Pokhara

The 3rd day in Nepal had us heading from Kathmandu to Pokhara (Nepal) by bus on June 24th. The trip there was soooo crazy. How crazy you ask? Well, in Celtic logic, it could be described as a 200-km journey that took 400 km!

At first, it was a horn blaring, bumper to bumper, stop and go, bumpy narrow road as we climbed out of Kathmandu to a high pass.

Colourful transports

Then back down again along a road cut into the steep side slopes with no let up in congestion. The scenery after the pass was beautiful. We were tracing our way through foot mountains of the Himalayas. Verdant steep slopes covered terraced paddies and grow plots along with the humble tenant shacks that speckled the mountain walls as far as you could see.

Traffic block a kilometre ahead

Once down in the valley, the going got faster and the traffic eased a bit as we flew through little towns and settlements and along the streams and rivers, some raging with churning rapids.

Arriving in Pokhara after about 7 hours, we again were met with hotel pickup, and 5 minutes later, we were checked in (Hotel Family Home) with the same effusive manner as in Kathmandu. We had time to clean up and take a late afternoon/evening stroll along the lakeside path where we dined till dark to the enjoyable sounds of a local band.

Tranquil lakeside twilight

Overnight, we heard it rain and the next day began by threatening us with more of the stuff but by noon it mostly cleared. So we rented a classic Royal Enfield motorcycle and headed for some adventure riding in higher elevation with the hope of seeing that part of the Himalayas known as the Annapurna Mountain range.

We climbed out of Pokhara into the thinning air along a rough narrow road, through mud and over boulders, looking for a view point. At the best high vantage point, the majestic Annapurna range kept itself almost totally cloaked in clouds teasing us with only glimpses of its mighty peaks here and there.

Peaking peaks

We continued past peaceful villages where the children were playing, farmers were busy with their water buffalo plowing the rice paddies in the shadows of their meek homes, and men and women were packing large backloads of greenery in bamboo baskets.

Heavy load

With waning light, we reluctantly descended on switchbacks that would bring us back to civilization.

Mountain village

NEPAL

After 6 weeks of somewhat major refinishing to pretty up Sea Turtle, we stood back to admire her new do. That was when out of the corner of our eye we noticed a red blemish. It was on the calendar though, and it was on June 22nd, marking a deadline. Want to make 3 months of rainy season move fast? Put a dot on the calendar 3 months away!

The date marked our Thai Visa expiry. It required a "Visa run". So, where to go? We could either make a quick 1-day run to a border and return, or make it a more worthwhile venture. For the latter, we revisited our land travel bucket list and chose Nepal, hoping to beat the monsoon season for that area.

Checking online flight options, we splurged and went for "cattle class". It would be Phuket to Kathmandu via Kuala Lumpur for an 8-day adventure into the bosoms of the Himalayas.

Upon evening arrival, our pre-booked hotel (De Hotel Veda) had a cab waiting and whooshed us off through the frenetic traffic as Bob Seager's song rang through my head "...K-K-K-K-K, Katmandu, I think it's really where I'm going to, If I ever get out of here, I'm goin' to Katmandu..."

The effusive greeting by our hotel host, complete with the bow and head wiggle, had us wondering if we were in the remake of the movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel". With his help, we planned our next day for sites of Kathmandu.

Second day in Nepal: After a delicious early morning breakfast, our pre-arranged car and driver had us off to our first stop, the Monkey Temple, perched on a ridge on the hillside slopes overlooking the spiralling valley of the City of Kathmandu.

The site invited us up about 100 steps to the top and to a motley jumble of ancient buildings and shrines with their wafting incense, craft and souvenier vendors chorusing "Come, just look", and of course, scavenging monkeys, all under the ubiquitous prayer flags fluttering in the breeze.

Curios for the curious

Temple architecture

Here we saw the first up-close effects of the aggressive earthquake that rocked the area a little over a year ago. One of the old temple buildings had broken up and looked as if you took the bottom brick out, the whole thing would probably complete a total collapse.

