Down the Straits of Malacca

Once we left Penang, we day-hopped, in long days, into light south-southeasterlies, for the 340 miles to Singapore. There is a reversing current in the Straits that can run up to 2 knots. We were fortunate that we happened to catch the current cycle right, so our "underway" times were mostly with the current. Most days we were up at the crack of dawn and underway until just about sunset. There is so much fishing activity at night inshore, and so much shipping activity offshore, that day hops are the most prudent way to go.

Typical Malaysian Fishing Boat
Constant Procession of Big Ships in the Straits
We stopped for an afternoon in Marina Pangkor on our way back through--to top off our water supply and go get a few more provisions & boat misc, including a bowline for the dinghy. We rented the marina car for a few hours and stopped in 4-5 places plus bought another $100 of groceries. We pulled out of the marina at 6pm and anchored out at the SE-most cove at Pangkor Island, to get an early start the next morning.

The next day we were underway at first light for a tiny anchor spot at Pulau Angsa, just north of Port Klang. We motorsailed with both engines on, averaging 5.8 knots for the day. We got the hook down just before dark, after a 73 nm day. (03-11.14N / 101-13.12E).

The next day we had to go through Port Klang, a busy shipping port with a narrow channel and a vicious current. Fortunately our timing was great and we rode a favorable current nearly all day. It was interesting the mix of shipping that we saw going through Port Klang.

Some of the Strange Boats We Passed in Port Klang

Rounding the point after Port Klang, we could finally head more easterly and actually turned the engines off for a couple of hours. The afternoon winds were whistling up through the Straits to almost 20 knots, so the guys got good practice at reefing our big main. At one point we were doing 7.5 knots through the water and 9 knots over the bottom (with strong current assist).

The wind eventually died and we had to turn the engines back on. We motored into Admiral Marina south of Port Dickson around 4pm. This is another resort/marina that looks like it's failing. There was almost nobody there at the hotel, though the marina was pretty full. Though we're in the middle of Ramadan--most Malaysians defer their vacations until the party time after Ramadan.

We decided to rent a car for a couple of days and drive an hour south to see the old town of Malacca (Melaka), while the boat was secure in the marina. We had a great time walking around the old part of town, but it was blazing hot, so we didn't see as much as we would have liked.

Colorful Tourist Shops in Old Towne Malacca
One of the Many Temples in Malacca
Malacca River
Having a Cold One by the River
Dave was captivated by the old guys who were hand-sifting the mud at the side of the river for old coins. Dave ended up buying quite a few of the old coins and a few other old artifacts. Kevin and I told him they were probably fakes, but he was undeterred. So we have a handful of (maybe genuine) 400 year old Dutch and Portugese coins.

Genuine Malacca Tourist Stuff
We had a memorable meal at the old Portuguese waterfront area a few miles south of Melaka.

The Best Seafood in Malaysia - At the Portuguese Section of Malacca
On our return to Admiral Marina, we wanted to pull into their fuel dock to top off on diesel, but they said it wasn't working. Fortunately we weren't desperate and could wait til we got to Puteri Marina near Singapore to fuel up.

Three more days of slogging into (mostly) light noserlies and we finally turned the corner into the Johor Strait, the narrow waterway that separates Singapore from mainland Malaysia. We anchored for short overnights at Pulau Besar and Pulau Pisang. (Pulau means Island in Malay, if you haven't figured that out by now).

We pulled into Puteri Marina, a resort/marina complex on the Malaysian side, about 2pm. They put us right next to our friend Nick on Impala. Nick and his pick-up crew are leaving to cross the Indian Ocean in a couple of days.

The Intrepid Impala Crew

Side Trip to Penang

Our first task on getting underway was to head for Penang, where we planned to meet up with a surveyor, to get a formal survey for the new Soggy Paws. Our new insurance company, Topsail, from the UK, doesn't actually require a survey for insurance purposes. But they do require a "rig survey" for any boat with rigging over 12 years old.

