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| Admiral cove marina pool Port Dickson |
We are motor sailing at 5knots down the west coast of Malaysia. It is 9.21 am and we are 50 miles from port Klang. Last night we anchored on the east coast of the resort island of Pangkor off the town of Lumut. We had an excellent daylight run of 60 miles from Penang reaching 7 knots in a westerly wind of 15knots.
We would like to reach Port Klang before dark and at the moment we are 0.7 knots (per hour) behind schedule hoping that the wind will change from a South easterly to a westerly this afternoon.
Last night at 1.30 am we had a thunderstorm that that roused us from our sleep to close the hatches and roll down the plastic protectors in the cockpit.
WE left at 5.00am when it was pitch black and headed toward the red light that would take us clear of the Semilan rocks.
We cautiously motored out into the blackness looking for the light under a starless night .Each clap of thunder was followed by a flash of lightening . With each flash of lightening we could make out the silhouette of the rocks.
Out of the darkness fishing boats would appear, only switching on their lights as they got close. The lightening bolts appeared as thick as tree stumps as they made a dash from the clouds to the sea.I thought about putting our earth wire over the side but then
I though that would be like trying to fend off the Queen Mary with a walking stick!
In the marina there was a lot of discussion about lightening. Several large catamarans have been hit. The effect was to burn bullet holes in the hulls next to the chain plates.
Some one commented that both the catamarans had those lightening conductors at the top of the mast that look like silver Christmas trees. Obviously they were effective in conducting the lightening down the mast, to the chain plates and then out burnt their way out through the fiberglass hulls.
If you sustained a direct hit then life would be all over. But If you received a secondary hit then most of your electrical equipment would be damaged in some way or another.
I recall recently a guy was killed by lightening while playing golf. Now if he had been using wooden clubs he may still be alive. Who knows?.
Our fridge is playing up .A loose connection I think, but which one? It is still cold because I have just had a beer but we have to think about which bit of frozen meat to eat for lunch. It will be either a steak or some of the remaining pork sausages.
Yesterday we made a chicken curry with broccoli and coconut milk. It was superb. It was so good that we ate the remains last night after I fitted our spare bilge pump. That is another job to go on the list.
The crew just interrupted me .What little wind there was is no more and the jib is flapping. We rolled it in until the wind returns.
Well what have we got to look forward to today?
A shower!. At lunch time we usually take off our clothes and go to the cockpit where we have a garden spray of 11 litres. One pumps while the other receives the water and then we take turns lathering ourselves and rinsing clean. WE then just sit naked while the wind blows us dry while we think about lunch and who is going to prepare it.
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| Just out of the oven |
Reading is our favourite pastime .15 books should last us two weeks in clam weather and three weeks or more in rough weather. We swap books at the marina and buy some secondhand shops. I have just finished two racy crime mysteries and have just begun “White tiger’ by Aravind Adiga
The white tiger
A thinking man
And entrepreneur
Living in the world’s centre of Technology and Outsourcing
Electronis City phase 1 (just off Hosur main road)
Bangalore India
Winner of the Man Booker prize 2008
I will tell you about the book later.
Stop press: Osama bin laden has been shot dead by and American seal team. No pictures, buried at sea according to Muslim custom. Americans are so proper arn’t they. They never say toilet but powder room is ok.
Well I guess we will hear all about it in time. Meanwhile the democratic machine will be milking the story for Obama ,I guess he will visit ground zero and the navy seal headquarters and those voters who thought he was on the nose will now see him a hero. Well that’s politics; perception is everything, understanding takes effort.
We are nearing Pangor island and I have to look for the marker of the entrance channel.
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| TheNorth light marking the entrance to the channel to Pangor Island |
There it is a fly speck on the horizon, right on course.
Several hours later we passed it doing 7 knots thanks to the tide, several ships are at anchor and a Cruise liner passed us coming out from Lumut. By 5.00 pm we were motoring down the channel and I could sea white caps facing us, indicating that the tide had changed and the current was against us. Now we are down to 4 knots.
Now we are looking for somewhere to anchor for the night. We passed the exclusive French resort (a favourite of the late Pavorotti) and I could sea on the chart that the there was an area of 10 meters just past the resort. We dropped the sails and cut the engine revs and slowly approached the shore. The depth sounder read 10 meters then
8, 7, 6 ,5.5 CLUNK we hit a rock I quickly reversed clear, no damage apart from my ego.