Quake's result

The following 2 stops were very similar and both set in the mayhem of Kathmandu. They were ancient royal palace centers with their nucleus being the old royal brick buildings with intricately carved wood facets set amidst distinctly Buddhist or Hindu temples scattered around.

Royal city in Kathmandu

At 1 building, our guide ushered us into a dingy courtyard where we witnessed the spectacle of the living child goddess Kumari, where after being called, she was, in all seriousness, quietly presented for viewing for a few moments in an upper window. No pictures allowed - following was copied from our guidebook.

Child goddess

The status of Kumari is similar to the Dali Llama. Devout believers chose her at a young age through test rituals that, to them, showed she was a living goddess and from then on till the time of puberty, she would live a life almost exclusively within the residence tended to by devout caregivers at her beck and call. She could only leave for festivals, rituals, etc. at which time her feet would never touch the ground. A unique kind of "You're grounded!" After her term, she would return to her real family and normal life and remain totally celibate for the rest of her life.

It was here at these old royal sites that the most obvious and most severe earthquake damage was evident. The Buddhist pagodas fared the worst. Some had completely collapsed in utter ruins, the debris long since removed.

Our first days saw no sign of the monsoons. So far so good!

Finishing up

Our stay at the Phuket Boat Lagoon was extended longer than originally planned due to frequent rain. The lightning storms were fascinating to watch and we were fortunate that Sea Turtle took no hits.

Once the interior refinishing of the boat was completed, we began to reload her when it wasn't raining. And the workmen continued to struggle trying to finish the exterior whenever it was dry enough out.

Poor planning or global warning - ankle-deep water on walkway!

We had some leisure time and visited a new floating market filled with all sorts of shops. The exterior grounds had an interesting display of several metre-high clay monks in sitting positions with their arms wrapped around growing trees. It will be even more impressive as the trees get large.

With work finally completed, we were able to depart from Boat Lagoon on June 15th and head back to Chalong Bay where we once again set anchor.

Marina bound for boat work

We departed Chalong Bay (southeast corner of Phuket) for the Boat Lagoon marina complex on May 1st for some overdue boat work. In windless conditions, we motored about a 20-nautical-mile-trip up the inside/east side of Phuket.

The 2.5 nautical mile dredged channel into the Marina has to be done at high tide so we planned our timing for that. We arrived outside before absolute high tide but with the meandering dredged channel well marked with pylons, rather than wait, we continued in slowly through the murky water, only touching the muddy bottom once. That is until we got about 200 metres from the wharves where we became stuck in the soft bottom.

By radio, the Marina was expecting us so the waiting wharf hands saw us stuck and quickly came to the rescue in their skiff. They simply nudged Sea Turtle's nose bow around while we motored off the shallows.

Looking back at shallow entry channel

The Boat Lagoon complex includes a resort hotel so we decided to rent an air conditioned suite to escape the intense heat and where we could see Sea Turtle down below while work was being done by a local crew.

We were having almost all of our interior teak wood refinished including some minor wood work done, so to give the workers free clear work space, we cleared almost everything out. It took us a couple of days in the sweltering heat and many, many trips the short distance and up 36 stairs. So our suite became a combined living and storage area.

In Sea Turtle, the workers covered and/or taped everything that they were not sanding and varnishing, even including the floor, stove, etc. They took our doors, drawers, and tables to be done in their shop.

The to-do list of work included finishing the build-up and installation of 8 new tempered glass windows (the old lexan had become almost impossible to see through). That job was Jordan's.

Taking off old lexan

Fibreglass buildup

Finished product!

I took advantage of this time to do major brass polishing and some sewing jobs. We set up the sewing machine in the room to do this as well as make a new, badly needed, dinghy cover.

Deteriorated chaps...

...new homemade chaps 

A little about Boat Lagoon...at first we were relegated to the working dock but it soon became apparent with each ebbing tide it left Sea Turtle deep in mud. So Jordan arranged to have it moved across to a deeper area.

Our room is above an esplanade of commercial shops, bars, and restaurants/cafes. Chandleries, laundry service, and an American-style supermarket are close walking distance away. We were excited about the king-sized swimming pool too, but we discovered the water was very warm and didn't give us the invigorating respite to the heat we wanted. Website: www.phuketboatlagoon.com

Another task for the crew was deck painting and exterior teak refinishing. But eventually the full effect of the southwest monsoon was felt, and even though it gave some relief to the heat, the downpours delayed exterior work...

