Puteri Harbour Marina

Johor, Malaysia

Hi Everyone

It’s been a while since I’ve written.  But we really are just being here and not really doing anything special.  We did take the boat and move to Sebana Cove on the other side of Singapore.  The trip there was pretty uneventful.  We like Sebana Cove because there is a lovely 32 mile round trip bike ride from the marina to Sungei Rengit the small town near the marina.  But this trip was disappointing.  The favorite corner store where we could leave all of our bags while we shopped has closed and been replaced by a small hotel.  The bakery seems to have lost all of the English speaking staff.  The veggie man now comes too late and is just stocking his shelves when we had to be back at the Sebana Cove van for the return trip back to the marina.  The van costs each person 10 ringgits which is only about $3 but it’s not a really long trip and Puteri doesn’t charge at all, nor did the marina in Kota Kinabalu.  The Sebana van didn’t allow enough time to shop and that meant going twice each week to get things done.  It used to be fun in the past, sort of a social outing with the other cruisers.  Though we met some nice folks who were stopping for a bit at Sebana Cove and had them come for drinks and snacks on DoraMac, there just weren’t enough of us to hold a real Happy Hour on the dock. There was more wildlife though.  We saw a huge herd of wild boars in the woods across from the golf course.  We were told the monkeys are now running riot and coming down to the marina to raid the boats and trash.  We only saw them in the woods.  Maybe more importantly,  with so few folks around, Randal had some doubts about leaving the boat unattended for the time we will be home.   So we left Sebana Cove and returned to Puteri where we will leave the boat and where there are lots of people around.  We left with beautiful flat seas but about noon hit a huge rain storm near Singapore.  We cruised through the storm driving from the flybridge and got soaked.  But it’s easier to see from the flybridge and there are lots of ships around Singapore so we stayed there and changed clothes after the storm passed us.  We actually arrived back at Puteri about an hour earlier than we had expected because we made good time with the wind and currents. 

  We have met lots of nice cruisers during our time here at Puteri and have gotten a chance to get to know Fein and Hans who we had met previously along the way during some of our rallies.  Now we’ve been able to spend time with them and it has been great fun.  They have a motorbike and have convinced us to get one.  They can transport theirs on their sailboat and if we get one we’ll be able to take it aboard our DoraMac.  It can be so limiting in marinas like Puteri or Sebana Cove to be without transportation.  In Singapore or even George Town there were public transportation options.  Without those options we spend too much time at the marinas and not enough seeing the country.  Randal researched and found that we can take the motorbike into Israel and Turkey and other countries.  And luckily Randal’s driver’s license has an M on it so he has a legal motorcycle license!  If we buy a bike here in Malaysia the price includes insurance, two helmets and two sets of rain gear.  Fein and Hans says that when it rains they do what the locals do and pull over under an underpass and wait for it to stop.  Everyone smiles at them!

Hans and Fein on their sailboat Pelikaan

They were born in Sweden but moved to Australia 30 years ago.  Hans worked for companies building underground rail systems so they have lived all over the world.  Years ago when their two boys were small they all visited Nepal and the Everest area but they traveled by horseback and slept in tents!  I’m sort of jealous!  They are coming to the boat later for brownies and ice cream.  But eating all of those calories will be for a good cause, to test if the oven is working correctly now that Randal has cleaned the regulator.  We’d had a problem with our oven not heating right. But it seemed ok today when I made the brownies, back to it’s normal of being about 25 degrees hotter than the setting. 

And our friend Liz is back from Thailand so we’ll get to see her and Wally soon too.

So that’s what’s up though not my hopes for the Red Sox making the play-offs, though it “ain’t over till it’s over.”  But now when they lose I don’t get that really sick feeling; it’s more just, “oh well.”  Ru

DoraMac