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| Pavorotti's favourite Pangor Island Malaysia |
We retreated to the channel and continued south and anchored behind a large power boat in 7 meters.
After a quick drink I inspected the bilge, there was some water in it and I switched on the bilge pump. Nothing happened. It has stopped working. I pulled the spare bilge pump out which is larger and of course the hose would not fit. I spent the next hour in the fading light finding bits of hose and connecting them and then lowering the new bilge pump down. While it was too big to go to the bottom it went down far enough to be below the water level and when I flicked the switch it worked.
Now for a cold beer, that’s funny they are not as cold as they were at lunch time.
Well I will look at it tomorrow. Now for some noodles and vegetables.
WE woke at 5.00am to begin our long journey to port Kelang. After Coffee and studying the chart we raised the anchor and gently motored at 115 degrees to clear a shallow patch and then headed at 140 degrees looking out for a red flashing light that would take us clear of the Sembilan rocks. There were black clouds ahead and lightening flashes in the distance that illuminated the rocks and some islands in the distance.
The bolts of lightening were as thick as tree stumps. It was a good job that they were moving away from us
May 14th Sat
It is a grey morning ,completely windless with very poor visibility ,I can just make out five of the many ships heading north through the Malacca straits 4 miles to the west of our track south to Malacca.
WE have been in the luxurious Admiral cove marina for a week. The fridge stopped working and the refrigeration mechanic who looked at it diagnosed that the compressor was not working. We ordered a new one but delivery would be two weeks.
We spent our days doing small jobs such as fitting a new bilge pump, new float switch,
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| Admiral Cove Marina Port Dickson |
Greasing the shaft bearing, cleaning the hull , putting some fuel additive in the tank to stop bacteria growing and washing our clothes.
I found a stainless steel nut on the deck near the mast. It must of come from somewhere. I thought it was from one of the bolts holding the radar on to the mast.
Annick hoisted me up the mast but everything was ok .I looked up at the rigging, hoping it was not from there. I then looked carefully around at every fitting close to where I found the nut. Ah Ah on the boom there are two hooks near the mast that are used when reefing the main sail. A bolt secures these hooks. The nut had vibrated of the end of the bolt. I put it back together with some “Locktight” a kind of glue that stops nuts from working loose.
By 10,30 each day we were at the pool in the shade of coconut palms and then reading.
Some times we would have lunch on the boat and other times at the restaurant .Each day we kept busy white waiting for the new compressor to arrive.
One day we hired a car and drove to Malacca where in amongst a swathe of high rise development and shopping centers we found what we were looking for.
The old part of the town, streets of Chinese shop houses and a few Portuguese store houses. All of the houses are freshly painted and the streets are strictly non smoking.
In amongst the tourist shops, antique shops and small grocery stores selling dried noodles are some attractive restaurants. We sampled the Chinese/Portuguese chicken,
At the time it was delicious but an hour later while in a glitzy shopping centre a buzz with young Chinese/Malay students with their hair dyed blond I got that familiar feeling that things were not right with my stomach. I just made it through the mouse maze to the toilet.
WE managed to get back to Port Dixon with one pit stop. For dinner we went to the Port Dixon yacht club. A club in the British tradition, without boats but an excellent dining room, swimming pool and tennis courts looking out over the sea. The food was excellent
and remained with me this time.
After calling Mr. Go each day to find out when the part was going to arrive I spent the day writing my blog www.letterfromindonesia.com. And sent it off to a few friends .
I got An instant reply from Bruce, it was a shot question. “are you sure the compressor is the problem?”
I looked at the fridge again, apart from the compressor and a cooling radiator there was a black box, some kind of regulator or controller. I recall seeing a spare one in one of the boxes of tools and bits and pieces.
I hunted for it and then carefully changed the wires from the old one to the new one and switched on the fridge. My God it works ! I went for a swim for an hour before I was sure. Lifting the lid of the freezer I could see ice forming on the metal plate.
Well we can leave. I telephoned Mr. Go to tell him that his staff did nor diagnose the problem correctly and I no longer needed the new compressor.
We left the marina at sun rise the nest day.
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| An Indonesian cargo boat from Sumatra |