At the docks

Anchorages and sailing tracks are up to date - click the word HERE (or as shown at the right side of this page under Sea Turtle Links) to see where we are now. And never use for navigation as approximate only.

Phuket

On April 3rd, our last day of sailing for awhile, we had a great downwind spinnaker run west to the island of Phuket as our fixed base for the immediate future for boat work and land travels. (Phuket, being the largest of the country's islands, is no longer labelled as Ko Phuket.) We dropped anchor in the midst of about another 150 boats at the familiar big Chalong Harbour (N07°49.259' E098°21.327') of southern Phuket where we had spent 4 months in 2014.

Flying Thai colours

There have been a few changes. New wharves are almost finished to replace the wrecked and dilapidated ones and a new surrounding breakwater has been added. Dinghies in the meantime have been relegated to some old concrete wharves with a confined approach necessitating one to pull their dinghies up onto the wharf. This landing arrangement has resulted in a chunk out of our dinghy bottom. The few spots where one can just tie up leaves a dinghy vulnerable to rough and ragged edged concrete and metal especially when wind direction exacerbates the problem.

Dingy dinghy dock

After official check in here, our first order of business was to reclaim our motorcycle which had been in storage with friends we had made from our previous visit to Phuket. With the unusually very hot temps here, scooting around is a nice way to get some relief. The rainy southwest monsoon season is still not here so the rare couple of short downpours with the slight cooling effect and the chance to rinse the decks of salt was welcomed.

One morning ashore, we noticed 4 Thai boats along the shore that had burned during the early morning hours. News reports said the event was suspicious and an investigation is underway after rumours that Thai boaters were heard arguing on the shore the night before.

Hot-headed fire?

We've done a little sightseeing since our return to this area. One such night included a carved hefty figure, a detailed wat, and a great gold coloured Buddha located near an upscale restaurant very high up on the terrain.

Scary Buddah mascot

We soon settled into a leisurely pace at daily activities whether short sightseeing jaunts or boat jobs. One job that has been keeping me busy is polishing up all of our brass fixtures and decorations. Note to future boaters: Preferable to not have anything on board that requires constant polishing!

Eventually Jordan began the involved boat job of replacing the deteriorated lexan windows. The old existing lexans were simply caulked and screwed into the slightly curved cabin sides. But the new flat tempered glass requires fibreglass built-up surfaces molded to shape for the glass and the stainless steel frames. At the same time, new interior frames will finish the job nicely.

We leave tomorrow for the Phuket Boat Lagoon marina complex, about 20 nautical miles north, for a month's stay to take advantage of some convenient and economical local help on some more involved refurbishments.

More new anchorages

Early March 31st, we left Koh Muk to continue island hopping northward. Next stop...the north end of Koh Lanta Yai (N07°37.842' E099°01.443'), a delightful 5-hour downwind sail. This coastal island is a popular backpackers' destination in the Andaman Sea of southern Thailand approximately 70 km south of well-known Krabi Town.

After anchoring in the open roadstead, we launched the dinghy, and picking a spot along the wide beach where the surf was minimal, we made a dry landing. Pulling the dinghy up on shore, we made just a few steps to a beachside cafe for our favourite dish - Pad Thai - washed down with a cold one. We were surprised to find a good-sized town on this approximately 6 km wide and over 30 km long island that is only accessible by 1 or 2 short ferry rides (although that is about to change as a new bridge is just about finished).

A tuk tuk ride took us to the end of town, the epicenter of offloaded visitors where small waterfront bars, cafes, and rooms lined the shore.

We soon made our escape in the dinghy, following the red setting sun back to our floating home.

Contemplative Jordan

Next day...

April 1st, again getting lucky with a nice east wind, we sailed 4.5 hours north finding a really nice anchorage setting between the 2 craggy islands of Koh Dam Khwan and Koh Dam Hok. Approaching Dam Khwan, we could see the striking feature of what the cruising guide suggested looked like a chicken figure in the rocks...

