Monday 30th December
Every rally
attracts freeloaders. Apparently…
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| A Rebak Island hibiscus. For a change |
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.
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.
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.)
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| Boats in Roayl Langkawi Marina. None of these is a freeloader...and yes the big black in the background is VERY big |
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| This time the big black yacht in the background is a known quantity - Victory, belonging to Rupert Murdoch, and currently for sale. Apparently... |
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 31st 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.
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| 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…
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