December 2009 - Who leaves on a Friday?
Returning from our land travel we still had 10 days until Christmas. Keen on moving Jemimah out of the marina we decided to sail to Penang, to do some Christmas shopping. When letting go of the lines our friends called out. ”You are not leaving on a Friday? Why not! Not being superstitious we did. First destination, Telaga Harbour for fuel, only 4 miles away. There was no wind at all. Then a thundery squall with lots of rain hit us. I hate lightning! Arriving in Telega, just seconds after dropping the anchor another huge thunderstorm arrived and another yacht dragged in the strong winds and nearly hit us. Next problem, we couldn’t get the outboard off the transom. The clamps had ceased up during our Australia stay. Eventually one of the clamps broke by using too much force with a spanner. Finally, outboard down and dinghy bailed out, of course you guessed it. The outboard wouldn’t start. Skipper pulled and pulled and pulled............. and by doing that pulled out his wallet from his pocket. Luckily I saw it floating by and quickly grabbed it before it sank. Eventually the outboard started and we did our diesel runs. To save money we went to the petrol station with jerry cans instead of tying up at the fuel dock. When we came back from the second diesel run we noticed some diesel floating around Jemimah. As it turned out one of the fuel container wasn’t closed properly and diesel was leaking out of the locker. Hope nobody saw that. The whole diesel purchase took way too long and when we arrived at our favourite Indian restaurant, it was closing up for the day.
The next day we were on our way to Penang in a moderate south easterly (the direction of sailing).Still sheltered by the Islands of Langkawi we motor-sailed to the most southern Bay of Dyang Bunting and anchored for the night. Sunday morning, we left that rolly anchorage and sailed towards Penang in a 20 knots southerly, battling big waves with wind against tide. After 5 miles we had enough and turned around. But as soon as we were in the passage between the two islands we had only very light winds or nothing at all and then suddenly a strong bullet coming down from the mountain made us pull in the sails. Our friends laughed when we arrived back at Rebak. May be we shouldn’t have left on a FRIDAY. So, the next day we took the big fast ferryboat and 2 ½ hours later arrived in Penang.
Returning from our land travel we still had 10 days until Christmas. Keen on moving Jemimah out of the marina we decided to sail to Penang, to do some Christmas shopping. When letting go of the lines our friends called out. ”You are not leaving on a Friday? Why not! Not being superstitious we did. First destination, Telaga Harbour for fuel, only 4 miles away. There was no wind at all. Then a thundery squall with lots of rain hit us. I hate lightning! Arriving in Telega, just seconds after dropping the anchor another huge thunderstorm arrived and another yacht dragged in the strong winds and nearly hit us. Next problem, we couldn’t get the outboard off the transom. The clamps had ceased up during our Australia stay. Eventually one of the clamps broke by using too much force with a spanner. Finally, outboard down and dinghy bailed out, of course you guessed it. The outboard wouldn’t start. Skipper pulled and pulled and pulled............. and by doing that pulled out his wallet from his pocket. Luckily I saw it floating by and quickly grabbed it before it sank. Eventually the outboard started and we did our diesel runs. To save money we went to the petrol station with jerry cans instead of tying up at the fuel dock. When we came back from the second diesel run we noticed some diesel floating around Jemimah. As it turned out one of the fuel container wasn’t closed properly and diesel was leaking out of the locker. Hope nobody saw that. The whole diesel purchase took way too long and when we arrived at our favourite Indian restaurant, it was closing up for the day.
The next day we were on our way to Penang in a moderate south easterly (the direction of sailing).Still sheltered by the Islands of Langkawi we motor-sailed to the most southern Bay of Dyang Bunting and anchored for the night. Sunday morning, we left that rolly anchorage and sailed towards Penang in a 20 knots southerly, battling big waves with wind against tide. After 5 miles we had enough and turned around. But as soon as we were in the passage between the two islands we had only very light winds or nothing at all and then suddenly a strong bullet coming down from the mountain made us pull in the sails. Our friends laughed when we arrived back at Rebak. May be we shouldn’t have left on a FRIDAY. So, the next day we took the big fast ferryboat and 2 ½ hours later arrived in Penang.
