Hi Everyone,
We have officially joined up with Sail Malaysia. We left Tioman Island 2:45 AM May 30th and arrived here in Kuantan May 31st 2:45 PM after a passage of about 75 miles. We passed through one storm that dropped our visibility but didn’t generate waves so it wasn’t too bad (read that scary.) We were the 2nd boat to arrive; usually we are one of the last since we always seem to be playing catch up at these rallies. Because it’s better to arrive at an anchorage in daylight we plan our passages to arrive before dusk at 6:30 pm. We are still near the Equator so have 12 hours of daylight and dark. Leaving an anchorage at night isn’t so problematic because you are familiar with it and have laid down a track on the chart plotter to follow out from the anchorage. New anchorages are unknown so better to enter in the light of day.
Yesterday we took a taxi into the city to the Megamall. We found a DiGi store where we can buy minutes for our 3LG phone which will provide Internet access on the boat. We used it in the Philippines with lots of success and in Indonesia with little success (read that as good at times and terrible most of the time.) Service runs from the 1st to last day of the month so we didn’t buy the service yesterday since it was May 31st and the DiGi guy was afraid that it wouldn’t carry over if we bought it yesterday so we will return this morning. It costs about $45 US for unlimited service; we’ll try it for a month. As long as we have cell towers nearby, it should work.
Our anchorage, officially called Teluk Chempedak, is a bit rolly but quite nice. There is a lovely beach and several small eating places along with a Hyatt resort hotel. It is a 10 minute taxi ride to Kuantan, which is the capital city of Pahang, the largest state on Peninsula Malaysia (East Malaysia) . (West Malaysia is located on the island of Borneo and we will go there too.)
Yesterday evening we met on the beach for a welcoming reception.
Any time you go to shore you take your dinghy and most of the time you just leave them on the beach. If your anchor holds they will be there when you return. No one bothers them.
On the beach we found cruising friends Craig and Lynne from Solan, Margaret and Doug from Tonic, Elizabeth and Patrick from Labarque, Greg, Leanne and small Jack from Keshi. The welcoming event began almost immediately. We were given Pahang hats. There were short speeches from local officials and from Sail Malaysia organizers. There was a great band playing wonderful American popular songs, and a buffet of local dishes. A group in black T shirts with Marshall written in white letters seemed to be helping out and joined in the meal. I told someone that they reminded me of a motorcycle “gang.” She pointed to the motorcycles parked on the plaza and said they were a motorcycle “group.” Randal thinks the group’s name is Marshall.
The Marshalls….
Young men led off the festivities with a martial arts demonstration.
They were accompanied by a group of musicians playing traditional instruments.
We were invited up to the plaza area and given coconut milk; I’m getting used to it.
Our new hats, coconut drinks and bottled water. We are all at the buffet table loading up our plates!
Chicken on skewers, rice, fish, leaf-wrapped meat, cucumber salad and a rolled piece of bread.
All quite good.
While we ate the band played, Country Roads, Hotel California, some Credence Clearwater music… and they were very good.
And cruisers danced….
And checked out the Marshalls’ motorcycles.
It was a lovely evening. Today we’ll return to the Mall and take care of the phone/computer set up. At 3 pm we will join with the other cruisers for today’s rally event. We will meet on the beach at 3pm. Buses will take us to a local museum and then to a dinner. The sun is shining and all seems well.
Ruth Johnson
Doramac
Two little girls in pink. The one on the left is the 5 year old daughter of Sazli, one of our Sail Malaysia organizers.
This anchorage is a beach and resort area so there were lots of people around all day Sunday, enjoying the beach and food stands. Many of them came over to watch our festivities too which is always nice.