After inquiring of several surveyors in Malaysia and Singapore, none of whom were available in the next month, and all of whom wanted an arm and a leg, we got wind of a cruising guy in Langkawi who does surveys for a reasonable price. Better yet, he was planning to spend a few weeks cruising in Penang (halfway between Langkawi and Pangkor). And even better yet, this kind soul offered to bring our new dinghy down to Penang for us...eliminating all the need for going another 70 miles north to Langkawi before we set off south for the Philippines.

After a stop overnight at Pulau Talang (04-25.02N / 100-34.56E in light NNE winds), we headed north for Penang.

Ahhh, Finally at Anchor!!
It was a long, but uneventful light-air motorsail.

Kevin Cranking the Main Up for the First Time
On approaching Penang from the south, the first thing you notice is the "new" bridge, which doesn't show up on our 2010 CM93 chart. Even on the brand-new-constantly-updated Navionics and Jeppeson/C-Map charts on our Android, the bridge is only drawn in as a black line, with no height information at all. Fortunately we had already been assured that there was plenty of height for us. There are no height markings on the bridge itself at all.

Around 6pm we anchored next to Geoff's boat, Arnak, in a protected spot next to Pulau Jerejak (05-20.66N / 100-18.91E ). Within a few minutes, Geoff came rowing over in our new dinghy. It's a very nice 10ft Aluminum Bottom RIB built by APUS in Langkawi. Not exactly what we would have bought had we had time to shop around and ship something in, but we needed something for this trip and to leave with the old Soggy Paws when we sell her.

The next day, Geoff came over and did a thorough survey and we spent a lot of time chatting about cruising things in general. We were sorry we were in such a hurry that we didn't get a chance to socialize with them a bit more.

Dave spent the afternoon getting the 5hp outboard running properly.

Dave and Kevin Working on the Outboard
The first problem we ran into was the squeeze bulb on the fuel tank was completely shot. Fortunately, Geoff had a used spare that he let us buy from him. Meanwhile, Kevin was on his hands and knees in the Stbd Forward Head, working on clearing the blockages in the lines. Later he did the same in the Aft Head. What a good crew!

Finally, just before sunset, Dave called the outboard "good enough", and we were able to go ashore for a meal. The outboard still needs a little carb work--it stalls as soon as you throttle back--but the crew was clamoring for "shore leave", so he had to give it up. The current runs pretty swiftly in the anchorage area (in both directions according to the tide), so we really needed a working outboard to get ashore.

Shore Leave!!
We had a nice--but pricey--meal at a Japanese cook-it-yourself-on-the-table. We were headed for the stalls at the market, but the lure of cold beer and air conditioning sucked us in to the restaurant.

We left at the crack of dawn the next morning, to start heading south towards Singapore.

Launched and Ready to Go!

Amazingly, we were launched on schedule on June 29.

The Pangkor Marina Lift


Here We Go!
As soon as we were in the water, Dave turned on the engines. We held our breath that everything would start. The engines started right up, thankfully. But there was only a dribble of cooling water coming out. We only had 100 yards to go, downwind, to the dock, so we backed right off the lift, quickly motored to the dock, and shut the engines down. Once we were safely tied up, Dave got the Port Engine cooling water going by just revving up the engine some. But the Starboard engine still wasn't pumping water. It took a whole day, and a phone call to John, the Previous Owner, for him to work through the possible issues and get that going.

Dave on Skype with the Previous Owner in NZ
Meanwhile, our friend Kevin from s/v Miss Behave joined us from Australia. We met Kevin and Irina on their beautiful boat in Palau last year, and Kevin was one of the guys who went with Dave on the second trip to Pelelieu. Kevin jumped at the chance to come have another adventure with Dave. (Thank you, Irina, Kevin has been a blessing)

Kevin and Dave Working on the Starboard Engine Cooling Water System
Luckily, it was no major issue, just cleaning up a bit, and we had both engines running smoothly.

