malaysia to thailand

the leg from malaysia to thailand was a short one. only two nights at sea. we had calm weather the first half and some strong winds and rocky seas for the other half. as we are now used to, there is little sleep at night in the night passages in this area of the world. the ship traffic is outstanding, only topped by the fishing traps, nets and fishing boats which are always in sight, day or night. I am not really sure what they fish. we have not had any luck in these waters. when we finally got a fish after I forgot how many miles of pasta and canned food, we got a barracuda which we have grown to dislike… so we let it live and continued our way north avoiding fish traps and hoping for better luck, or some good restaurants upon our arrival into port!!!

SELAMAT HARI NATAL!

it means merry christmas in malay.

after a long and not so easy sail from the south of malaysia we reached the island of penang where we were surprised by the beautiful town, the people and the marvelous old buildings and temples. we found a great marina (tanjong city) and decided it was a good place to be for christmas. so here we are happy as ever and wishing our families and friends on land and at sea a very happy merry christmas.

penang

georgetown is the main city of the island of penang and it is another world heritage place full of old beautiful buildings and temples. the city officials have done a wonderful job at maintaining the old buildings. the town therefore looks old yet vibrant beautiful and clean. there are many restaurants of all types of food; the smells of the city range from great incense aromas to nasty sewage sometimes but mostly to bizarre condiments and exotic foods.





the town is full of clothing shops mostly of the type women from india wear. there are incredibly picturesque travel agencies, restaurants pharmacies, and in general miscellaneous stores ran by the chinese. we walked in to many of them simply to have a look at their merchandise and at them. customer service is at its best here. women clipping their toe nails next to the cash register, shirts for men seemd to be optional and just in general funny looking but nonetheless warm and very kind people. we loved this place so much that we changed our plans of just sailing almost through and we decided to stay in at the very comfortable tangonj city marina for christmas.

malacca strait

crossing this body of water was very challenging. it was only 370 nautical miles but yet we had very diverse conditions every day. apparently the change in weather in this area of the world is very common, so we were expecting it and somehow prepared; but still we did not like it. as we left johor bahru and passed west of singapore we had good wind, and lots of ships and platforms. the same obstacles that we had when we approached so we had to sail with 100% attention to the water... not snoozing or napping at all. by night the wind turned from our nose and we had to motorsail tacking our way upwards into the busiest waters in the entire world.




that first night was fascinating. so much traffic was exciting to see. one ship after the other in an almost straight line every 300 meters; unbelievable. it is a true highway of ships.

by the second day the weather went from zero wind to clam seas to wind on the nose again to sunny and later cloudy and then at night to the most bizarre mini storm. strong wind against and a ridiculously strong current of at least 4 knots also against us. there was no way we could make any progress. we made miles alright but away from our course. with then engine at full throttle we were only making 1 knot per hour. i do not think we have ever even walked this slow. it was awful and still we had to maneuver away from the passing giant ships and the fishermen and their lines with no lights whatsoever. the next day the sun came out and again we had a lot of wind on the nose and then nothing and we ended the night with the most amazing thunderstorm that now made us intentionally turn around and sail backwards to avoid it. One lighting strike can be fatal and the chances of attracting it with a 16 meter tall mast out of the water are not so slim. If we get hit all electronics and electrical components will automatically fry, and at this point of our voyage there is no money to replace any of them. So we better sail away from any electrical storm.



by the final day we were tired of the bad weather and got a little lucky. it did not rain and the wind and currents were good and steady. we made it by night into penang. a scary entrance because there is a new bridge under construction. there were metal structures showing just above the surface everywhere and this was of course not in any chart. We made our way through the entrance very slowly and the lights of the bright city helped us see the obstacles a bit. we finally anchored in the middle of town safely and we crashed dead tired for the night.