A Couple of Mini Adventures

Date: 8th June 2026

Location: Rebak Marina, Langkawi, Malaysia 

Beautiful Malaysia.

The rainy season is here. It's hot and humid. We've bought a portable air conditioner for the first time ever but it's not powerful enough to bring the temperature down below 32°C at night. We ordered it using Lazada which is a bit like a poor man's Asian Amazon, China based. It eventually reached the little ferry dock on Langkawi main island. It was too large for the regular ferry though so our Hong Kong friend took me across to pick it up in his dinghy. A bit bouncy but all good. However I think we will sell it and try just using a good fan instead!

Anyway we've had couple of mini adventure trips in the last month. Firstly we took the boat out for a couple of weeks. The idea was to sail around Langkawi big island - about 60 miles. The weather was getting unsettled with big lighning storms most nights so we wary of anchoring in some of the tight and exposed anchorages in case we dragged during the night. First stop was Singa Besar a regular cruisers haunt.

Pleasant place to spend a few days.

Chilling Gilly.

Here comes another squall.

Then a couple of more remote stops before visiting the main Kuah anchorage. Kuah (Coo-ah) is the capital of Langkawi with a good large anchorage. This allowed us to explore the town a bit. Unfortunately Gill somehow sunburnt the right side of her face ( the strong sun burnt it before 8am!) and it rapidly got infected. So it was off to the hospital for a couple of appointments before the antibiotics sorted it out.

Oh my goodness. Not pretty.

Kuah town icon - a Brahmini Kite.

It was here too that we had another visit from a termite swarm. It's the time of the year as the rains begin. They gather around white lights and set off with their queen to wreck another boat. Hopefully thos time we caught them above deck but still not nice to wake up to.

I hate termites.

With more stormy weather forecast we retreated back to the marina for some boat jobs  Gilly focused on making more shades whilst I addressed the starter and the autopilot. Ever since we've owned Mehalah starting has been as issue. Turns over slowly before eventually reluctantly starting. Google suggested a poor connection somewhere. And I finally found it. The short positive cable to the solenoid was getting warm. We caught a Grab to Gans the B&Q/Bunnings of Malaysia and they made up a new one. Brmm - it's starts perfectly. Hopefully that's it fixed for good.

The offending connection on the solenoid.

[Whilst researching this solution I watched some YouTube videos of a guy in New Zealand who buys up old diggers and bulldozers and gets them running again. I'm hooked!!]

And so to the autopilot that conked out in Indonesia. The autopilot allows us to set the boat to go in one particular direction and it moves the rudder automatically to achieve it. It means we don't have to hand steer all the time which can get pretty mind numbing after a few hours. Two parts needed fixing. A new brain which I sourced from Denmark (DHL EVENTUALLY delivered) and the hydraulic ram needed new seals. More YouTubes and off I went. Another new skill learned. It now seems to running nicely again. Time will tell.

The RAM. Half disassembled.

It wasn't all work though. Each day at 4pm we tried to stop and go to the pool to cool down. It's been a tough time for the resort with Mr Trump's shenanigans in the Gulf. Flight ticket pprices have increased hugely. Single standard class tickets back to Europe that might have been around 800 euros before the war are now going for 6,000 euros. So not many Europeans are making journey.

The pool. All to myself!

Japanese tourists are still arriving though. This Australian cruisers couldn't believe his luck when they asked him to photograph them!

Can't you get any closer?

With the jobs sorted it was time for a trip south to Penang Island. Coming north last year we just spent one short night anchored off the south west of the island so it's time to do it proper justice. It's a 30 minute flight or a full day by ferries and trains. We opted for the latter and got up early for the little ferry to Langkawi big island and thence the big ferry to mainland Malaysia. Little ferry? No problem. Big ferry? Fully booked despite the website saying you had to book on the day at the ferry terminal. Now we're knackered. Hotel booked on Penang and we're stuck on Langkawi Island. Can we fly after all? Yup, just enough time. Flights booked. Grab ordered and off we go. Nothing special about the flight until we came in land. It was a bit rocky as we approached over Penang Hill and as we made our final approach it got very turbulent. Gill grabbed my arm as tried to land before zooming back into the air from a few feet above the runway. After a bit the captain told us he was going to try again. A bumpy but safe landing initiated a round of applause. Quite a trip.

Just in case you don't know where Penang is.

With the previously mentioned lack of tourists cheap hotel prices became even cheaper. Here's our hotel bedroom for the three days we were in Penang.

The bedroom of our hotel suite.

Penang has a very interesting history. Early influence from India and China and then the Dutch arrived. Finally the Brits turned up and in fact Penang was their first stronghold. It still feels very post colonial and yet cosmopolitan at the same time.

We're not very good tourists so we decided. Day 1. old town. Day2. botanical gardens. Day 3. Penang Hill. And of course Penang food every day!