The next problem holding up our departure was the Windlass. It hadn't worked at all when we surveyed Blue Moon before we purchased her. But John, the PO, assured us that it had been working well, so we figured it would be no big deal to get it going again. We quickly narrowed the problem down to the solenoid--it would go down and not up. A bit of banging and checking wires and contacts didn't solve the problem, so Dave took the solenoid out and tried to open it up. It's a nicely sealed unit, and opening up was a problem, especially with not much in the way of tools aboard. He finally borrowed a Dremel from another boater and got inside. A few minutes cleaning up corrosion and it was working again.

Dave Working on the Windlass
These Windlass Foot Switches Were Not the Problem!
Meanwhile, my job was helping Dave clean out the lockers, provisioning, and continuing to work on our cash payment issues. On Monday, James Koo, the very helpful Pangkor Marina Manager, took us out in his car to help us find what we were looking for. In 2 short hours, we visited 3-4 hardware stores and a bank, and came away with all the hardware bits Dave was looking for, and our Western Union Cash Advance. It took almost an hour to get the money--lots of paperwork, and the international computer system was down--but it all worked well in the end, and I would use Western Union again in a similar situation.

Of course, Dave didn't take any pictures of me on my hands and knees scrubbing the yard dirt off the boat canvas, but here's a "looking in lockers" photo.

Trying to Sort Through the Lockers
Another thing on my list was applying the new name on the stern. We also bought some big name appliques for the bow, with the requisit paw print, but applying those hasn't made it to the top of the list yet.

The New Soggy Paws
One of my good friends asked "What did you do for a re-naming ceremony?" My answer: "I applied the new name!"

So stocked up, crewed up, and the critical maintenance items dones, we are taking off this afternoon to head north to Penang for a short visit. We won't get off until late, so we'll spend the night at an anchorage just 10 miles north of Pangkor, and get an early start in the morning.

On the NEW Soggy Paws in Malaysia

We flew in June 23rd from the Philippines, and stayed one night in Kuala Lumpur.

Sherry's passport was running low on blank pages, so we made an appointment to stop in at the U.S. Embassy and add pages to her passport. This was a painless but expensive process ($82 USD). We were finished by around 11:30 am, and so hopped a 1pm bus from the main downtown bus terminal, to head for Pangkor/Lumut.

We spent 3 nights in the Best Western resort/hotel here on Marina Island (steps from the boatyard), while we got things set up on board. This is supposed to be an upscale resort, but it's just a teeny bit "not right". They have a weird layout in the Condotel rooms--I can't imagine anyone actually buying them to live in. But the bed was nice, the A/C cold, the wifi free, etc. And the room only cost $47 USD per night (this is a fairly expensive room in Malaysia).

At 4 degrees N, it's pretty hot here right now, but at least we've got a pretty good breeze. We managed to rent an air conditioner from the marina, but it's turned out to be a mixed blessing. The thing is a free-standing unit that exhausts so much hot air into the room it is in, that it's not very practical. However, it did get one hull cool enough last night that we had a good night's sleep on our first night onboard. We backed it up to the the door so the hot air went out into the cockpit, and blew a fan across the cold air coming out to channel it down into the port hull. This, combined with the night coolness, worked fine. I don't know what we're going to do when Kevin arrives and is sleeping in the other hull!

This has been a pretty stressful time for us--a brand new boat with no owners manual, in a brand new country, with none of our usual cruiser support group. Like our marina in the Philippines, all the amenities of town are pretty far away. Unlike our marina in the Philippines, there is hardly anyone else living aboard, and there is no "marina shuttle" to town. We have rented a car, and with the help of Google Maps, been finding our way around.

Though the marina and the hotel take credit cards, we owe cash to a few people for services rendered. Our first hit at trying to get cash from an ATM card at the airport was unsuccessful. I tried 2 machines and 2 different debit cards, and ended up exchanging a little of our USD at the money exchange counter at the airport. So I've been stressing about how to get enough cash to pay off our debts and pay to fill up on diesel fuel (must be jugged in from the local gas station). One of the other cruisers at the marina said "Oh, Malaysia is tough for debit cards--they probably won't work." What!!!?? We have never had a problem using at least one of our debit cards in any country so far. So was panic-ing (it wouldn't be stressful except for the time pressure for us to get away from here on Weds).

