Nov 18-20
Hi All,
We did leave Pangkor marina at 7amish on Saturday, November 19 for the 85nm run to Penang. We arrived a little after 5pm……8.4kt avg…..not too bad!!! The weather was very nice……it started with 10-15 kts from the SE so a little beamy but the seas were calm…..1-2′ chop. We did turn on the stabilizers and all was good…..no leaks!!!!! But the wind soon died and for most of the run we had flat calm waters. But once again……a gazillion fishing vessels and nets……really getting tired of paying such close attention and all the diverting!!
We had another delightful evening with Mick and Beth on sv Site. The Aussies so love their red wine and beer. We just went for a beer…..well, you know how that goes……they are still having issues with their fuel and one engine but now think it is a very dirty fuel tank…..lots of dead bugs (they routinely use a biocide to kill any bacteria but the dead bugs can remain in your tank) have plugged up their lines/connections. They are now spending considerable time cleaning their entire fuel tank and lines…..joy, NOT!!!
We had a great time in Pangkor catching up with our good friends Andy and Sue on sv Spruce. They also will be crossing the Pacific from Japan to Alaska in 2018 and have done a ton of research so it was good to get a lot of info, but it did just point out how much research we still need to get done in the next few months!!! . We still don’t really know what we are doing in 2017/2018….just a vague macro plan……we have just been too busy traveling the last year in Australia, Indonesia et al and doing all that research, sometimes as we are doing the tour, that we have not cracked the books yet on next year. I think once we get to Phuket and sort out the work on Mystic then we will have time to start the detail planning for 2017 and 2018……probably 8,000nm to get back to USA!!!!!
The opening ceremony with Andy and Sue was a good one…….we got a good do on the lanb chops…..albeit the propane gas can emptied just as I was about to bbq…..ugh!!!! Kathy’s risotto was excellent as well as the wine!!! And of course, all the catching up on everyone’s travels and then the necessary discussion about Trump and Brexit…..some very similar voting trends and some outrageous lies (that voters actually believed) told in both cases.
Ipoh: Wow……Andy and Sue were so kind and offered to be our personal tour guides for a day in Ipoh…about an hour from the Pangkor marina…..what a treat to travel once again with these two. They have very similar interests as we do trying to understand and gain knowledge of the various religions and cultures!! It was an outstanding day!!!
Ipoh is another town with a preserved historical district from the British colonial days. It also grew rapidly in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s as a tin mining area. We had a delightful walk through the historic district looking at all the old buildings. We then went to the Han Chin Pet Soo museum…..wow, what a find. Andy and Sue had been there before and it was a do not miss!! This was a Tin Miner’s Club started by Leong Fee in 1893. Fee came from China and became one of the richest Chinaman all due to tin. It very much reminded us of some of the historical sites from the 1849 gold rush days in California!!
From there we were directed by our museum guide, Christy, to a local Chinese restaurant……oh wow……all in Chinese/Malaysian, Andy and Sue were able to communicate enough to order several dishes…..chicken, pork, egg, greens, and bean sprouts…..it was a very local and noisy restaurant with excellent food!!!
From there we went to a Buddha cave temple…..the Kek Look Tong temple……very similar to the the Batu temple in Kuala Lumpur but this was much less crowded and and a delightful garden out back!!
We finally ended the day doing some grocery shopping in another Aeon mall…..believe we are now good to go to Phuket in about a week!!
We will now spend the next 2-3 days exploring Georgetown…..the large city on the island of Penang. It also has an historical district and several museums!! The marina here, Straits Quay, is very small and unfortunately there is no room….ugh!!! So we will anchor out….no big deal except the tidal current can run up to 3 kts and we will turn 180 degrees every 4-6 hours….ugh!!!
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO!!!
PS: Pictures on the website: http://mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Pangkor-&-Ipoh
