May Newsletter 2018

News from the Crew of Matilda

May  2018

Ships log: 

This is a local fishing boat hauling in his trawling net. The run between Penang and Pangkor is littered with these boats who often are pair trawling, making some runs difficult to work out your best passage.

The beginning of May saw us at Penang and as much as we love it, we didn't stop this time around. We spent our first night anchored just outside the Junk Anchorage at 05 24.18n, 100 20.67e in 6 meters after a long day from Langkawi. The following day we decided on a small jump down to the Queensbay Mall anchorage at Jerejak, dropping anchor at 05 18.45n, 100 18.08e in 10mtrs.

Next day we did the first of many big runs south covering 62 nautical miles to Pulau Talang for the night. anchoring at 04 25.25n, 100 34.69e in 10.3 mtrs. The following day we made it nicely in to Pangkor Marina, staying put for a couple of weeks to do jobs.

Saw the sea plane come and go a few times, it's always quite the sight.

As it turned out the 'couple of weeks' turned into a month. Bruce during some routine engine maintenance discovered one broken engine mount and 2 with cracks in the inserts.


Crew log:
The run down once you leave Langkawi is full of long days, generally with little wind. So it was a surprise when we dropped our anchors at Talang on the east side away from the west as it is the Sou'west monsoon season at the moment, when a storm came up. As always it decided to roll in around midnight and was coming directly from the Nor'east - ohhh goodie another lee shore, so we hauled anchored and puttered around to the west side. 

Basanti bathed in the morning sun as she leaves Penang, bound for Pulau Talang, Pangkor.

Sadly we had to leave our mates on Basanti because their engine decided to not run in gear, lucky for them their new Rochna anchor was holding on for dear life and true to form it didn't let go. Come day light, we moved Matilda back around to assist as we are now proud owners of a Hookah unit. Turned out their prop was totally wrapped up in rope. Not a pretty sight, but once the boys cut it off, the engine started again and off we went down to Pangkor Marina to do some jobs and have a look around the island.

The Captains all Hookah'd up and ready to cut the rope free.

This is what they saw under Bastanti,,,,what a dreadful mess.

This is the ball of rope Bruce and Ken cut off Basanti's prop/shaft. The ruler showing the 1" thick rope!

Once we where tied up at the dock at Pangkor, its all go go go,,the job list always seems never ending. One of our jobs was to flush the entire run of our bilge - not a pretty sight but had to be done.

Floor boards all up exposing the full length bilge on Matilda.

Here is something we had not seen before. A crane dropping a yacht back in. Her twin keels will not fit on the SeaLift so a crane it is.

After a week in the marina we decided we all needed a day off from working on our boats. Pangkor Island is an 8 minute ferry ride over so we all jumped on for the princely sum of RM14 p/p return ($4.20). We had a great day buzzing around the island on our hired scooters. The pictures can tell the story of the day...........

First stop the boat builders. It gave us all a greater appreciation for whats out there on the water. These boats are very sold and massive.

These are their props,,,,,enormous!

Then off to the Dutch Fort for a look at the ruins.

Then off to the 'floating' mosque for a look. Its a very impressive building.

As we wanted to go inside the building (but not in where they pray), we had to leave our shoes at the door and put on appropriate clothing. Boy it was hot with these on.

Before we went into the Mosque, we made a few new friends. Very friendly locals.

Our rides for the day.

A lovely long lunch on on the western side of the island at Daddy's Cafe. 

Love seeing the Hornbill birds, they are amazing.

We didnt stop here in case the rest of the litter was being served,,,haha just joking.

The local kids having a snooze and being kids,,,,

There are some fantastic murals around the island, we loved this one.

Always monkeys,,,Bruce loved this guys 'mo'!

Puffer fish decorations anyone?

All over the island are these look outs,,,they are fantastic.

And this is us, at the end of our day out,,,it was loads of fun.

Then the jobs continued on. We had all 110 meters of chain double dipped galvanized which as it turns out weighs 255kg. Had the job done at Steelway.com.my at Butterworth and we are very happy with their service and the job. The chain looks really good and should give us another few years of service.

And this is what 110 meters of chain looks like on the dock. Bruce is measuring up every 10 meters, then  putting a marker on so when deploying we know how much has gone out.

During a clean out of some cupboards we found a huge tin of Milo we forget we had. So during the month we cooked up a few things Milo............ Here in Malaysia they love Milo. But we soon learnt to pronounce it as 'Me Low' as they do, when ordering a cold one.

Milo Biscuits, so good.

We spent quite a few days doing some sewing. One of the sewing jobs was to repair the spinnaker bag. As we use it a fair bit, we had been slowy damaging on of the sides, so a few repairs later it was all done.