So I went online to Western Union, created an account, and transferred money to myself from my bank account to "any Western Union location in Malaysia", and there were about 10 agents listed in our area. In the Philippines, there are Western Union signs all over. It seemed like a great solution, and some of the agents listed were open on Saturday afternoon. Well, after trying 3 of the listed agents, we finally gave up--couldn't find them, or anyone who knew where they might be, even though Google said we were right there. We had a similar experience trying to find the "marine store". On Monday we'll try for a bank location and see how that works out. But in the meantime, we found an ATM that worked with both cards, so we're not quite so panicky about running out of ringgits.

Fortunately, there are a couple of big modern grocery stores here, and with a car, we re starting to loaded up. This too was stressful because we are starting from almost nothing onboard--not just topping up our food supply, but starting from scratch. Though there is a very nice big freezer aboard, there refrig is about half the size of CSY Soggy Paws', so I had to shop carefully to make sure we didn't run out of room with half the veggies still out on the counter.

So, we are making progress, still think we're going to be launched on Monday, and steam off to pick up our dinghy in Penang on Weds. But a lot of little things have to fall into place in order to keep to that schedule.

I have updated our position on Winlink, so the red pin on the blog position should be the correct location.

Life on the Hard

Last fall, we hauled out Soggy Paws, to keep her safe while we were off the boat (2 months in US, then 2 months in NZ). Then we planned to work on her out of the water for most of this year.

So this has been our home since October last year:

Soggy Paws "On the Hard"
Living this way has many interesting quirks. Like... we cannot use our bathroom facilities because there is no water to flush. So we go to the marina bathroom. And for the inevitable middle-of-the-night visits, we use a bucket. (I'll spare you the picture of our bucket!)

This is our front door.

Our Front Door
Anything that comes or goes off our boat now has to be hauled up or down that ladder. Everything from 5 gallon jugs of drinking water (can't use the watermaker and the marina water is kind of "hard") to the heavy sewing machine.

And ourselves, of course. After a nice happy hour on the balcony, teetering up and down that bamboo ladder... I have been REALLY careful making the transition from deck to ladder and back. We already have one friend who fell off a ladder in the yard (in NZ), and is barred from cruising for 6 months while ribs and broken arm heals.

Since the plan for this year was a cosmetic refit for Soggy Paws, we had 2 big plywood boxes built (4x8x2), so we could unload stuff from the boat, one section at a time, to start re-doing the interior. We thought 2 boxes would be sufficient to unload the non-essential stuff from the whole boat. Guess again!! We only got the V-berth unloaded before the boxes got filled up.

Our Home-built "Storage Pods"
But, progress is being made!! (in spite of all the other unplanned wrinkles in our lives) Our V-Berth is done and it looks really nice.

The New V-Berth

We have been working pretty hard, but it's not all work and no play. One night we went out to a local "watering hole" and it happened to be their first anniversary party. They had a great live band playing 60's and 70's pop and rock music. Great stuff! And they have a full Filipino and "Western" menu.

Jammin' at Tambayan
And we've hooked up with another cruiser who's been organizing a dive trip every Sunday, using the marina's boat. It ends up costing about $40 US for a 2-tank dive (we just split the cost of chartering the boat with driver). We have found the local diving to be amazingly good. The coral is healthy and there's a huge variety of soft and hard corals. Unfortunately, no big fish, but lots of interesting little ones.

Sunday Dive Trip with s/v Furthur's Crew
At the beginning of the year, I was about to commit hari-kari when I realized that the plan was to live aboard Soggy Paws in the heat, out of the water ALL YEAR LONG. However, I just realized that, with the purchase of the new catamaran, that today was the last day I'd have to live aboard on the hard for quite some time. When we come back to pick up where we left off, we'll be living on the the new Catamaran Soggy Paws, and we can truly unload the CSY Soggy Paws and not be trying to live aboard in the middle of a refit.

