Back at the boat

Well today is Wednesday the third of February and as mentioned earlier we are trying to be more organised and have spent the week trying to find a place for everything and everything in its place!!!! No more having to move things from here to there as everything is finally put away (after all this time!!). It has taken us all this week plus some to do it and we can fit nothing else on this boat!

On Tuesday 26th we caught a taxi to Kuah town and had lunch with Brian and Margaret from Kristie and it was good to catch up. They were in the marina there trying to get their fridge fixed. We then jumped on the 2.30 ferry to Penang and arrived at 5.30 in the midst of a torrential thunderstorm so had to catch a taxi to our digs (called Banana) and gave them our passports to get our visas. Everyone had paid 5 ringetts each for this service but as of yesterday it had gone up to 30 ringetts each!! Anyway we had a lovely two nights stay and just sat at a little bar the second night and watched the world go by. They were playing 42 golden oldies on the cd and we realised that we must be golden oldies too as we knew all the words!!! Love the food in Penang – so nice and so cheap. Caught the 8.30am ferry back to Kuah and were back at the boat in the afternoon of Thursday 28th.

We hired an old car on Monday and went to do our resupply – mainly meat, fruit and vegies as we still have so much in the way of canned stuff. It was a good day and we went everywhere (got lost only a couple of times!) and managed to catch the 4.30 ferry totally loaded down with goodies. When we got back Cilantro were back from Aus so it was great to catch up. Have eaten at the yachtie’s restaurant most nights and walked around the island every morning – sightings include hornbills, monkeys, otters and a 4ft water monitor lizard (huge). We had dinner one night with Val and Frank on their catamaran Play On and the hospitality was wonderful. Anyone wants a really nice cat it goes on the market shortly!!!

Happy birthday Brett on the 2nd of Feb. Brett’s heading off to uni this year and we visited the Macquarie uni with him when we were in Sydney and it looks pretty good so hope you have a magic year Brett. Pam and Carol – hope you found that wretched snake!!!!!

Anyway we are preparing to leave shortly (maybe tomorrow) to circumnavigate Langkawi island with Kristie while Cilantro resupplies and Whistle Down the Wind is heading back from Thailand to renew their visas and Wave Sweeper is due back tomorrow. We hope to rendezvous in a week or so at Kuah to check out and all head towards Thailand together. So as soon as we get back on the water again we will keep you posted. Many thanks to all those that said they actually read this thing!!!! For any yachties heading to these parts I will add on to the blog (one day soon) all the anchorages we stopped at on the way through Indonesia to here.

Until then calm seas and fair winds
Dell and Peter