The Old Town is a real mix. We found a walking route that took us through the colonial British quarters, the Indian area and the Chinese part. A long day but we felt like good tourists. Here's some pictures.

Very colonial.

Time to top up the spice rack.

Chinatown.

Typical Penang three wheeled rickshaw.

I see Hoad first [Cumbrian in-joke].

Day 2 was a Botanical Gardens and temple chill out day.

Nice info board.

No one around. Two hours reading books.

Bridge.

And so to Day 3. Penang Hill is actually a collection of hills. The most commercialised is Bendara and this was our goal. An early start to beat the heat (haha). Bendara is 670m above sea level. The path winds up through various climatic zones. Lower down are small farmer's huts with tiny metallic paths between them. It was durian season. Now durian is an 'interesting' fruit. Each one is the size of s small football. They taste apparently like fruit salad but they are best know for their smell. It is so strong they are banned on buses, in hotels and just about all public places. The farmers catch them in large nets and take them to market by motorcycle. One guy stopped and gave us one. We put it in the rucksack and carried it up the hill for a couple of hours. When we took it out the whole rucksack stank. We left it on a small Hindu shrine and then spent hours trying to mask the smell.

$5,000!

Look carefully and you see the durian netting.

The durian man.

A long hot, sweaty climb.

Friendly macaque.

It was a hard climb, as high The Old Man of Coniston and much hotter and more humid. We saw no one in the 2.5 hours it took us to reach the summit. Then it was heaving as there are roads and a funicular to the top too. We returned by funicular and back to the hotel via some startling Hindu temples.

Ask any Malaysian what Penang is famous for and they will tell you food. We tried Indian Nasi Kandar (veg and meat dishes in hot sauce and rice), Chinese Laksa (noodles) and various Malaysian dishes. We got more adventurous on Day 3 venturing into a local Chinese cafe for the laksa. All in all great fun and delicious.

Our noodle dish is in there somewhere.

Nasi Kandar.

Laksa.

Having failed on our outward journey we felt we had to give local transport another go on the way home. The ferry times meant our 30 minute flight down would turn into a two day return trip. It was holiday week in Malaysia but we managed to get the last two ferry tickets back to Langkawi but not before another ferry from Penang island to the mainland and a standing room only 90 minute train journey north towards Langkawi. Gill was the only female on the train without a head scarf but no-one seemed to mind. Our hotel at the dump of a ferry town known as Kuala Perlis had an arrow on the ceiling. Any guesses what it pointed to,

The arrow pointing towards Mecca (note available prayer mat).

Miles of rice paddies.

Ferry to Langkawi.

So now we are back on the boat preparing for our next trip. To Thailand. Our Malasian 90 day visas expire on 22 June so we have to leave the country for a few days. We'll tell you about that trip next time.

Fellow Cruisers

 Date: 4th May 2026

Location: Singa Besar anchorage, Langkawi

Gilly at peace at Singa Besar.

Well, we've finally made it out of the marina. The plan is a leisurely circumnavigation of Langkawi Island. 66 miles and maybe three to four weeks of anchorage to anchorage cruising.

It's day three of our time in the first anchorage, Singa Besar, and we've just got back from visiting Dave on the next boat. Dave bought us some fish he'd caught when we first arrived here and we went to thank him for it and to see if he wanted some sour dough bread when it's out of the oven later this afternoon.

That got me to thinking about the people we've met since we got back to Malaysia and how easy it is to connect with people in this lifestyle. This short article explains it well.

Dave's not the first person we've met here. Let me tell you about a few of the others. As you'll see you find out a lot about people very quickly. Names have been changed but the rest is all true.

A few days after we got back from the UK an informal race was organised. Pete asked for crew so I volunteered. We won and that was enough for us to organise a meal together. Pete lives in Hong Kong but is originally from Germany. His family have run a camera accessories company for two generations first in Cologne, then in Ireland and now in Hong Kong as tax regimes made one after another more favourable. An avid racer he has recently purchased a very fast catamaran with a view to joining the cruising life. He's at a big crossroads in his life with a non sailing Chinese partner, a declining family business and no real base for the next phase if his life. He's now back in Hong Kong trying to make some big decisions on the way forward.

Next to us in the marina were Ian from the UK, Maria his Lebanese wife and their two girls, 15 and 13. They have been living in Dubai for many years. Having sailed their boat through the now notorious Straits of Hormuz last year and spent 6 months cruising the Maldives they flew back to Dubai leaving the boat in our marina. Not a good plan. They then spent several weeks watching the missiles flying overhead and the anti missile devices taking most of them out as Trump screwed up the Middle East and the rest of the World. Were they scared? Well Maria has grown up with war in Lebanon and for her it was just more of the same. Her calmness appeared to have been transmitted to the rest of the family. We talked a bit about life in Beirut and Hezbollah's part in the country. The girls follow a strict home schooling regime. They talk English, French,  Arabic and some Chinese.

