June 1 – 11
Hi All,
We have been out the last week or so cruising Langkawi and had a very good time. We are now back in the Royal Langkawi marina with the blessed AC on……yeah!!!!! I’m writing this log on Sat/Sun June 10/11:
Kathy’s Birthday: She did have a good one for sure. We went to the Langkawi Cable Car……” also known as Langkawi SkyCab, is one of the major attractions in Langkawi Island, Kedah, Malaysia. It provides an aerial link from the Oriental Village at Teluk Burau to the peak of Gunung Machinchang, which is also the location of the Langkawi Sky Bridge. The total length is 2.2 km (1.4 mi), with a journey time from the base to the top of around 15 minutes. It was officially opened in 2003.”
We really had a good time. It turned out to be almost a perfect day to be up high on a mountain (2400′ elevation) and we were able to see almost the entire island. Kathy wrote about it to a friend: The views were spectacular! The area is actually set up as a sort of theme park and there were several attractions included in our ticket, so we did those too. They were amazingly good, so we had a nice time and even had an ice cream cone for breakfast! 🙂 Then we went out for a steak dinner that night here at the marina. Delicious!”
The steak dinner was excellent…..Australian grain fed beef…..with an Australian Wolf Blass Gold Label Shiraz…..whoa…..who knew in Malaysia!!!!
Anchorages: We made it to 3 anchorages after checking out several others……Dedang, Hole in Wall, and RU…..all in the NE corner of the island. Langkawi is a beautiful island with many limestone hill/mountain/karst formations all covered with a dense rainforest with some beautiful mangrove lined rivers to explore as well as many white sand beaches!!! For the most part the anchorages were very calm……no need for the flopper. However, the local forecasts are worthless and the seas/winds are mainly squall driven. We picked the Dedang anchorage as it was protected from all but North winds…..which were not in the 3 forecasts we use….but, guess what….yep….one late afternoon the winds built up to 25kts coming right in the anchorage….2-3′ seas….ugh….but Mystic stayed pointed right into it and we were fairly comfortable…..had it been on the beam we would have had to use the flopper!!!
Wildlife: As opposed to Thailand we actually did see some wildlife for the 7 days we were out. We saw a monkey swimming across a channel…..we first thought it was an otter but as we got closer in the dinghy it was a medium sized monkey……whoa…..who knew……we did speak to others about this and I guess around here it is pretty common sight….well, for us….our first!!!! At the “Hole in Wall” anchorage we were close to the shore and we observed a whole troop on Macaque Monkeys come down to the rocks and mangroves at low tide to snack on mangrove roots and clams. Then I watched a 4′ monitor lizard hunt in amongst the limestone rocks for about an hour……so majestic!!!! We also saw many Eagles…….White Belly Sea eagles and Brahminy Kites…….they were very plentiful……like the bald eagles in the PNW just harder to spot while in the trees. Hole in Wall had many, many tour boats in the tributary and many of these would stop and feed the eagles…..yes, I know…..damn tourists…..but in this case they fed the eagle tiny bits of fresh fish and it was quite a sight to see maybe 10-12 eagles swoop down and grab a piece in their tallons. Kathy also saw an otter on the beach at the Ru anchorage. And we had a pod of dolphins come into the Dedang anchorage one morning to feed…..so nice to see our friends!!!!
We spent many hours…..until we got low on dinghy gas……touring all these mangrove forests, especially at low tide……but, we were a bit disappointed…..we saw mainly eagles, a few monitor lizards and a few Kingfisher birds……certainly not like the rainforest’s of Central America that had so much more wildlife to view.
Weather: Note we only stayed out 6N/7D……we cut the cruise short by 2 days……it was just too hot/humid for the reward…….I mean, even touring in the dinghy we were drenched with sweat most of the time. The heat index stayed in the 100-110* F range and Mystic stayed in the 88-93* F range. It only rained the first 2 days and the next 3 days were bright sunshine with a few clouds……then the last 2 days the humidly haze was so dense it was like being in a forest fire……visibility maybe 1 mile….yep, that thick and hazy. We had thought to go around to one of the southern islands but when we got up the last day it was 88* F in the pilot house at 7am and we said enough……the reward did not outweigh the heat!!!!!
We only met one cruiser the whole time……PaSEAfique……they were Australian but a French boat……so we had the anchorages almost all to ourselves. We did the happy hour thing one night and it was a good time…….nice to socialize with another fun couple….they had been on the 2015 Indonesian Rally….the year before us….and we had many friends in common!!!!
We also had a nice seafood lunch at one of the local seafood restaurants near the “Hole in Wall”……..the fresh prawns, grouper and fried rice were good but it was pricey and a tourist trap…..as in, they fried the prawns with shell and head on……they charged by the gram so you were charged more……it was a unique experience for us to eat the whole prawn….good and crunchy:))))
Boat Stuff:
Autopilot: Hmmm, off and on for the last year we have been occasionally experiencing wide “S” swings while in the NAV mode. We have been in some strong tidal currents so we thought it was just that and maybe some swirling currents. Well……up in Thailand one day it was really bad so it was time to start problem solving. For whatever reason, we had lost the seatrial parameters that the AP computer uses to control the rudder action. A bunch of emails to MMTAB……Mystic Moon Technical Advisory Board……mainly to Tom on Misty Sea…..Tom is retired now but used to own Richie Electronics and was a key developer on many marine electronics. Tom was able to help diagnose our issues. We’ve had to basically guess at some of the parameters as the tidal currents are too strong here and we have not been able to find a nice calm bay at slack tide yet to redo the seatrial. Several other Selenes on the Forum have also pitched in and gave us their AP parameters so it is an educated guess on our part. We thought we had it right but coming into Langkawi we had a strong following current and the “S” swings started up again. So, all week I continued to fine tune the parameters……we shall see how we do on the 60nm run to Penang!!
Provisioning: The Admiral thinks it best to not discuss details in the blog….but let’s just say we have been successful and Mystic is once again riding low….sweet as:))))
The Plan: We will leave the marina tomorrow, Monday, and go the Shell fuel barge in the Bay and fill ~800 gal……we think the price is like USD1.85/gal……yippee…….we wanted to do this Saturday when we came in but the barge was gone getting fresh water….ugh. We will then anchor out for the night and get an early start to George Town on Penang and Straits Quay Marina on Tuesday, June 13. It is about 60nm and will take us ~7.5 hours. The weather….hmmm…..who knows but my guess is partly cloudy, light and variable winds, maybe South 5-10 kts, seas 1-2’……maybe a squall or 2 and who knows from what direction……yep, I could be the weather guy in my next life:))))
Medical: ugh, ugh, ugh…….well, Penang has a good medical tourism business and it looks like we will need it. I’m pretty sure I’ve either popped a new hernia or reinjured the surgically repaired one…..oweeeee……it has bothered me off/on for a few months so time to get it fixed. I have an appointment with the Chief of Surgery of Island Hospital on Friday and if needed, surgery on Saturday….great…….whaaaaa!!!! Kathy has some dental work she wants done so she will be doing that while I’m on the settee with my bag of frozen peas!!! If all goes as planned we will only be laid up for 1-2 weeks then back at it!!!!
OK…..all for now!!!
Hope all is well!!!
John
Mystic Moon
staying cool inside Mystic:))))
PS: Pictures on the website: http://mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Langkawi-1
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