Katrine's News Letter N°15 June 2008
Our dear friends and family
It’s been a few months since the last newsy, so here goes with a few stories of whats been happening in South East Asia.
With the onset of the wet south west monsoon season we bunkered down in Langkawi awaiting the humid and oppressive heat and rain. Our lives, at this time of the year are a mixture of sea and land living. The charter season is officially over, but still the odd bits come in drips and drabs (excuse the pun). The sausage orders have slowed down with the mass exodus of yachties who have left their boats behind and returned “home” or sailed away through the Red Sea and on to the Med. All except Shayile who braved the elements to move west about to Darwin in Australia…and what a time they had. But that’s another long saga!
It was also a sad time for us with the passing of Angus Temple. He was to us a good friend and mentor for all the 27 years that we were at Bloemendal and he will live on in our memory forever. As Emily Dickenson wrote “Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.”
We heard with sorrow also of the death of Colin from the boat De Je Vu, who was killed at sea and our hearts went out to Glynn who had to endure hours of trauma after the tragic accident. We first met Colin and Glynn in Madagascar having set sail from Richards Bay at the same time as we had. Since then our paths have crossed at numerous destinations as we cruised to South East Asia and in Langkawi we were privileged to have spent many weeks together in Telaga Harbour. There is a very strong bond among cruising yachties with the nomadic lives we lead and our common love of the unforgiving elements of the ocean. Even more so for those of us who have chosen to leave our homeland for good. Our bond with Colin and Glynn was strong, and the little enclave of South African cruisers who are in Asia will miss him sorely.
We are spending a fair bit of time at the factory on land during the hottest part of the day. With a fitted air conditioner that was donated to us, the heat and humidity is bearable. Hampered by the strict Muslim laws in Malaysia, we can’t sell sausages to the local populous, the restaurants and the hotels but the restrictions allow us to do other things and to slow down. Don gets on with all the boat projects that he has lined up – making up a water-maker, building new seating for the cockpit, an anchor chain cover, cupboards and so on, while I do the books in my office, browse the web and write articles from bits and pieces that we have gleaned during the busy season. Although we have two beds in the factory, we still head back to Katrine for the late afternoons and evenings, not only because we love our home, but also to be on board when those nasty Sumatra winds come howling through the anchorage, usually in the early hours of the morning. The little bay outside of Telaga Harbour Marina has many more boats anchored than usual and some have no one on board. When the 50 to 60 knot winds come belting through from the South West, those of us who are on board need to keep astute watch for the dragging boats. We always know when there has been a windstorm in town as well from the look of the chickens when we get to the factory. They usually sleep up the star apple tree outside our back door, but when we get there at ten in the morning and find them leaning against the wall with their head tucked under a wing, fast asleep – we know that they were blown out during the night.
I still go for my early morning stroll around the marina, along the long stretch of beach below the mountain and back through the natural forest. It’s not always easy to get the dinghy in the water from the davits on my own at dawn and to putter into the dinghy dock from the anchorage, but although I mutter and mumble on occasions, it is so beautiful at that time of the day before most are awake and I am always sent some special gift. Sometimes the otters, sometimes a flock of hornbills, the dusky-leaf monkeys that look like gollywogs, once a huge lion fish that was swanning just under the walk-on and once…..
Well that’s another story…..
I was walking along a path that runs parallel to the beach through the coconut trees when I heard this funny bullfroggy noise. (sort of Urp-Urp-like) I thought that was so cute. It was a drizzly grey morning, but cool for a change and my mind was far away as I counted the boats in the bay (19). After a while it registered that the urp-urp sounded a bit closer and then there was this drumming of feet. I turned around to see who was jogging so fast behind me when to my horror I saw this great big grey muddy bull water buffalo charging at full gallop. With its head at full neck-stretch and wild eyes bulging it had its head down, shaking and snorting and making this strange bull-froggy noise. My first instinct was to stand my ground and shout at it to try and scare it off, but when that made no difference at all, did I run for my life! Luckily the beast was tied by its nose on a long rope to a stake in the grass so when it got to the end of the rope just behind my running body it stopped with such a jerk that it nearly twisted its head off! YIKES. It must have been such a sight! I told the story to friend Frank, who said I should rather save myself for a Wildebeest.
Anyway, it hasn’t all been stay at home stuff and we decided to sail down to Penang for a few days get-away. We needed to do some medical stuff and decided to visit Gary and Libby who were in the marina down there. We couldn’t stay long because we had been asked by our local agent to do an overnight cruise for a honey moon couple from Langkawi. So after two days there, we left at 5pm to hightailed it back to Langkawi to provision and ready the boat. The weather had turned foul but we had no option but to leave. The heavens were heavy with rain when we undid our lines to head out of the marina. The tide screams in through the fingers and our first oopsie happened within a few minutes of our leaving. Coming round the corner towards the exit the current took us side on, the starboard motor chose that precise minute not to go into gear as Don tried to correct the slew with the hand controls and we were heading slap bang into the dock. At the last second the gearbox smacked in and with the engines in reverse we were able to avoid a collision by the skin of our teeth. Out the channel and through all the debris that surrounds Penang, and we set our course for home. Well, we tried. For some strange reason the g.p.s wouldn’t pick up a signal. So we tried the hand-held backup. Nothing. I put my computer on, brought up C map and tried the g.p.s attached to that. Still nothing. So we had to point the boat in the right direction and hope that the moon came out so we could keep the mainland on our starboard. But that wasn’t to be. It was the darkest night of the year I think, but fortunately Don has a far better homing instinct than I have – or we would still be heading for Singapore. Still there was no catnapping on the 90 nautical mile trip back to Telaga. I kept peering with the binoculars to squiz ahead for any unlit fishing boats. You don’t realize how much one relies on instruments till there is a glitch. Then, I spied a landmass. Don at the radar tried to see how far ahead it was when we were blinded by this sudden bright spotlight. Holy Cow! A fishing boat was almost on top of us. We hadn’t noticed that it was sharing the same dark mass as us on the radar, so close it was. We missed it. Whew. Don got us sorted after the adrenalin stopped pumping, guessing on the course and pressed the autopilot button. Still in the midst of our giggling adrenalin rush he went for a pee off the side of the boat and I wondered at all the lights that were turning around us. Only when I saw the huge fishing boat loom back in front of us did I realize something was amiss. On with the torch…holy cow x2. He had pressed the wrong button in the dark and the standby on the autopilot was still on. We were going round in circles. There had to be a third oopsie of course. That came a few hours later when we mistook the Sheridan Hotel for the entrance to Telaga Harbour. But despite all the trials and tribulations, we arrived back safe and sound at 4am, dropped the pick and slept like a log.
The honeymoon charter was a huge success and the Portuguese couple, Maria and Paulo were great fun. The weather cleared to give us two beautiful sun-shiny days which allowed for beach barbeques, and great sailing.
And now for our next assignment:
We await a Malaysian film shoot on board Katrine!
And this is the plot:
“The hero will come aboard “his” yacht with his girlfriend. They are fleeing. (not sure who from….) and he will drive the boat while she “womits” off the back!!”
Now this is going to be fun! I wonder if they will throw a can or two of mixed veg around. I hope so…the weather has closed in again and the sea is decidedly bumpy….maybe they wont have to simulate “womit”
Take care all and please drop a line. It’s a long time since we’ve heard from some of you!
Love and light.
Studmuffin and Cupcake.
Don and Jeanne