9 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
The weather was much better today, so we got on with some chores. There’s a fuel dock at the Telaga Marina, but unfortunately, their pump has broken and they have no idea when it will be fixed, so we spent a couple of hours, pouring diesel into our tank from our jerry cans, then going to the petrol station in the marina to get some more diesel.
It’s not quite as simple as it should be, because fuel is subsidised in Malaysia and there’s a 20 litre a day per person restriction on sales to foreigners. At the petrol station in Telaga, they have a small concession and I was able to get 50 litres today. I poured that into the tank and will have to get another 50 litres tomorrow.
We lounged about in the afternoon, gasping in the airless, blistering heat. After dinner, we got out our musical instruments and started to work through the 48 Christmas songs, checking the chords and rejecting difficult ones - with only 16 days to Christmas, we haven’t much time to practise.
10 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
We went for a hike up to Seven Wells Waterfall. It’s about a mile from the beach to the start of the trail where there is a car park and few stalls selling souvenirs and refreshments. The trail is actually about 500 concrete steps, but it’s well shaded by trees and not too bad. There’s an impressive high waterfall half way up and at the top are a series of shallow pools with water running through smooth channels that make great water slides.
Although we were very hot and sweaty, we ignored the lure of the pools and continued up a narrow trail hidden at the top of the waterfalls. This trail is well maintained and it’s a very pleasant gradient with concrete steps whenever the going gets tough. We've been told that the path goes all the way to the top of Mount Mat Cincang, where the cable car goes, but we weren't really kitted out to go for three hours up and two hours back. Instead, we walked up for an hour or so, before turning back when it started to get really steep.
The only unpleasant part of the hike was encountering leeches - I had one on my leg and Glenys had three. The first one that Glenys found must have been sucking blood out of her heel for quite a while because she suddenly became aware that her heel was sticky. She must have squished the bloated leech because there was blood all over her foot. The other leeches latched onto us on the way down and were quickly flicked off. I was a little bit upset when (for some reason) Glenys wouldn't stay still for long enough to let me take a photograph of a leech attached to her foot.
Back at the waterfall pools we had a lovely refreshing swim and play in the water slides then reluctantly walked back to the beach. We had a great lunch at a restaurant overlooking the anchorage - very good Mei Goring and Tom Yum Noodle Soup.
It was so hot in the afternoon, that we couldn't do anything, but read and sleep.
11 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
First thing in the morning, we hired a car and drove into Kuah. Our first stop was at the ferry port where we cleared out of Malaysia. The Port Captain and Customs were simple, but we had a lot of confusion in Immigration when we showed them our new passports. They couldn't understand that we’d cleared in with one passport number and now wanted to clear out with a different passport number.
"How had we obtained new passports without flying to the UK? Where were the exit stamps back to the UK?" To make matters worse, we hadn't been given the correct clearance document from Port Dickson to Langkawi. Eventually, we made them understand what we had done, but they were close to arresting us and snapping on the rubber gloves…
Having successfully cleared out, we stopped off at a supermarket to do some more provisioning and headed back to Telaga. After lunch on Alba, we lounged about in the baking heat all afternoon. Thankfully, a thunderstorm in the early evening brought a bit of wind and reduced the oppressive humidity.
12 December 2015 Telaga Harbour, Langkawi
We've decided to leave Malaysia tomorrow. The plan is to clear into Thailand in Phuket, which is 120 miles away, but we’ll stop at a few small islands on the way. There’s a small immigration office at our first stop in Ko Lipe and we don’t want to get there before tomorrow, just in case they force us to clear in. We only get a 30 day visa and don’t want to be short one day before we fly to Myanmar on the 11th January.
I spent the morning printing out some of Christmas Carols while Glenys did more research on places to go in Thailand. In the afternoon, when the temperature rose, I donned a scuba tank and spent an hour cleaning the barnacles from the hull and propeller. There was ½” of growth on the propeller and over an inch of growth of barnacles on top of the rudder and the bottom of the keel where the anti-foul is too thin. The rest of the hull has the odd barnacle and a thin coating of slime, so the Jotun anti-fouling that we put on nearly a year ago is doing a good job.