Final touches to the repairs on the spinnaker bag. Bruce is hammering in the islets for the tie rope.

During some routine engine maintenance Bruce discovered one our engine mounts had a piece missing - not good, and found another insert was cracked, also not good. While not good news, better to have found them here while at the dock rather than at some island in the middle of no where.

Bruce soon had the parts ordered from Oz and the delivery did amused us. I'll let the photos tell the tale.................

We had to go to Customs House to pickup our parcel which was delivered via this truck, in this huge sealed silver bucket.

Once the seal was broken, everyone was intrigued as to what we were having delivered. Everyone is peering into the opened bucket.

And thats the parcel in Bruce's left hand,,,,yep that tiny parcel. 

This is what was in the parcel..........

Parcel back on board and unpacked, now to the awful job of removing all four mounts, getting the inserts out and then putting all four new mounts back in. Not an easy task.

These were our engine mounts. Turned out all 4 were damaged. No doubt this occured during our troubles with a bent shaft.

This is an engine mount. The yellow piece is called an 'insert', and this one is badly damaged,,,actually its broken.

And engines are never in a good place. The job took Bruce nearly 6 hours, with a fair bit of his time in this position. 

Laying on the engine block, working upside down to the part and completly working blind. You cant see the part while you work on it. It's a very difficlt job.

New engine mount inserts in, mounts back in place, now time for some polishing. When we were last on the hard stand we had an extra plate put on our bow so as the anchor stops banging into Matilda's hull. This is the first time we have had a chance to polish it up, and it looks great.

As usual things are never that easy to do, but before the sun was too high Bruce sat on the dock to start polishing.

For the other side he needed to get the tender in the water.  Its certainly coming up a treat - nice and shiny! 

Her stern all very shiny. The step ladder had a few minor repairs done and then polished.

And the job of polishing went on and on. Bruce also did our stern ladder, the bow, the stern its self , he even polished the solar panels! Then spent hours washing the top deck. She's all back to shiny and we are ready to leave to the dock. Looking forward to spending a few months on the east side of Malaysia/Thailand visiting the Thai Gulf exploring new places for us. Then revisiting Tioman and Anambas.

Her bow all shiny. The garland of flowers on our bow is a symbolic gesture of good luck. We see this gesutre on nearly all the fishing vessels in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The fishermen belive the flowers are a symbol to provide good luck and protection, also to honour the spirits of the water.

May

May brings us closer to the start of our Sail 2 Indonesia rally - we are so very excited. During May we sailed in company with friends: Sally & Forfar on their beautiful boat Squander. We sailed together from Magnetic Island to Cairns. Stopping at Orpheus Island, motoring behind the magic of Hinchinbrook Island, over to Goold Island, up to Dunk Island, dropped into Mourilyn Harbour and then sailed directly to Cairns where we anchored in Trinity Inlet. All up covering 187 nautical miles in 10 days as we left Magnetic Island on the 5th of May.

Matilda bound for Orpheus Island

It was funny sailing into Trinity Inlet - Cairns on the 14th of May, as the blog is titled 100 days to Cairns - so by arriving on the 14th meant we still had 43 days to go and wondered if we should change the title - ha!

Spending the last week or so at Magnetic Island with Sally and Forfar was so much fun. We did the Fort Walk together and spent many hours discussing Indonesia and beyond on our boats. It was so good being able to banter back and forth with concerns and to hear what others are doing - it was all very interesting and we learnt lots. We were glad to finally have our first aid kit sorted with their expertise and advice.

The Fort Walk was amazing and nothing like what i thought it was going to be. The walk and bus ride back took most of the day and it wasn't too grueling. It was amazing how they put all this in place in such a remote area. Bruce and I also enjoyed the only bus circuit on the Island as it took us on a tour. We stopped off at the other side of the island for a look see which was beautiful. Both of us are very much looking forward to going back one day and exploring more of the many bays Magnetic Island has to offer.

A weather window presented itself on Thursday 5th of May to enjoy a day sail to Orpheus Island so we took it. We enjoyed a 9 hr sail and dropped the anchor in Little Pioneer Bay with Squander. None of us where in a hurry so we all decided to spend a couple of days exploring and relaxing. The next day we went ashore for a walk but in thongs we couldn't get far. A timely reminder for us to invest in good sturdy walking shoes/sandals. The following day we enjoyed a snorkel and got to see some pretty coral and a few fish but visibility was low.

The sun setting behind Matilda over Hinchinbrook Island.

Sunday the 8th after much discussion we decided to enter the body of water behind Hinchinbrook Island by taking the southern entrance via Lucinda past the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere.  Amazing infrastructure in place for loading sugar, what a conveyor belt that must be to change when it wears out.  It's very shallow at this end of the island so a high tide is essential. After an early start we made very good time and had the anchor down at Reis Point, opposite Haycock Island by lunch time. The mosquitoes where fierce but everyone had their eyes peeled for some of the larger local inhabitants, but the crocodiles, proved to be elusive and we didn't sight one.

