Kuah, Langkawi, Malaysia (70 miles north of Penang)  December 6, 2009

Hi Everyone

Fireworks at Kuah

Midnight fireworks under the full moon celebrated DoraMac’s arrival at Kuah, Langkawi!

Actually we don’t know what they were for but they were much nicer than 7 hours of screaming karaoke which we’d had at anchor in Penang. They did wake me up so I got up to watch for the 10 minutes or so that they lasted. But, after a 10 hour passage with winds and swells just off our starboard bow, I was tired enough to easily fall back to sleep.

We left Penang at 7:15 am and after a 71 mile passage arrived at Kuah, Langkawi at 5:15 pm averaging about 7.1 knots. Remember that shiny propeller and newly painted hull? Thanks to a clean prop and newly cleaned boat bottom, we are probably averaging one more knot per hour than when the boat was dirty. That may not sound like much but over 70 miles saved us at least an hour or possibly more of cruising time. And that can mean the difference between arriving at an anchorage in daylight rather than in the dark. 

See where it says SOG: that’s speed over ground. 8.9 kt (knots per hour.)

Our recent cruising speeds with adverse currents, winds on the nose, and a very dirty boat have too often been under 5 knots. Yesterday when we were cruising at under 7 knots we felt slow! The wind didn’t seem all that strong until I tried to hang up the bedding I had washed. Hanging the wet quilt- cover on the port side clothesline wasn’t so bad. But when I tried to hang our queensize bed sheet on the starboard side, the wind made it so impossible that Randal had to come down from the flybridge to help me. Everything was dry in no time. Trying to stay on my feet as the boat rolled and also hold onto the bedding as the wind tried to whip it away was a bit tricky, but nothing was lost and we finally have clean sheets. It is all of that boat movement as you try to move about the boat, sit in the small helm chair on the flybridge, or even lay down to rest that makes it so tiring.  And we just have gotten little rest in the past 3 weeks between passages and boat yard work.   My next big task is to clean months of cruising dust and salt crystals and 2 weeks worth of boat yard grit from the inside of the boat. Though Rebak, our destination on Langkawi offers a lovely marina, my goal is to clean the boat rather than hang around the pool. But I will paint! And read.

One last fireworks photo.

So later today we’ll move over to Rebak Marina. I tried their website to share but it doesn’t seem to be working so you’ll have to wait for photos, but it is supposed to be lovely. It is an island and there is a free ferry to the mainland several times each day.

Ru

DoraMac