Nov 14-18
Hi All,
We left Admiral Marina in Port Dickson at 6:45am on Monday November 14……it was pretty dark as there were lots storm clouds all around us…..in fact it rained most of the morning!!! We made pretty good time……the tidal currents are big…..our speed ranged from 6.2-11.8 kts….yes, 11.8kts…..over a 3.5 kt favorable tidal current…..whoa!!!
In fact we made such good time while we had the current we decided to go on past our anchor spot at Angsa Island for another 15nm…..BIG, BIG, mistake….ugh!!! We finally found what we thought was a nice protected anchor spot away from all the fishermen around 5:30pm…..a run of 85nm. Around 9pm as we are about to go to bed the anchor alarm goes off….Kathy quickly checks and says we are dragging…..WTH……John, come quick, we have a fishing boat near us…..crap, crap, crap. Yep, we have a drift net tangled around our anchor chain. It was 2 guys in a panga type boat…..do you speck English…..NO……ugh……they proceed to move their boat along Mystic tugging on the net…..we try to get fenders out but they still are banging quite a bit…..finally they give up and just cut the net…..ugh…..so sorry…..they are speaking Malaysian so can’t understand anything but they do not seem too angry. Eventually, everything settles down, the anchor resets….BUT, we notice the boat is only 100 yards off our stern….crap….they are pulling in the other side of the net and coming towards us…..crap, crap, crap…..the other side of the net is caught in our port stabilizer…..they tug and pull and bang into Mystic some more and eventually give up and cut that section too. Great….now we have a fishing net tangled in our stabilizer, probably wedged between the fin and the hull…..that will be a PITA to get out…..but, with this tidal current there is no way to dive on the stabby so we will have to go the 60nm to Pangkor w/o stabbies……hope the weather cooperates!!!!
Oh…..but there is more. About 10 minutes later Kathy says come to the bow…..there are flashing lights that look to be marking a drift net……maybe 1/2 mile away but the current will take it right to Mystic….well, that is what I think, Kathy was more optimistic the current would push the nets off course from Mystic. Well, better to be prepared. We had earlier deployed the flopper as it got pretty rough…..must be some large storms west of us as we had <5 kts of wind but 2’+ chop on the beam…..ugh!! So, I go to lift the flopper and no way Jose…..we have a 3 kt current and it is staying down…..hmmmm…..looked at the drift net lights again……strong debate ensues…..better safe than sorry wins……we use the boom winch to partially lift the flopper and then I struggle to lift it the remaining 5’…..yikes…..check the drift net lights…..ok, maybe 1/4 mile now and definitely coming our way……we start engine, lift anchor, then ask….now where:))))) We go maybe 1/2 mile north and we don’t see any fishing boats remotely close so we drop again…..by now it is 10:30pm and I am thoroughly soaked with sweat…..yep, this was the “bad” in the good, bad and ugly part of our cruising lifestyle!!!!
Good news: other than a rolly night with no flopper we had no more incidents. Kathy stayed up for a few hours with no issues….John got up 3 times thereafter for 10 min or so with no issues. We did see the supermoon at various times up in the sky (clouds kept it invisible close to the horizon) and took some pics, but hard to tell that is was larger than normal.
Wednesday, the 16th: We did make it to Pangkor marina by 2pm yesterday….a run of 63nm in 7 hours……we had the current with us for about 6 of the 7 hour run!!! The weather was calm, 5-10 kts and seas <1’……yeah, as we had no stabilizers. I indeed dove the boat this am and yep, we had a net lodged around the port stabby shaft……but it was not wrapped so I could easily pull it off…..yippee!!!! And, discovered another of the three rudder shoe bolts loose….yikes. This time it was the aft bolt….WTH…..I’m not sure what is going on but something is causing these bolts to loosen. The nut is the nyloc type so shouldn’t come loose. JOMT to figure out….ugh!!!
Yesterday as we pulled up to the dock Andy and Sue of sv Spruce met us…..OMG…..we had not seen them since they left Fiji in Sept 2014 but we keep up with one another via emails. It was like we had just saw them last week…..the conversation picked up where we left it…..good times for sure. They have been in the Malaysia/Thailand area now for a year so they are a wealth of information. We are having the official opening ceremonies tonight with lamb chops!!
Last night was closing ceremonies with Brett and Stacey on sv Bella Vita. They are flying back to USA to work a bit to build up their cruising kitty. We have been together off/on since we first met in the Tuamotus in 2013. We celebrated with lot’s of jocularity and finished the night with Ron Zacapa….yummers!!
Ok…..to go back a bit to Melaka and Kuala Lumpur which we toured out of Port Dickson:
Melaka: Wow….what a find….who knew. But we blew it…..we needed 2-3 days versus the one long day trip we did….live and learn…..hopefully when we come back through this area next year we will be able to stop and spend probably another 2 days in Melaka. And, Rinjit, our tour guide was a delight……full of lots of Malaysian stories. Plus, we were able to go with Mick and Beth on sv Site from the Indonesian Rally, a very friendly and entertaining Australia couple!!!!
“Back in the 15th century, Melaka was one of Southeast Asia’s greatest trading ports. Over time it lost favour to Singapore, but this slowdown in trade protected much of the ancient architecture of the state capital, Melaka City, from falling foul of development. The historic centre was crowned a Unesco World Heritage Site in 2008”. Melaka was first colonized by the Portuguese in 1511, the Dutch in 1641-1798, and the British 1826-1946.
