Palms Guest House, Pantai Cenang, Langkawi

We got back to Malaysia without too many worries; okay I did forget the passports, only finding out they were not in “The File” when I was standing inside the Imigrasi Office. Fortunately we were able to return to SD and pick up the errant paper work. After a couple of days at Telaga, where there are no cheap restaurants and no fresh food, we set off for Kuah. On the way we anchored at Monkey Beach for a swim in clear waters and a walk to an alleged cave. The cave was fabulous. It went under a mountain and we went in about 100 metres. I left Kathy to crawl under a tunnel and into the next passage. Sensibly I returned. The stalactites and stalagmites were awesome. It also felt like we were the first to find the cave as there were no ropes or guidance and it would have been easy to become lost. We did have a torch each, but not the benefit of a Tilley lantern.

In Kuah we conducted more business organising paint for Sal Darago’s bottom, checked the availability of charts to South Africa and food for the four days we were going to be “stuck” in our new boatyard. The boatyard “B and V Marine” (B for Barry – South African and V for Valerie – Male Russian!) is inside a duty-free cargo port. It is fenced off topped with razor wire. To gain access you have to go through the Police check, the Customs check and finally hand the gathered papers to the last gatehouse person, usually a female wearing a hijab. After this you are allowed to proceed the half mile to the boatyard. Or you can arrive by water and climb up the dock or even be craned out.

We chose the latter course of entry and all went well, after a four hour delay, while quite a few people searched for the crane driver who had taken an early holiday to the mainland. The following day was my sixtieth birthday. It had snuck up on me unawares and I was not ready. True to form, I spent the entire day caressing a bottom with a coarse grain sanding machine! Yes Sal Darago had all her barnacles removed and much of her now defunct antifoul paint. I was completely blue and quite toxic, but Kathy insisted that she took a photograph. Cake and candles followed a long session in the shower.

We managed to hire a car and SD was moved by travel lift into the yard proper. You can see that there was not a great deal of space through the gate. Finally we cleaned everything, tidied up what could be tidied and moved the sails, the running rigging, the fenders inside the boat away from the punitive sun. We, of course, had to move out and are now on our way to England. We shall return to Sal Darago at the end of March, when following new paint and making SD ocean worthy, we shall set off once again. Until then fare well.