Chicken? Or maybe a turkey!

We anchored close to the coral reef (N07°57.555' E098°48.482') by Dam Khwan, but just far enough from the midday hoards of longtails and their interlopers wading in the sandy shallows.

Longtails and tourists in front of nearby no-name rock island, sand bar stretching out to the right...

We wiled away the afternoon snorkelling with an abundance of colourful life such as a sea snake, puffers, coral, and numerous unknown bright fish. And even a group of 5 razor fish that swim vertically - but darn it anyway, by this time, our underwater camera battery had gone dead.

Cool coral

To close the daylight hours off, we packed some munchies and headed over to the now vacant sand bar (with the exception of some semi-permanent park workers who stay on the island). After the daily migration of tourists back to the mainland (returning the islands to their natural tranquility) we witnessed another, more impressive daily migration. The island's caves and cavities exhaled thousands of fruit bats. Like whiffs of dark clouds drifting to the mainland, they made their routine nocturnal flight.

Sand bar stretching out to the left from Koh Dam Khwan, cabin on right where we had picnic lunch after longtails were gone...

On April 2nd, we hung out at Dam Khwan until 14:15 and then pulled the anchor for a 1-hour motor to another new island, Tham Phra Nang (N08°00.187' E098°50.293'), a coastal tourist hot spot close to Krabi where we dropped our hook amongst the impressive towering limestone karsts and in the midst of the ubiquitous longtails and tourists.

We read about several caves in the area but found nothing significant. One cave we visited onshore was just a wide opening in the cliffs at beach level with a "goddess" (a dressed-up mannequin) and many, many wooden phallic carvings. These penises along with the goddess were believed to be good luck for fertility - family planning Thai style!

Fertility goddess behind Jordan

We took the dinghy over to the next overrun beach area called Rai Le Beach. We searched around for more caves but couldn't find any that we wished to explore. So after a cursory beach stroll before sunset, we called it a night.

Koh Muk

Before leaving Koh Phetra (Thailand) on the morning of March 29th, there was an important boat job for Jordan. During yesterday's sail, we kept hearing an odd sporadic "whirring" noise in the boat coming on in short spells. At first, he thought it might be the autopilot motor but that possibility was eliminated by turning it off to find out the noise still came on. He couldn't identify it for quite a bit.

Finally he figured it was the windlass, and upon investigating, Jordan found that the remote switch that's kept in the forward outside anchor locker had gotten seawater in it and it was shorting the internal contact as though the switch button was pressed to make the windlass go on.

So temporarily we switched off the windlass breaker but then, before we raised the hook on the 29th, a fix was necessary. (We don't need the windlass to drop anchor but it sure is nice for raising the heavy anchor!) The disassembled switch was easily rinsed and cleaned with dialectic oil and was good to go. So it wasn't until 09:00 that we pulled up and made tracks from Koh Phetra.

Our destination was another island new to us, named Koh Muk, a pleasant 5.5-hour beam reach sail away. Tucking in close to a cute beach flanked by towering limestone sentinels made for a splendid anchorage setting (N07°22.503' E099°17.187') in spite of the occasional noisy longtails with daytrippers from the mainland.

A Koh Muk moment

The main attraction here is Emerald Cave (aka Crystal Cave) which the cruising guide described as being accessed by a cave passage at sea level, 80 metres long most of which was in pitch blackness. The passage is punctuated at a small sandy, grey silica beach in an ethereal cave open to sky.

We decided to explore it the next morning before the tourists infested the contemplative nature of it all. But this first day, once the gawkers evaporated later that afternoon, we launched the dinghy to simply identify where the waterline cave entrance was which we easily found.

Shutting off the motor, we paddled just inside but without a flashlight, the interior passage quickly turned into a foreboding inky blackness stopping us short.

However on our retreat, a couple of other late yachtie arrivals in dinghies were coming in and invited us to follow with one of their extra flashlights. Paddling along through this surreal natural passage with the faint light showing eerie outlines of stalactites in the cavities above and other dead-end passages emanating ghostly whooshes conjured up images of a spooky Disneyland event. Motoring your dinghy in apparently is not allowed as it supposedly disturbs the bat population of the Cave. I guess someone motored in before us because we didn't see any evidence of bats which is too bad because that would have been the only thing missing to make it an all round creepy experience!