Also on our dock is Brian, a forty something New Zealander. Recently retired from a full on marketing role he is one of our favourites. We initially met him when Hugh and Linda were with us and Linda complimented him on his blond topknot. Most of the time he spends holed up on his boat with air conditioning keeping him cool. His project? Writing a book that explains his innovative marketing framework pulling on his years of experience and incorporating new AI techniques. Alongside the book for which he already has a publisher he's developing an online course that he hopes to sell to aspiring marketeers. When he's not beavering on his book you'll find him in the pool or at the bar.

Talking of the pool we were chilling out there one afternnon when we heard "Geell, ees that you?" It was French Patrice from SV Astra. First met in French Polynesia he had recently arrived, this time with a different gorgeous crew member, already his wife! Astra lost her mast off New Caledonia and whilst fighting his insurance company for compensation two big events occurred. Firstly he happened to meet a professional metallurgist in a bar who wrote a comprehensive report for him that finally convinced his insurers to pay for everything. And secondly he met his new wife an engaging Polynesian woman. Patrice's brother lives in the Phillipines and is now project managing a new home in the jungle for the newlyweds. An amazing location not too far from civilisation but high up on the side of a hill looking down on a perfect anchorage. They will sell Astra though and buy a smaller coastal suited boat instead.

And finally there's Betsy and Christian on SV Gemma. She's American but has never lived in the US. He's German. We first met them way back in the Marquesas, French Polynesia. While we were eliminating the termites in Australia they had started a major refit of Gemma here in Rebak. Lowering the floor, moving the water tanks and goodness knows what else. Betsy is the sociable one. Both very fit and with a recent new knee Betsy is a triathlete. The aforementioned sour dough starter is hers. They are back in Germany at present and we have responsibility of keeping it alive. Today's loaves are on there last rising before baking. Fingers crossed.

So there you are. A snapshot of another side of our life. I hope you enjoyed it.

A New Addition to the Family

Current Date: 14th April 2026

Current Location: Rebak Marina, Langkawi, Malaysia

We're back in Malaysia! And boy is it hot here. 44°C in the cockpit when we arrived a couple of weeks ago.

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The protected Marina on Rebak Island.

But what's that hanging from our boom rope? Ah yes, it is of course the nest of an Olive Backed Sunbird. Mum sat for 10 days before we heard cheeping from the depths of the pendulous nest. So now we can't leave the marina until the chick, just one we think, fledges and flies off.

Our new addition hidden in the somewhat tatty nest. A baby Olive Backed Sunbird.

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But a lot happened back in the UK in the four months we were there too.

We caught up with friends and family.

We also sourced most of the 82 items on our 'must purchase' list and packed them into our trusty expanding bags.

Just another box for the bag.

Sadly we also attended Chris Brown's funeral. Chris was Petronella's chief engineer's back in the 2010s. He taught me how to fix stuff when you don't have the right parts. Although it was a sad occasion he was well remembered by family and friends. RIP Chris.

Into 2026 and we were in Spain to celebrate daughter Jenny's 40th birthday with her, Emma and Marcus. Where did those 40 years go?

Vigo in Galicia, NW Spain. Jenny's new home.

Birthday meal.

And my brother Philip produced his second full length play to rave reviews.

Infertility, abortion and IVF. What's not to like?

Shortly before returning to Malaysia I had a very unsettling month when I started having scary thoughts at night, forgetting things and generally feeling most unwell. Thankfully it all disappeared as quickly as it developed although after many dream free years I've had a couple of crackers recently. One night I dramatically failed my engineering degree at Imperial College and last night Mehalah was involved in an England Rugby match where I grounded her in the mangroves just before kick off.

Of course we also got back into restoration of our  local canal. Mostly in atrocious weather conditions.

One day closer to canal opening day.

The hard work pays off with otters spotted in the new section.

Another brick in the wall. Restoring an old lock.

Gill, Rachel and Peggy.

Thank you of course to Harry and Rachel for looking after our shoreside life and allowing us to continue our peripatetic lifestyle [that's a word I've always wanted to use].

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So now we are back on the boat. Within a day of our arrival Hugh and Linda flew in from Thailand where they were visiting a friend. It was great to see them again. They were booked into the resort here for a week. The plan was to crack on with boat jobs and indeed amongst other things Hugh and I sorted the dinghy davits strings and made a bung for the anchor chain locker whilst Gill and Linda reclassified our medical kit and cleaned the dinghy. But what their visit best did was to force us off the boat to explore some of Langkawi's local attractions.

First off was The Skycab to the top of the island's second highest peak. It includes apparently one of the steepest cable car runs in the world! Gilly was not really prepared for the ride and closed her eyes for much of it. It was pretty busy but as Linda finds it hard to stand still we were ushered through the express lane in next to no time. A good day out.

