmonic was playing Rule Britannia. People were hoarse from cheering and some were so overcome, they had tears in their eyes.
Church bells were ringing. There was a fly past of supersonic jet fighters and the navy gave a twenty one gun salute. We couldn’t believe the fanfare. The Swedish ambassador was here, the Queen sent Prince Charles to represent her; and Thabu Mbeki, the South African president, was here to accept the consignment on our behalf. It was very moving.
Tonight, there’s a champagne gala dinner with a big fireworks display at midnight. You two must have a lot of clout. You are better than Emma Peel and John Steed.
And all we wanted to do was carry the parcel back to the boat on the petrol tank of our motorcycle. Anyway, it’s safely on board Senta now. Thanks very much, but we do think you rather overdid it.
Regards
Pierre and Faith ‘Senta’
So 2006 drew to a close with us up to our armpits in engine work, interrupted every now and again for things like the Carols by Candlelight ceremony on the covered tennis courts at the Sutera Country Club, and Christmas dinner at the five star Magellan Hotel with the Déjà Vu crew and Dorothy and Dennis from the catamaran, Storm.
New Year’s Eve was especially memorable for us. We were having a quiet evening on Senta when a polite knock on the hull around ten pm announced the arrival of Dr Melinda Tong, the skin specialist who had been helping us fight the skin cancer scourge common to all yotties. She had mentioned that she and her family might be having New Year’s Eve dinner at the marina restaurant, and if so would visit to say hello.
She brought along her two children and thirteen of their friends and cousins. Senta rang with the enthusiastic laughter and chatter of a most wonderful group of pre-teen children. They were interested in everything and asked the most intelligent questions. One five year old boy kept tugging on my shirt and saying ‘Where is the toilet?’ As soon as I was finished answering the current question I bent down to him and asked ‘Do you need to go to the toilet?’ ‘Oh no’, he replied, ‘I just want to know where it is’.
What a refreshing way to see in the New Year!
A few weeks previously we had attended an eisteddfod at the nearby Pacific Hotel to watch Melinda’s two children play a Bach violin sonata. We were so intrigued to find this cultural activity in Borneo that we stayed for the whole morning to listen and watch as the teenagers played Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert etc on a grand piano. Yes, we would sorely miss some of the delights of KK.
Not least of which would be the friendship we had established with the Teo family, Gilbert and Lucy and their super children, Raimi, Shairah, Jairal and Karen. Lucy was astounded to learn that we had just spent seven thousand Malaysian ringitts (about R16 000) on groceries to store on Senta for our trip to Langkawi.
By the end of January, Déjà Vu had already departed for Kudat to haul out and antifoul before braving the Pacific and we were ready to leave.
On 5 February 2007 we left Sutera Harbor in an 18 to 25 knot north easterly wind with an uncomfortable swell. A brisk 30 mile reach, during which we tried to recover our sea legs, took us to Tiga Island where we stayed for a day to rest before continuing our journey towards the Brunei oil fields and Singapore, two of the hazards we would have to negotiate before we could head north towards Langkawi.
Hi every one. First of all a big apology for the lack of newsletters from us for nearly two years. We have no excuse other than laziness and a whole lot of other things to do.
Sod’s law meant that the spares were shipped via TNT instead of DHL, and were left at Kuala Lumpur, a thousand miles away from us across the South China Sea. TNT told us that we would have to appoint another agent and pay a vast sum to complete the delivery to KK. We immediately enlisted the help of Kevin, in the Volspec sales office, and Julia their dispatch manager. Three days later the spares were delivered to Senta, with no further problems or charges to pay.
So 2006 drew to a close with us up to our armpits in engine work, interrupted every now and again for things like the Carols by Candlelight ceremony on the covered tennis courts at the Sutera Country Club, and Christmas dinner at the five star Magellan Hotel with the Déjà Vu crew and Dorothy and Dennis from the catamaran, Storm.