The end of the cave passage opened up in an ethereal setting of an inner cylindrical chamber a mere 60 metres in diameter completely surrounded by tall vertical limestone walls. Standing on the small sandy beach where even the few spoken words took on an otherworldly resonance, our sights were drawn up, up along vertical rock face laced with verdant lush growth to the late day's sky high above.

Inside Emerald Cave

(Flashlights can be seen in the dark passage above as more dinghies arrive.)

Even though we did the Cave thing the day of arrival, we decided to stay another day in this idyllic setting. Another boat job was needed (bleed some air out of the hydraulic steering ram) so Jordan did it this morning. Then the rest of the day we circumnavigated Koh Muk with the dinghy through some choppy waters at times and then did a lazy snorkel in the shadow of the cliffs' relatively clear and warm waters.

Koh Phetra

After an almost 8-hour close-hauled solid sail to windward, we arrived at a new destination for us in Thailand - Koh Phetra (N07°02.542' E099°28.251'). This  narrow 1.6 nautical mile long island's limestone cliffs rise sharply out of the sea, it's towering limestone walls giving us wind protection and safe anchorage on the west side.

We set anchor at a 7-metre depth close in against the vertical face where icicles of limestone hung out pointing down to the sea and where small caves and recesses made it ideal for swallows to build their nests only to be raided periodically by harvesters for the birdnest soup delicacy. A lonesome sea turtle came by to visit Sea Turtle on its way to who knows where. Hope he wasn't looking for a landing site here because apparently only the other side had any sort of beach.

Can you see Sea Turtle? (circled in red in centre)

We hopped in the dinghy and explored the west extremity and tried to greet a lone fisherman, but not a word of English did he seem to know, only the universal language of broad smiles and gestures were exchanged in passing.

Lonely fisherman

THAILAND harbours

We did our official check-out all under one roof by the Telaga marina on March 26th. Port Captain, Customs, and then Immigration were all very quick and easy. Then at 03:30 early in the morning under an almost full moon, we departed Langkawi Malaysia for a 25 nautical mile run west to Koh Lipe, Thailand. (Koh or Ko means island in Thai.) We had a great downwind sail all the way pushed by a 25-knot wind, arriving just after sunrise.

Today's sunrise...

We arrived at the exposed bay on the south side of Koh Lipe (N06°28.980' E099°18.209') in front of the village and the Thai Immigration office, a visit to which was our first order of business. Normally here, we would lay a deep anchor close to the reef but we were directed by some locals to take advantage of a mooring ball. Regardless, it was less than ideal conditions as there was a rolling swell that put us and the other boats a rockin'.

At the Immigration hut, fortunately we got there just in front of boatloads of day trippers that also were checking in and our officer was stressing about the workload, asking us to "hurry, hurry" when we were filling out the papers of official redundancy.

Then it was off to get some brekky and a Thailand SIM card with data for our smart phone so that we could access internet. That done, we left the place to the incoming throngs of tourists.

Boats of all kinds

We passed longtail boats with small loads of day sightseers heading to various spots around these islands and an unusual group just up the shore. The latter were indigenous nomadic people with no official status or individual identity who lived out of their boats wandering from island to island camping and fishing.

Our next stop was the beautiful lonely beaches on the west side of Koh Adang only 4 nautical miles away for some snorkelling to cool off, beachcombing, and rest and relaxation for the rest of the day (N06°31.470' E099°17.030').

...and today's sunset (taken from in the water)

We made sure to set our clocks back as Thailand is one hour earlier than Malaysia.

Go fast or go slow

Shortly after arriving back to Sea Turtle this year (Marina Island, Malaysia), feeling rushed, we realized it would be prudent to postpone our passage to the Mediterranean via the Red Sea this year. It was simply getting too late in the season. This wasn't a difficult decision. Not only did it relieve some anxiety, (after all, isn't this sailing life about slowing down and being stress free?), but postponing meant fitting in some other worthwhile endeavours at a relaxed rate.