13 December 2015 Telaga to Ko Lipe, Thailand
We finally managed to leave Telaga. Unfortunately, there was no wind, so we were forced to motor the 30 miles to Ko Lipe. I was very, very nervous about the engine coolant. In first 30 minutes, I had 100ml of coolant escape from the pressure cap overflow, which was very worrying. After that, the pressure cap seemed to seal itself and we didn't lose any coolant for the next four hours - amazing…
By mid-afternoon, approached the west coast of an island called Ko Andang and found that “Southern Wing” and “Back Chat” had picked up moorings there, so we picked up the third one at 06°32.52N 099°16.75E. It’s a little bit too close to the reef for our liking, but I snorkelled around and our rudder is missing a big coral head by about six feet, so I think that we’ll be okay.
We had a quick snorkel and found that the water is fairly clear, but the reef isn’t very interesting. I should imagine that the more timid fish are being scared off by the hundreds of tourists that are being dropped off on the beach next to us. Noisy Thai boats called “Long-tails” were buzzing past us all afternoon, loaded with punters from the main island of Ko Lipe.
We had dinner on “Southern Wing” and played some guitar with Irvin.
The long-tails are an interesting design - I found this description on Wikipedia:
The long-tail boat, known as Ruea Hang Yao in the Thai language, is a type of watercraft native to Southeast Asia, which uses a common automotive engine as a readily available and maintainable powerplant. A craft designed to carry passengers on a river may include a lightweight long canoe hull, up to 30 metres, and a canopy. There is much variation among these boats, some have evolved from traditional craft types, while others have a more improvised look—the sole defining characteristic is a second-hand car or truck engine.
This engine is invariably mounted on an inboard turret-like pole which can rotate through 180 degrees, allowing steering by thrust vectoring. The propeller is mounted directly on the driveshaft with no additional gearing or transmission. Usually the engine also swivels up and down to provide a "neutral gear" where the propeller does not contact the water. The driveshaft must be extended by several metres of metal rod to properly position the propeller, giving the boat its name and distinct appearance.
Advantages to the inboard engine with a long driveshaft include keeping the engine relatively dry. Following the basic design pattern allows a variety of engines to be attached to a variety of different kinds of hulls. This flexibility simplifies construction and maintenance while sacrificing the efficiency and comfort that might be expected of a typical mass-produced product.
Cooling to the engine is provided by a shaped metal pipe strewn underneath the rear running board which is used as a rudimentary heat-exchanger. This is then coupled to the engine using rubber or plastic hoses. Clean water is then used as the coolant.
Control is achieved by moving the engine with a lever stick attached to the inboard side. Ignition and throttle controls provide simple means to control this simple craft. Larger boats may include more than one "tail," with several operators piloting in tandem.
14 December 2015 Ko Lipe, Thailand
Our mooring is in a channel between two islands with a strong tidal current, so we had a restless night, bobbing about with noisy waves slapping under the transom, when the tide changed direction and the wind was against the tide.
At last, we’re in water clear enough to run the water maker, so we topped up our tanks then went for a snorkel close to the boat. Again, there wasn’t a huge amount to see, so I concentrated on taking photos of Christmas Tree Worms, which have an amazing variety of colours.
In afternoon, we jumped in the dinghy and zipped a mile or so across to a small island to the west of us, where we found a dive mooring. The snorkelling was much more interesting, with a steep drop off and lots of rocky gullies to explore. I got very excited when a found scores of Dancing Shrimp hiding in a small cave.
15 December 2015 Ko Lipe to Ko Rok Nok, Thailand
We dropped the mooring at first light and sailed 40 miles to Ko Rok Nok. Yes, sailed! Well, we did for the first two hours and then the wind died on us, so we were back to motoring.
It was a very boring trip, but we had no problem with engine. When I did my engine check this morning, I didn’t remove the pressure cap to check the level on the basis that I know how much we’ve lost. By not disturbing the pressure cap, it seems to have retained its seal.
It was late afternoon, when we arrived in at the twin islands of Ko Rok Nok and picked up a Marine Park mooring at 07°13.04N 099°04.59E. We jumped into the water and went for a snorkel. The reef isn’t terribly interesting, but the water is the clearest that we’ve seen since Indonesia.
I spent fifteen minutes trying to photograph a Silverspot Shrimpgoby. These small fish hover outside a burrow in the sand and are dreadfully difficult to photograph, diving away into their holes at the slightest provocation. The fish shares its burrow with one or two shrimp in a symbiotic relationship - the shrimp spend most of their time digging the tunnel while the Goby stands watch. Interestingly, the shrimp are often completely blind, relying on touching the fish with their feelers, to know when to dart away.