So, off we go today to Malaysia to pick up Catamaran Soggy Paws!! We are excited to say the least!

We have a had a few nibbles on our Soggy Paws For Sale ad on SailboatListings.com, but we honestly are not ready to sell yet--until we can get the Cat to the marina and unload the stuff we won't be selling with the boat (mid August). One guy wanted to see interior pictures. !!! Trust me, bubba, you don't want to see the interior of Soggy Paws right now!! (I sent him a picture of our V-Berth-in-Progress and tried to explain that the boat was such a disaster area right now that I couldn't take any representative pictures). But meanwhile, if you have a friend looking for a good cruising boat, they can't do better than a CSY. By 1 September we'll be getting really ready to show her off. So have your friends start planning their September vacation trip to Sunny Samal.

Soggy Paws the CSY is For Sale!!

We closed the deal on the new catamaran this week, so our beloved Soggy Paws, which we have owned and cruised for 18 years, is now for sale.

Arriving Under Sail in Bikini Lagoon
We have just posted an ad on Sailboat Listings. Here:

http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/50976

As most of you no doubt know, we have many many upgrades on Soggy Paws that are too numerous to list in an ad. As we were equipping Soggy Paws for long term cruising, we have bought tens of thousands of dollars worth of spares, so we could fix anything ourselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Plus of course, continually upgraded our equipment based on our needs and new technology. She is ready to cruise as-is, where-is. The one thing we HAVEN'T spent a lot of money on in the last 10 years is cosmetic work.

So, Soggy Paws is currently in the Philippines, undergoing a complete cosmetic refit--new Awlgrip paint on hull and decks, and interior painting and varnishing. In a few months she will look like new. But you couldn't buy a new boat like this for less than $500,000 dollars. They just don't build them like this any more.

For some reasons why a CSY should be your boat of choice, check out this page on our website. And then feel free to browse the "workshop" section of our website for all the upgrades and information about our boat.

http://svsoggypaws.com/AboutCSYBoats.htm

We realize that it's going to be a hard sell for U.S. buyers to buy a boat in the Philippines, just because of the distance issue. But if you are getting ready to retire, this is a GREAT place to buy a boat. No need to make the 30-day crossing from Panama to EXPENSIVE French Polynesia (beer=$5). There is a large US ex-pat community in Davao and in the Philippines. Medical care (and everything else) is reasonably-priced and good quality.

From here you can island-hop all over INEXPENSIVE Southeast Asia (beer=$1)--the great diving in the Philippines, Eastern Indonesia (Raja Ampat) and Palau, and then make your way to the best of the South Pacific (Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomons)... we're leaving for there on our new catamaran in January, wanna join us?

If you are seriously interested in the rare CSY 44 Walkthrough, let us know, we'll work with you. We are willing to rebate the cost of your flight to Davao to check her out, from the final purchase price. Our asking price reflects the final refitted-as-new price. If you're in a hurry or want to do your own "cosmetic refit" on your own time, and get a discount in the process, let us know.

We'll periodically update the pictures as we complete our refit.

Note: Sold in April 2016 to a guy from Perth, Australia.

Right Turn, Clyde!

In somewhat of a shocking change of direction, we have decided to buy a catamaran!!

Our New Catamaran
This all started a couple of weeks ago when Dave heard that a guy in the marina was selling his catamaran. Dave has been hot to buy a cat for awhile now--ever since our good friends Jack and Nicole defected from the CSY camp to buy a Bahia 46. It flares up every now and then, but up til now I've managed to keep him focused on getting Soggy Paws around the world.

Great Dive Platform!
Well, one thing led to another, and after he looked at every cat in the marina and found them lacking (or too expensive), he found out friends of friends were selling a St. Francis 44 catamaran in Malaysia, and for a very good price. Looking at the pictures, it looked like a great deal. I couldn't talk him out of it. So we flew to Malaysia to take a look at Blue Moon.