“Malaysia has a newly industrialised market economy, which is relatively open and state-oriented. The economy of Malaysia is the fourth largest in Southeast Asia, after the much more populous Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, and 35th largest in the world. Malaysia is also the third richest in Southeast Asia by GDP per capita values, after the city-states of Singapore and Brunei. Malaysia’s economy is one of the most competitive in the world, ranking 14th in the Ease of Doing Business Index for 2015. Malaysian economy is highly robust and diversified with export value of high-tech products in 2014 stood at 63.3 billion USD, the second highest after Singapore in ASEAN. Malaysia exports the second largest volume and value of palm oil products globally after Indonesia.”
The drive to Melaka took about 1.5 hours and we saw first hand the development of Malaysia…..it is indeed a modern country with excellent highways, modern housing, and lot’s of palm oil and rubber plantations. We manly stayed in the historical district. We saw three temples – Malaysian Buddha, Chinese Buddha, and Islam Mosque. We walked around Jonker street market, bought some Sadie things:)))), had lunch, and then the highlight….the Cheng Ho Museum!!!! Ok…..hold onto to your hat…..who discovered America before Columbus….., who discovered Australia before James Cook…..yep, these guys….just another example of how our history education starts with Columbus!!
“Zheng He (1371-1435), or Cheng Ho, is China’s most famous navigator. He built a total of 1622 ships and made at least seven major excursions between 1405 AD and 1430 AD. He traveled more than 50,000km and visited over 30 countries, reaching Somalia and probably Europe (France, Holland and Portugal). Zheng He constructed many wooden ships, some of which are the largest in the history, in Nanjing. Three of the shipyards still exist today. In each trip, he led a troop of 27,800 people on more than 300 ships. In each trip, 62 major ships of this fleet were employed, each over 400 ft long and 193 ft wide, holding 1000 people per ship, dwarfing Columbus’ Santa Maria (75 ft x 25 ft) more than six-fold.”
There is book written by Gavin Menzies, 1421: The Year a Chinese Muslim Discovered America. We will get a copy when we are home and see how he did his research but the evidence seemed credible at the museum. We simply ran out of time maybe 1/2 through the museum and thus our motivation to return.
From there, we did a quick tour of an old Portuguese and later Dutch fort, A Famosa, then St John’s Church, then the Sultan Palace and finally Hill Fort…..wow, what a day….our heads were spinning……and there is probably 4-5 other museums and a lot more historical sites we didn’t see!!
Kuala Lumpur: We enjoyed our guide Rinjit so much we signed up for his Kuala Lumpur tour. Unfortunately Mick and Beth had left for Pangkor and the rest of our friends were going to do the Rally tour…..like with 80 of their best friends on 2 buses….ugh!!! Kuala Lumpur was just lovely…..again a very modern city with several historical sites: The old Kings palace, the new Kings palace, the National Museum…..we spent an hour and could have done another 1-2 hours…..learned all about Malaysia and SE Asia……we learned about the prehistoric periods…..people came in 12,000 AD, then the Malay Kingdom Days….lot’s of Sultans, then the Colonial Era with Portuguese, Dutch and British, and finally modern day Malaysia…..became independent in in 1957.
From there it was onto the old railroad bulding, railroad admin building, the National Mosque, the Royal Art Museum…..another gem, all about Islamic art…..we spent an hour and could have done another 1-2!!! Then it was to the Batu Caves:
“Batu Caves, one of Kuala Lumpur’s most frequented tourist attractions, is a limestone hill comprising three major caves and a number of smaller ones. Located approximately 11 kilometres to the north of Kuala Lumpur, this 100-year-old temple features idols and statues erected inside the main caves and around it. Incorporated with interior limestone formations said to be around 400 million years old, the temple is considered an important religious landmark by Hindus. Cathedral Cave – the largest and most popular cavern in Batu Caves – houses several Hindu shrines beneath its 100-metre-high arched ceiling.
Batu Caves is the focal point of the annual Hindu festival of Thaipusam, which attracts thousands of devotees and visitors. Usually held at the end of January, the procession begins on the evening before the Thaipusam Festival at the Sri Mariamman Temple in KL city centre. The procession more often than not, arrives at Batu Caves in the wee hours of the morning the next day; the entire celebration commences then and is a colourful event that lasts a total of eight hours. In the past the festival has attracted more than one million pilgrims, making it one of the largest gatherings in the world.”
You have to climb 270 steps so it was a bit of a hike but well worth it. The temple was amazing and many Hindus were there to pray and to make offerings/blessings.
After that it was the highlight for John-boy….a visit to the Twin Towers…..remember the movie Entrapment…..yep, this was the building!!!
“Petronas Twin Towers are twin skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004 before Taipei 101 was built, and remain the tallest twin towers in the world. The towers were designed by Argentine architect Cesar Pelli. The 88-floor towers are constructed largely of reinforced concrete, with a stainless steel and glass facade designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic art, a reflection of Malaysia’s Muslim religion. Another Islamic influence on the design is that the cross section of the towers is based on a Rub el Hizb, albeit with circular sectors added to meet office space requirements.”
It was really was amazing site……we looked upon it for quite a while….until we got hungry and went inside to the mall…..OMG…..it was about as opulent a mall as we have seen…..Harrod’s, Gucci,….et al……with all the restaurants and food courts what did we eat…..a cheeseburger and fries…..yep, can’t take the midwest out of this boy and girl:))))
After that we ended up in Chinatown and the Central Market……another very long day but a most enjoyable one!!!
Ok…..that is it for now!!!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
PS: Lots of pictures on the website:
http://mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Melaka
http://mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Kuala-Lumpur
Fishing net caught around the port stabilizer