We could now explore more of Thailand fabulous cruising areas that we missed out on before Did we mention Thailand is one of our favourite countries for many reasons and it's here we now have time to take advantage of good cheap boat labour in Phuket for some sprucing up of Sea Turtle. And Cambodia...we never did get there or visit the famous jungle ruins of Angkor Wat. So we should have a full and happy experience of SE Asia before departing here around the first of January for the passage to the Mediterranean.

A quote by Pico Iyer seems to say it best:

At some point, all the horizontal trips in the world stop compensating for the need to go deep, into somewhere challenging and unexpected; movement makes most sense when grounded in stillness. In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distractions, nothing could feel more luxurious than paying attention. In an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.

Go fast or go slow? Go slow!

Back to Langkawi

We were just hanging out by Cenang Beach (by the small town of Kampung Lubok Buaya, Langkawi Island, Malaysia) feeling the lazy sailors' life returning to us with the memories of the serious work of the last 10 months having drifted behind us and disappearing in our wake.

Weighing anchor late in the morning of March 21st, we headed out on a short 3-hour jump over to Telaga Harbour, still part of Langkawi Island, arriving at N06°21.754' E099°40.726'.

Getting close to Telaga...

A short 27-second video of us sailing to Langkawi can be seen at this YouTube link: https://youtu.be/DXJioxFb6_g. To see the Google Earth location, Sea Turtle is at approximately N06°19' E099°40'. (The same YouTube link is also at the right of the blog page listed under Other Links.)

Telaga, a nice out-of-the-way little port, is one we've visited before and is the final Malaysian stop, a checkout point for our short passage to the islands of Thailand. The port consists of a small inner harbour with a marina, a few waterfront restaurants, a gas station, and a wharf servicing a small ferry to and from the Thai islands close by. Right in front is an outer anchorage sheltered by 2 small barrier islands where we anchored along with about 30 other boats.

We noticed a few changes to service the increasing traffic and visitors since our last visit at Telaga. Some good and some at the expense of lost serenity.

Something that hasn't changed - the abundance of cute monkey troops! Still scavenging the shores and hanging out along the road to town, they wait for handouts and pose for pictures from passing tourists and locals.

Jordan was kept busy installing our new AIS. For landlubbers, this is an Automatic Identification System used by primarily commercial ships and regular cruisers. The information can be displayed on electronic charts, etc. Ships with this, show reciprocal identification and progress that helps for avoidance and for contact if necessary. Identifying and ship tracking if you will.

This is also helpful as commercial ships don't usually answer a radio call unless they are called by name. Some of Thailand now "requires" all boaters to have AIS installed before checking into their country.

Dayang Bunting Island

We departed Penang Island at 08:30 on March 19th to continue our northward route of Malaysia. At first, we were slightly detoured to head close to shore to avoid several swimmers in the ocean for some type of event. That was a first as our jogs in our tracks are usually to avoid the plentiful fishing boats or commercial ships.

Now with our new Garmin GPS Receiver, we were once again laying down a track on our electronic charts.

With just a bit of wind blowing and the motor running, we put up the sails at noon for an extra push, then soon after, just full sails and no motor for a nice beat in the NW wind. This area was very hazy obscuring any land sighting until within about 10 nautical miles of any shore.

Shortly after dark at 20:15, we rattled the chain for the night at the southeast lee side of Dayang Bunting Island (N06°10.411' E099°49.134'), just south of Langkawi Island. We were awoken just after midnight to a change in wind which was then from the east and made our anchorage exposed and very rolly.

We had no choice but to crawl out of bed, raise the anchor, and sail to where we could re-anchor in a more protected spot. Normally, we don't like moving about islands in the dark but our charts are pretty accurate here and we were heading into a spot where we were once before, so with caution and vigilant attention to charts and depth sounder and with the help of some moonlight, a couple of hours later we dropped anchor on the northwest side of Dayang Bunting Island (N06°11.508' E099°47.192').

