Relaunching "Erica" and voyage to Georgetown, Penang for Chinese New Year January 2012

On the 10th January after 11 mths on the hardstand maintaining and improving gear and systems,  we detached the landbased items like shaded workshop, outside kitchen and shower facilities and made our "Erica" shipshape and ready for launching. This involved the travel lift lifting her and taking her to the Langkawi port wharf, about 100m.

We waited 3 days for the crane operator to lift us off the wharf into the water, during which time we attended to last minute details and enjoyed the sights on the water of local fisherman setting off in their boats and planning our next voyage

The Crane driver and hardstand management finally co-ordinated but we had to wait for a squall to blow over and risk the Friday 13th superstitions

The "All clear" was given and the strops placed for the lift

"Splashdown"

All went well apart from a few minor details.. A newly installed toilet had a leaking seal, the tachometer decided to go on strike and our newly gassed refridgeration lost all the Freon gas! A leak somewhere?

 Another few days at anchor in Kuah harbour was needed before we departed for Georgetown, Penang

We left Langkawi 6 days later and motorsailed 20nm to Palau Paya, a popular diving island and marine reserve where we spent the night. We tied up to a large bouy and enjoyed the afternoon swimming and reading.

As the sun was going down and we were enjoying a wine in the cockpit several marlin leapt out of the water not far from our yacht. We then heard a "sighing" sound and saw to our amazement a whale surfacing only 20m away.. Neither was what we expected as these waters are pretty fished out.

The next morning at 0430hrs Cathy dropped the mooring lines and got us underway for Penang, a 40nm trip. On sunrise we were able to visualise the many unlit fish traps which can be an extreme hazaard at night. We plotted these on our navigation system for future reference

Fishermen off Penang Island

We arrived at the Tanjong city marina and friends aboard SV Labarque helped us with the mooring lines. This marina is falling apart and alot of the pontoons have washed away. We were here 13 mths ago and it is very rolly in certain conditions and the ferries dock 20m away causing a big wash.