Waterfall in Langkawi

Here in Telaga Harbour we had the chance to see many of our cruising friends again and have been having a great time exploring the area. One of the great finds is these waterfalls located less than 3 miles from our anchorage. We have been visiting the falls everyday since, enjoying a nice natural jacuzzi and some cold coconut. Not a bad way to kill time until our new props arrive from NZ!

Langkawi - Malaysia

After visiting the islands of Deudab (where Russ managed to score some nice waves) and Breueh, we got to our little refuge of Pulau Rubiah, where to our surprise other 5 boats where happily moored. Busy! We had a great time with the other cruisers and met some interesting locals. Dodent is the dive shop owner in Pulau Weh and he is the one whom put down the moorings for the sailboats for free! His reason behind that is an attempt to save the very little coral left in the Rubiah area after the tsunami. On top of that Dodent has an amazing coral replanting program which is in full swing at the moment. They place concrete blocks in certain parts of the bay and "replant" some coral on it. Their success rate is really encouraging. Dodent is a kind of lone fighter there though. He is having a hard time with the authorities that don't like the boats moored there in "hiding" and rather have them anchored in Sabang. However the anchorage in Sabang is awful and mooring or not, no one would be there, but the authorities don't see to see that and give poor Dodent a hard time. He is winning the coral battle though and we were very pleased to see an Indonesian so in tune with the ecology and genuinely concerned for the place's future.

Eventually we managed to de-tangle ourselves from Rubiah and headed for Penang, but wind and possible work ended up taking us up to Langkawi instead. So here we are back to Malaysia and slowly getting used to the whole civilization thing: ice cream, ice, tidiness etc etc, however the odd lady covered with a black burka with only her eyes out did wake us up to the fact that we are still very much in Muslim country.


The crossing was great - as far as crossings go - and we managed to sail half of the 270 miles we covered. Now the big surprise was finding a huge water spout on the way! It was terrorisingly
amazing.
Check the photo out

End of our Sumatran dream

Hi Fullas, we have just left the outer islands off the west coast of Sumatra and are now anchored in a small cove about 50 miles down the west coast from Banda Aceh.

On my last days surf in Lakon Island I got caught up in the lip of substantial wave and had a major freefall to the bottom, not only was it the longest hold down I’ve had this year but I do remember when I was groveling around down there that I probably have broken my board as well. Sure enough a clean snap .Oh well, only one board in 3 months.

In the last 2 days we have had more sailing than the last 3 months and it’s been lovely just seeing how well the boat sails again. I’m sure you guys know what I’m like when I haven’t been sailing for a while. For those who don’t, I am a prick. All good now though.

We are heading for Pulau Weh and islands near ,just off Banda Aceh ,for a food and fuel stock up and clear out with Indo officials, fun.

Karin’s hunter/gathering spear fishing is going well so we are not going hungry. Rice is a stable diet though, just as well we like it. Karin was saying this morning that she’s really hanging for a big steak. The closest I have come to it was some dry buffalo jerky last week in Nias.

Someone please tell America, England and Australia that it is official, there are no pirates or terrorists here, maybe back in 1640,but not now. The people here are normal, just like us ,with family just like us and values just like us, however unlike us they are not so concerned with the current world crisis as they have had more than their fair share of REAL crisis. Even though they hardly have a thing ,they have big smile and have been very, very welcoming to us on Moonwalker.

Cheers for now ,and the worst thing is not having you all here to share it with us.

Please if you read this just drop us a couple of lines!