Hi Everyone,
We seem to have been going non-stop since we returned from George Town (where we also went non-stop.) We did our Matsirat walk and we’ve been to Kuah Town, cooked dinner for friends a few times….just not any sit around and really relax time. Today we are because Randal woke during the night with a fever and early this morning it registered about 101.4. It is down since then but we are taking today off and reading and watching TV and that’s about it. I did do a laundry, but that’s no big deal.
We have booked our tickets for our January trip to China. We leave Rebak on the 24th when our Malaysia visa expires and fly to Singapore. On the 28th we’ll fly from Singapore to Macau. In Macau we’ll get a visa for China. We’ll spend about a week and then come back to Rebak. We’ll visit our boat yard friends and hopefully BoBo and Zoey and Singkey, three lovely young ladies who are now in university but will be back home for Chinese New Year. I will have to find our "cold weather" clothes because China will be lots colder than Malaysia and damp if I remember correctly.
We have had a few little adventures with our dinghy. Here are those stories and also a bit about the boat of our friend Alan Martienssen whom we met in Santubong on P and E’s boat for dinner. Alan splits his time between cruising and his veterinary practice back in England. If Randal had been really sick I would have called Alan because an animal doctor is still a doctor! in a way, Alan and his boat Zebedee are responsible for our dinghy adventures.
Dinghy Ride to Dinner
Our new friends Alan and Pauline on Zebedee were coming into Rebak Marina Sunday and needed a bit of help. Zebedee is a true sailing ship for she has no engines of any kind to power her or the dinghy. Normally that seems to work for Alan. But getting into the marina and into position at the travel lift to be pulled from the water proposed a bit of a challenge. We put our dinghy into the water and motored out to tow them in. However, because the water was calm and the wind nonexistent, Alan and Pauline actually only needed our help as lookout while Alan, standing near the stern of the boat, used a giant rowing oar called a yuloh* to human power Zebedee along. Only at the very end did he need our help to take his bow line close enough to the travel lift docking area for the workers to pull the boat into place. It was all so calm and simple compared to the process that we went through back at Batu Maung. Of course there we were dealing with wind, tide and current and here the area is much protected and the winds were almost dead calm.
*The Chinese yuloh is a blade-heavy oar, often made of two or three straight pieces set at an angle so the blade curves down into the water. http://www.woodenboat.net.nz/Stories/Sculling/scullthree.html
I told Alan it reminded me of cartoon pictures of a clam leg….
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Boat Name: ZEBEDEE
Type/Rig/Power: Sailing Dory
LOA: 34 ft. 0 in.
Beam: 11 ft. 0 in.
Home Port: Sailing from BC to England via Panama (This didn’t happen because you need an engine to go through on your own power or an expensive tow. Alan traveled around South American instead. At least, I think that’s what he told us at dinner last night.)
Designer Name: Jay Benford
Builder Name: Hugh Campbell
Launching Date: 2000-07-26
Jay Benford designed this 34’x11’ sailing dory. Hugh Campbell of Winard Wood Ltd, Sidney, British Columbia, Canada built it for Alan Martienssen of Newark, England. Launched in July 2000, it was named ZEBEDEE after a British Cartoon character. Canalhttp://www.woodenboat.com/wbmag/launchings/index.php?module=launchings&PHPWS_Entry_op=view&PHPWS_Entry_id=223
And, because we had put our dinghy into the water to help Zebedee, we could say yes when later in the day Julia asked us if we wanted to dinghy over to the main island for dinner that night. We’d leave at 4:30 for an early dinner which would allow us to return to Rebak before dark.
Our dinghy parked behind Dora Mac.
We can carry 4 adults fairly comfortably for short distances or 2 adults and 2 bicycles which we did while at Redang Island.
Six of us went off for dinner: Julia and Jim from Papillon, Gloria and Willie from Linger Longer, and Randal and me; each couple with our own dinghy. Julia had called ahead to make sure the restaurant would be open since Sundays can be iffy about openings. She was assured that they would be open and ready to serve when we arrived.
The water was calm and the trip actually quite nice. Randal said it took about 5 minutes and was about a mile from the marina. I think it took longer than that and felt farther, but probably not.
Dinghy parking.
The gate from the dock was locked so we all had to climb over.
The restaurant looked closed: there were no cars and no people to be seen. However, when we actually walked inside the small complex there was staff to take our orders and bring the food. Maybe we were just way, way too early compared to when locals eat. In late December, Julia and Jim had been to a special buffet with arranged ferry service included and said the food and wine were quite good and it was she who had called ahead and organized our trip. Early Sunday night we had the place to ourselves.
It is an informal rustic looking place like you’d see on Cape Cod or other tourist places along the shore.
We arrived about 4:45pm and left about 6: 30pm and no one else came during that entire time.
We all started with something called money bags, little fried packets of chopped pork and other things. Quite good.
They are called money bags because they’re shaped like a tiny money bag. You select your own wine as the menu suggests so Julia went off to the wine room to get a bottle. She knows a bit about wine and says they have a good selection at a reasonable price. Randal had beer but I stuck to water only not wanting to mix alcohol with a dinghy ride home. I had a slightly fritzy stomach…left over from too much salad for lunch. Too bad, because the menu had lots of tempting choices.
The ladies all ordered grilled Barramundi, a mild white estuary fish tasting not so different from flounder to me. It came with a spicy Thai dipping sauce and white rice. Willie had a green curry version. Randal had spaghetti with shrimp and Jim had a couple of meat dishes, the hotter the better for him though one bite of something made him cough and changed the sound of his voice for a minute or two. Dishes came when they came so Randal was finished with his and Jim half way finished when our fish arrived. But there was plenty of fish so Randal helped me eat mine. If we go again I’ll try something more adventuresome. The adventure, company and setting get an A. The food/price for it get a B- but other choices I think would be tempting. I’d go again.
Time to leave.
You can see that it’s still pretty light out. It actually stays light till about 7:30 but we wanted to be on the safe side with the speeding fishing boats and even the Rebak ferry possibly crossing our paths. Unlike our big boat, the dinghy’s only light comes from a hand held flashlight.
Shooting into the sun.
The marina is around the point of the island on the right. We would go between it and the tiny island in the center of the photo. The trip back seemed to take no time.
Monday, we actually had to go all the way to the Port Langkasua ferry terminal to tow a stranded dinghy back to Rebak. It’s a long story, but the short version is this. Jen and Pete whom we know just a bit had bought a new dinghy and a new motor. The new motor was on their boat in Rebak but it had never been test driven. Their new dinghy was on the mainland now ready to be driven back to Rebak. To be on the safe side, Pete and Jen had borrowed Kathy and Peter’s well used dinghy motor to drive the new dinghy back to Rebak. Unfortunately, dinghy motors being temperamental, Peter and Kathy’s motor wouldn’t start for Pet and Jen. Since Kathy and Peter were busy on the main island doing chores, Randal volunteered us to tow the new dinghy back to Rebak. It takes the high speed Rebak ferry about 10 to 15 minutes. Amazingly it didn’t take our small dinghy so much longer with the mild wind and current pushing us along. Randal and Pete towed the new dinghy back and Jen and I took the big Rebak ferry. A happy ending. So from not using our dinghy for a very long time, we seem to be using it quite a bit lately. Randal gave me my first dinghy driving lesson in the marina. He is reluctant to teach me, but I really think I need to learn though it’s harder than it looks. For me it will take a bit of getting used to. We’ll see how that all goes.