1st January - welcome to 2014!

Wednesday 1^st January

The last day of 2013 was all very pleasant.  We had a late breakfast – eggs, salmon, left-over mashed potatoes: what could be nicer??  I then went down to the resort dining room, where I have a better chance of internet reception.  Some of my rallyfriends stopped by my table to tell me it was time for cooking class…  We have been here a few weeks and I ALWAYS miss cooking class, mainly because I never know what day of the week it is until it is too late, so looking at the timetable is no good.

Meanwhile Pete worked on the net...

Cooking class is more fun when one’s tummy is not FULL of salmon, eggs, potato, but I did enjoy participating in the creation and tasting of Mah Por Tofu.   We stood around for a while afterwards, exchanging mildly horrifying tales of Life At Sea for the benefit, or otherwise, of poor Kate, who is newly arrived in Rebak Resort.  She and her husband are hoping to buy one of the yachts which has been involved in the rally, and she is on a steep learning curve as she really hasn’t been on boats much at all.   (It is a wonderful boat, precision designed, beautifully maintained so fear not; she will be just fine.)

He would have preferred to be in one of his favourite Langkawi shops, full of bargains and treasures

Gina told us about a boat they had followed across the Altantic, and which is now in Rebak, with new owners.  The previous owners had a very tough time.  Way out on the ocean the skipper cut his hand very badly, severing the tendons between thumb and fingers.   His poor wife called for help on the radio and received instructions on how to stitch it up… Not long afterwards their autopilot broke down and once again she had to follow radio-ed instructions.  NOT fun!

I didn’t go straight back to 2XS; it was time for a swim!  I am trying to do lots of laps – easy, free exercise.  So far I am up to 24, not sure if this quite makes it a kilometer but that is what I am aiming for.  It is very pleasant, of course, and reasonably challenging because even when there aren’t many people in the pool, the ones who are in there seem to be totally oblivious of other swimmers.  There is a young Indian man, quite large, who flounders around like a walrus, with much splashing, and he takes up most of the length and breadth of what is in fact a forty metre pool!  Then there are children, with balls, and other children on the other side of the pool who want the balls…an obstacle course, quite challenging.  One of my ex-military rallyfriends gets very cross with noisy cheery children.  She swims up to them and shouts threats and instructions… I mildly say that I REALLY don’t mind, that this is normal behavior, from children in a pool, but she says, They are splashing water everywhere, in horrified tones… (No she doesn’t have children…)

 

30th and 31st December - New Years Eve

Monday 30^th December

A Rebak Island hibiscus.   For a change

Every rally attracts freeloaders.  Apparently…

Pete and I were not particularly aware of this, or even particularly bothered.  But some of our friends got more and more FURIOUS re this, as time went by.

Boats in Roayl Langkawi Marina.  None of these is a freeloader...and yes the big black in the background  is VERY big

One boat in particular, which I will call, at random,  SV Patinka, followed the Indonesian Rally gaily along the northern route, and then joined up with the rest of us at Labuan Bajo for food, festivities, t-shirts, bonuses.   In Belitung (Indonesia) all of the rallyboats were given 100 lites of fuel by the local authorities – a very generous gift.  Patinka – so I have heard – queued up for their 100 litres, to the absolute seething resentment of all fee-paying rallyers. 

This time the big black yacht in the background is a known quantity - Victory, belonging to Rupert Murdoch,
and currently for sale.  Apparently...

The rallies are not very expensive.  A bit over $500 for three months in Indonesia; $130 for five weeks in Malaysia.  Lots of freebies – gifts, gala dinners, tours, information, dinghy security, more t-shirts than you could ever want, flags, maps.  (Not quite AND ALSO a set of steak knives, but nearly.) 

So what we don’t understand is – why not pay up??  If you can afford to be sailing around the world, you can afford this rally fee.  At dinner on 2XS, I asked our friends Andrew and Sue (SV Settlement,) who had taken quite a different route than 2XS, if they had met the cheery sailors from Patinka.  Ah yes, said Sue, the freeloaders!   So tell me – why would you rather save $130 than have the respect of all who sail around you?? 

Tuesday 31^st December

New Years Eve…I’m not even going to try to summarise 2013, or to make fulsome predictions for 2014.  I will just send out some love and some optimism, just generally…

 Yesterday we had another Mainland Langkawi Day.

We went, of course, to shops which looked like this:

Our Mr Din Car exceeded our (very low…) expectations.  It was a very dingy looking Proton but it went like a dream, no problems at all.  The universe turned on its head!

Our mighty Proton, about to be laden with conduit pipes

Many buildings in Malaysia come and go, very rapidly.  One minute they are big, mighty, tall, strong.  The next minute – rubble!  I rather think this building was never mighty, tall, strong, but it was/is probably Mr Din’s on-site office at the ferry terminal…

PS I have had interesting responses to the trampoline net dilemma… Elsa now thinks I could crochet one.  In fact…this is not so silly.  A very snazzy sail-making woman in Kuah, Eria, suggested I knot a net, with a special shuttle, and some extra strong net twine.  I think this would be a worthy project!  She was not impressed when Pete hopefully showed her our shabby old net, which we had painstakingly removed and which we were hoping she could edge with a strong canvas tube, to hold the aforementioned conduit pipe.  Make a new one, she urged.

Roseanne bravely enjoying the net, in Darwin...

Pauline says that in fact there are many knitting shops in Kuala Lumpur, and that stylish young Malaysian women do knit beautiful stylish scarves for themselves.  I still stand by my (amended) contention that I am the only person knitting on a boat in Malaysia…