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.
2 comments:
Dear Mike & Rosi,
My name is Darren Mason, my wife (Martine) and I where once proud owners of Jemimah, or Jemima 77 as we knew her.
It’s been a pleasure to stumble upon the blogs of your travels and it warms my heart to know the adventure onboard continues.
We only owned her for a short while but always remember our time onboard with affection.
I would love to hear how the old girl is doing and where she is now, if you have time for a sentimental fool.
Kind regards
Darren
Hello Darren and Martine,
How nice to hear from you. We just stumbled upon your message left on our blog 9 month ago. We didn’t update for a while.
I am happy to tell you how the “Old Girl” is doing and where we took her in the last 2 years. Well, first up Jemimah (we had to add the h for the Australian Registration) is now a very beautiful Old Girl after a major refit last year in Thailand. Sadly we let go of the Red and had her pained in blue. A sensible thing to do, because red paint does not last long in the tropics. So she received a well needed paintjob, hull and deck plus we had the Osmosis prevention treatment done, which involves removing the gelcoat, a few months drying out and a new West System Epoxy applied. Not that there were any problems at all but after 33 years it was probably time. Some other repair work were on our list and before we knew it Jemimah ended up with a total replacement of all stainless steel, new bimini ,timber, canvas and some hatches, new dining table and upholstery and our cruising kitty diminished to a paddle. Luckily, cruising in South East Asia is very cheap and affordable and we don’t have to go hungry.
I promise I will update our blog in the next few days and publish some photos of Jemimah’s new look. If you ever consider a holiday around Phuket let us know, we might be close by.
Cheers Rosi und Mike
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