The next morning we left Reis Point and motored a bit more up the channel and dropped anchor at Scraggy Point. We went ashore here and found the fresh water creek - it was beautiful. However the mosquitoes where in there thousands yet again, and unfortunately the crocs were still in hiding When we headed ashore for our walk we were able to look over some fish traps built in the shallows.

Next day we motored again out of the channel and over to Goold Island. We made good time and decided to go for a walk and even enjoyed a little swim.

Dunk Island was next on the agenda and this was also a very light days sailing only taking 4 hours. We spent the next day at anchor doing some boat maintenance. Unfortunately my left knee is swelling up so a days rest seemed to make sense, however it meant we didn't get a chance to go ashore which was a real shame. The view from the boat was a bit heart breaking to see how the once pristine resort was still damaged from cyclone Yasi that made land fall on the 3 February 2011.While the owners have made progress there is still a way to go before it becomes any where near the resort it once was.

Friday the 13th seemed an ominous day to set sail but we did as the winds were again in our favor. Another short days sail only taking 4 hours all up to Mourilyn Harbour. Much to our delight we caught a tuna on the journey up. Not being overly fussed on tuna we wanted to give it to Sally and Forfar and we used the frame for bait and dropped a crab pot in but it didn't reward us with much, At least Bruce got to practice his rowing skills!

Mourilyn Harbour

Next morning Sally and Forfar left early to make it to Cairns - Trinity Inlet. We left 2 hours after them expecting to drop anchor at Fitzroy Island. However the wind had picked up a fair bit, making Fitzroy unsuitable so we decided to sail on with the possibility of anchoring at Mission Bay, but the bay is shallow for a long way out and the swell was well set in wrapping around the headland so we continued on to Trinity Inlet. By 1840 we had dropped the anchor and could see Squanders mast in the marina.

Matilda sailing up Trinity Inlet - Cairns

We now had over a month to finalize all our last minute things we have been thinking about since leaving Moreton Bay. We had loads of running around to do and our lists seemed to be increasing fast. We had to find all the shops in a town we don't know and its always a challenge but loads of fun.

As I write this blog its the end of the month and we have not stopped. Every day we seemed to be either ashore gathering supplies and hemorrhaging our bank balance or on board tackling the endless 'to do' list of maintenance and improvements we have deemed necessary before we leave Cairns and leave Australia. Lucky for us Bruce is very hands on and works tirelessly on his beloved Matilda.

Bruce yet again in a tight spot. This time working on the toilet pump.

The task of running around is not that easy. Usually by the time you find what you want, it is not in stock by the time you get there, so you have to come back or they just don't stock that item anymore and the process starts all over again and you have to find it somewhere else. The buses here only seem to stick the one main road making it very challenging to get around. However that said, everything is here, we just have to get creative. Thanks to friends the job has been made so much easier as friends of our shared their friends who spent a day running us around!

Erica, Charlie, Bruce & Deb at the Salt House.

The Sail2Indonesia rally must is not far off now. We are surprised that only 2 (one being us) boats out of 34 are in the inlet. Maybe they are much more relaxed and organised than us! We have been down in the tender to the Cairns Cruising Yacht Squadron, which is down past the navy base in Smiths Creek. Its a long way in the tender and glad that the rally organizers have arranged a bus to pick participants up in and run them around.

Friends arriving to join the rally.

Activity on the inlet here is non stop. Every single day around 8 am we watch all the tourist boats head out to the reef and local islands loaded with holiday makers and then about 4 pm they all head back in. The navy is here and they come and go. They have their own docks just up Trinity Inlet in Smiths Creek right behind Admiralty Island - their presence is impressive. Then there's the local fisherman, they work tirelessly. Meanwhile the commercial ships are escorted nearly everyday by the local tugs and it all makes for a fantastic sight. They seem so close to us! Also we have watched the super yacht Ethereal come in.She is an impressive sight being 190 ft long. She is a charter yacht and only costs AU$311,000 a week!

Super yacht - Ethereal

Ethereal at night.

The Great Dividing Range is impressive. It completely surrounds Cairns and the clouds love to cling to the forest giving it all a look that's hard to describe - its very, very impressive. Its hot here too, the humidity has knocked us about a bit and we need to learn to do four things: slow down, rest, don't run around in the middle of the day and drink loads of water. Lessons we are learning quickly.

Some days we are lucky to catch the sun setting. This is an inspiring sight with colours that fill the sky. A great reminder we are in Far North Queensland.