We first needed to get checked into Malaysia, and get provisioned for 6 months in Indonesia. The Rebak Island Resort and Marina is a nice place to hang out, but the logistics of getting to "town" in Kuah where almost everything is, is interesting.
Rebak Island is a small island located on the west coast of bigger Langkawi Island. Langkawi is a Duty Free port in Malaysia, so it's a great place to stock up on liquor and other provisions before our long dry spell in Indonesia. To get to town, you have to take a small Resort ferry to the "mainland" (the Island of Langkawi, and then a taxi or Grab (like Uber) into town.
The grey line is the approx border between Malaysia and Thailand
But before we could start shopping, we needed to get checked into Malaysia. That is all done at the big ferry terminal in Kuah. It's a big place and we weren't sure where we were going at first, but managed to ask around and find the offices we needed. But it's convenient because all the offices we needed to visit to clear in are located in the same big building.
By the time we got in to the marina, it was Friday afternoon, and most government offices shutdown around noon on Friday, as the Muslim holy period is Friday evening and Saturday. So we planned our visit for Saturday morning.
The first stop in Kuah is the Harbormaster. We had to show boat papers and insurance (mainly wreck removal coverage of $400K USD). And then go downstairs to Immigration. We were held up a little at Immigration--a ferry from Thailand had just come in, so we had to wait for Immigration to finish processing that ferry. Then we found that our MDAC, which we had declared our arrival for Friday, wasn't good for a Saturday check-in, so we had to do the forms again (one for each of us) online. But after that, Immigration check-in was good. Since we were leaving in a week, we didn't care how much time we were given, but normally we get 90 days on arrival in Malaysia. The final stop was Customs, somewhere else in the building, and we breezed through that. The only expense was a very small "lights" fee at the Harbormaster.
Once cleared in, we explored the area around the ferry terminal--the chandlery, the big Billion supermarket, and iconic (and huge) Eagle that is Langkawi's "symbol", a huge statue on the waterfront. After lunch we loaded up on "provisions" and headed back to the marina in time to catch the afternoon ferry. We did this a few times over several days to try to fill up on all the western goods we wouldn't find in Indonesia.
While in Rebak we also filled up on fuel, and installed the new trampolines we had brought back with us from Multihull Nets in St. Pete, FL. Dave did a rig check, as we always do before heading offshore.
It wasn't all work--the marina is right next to a resort with a beach/pool bar. We enjoyed sundowners by the pool on several evenings with the other yachties.
On Friday Feb 23, we went in to town early and cleared out for Indonesia. And on Saturday, full to the gills with liquor, food, and fuel, we headed for Sabang, the harbor city on Pulau Web, a relatively small island right on the northern tip of Sumatra. The Sabang Marine Festival, held every year in late Feb/early March was to be the kick-off event for the West Indonesia Rally 2024.
It's about 275 nautical miles from Langkawi to Sabang--we had light winds and were able to sail about 2/3 of the way. Our path crosses the very busy shipping channel coming up the Straits of Malacca and then turning west for the Indian Ocean. See the Marine Traffic screenshot I took as we contemplated this trip.
Our strategy was to plan to cross the stream of ships as much as possible at a right angle, and in daylight. So our path was more of an "S" shape, going in toward the Sumatran coast early to get out of the shipping traffic. What we didn't count on was that when we got close to the coast, we had fishing traffic to content with. But the weather was mild, the moon was full, and we had a 3rd person helping stand watches (our friend Linda). Also, the Marine Traffic window shows more ships than is actually in anyone place at one time. The ships whose AIS they pick up via satellite do not get updated frequently. So there wasn't nearly as much dodging as we'd expected.
Late on the morning of Feb 26th, we dropped anchor off the town pier at Sabang. We had Starlink, and so had internet and had been able to notify our agent by Whatsapp that we were arriving. The agent arranged all the clearance formalities--taking our paperwork, making copies, filling out forms, and arranging for the clearance officers to visit the boat.
The only hitch in our clearance was the Quarantine people. One of the things they do (sometimes) is check the ship's medical chest. As a cruising boat cruising in remote locations, we have a very well-stocked set of prescription medicines--everything from strong antibiotics, to burn medicines, malaria treatments, and strong painkillers. We got most of these prescribed for us when we left Florida, and almost everything was technically "expired". Some of our antibiotics that were not expired were in unlabeled ziplock bags--exactly how we'd bought them, over the counter, in the Solomon Islands. Well, the doctor that was the head of the Quarantine crowd really didn't like our expired and unlabeled prescription medications, and threatened to confiscate them. But I convinced her that we really needed to have this stuff--and that taking expired medications wasn't harmful if we really needed them and didn't have anything else. She strongly recommended we update our medical chest, ASAP.
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