And a Gorgeous Cockpit
Blue Moon turned out to be as nice-looking in person as she did in the ad, and I slowly came around to Dave's point of view. So we made an offer. "As is, where is" in Malaysia. And darned if our offer wasn't accepted!!

So we are now scrambling with trying to get all our ducks lined up to complete the purchase--without the luxury of being in the U.S. It's a crazy situation, with us here in the Philippines, the boat is in Malaysia, the seller is in New Zealand, and all our money is in the U.S.

Meanwhile, we've got people working on Soggy Paws to get her fixed up for sale. The boat, rigging and systems are really solid--it's mainly the cosmetic things that have suffered over the last 8 years of cruising. And this is great place to get that kind of work done. We've had 2 carpenters working for the last week in the v-berth, and it's already looking amazing.

Our plan, assuming we conclude the deal on Blue Moon in the next few weeks, is to fly to Malaysia around the 1st of July to get the new "Soggy Paws" launched and cruise her back to the Philippines. Once here, we can get both boats side-by-side and transfer all our "stuff", and then get serious about selling Soggy Paws.

It's going to a steep learning curve, going from a heavily-built monohull to fairly light and fast catamaran!

You can see a few more pics of the new boat here: http://www.bluemooners.com/journeysend.htm.

If anyone is interested in buying a great cruising boat and being able to cruise the South Pacific and SouthEast Asia, without actually having to cross the Pacific Ocean to get here, drop us a line! We'll have a proper "For Sale" page for Soggy Paws, the CSY soon.

Back on Board in the Philippines--Again

So, to recap, Soggy Paws has been hauled out at the Holiday Ocean View Marina in the Davao area of Mindanao, Philippines, since last October.

Now we start the "fun stuff"--the process of making Soggy Paws look all new and shiny again. We've had surprisingly few mechanical or systems problems in the last year, but she's looking pretty worn inside. And our 15 year old exterior paint job is looking pretty flat.

Kjartan (pronounced Char-tan), the marina manager here, has a skilled team of Filipino workers who can do anything (wood work, painting, fiberglassing, stainless steel welding, etc). And he has figured out how to get stuff shipped in to the Philippines, so there's a ready supply of the stuff you need to do boat work (fiberglass, paint, stainless steel, etc).

To train his crew and demonstrate their expertise, Kjartan built a 60' catamaran from scratch. It is gorgeous, inside and out. Dave is hoping that Soggy Paws will look as good when we get finished.

Living aboard with the boat hauled out is never fun--but we've got air conditioning and we are not far from the toilet/shower block in the marina. (To educate, because we are not in the water, to go to the bathroom, we have to climb down the ladder and walk to the toilet...). Holiday Ocean View is in a nice setting with a great group of cruisers hanging out here. Living in the Philippines is pretty inexpensive, yet we can find just about anything we want in the big city of Davao.

Five Days in Singapore

On our way back from New Zealand, we routed via Singapore, and stayed over for a few days to do some sightseeing. We LOVED Singapore. With a local sim card, a smart phone with Google Maps, and a Rapid Transit card, we found it super easy to find our way around. We stayed in an Airbnb place at a reasonable price, ate in the local food stalls (called Hawker Centers in Singapore) and really enjoyed our brief stay in the big city.

We got a direct flight from Singapore back to Davao, arriving on Friday, May 8.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to back-post a few pictures and impressions from our Singapore stay.

Two Months in New Zealand

We have just gotten back from a fantastic (flying) trip to New Zealand. We were too busy touring and taking pictures to do much computer stuff, so the blog has suffered. I hope to back-post the highlights soon. This is just a place-marker.

We left from Davao on Feb 28 and flew into Christchurch Mar 1 (via Manila and Sydney Australia). We returned on May 3 from Auckland via Singapore and direct into Davao.