We awoke to a glorious morning. Sun shining, not a cloud in the sky, cute black monkeys on shore of the rising cliffs, and not another boat in sight. But don't get us wrong - civilization is close by - but all we could hear was the sound of the tide sloshing against the shore rocks. The peaceful morning tranquility was soon interrupted as we could hear the tourist boats bringing their throngs to the island lake not far away. So we departed at 10:30.

Leaving Dayang Bunting Island

Continuing north, we caught sight of friends Trevor and Jolanta on board SV Magnetic at anchor where we idled by to exchange hellos and the latest. Knowing we would see them soon again, we didn't stop and continued on a bit farther and anchored in front of Kampung Lubok Buaya town (N06°16.498' E099°43.638'), southwest Langkawi Island on March 20th.

THEN - our first jump into the ocean in almost a year! How refreshing!

George Town foray

Even though we were anchored in the wee early hours, we wanted to get an early start for shore duty. After we lowered the dinghy into the water, we headed to the Chew Jetty, the normal dinghy landing. There are about 4 Chinese jetties made up of wooden shanties built over the decades by Chinese to avoid property taxes. Their rickety structures are perched on piling stilts in the shallow mud flats. Now, they are somewhat of a tourist attraction and where most of the residents take advantage of their uniqueness by selling novelties to the sightseers.

On approach to tie up, a resident woman intercepted us and denied us landing rights, saying "Too many work boats need this tie-up so no good for you, no room for you. Go to next jetty." The landing prospect of the next jetty was obviously not suitable. We put 2 and 2 together and knew she expected us to use their boats for a fee to ferry us back and forth. A previous year (July 2014), we tied up there several times and supported the businesses of the jetty and even gave at their donation box, but oh well, not this time though - Boo Chew!

We hesitantly then tied up to the Customs dock close by and walked into George Town. Our first goal was to apply for a 2-month pre-entry Visa for Thailand. We went to our usual agent, signed the forms, and gave her our passports with 2 extra photos which she sent it away for a 24-hour turnaround.

Our second goal was to find help for our non-functional GPS Receiver. A technically knowledgeable young man in the large mall determined it was unfixable and sent us to the Garmin outlet in the same mall.

The extremely friendly and accommodating Chinese shop owner immediately said he could get a Garmin unit sent in from Kuala Lumpur overnight. Problem solved. We paid for it, he ordered it, and then he bought us lunch!

Unlike other parts of Malaysia, George Town has centuries of Chinese mercantile history and consequently a high concentration of Chinese residents that have continued in the proprietorship. Many years of characteristic architecture reflect this unique quality to the extent that UNESCO has given it a designation, and with that, now the old heritage buildings are starting to be restored for the attraction of the tourist.

Needing restoration

Various stages of restoration

On our return to our dinghy, a couple of Customs employees very politely "asked" us to not tie up there again and suggested an adjacent pier that was unused by the local ferry system.

Exhausted after so little sleep the night before and a lot of walking city pavement, it was nice to get back to the boat for rest to finish up the day. We found the heat more bearable here compared to down south at Marina Island, especially now that we had a nice breeze filtering throughout the hatches.

Finally floating

March 10th, after almost a month puttering away at various jobs on Sea Turtle while she was on the hard at Marina Island, we finally splashed her back into her natural environment. The first trip was short...less than a hundred metres to the dock where we would do some final preps (N04°12.690' E100°36.104').

Going to sea

It was so nice to retire aboard to the gentle sea motion that rocked us back into sea life.

Then on March 16th, we cast off at 08:30 for an ebullient first passage north. First stop: George Town of Penang Island (Malaysia).

Everything was working well, albeit 1 item - our GPS Receiver which connects to the computer charts and shows our passage track. So we dug out our handheld GPS - which hadn't been used in years - and occasionally checked lat and long to compare manually on the electronic charts. We felt confident to continue as this passage was familiar to us and planned on fixing the problem there.

We motored half the way before the onshore wind built and then had a glorious 8-hour sail under the watch of a half moon until we entered the lee side of Penang Island after dark. We decided to continue up the well marked and lit channel, and under 2 large bridges, to our anchorage in front of the Chew Jetty (N05°24.629' E100°20.568') in George Town at 02:30.

