Firefly - Motoring in Malaysia, reflectioning on the trip so far

Its Thursday 19th November and Firefly is 15 miles from Pangkor Island Marina, the next stop on the Sail Malaysia Rally. Despite needing to either motor or motor sail for a good proportion of the 140 mile trip from Port Dickson - it has been quite efficient as yesterday the north west flowing tide was much more favorable - when it flows towards the south east its not so strong.

Yesterday, we did manage some good sailing after motoring for the first 6 hours. The Admiral (our gennaker) came out of 'his' storage spot above the aft cabin and with between 9 and 12 knots and a good angle Firefly zoomed along at up to 7 knots for the next 6 hours. The current was as much as an extra 3 knots so we covered a long distance during that period. There are an unbelievable amount of fishing boats in these waters and some sizeable debris, logs being the most dangerous of the hazards. We therefore stopped quite soon after dark, anchoring in an open roadstead with 4 other rally boats and enjoyed a relatively came night. By the afternoon there is always thunder and lightning somewhere nearby, usually the thunder clouds form just over the land. This rumbles away until morning but as yet we have been lucky not to have encountered any squalls so far in Malaysia. They are called 'Sumatras' here, probably as Sumatra is only 30 odd miles to our west and can be very severe.

Our final destination in Malaysia is Langkawi, an island near the border with Thailand which is only a couple of day sails on from Pangkor. Firefly is spending Christmas at Reebak marina while we fly home to spend the festive season with family and friends. We are really looking forward to it but its going to be a real contrast in temperatures - Malaysia is the hottest place so far on our round the world trip! This year we spent the first 3 months sailing and touring NZ before taking our most recent trip back to the UK in April. Then in May we sailed from NZ to Tonga and then onto Fiji, Vanuatu, Australia, Indonesia and reached Singapore a couple of weeks back. The log was reading 38,799 when we departed Opua on May 2nd 2015 - its now on 46,327 nautical miles.

So nearly 8000 miles in a season, possibly more that than a lot yachtsmen cover in a lifetime and another 8 month stretch living aboard. Its been fantastic but we are certainly looking forward to some time on land and have been enjoying being mostly marina based since Singapore. Marinas are something we normally 'poo poo', Firefly being very well set up for life on anchor, particularly with low power requirement that are mostly satisfied by her solar panels - she does not need to be plugged into the grid or rely on a generator running for hours. Here in Malaysia the water is not very clean so far, and its therefore not appealing to snorkel or dive. Its good to be able to tie up to a pontoon, get ashore easily and use the marina swimming pools. Langkawi is apparently very beautiful so we hope to revert to anchoring for the week before we leave.

Two years into the trip its also interesting to reflect on how we are feeling at this stage and its useful to compare notes (as we often do) with our fellow rally participants. There are 60 plus boats on the Sail Malaysia rally and that is probably the majority of yachts heading up through Indonesia and onto Thailand this year. The biggest contingent are from Australia and New Zealand and most of the those people have recently started out cruising and only a small percentage will continue west after Thailand. The Europeans and Americans are more like us, all of whom have crossed and cruised the Pacific and possibly also the Atlantic - all are therefore really experienced cruisers.

Interesting topics for discussion particularly with the Europeans who left from their home countries are when did they leave and where are they heading next. Two years is the shortest time taken to get this far and although Firefly has been the quickest her list of stoppages is as extensive as most - moving faster seems to suit us better as well as Firefly (she thinks she is a 60 footer!). A good number of the cruisers we speak to left between 2008 and 2010 so have been away for many years, often stayiong long periods in some destinations.

Thailand is also a bit of a cross roads for people sailing around the world. The traditional route back was via the Red Sea and the Suez into the Med but the situation whereby the Somali Pirates eliminate that option means yachts either head south to the Cape of Good Hope and some go to the Med on a ship. Paul's thought for the day.....with some UN co operation - all of the various Navy's, Army's and Air Forces's of the 'peaceful' countries could work together to eliminate the Somali piracy threat for the collective good of the World's Mariners!

Paul and Susie