The halfway station.

Up above the white bellied sea eagles.

The summit.

View from the top. Telaga Marina to the left, our island, Rebak Island upper middle.

For my birthday Jenny and Emma had bought me a half day with an expert ornithologist for two people. Hugh was a lot keener than Gill so after a 6am wake up call we caught the early ferry across to Langkawi main island. Off we went. And a great morning it was too. Three environments revealing a total of 42 species. My favourites? The pratincoles, the hornbills and the dusky leaf monkeys (yes, I do know monkeys are not birds). Thanks girls. We had a blast.

Stop 1. River. Kingfishers, eagles and swallows.

Stop 2. The Forest. Hornbills, bulbuls, dollar birds and dusky leaf monkeys.

Stop 3. The Wetlands. Egrets, pratincoles, bee eaters and stilts.

By now we were running short of supplies. We hired one of the marina cars, caught the little ferry across to Langkawi and went to Billion, the Malaysian equivalent of Waitrose in the UK or Sainsburys in Australia. Except it's not. Check out the rice. Big bags, 5kg each. Two whole aisles of them. Tiny dried fish that you buy by the kilo which smell, well they smell actually like tiny dried fish might smell. And then there's the chicken aisle. Just grab a couple and pop them in your basket. Great stuff!

A small selection of available bags of rice.

Small fish. We are yet to try these.

Looking more like an intensive care baby ward here you get to choose tonight's tea.

We tried to do an 'outing' of some sort every other day. Next up was a trip through the mangroves with another guide, Selva. He's a Tamil from Sri Lanka but he's lived most of his life in Malaysia. An avid environmentalist and self taught his knowledge of nature and British colonial history put us to shame. A very interesting guy he took us deep into Mangroves far from the teeming tourist boats.

Mangrove trees. No flowers. Propagate by dropping these 'arrows' into the mud below.

The best mangrove environment we've seen.

Seeking the elusive Brown Winged Kingfisher. Heard but not seen.

Selva, our knowledgeable guide.

Another rare plant I can't remember the name of.

We also maxed out on the resort facilities. Mai Tai cocktails (sometimes two) became Linda's favourite evening beverage, the pool became our daily rendezvous and the girls both enjoyed a massage while Hugh and I were on the bird watching trip. With marina residents enjoying a 25% discount over resort guests H&L quickly became Mehalah's 'crew'.

Hugh and Linda eventually stayed with us for two weeks before returning to the UK where Linda's twin Graham was critically ill with lung cancer. Regrettably he died a couple of days later but not before Linda joined him at his bedside. A complex man, Graham was artist, boogy dancer, lover of the hills and eccentric. My best memory? 60th birthday elegant picnicking in Kew Gardens being photographed by Japanese tourists. Oh yes and going to avery cold Belgium to watch his image of a flushing toilet projected on the front of a classical building! Not only were Graham and Linda twins but Gill was also born on the exact same day. Goodbye Graham.

I was going to go on to talk about our daily routine now H&L have departed but I'll save that for a later blog and talk more generally instead.

We have booked into the marina here for a year which is strange as we are used to always pushing on to the next place. Once we have completed the outstanding boat tasks we will slowly explore Langkawi Island - maybe doing an island circumnavigation. Our Malaysian visas expire on 22nd June so we'll probably take Mehalah up to Thailand which is only a dozen miles up the coast, for a few weeks too. And then we want to travel by public transport to some of the other SE Asian countries - Laos, South Korea, back to Indonesia and Vietnam. We've never been to these countries which we think of more as gap year backpacking destinations rather than anything else so its going to be interesting. Especially as we are not very good 'tourists'. I'm more at home always with the next destination in mind. Another issue is that we don't really understand the weather here. Rainy season is just kicking in. Big thunder and lightning storms, winds if any are now from the south west. And it will only get wetter. Most cruisers are preparing to leave Rebak and fly home for the wet season. Somehow we've chosen to just arrive! So we'll have to see how this all pans out.

Of course we can't avoid the current geopolitical situation here either and we do feel closer to the action here than we would back in Western Europe. A lot of boats have left SE Asia in the past few months to head back to the Mediterranean, in many cases completing their circumnavigations there. But that means crossing the Indian Ocean, passing south of the Straits of Hormuz and then entering the southern Red Sea pinch point of Bab-el- Mandeb. Most of them have reported some GPS spoofing (position and speed way out of their true position) but all 50 or so have successfully navigated the passage North past the Houthis of Yemen, the tricky reef strewn navigation and the rip-off Egyptians. Several of them reported seeing French and US vessels steaming southwards past them. No riding lights, no AIS. Troubling times.

OK. That'll do for now. It's nice to be back on Mehalah meeting up with old friends and making new.