Malaysia maintenance

After a 10-month stay in Canada, which was longer than we wanted, we are now back at Sea Turtle in Malaysia at Marina Island in the northern part of the infamous Malacca Strait. Our total flight travel time, including layovers, was 23 hours 45 minutes. We routed from Victoria, Vancouver, Hong Kong, and finally Kuala Lumpur. We then boarded a 4-hour bus ride north to Marina Island. Whew - long day. Or should I say 2, as we also lost a day crossing the International Date Line.

So now back at the boat, the enervating temperatures at first had us dragging our butts, however we soon regained acclimation.

Even though Sea Turtle is in a secured marina yard alongside a fleet of other sleeping vessels, leaving her for long periods always makes us nervous worrying about deterioration in heat and humidity. But she fared better than expected. The bigger worries were lots of mold and cockroaches, however there was only a minor amount of mold and absolutely no bugs to deal with.

We immediately opened up all the windows and got to work cleaning her up. She needed a major spring cleaning and some reorganizing both inside and out.

The decks have now been washed clean of dirt and bird droppings, all the rusty stainless steel fittings and bars have been polished bright, the grimy upper hull has been waxed and buffed, the lower hull has been scraped and sanded of old bottom paint. And finally, all cupboards and storage areas have been cleaned and assessed of contents with old stuff discarded.

Bottom painting gave us problem. The heat and breeze made the already fast drying paint thicken up way too fast. The rollers became thick and sticky and the paint was globbing on unevenly. Thinning isn't recommended. So after the first frustrating coat, we postponed our scheduled launching and regrouped.

Jordan sanded out the uneven lumps and scuffed the whole bottom and got everything ready, even thoroughly mixing the paint. Then at daybreak the next morning, we got at it before the sun had a chance to build the heat of the day. This had been our worst experience ever for applying the anti-fouling bottom paint.

BEFORE: part polished, but bottom not yet painted

AFTER: polished and bottom painted

The above "after" photo was taken with Jordan's drone.

We took a room in a nearby hotel while working on the boat for a few reasons. The interior of Sea Turtle is in a tussle while cleaning and reorganizing, the fridge doesn't work while on the hard (keel-cooled type of fridge), and the hotel has a fridge and luxurious air conditioning.

But tomorrow morning we launch, back into the water again, after almost a year!!

Home sweet home

We have been away from Sea Turtle for several months now. The main reason for our 10-month home stint was to develop a small real estate project which was undertaken by Jordan and his son/business partner. They designed and built a duplex that is now for sale.

Jordan 2-phoned busy with subtrades

Deluxe duplex

It wasn't all work though. It was great to get caught up with family and friends. While not working, Jordan wiled away hours playing pool with a good buddy. We spent a fun weekend camping and hiking, taking in the beautiful British Columbia scenery.

Mini me

We reconnected with the Bluewater Cruising Association attending monthly meetings and were guests aboard SV Camdeboo for the summer rendezvous. It was also our pleasure to do a picture presentation of our world travels at one of the meetings and again to a couple of other groups where most of the guests seemed thoroughly entertained.

Warm summer weather seemed a perfect time to take our motorcycle and 2 classic cars out of storage and do some road travelling - with a motorcycle trip up the Sunshine Coast, entering the MGB in the annual rally, and continuing on to sunny Penticton and Alberta for time with our families.

Rocky Mountain road trip

Our rare Ranchero

Have you ever heard of the hoodoos? While in Alberta, my Dad and I took Jordan on a drive to see some of the local landscape including old mining camps, the suspension bridge, and the infamous hoodoos.

Geological formations

We returned again in the winter (via air) when it was much colder, and I helped my Dad make Grandmother's secret family recipe of Danish red cabbage. This is an annual favourite and was enjoyed by all home for the occasion.

Tedious but tasty

Lucky or unlucky - I think I was very lucky when I suddenly developed a case of appendicitis. If it had happened while sailing, it probably wouldn't have ended so fortunate. I'm very glad to be rid of it, after all it's not needed for much anyway.

By the time we finally returned to Malaysia, we had had enough of the winter - Victoria was unusually wet and Alberta of course had many below freezing days.