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Today I made my first inquiries about a new engine. I shall have
to go to the Yanmar dealer tomorrow, because to make one's requirements
known over the phone is rather difficult. There was not enough time to
do this today after the big thunderstorm around noon had dissipated. It
packed a fair bit of wind with it, but the boat was safe at the mooring.
Instead, we went in the afternoon to go shopping for a portable multi-system
TV, to be used on 12 V and 220 V, on the boat as well as on shore.
22 June 1992, Loyang Bay, Singapore
On Saturday we transferred our anchorage about two kilometers west, into the westerly part of Loyang Bay. Here we are in front of a nice park and beach. It is much quieter here. Over at the club the ferry boats were passing by at the rate of one every five minutes, and each created quite a wake. Only after ten at night, when the ferry service stopped, did our boat not roll continuously. This is a place here where one can relax, and wait out the month, that I was told by the Yanmar dealer, it would take to have a new engine delivered. Shopping is not far, and there is fresh water and a shower on the beach right opposite of our anchorage.
Today we had better news. A boat yard only a few hundred metres away told me that possibly Perkins would have suitable diesel engine on stock. They are cheaper too (about Sing.$ 6500, 1 Can$=1.33 S$), and the installing could be done right here by them, with the boat in the water, for about Sing. $ 1000. This is good news indeed.
Last night finally I was able to talk to Roland on the telephone. He had come to Lumut, without us being there, and the next day he had gotten my message, which I had left with another boat over Rowdy's net, that our engine was broken, and we were still in Singapore. Roland and Carrie are coming down here now, to spend a couple of days on the boat, until my daughter Kirsten and her fiance Jeff arrive from Canada. This will give us a chance to watch some of his and my videos on the new TV, I have bought. So for one night we shall have six people on the boat. It will be a bit crowded, but it is all family.
Yes, life is bearable here, although the beer is expensive (S$ 2.50/bottle in grocery stores). We had a great meal tonight: 'Tom Yam Taleh', hot and sour seafood soup. There was some squid left over from yesterday, and today a local fisherman gave Su a whole bunch of crabs. That soup with rice and one bottle of the expensive Singapore beer just hit the spot. Once we get the TV tomorrow all our wishes will be satisfied. Now that the pressure is off to meet Roland, we can easily hang around here for a few weeks and enjoy it.
Singapore is very organized. Actually too organized. Out here we are in the suburbs. There is apartment block after apartment block. Each one looks the same. The streets all have numbers. Sure, the facilities are all here, telephones, public transporta-tion, libraries, markets, parks and stores, and everything is clean and orderly. But it seems too regimented. The local colour, which one has in Thailand and the Philippines is missing.
12 July 1992, Loyang Bay, Singapore
It is quite a while, since I have written anything in this journal. Of course, we are waiting here for the delivery of the new diesel engine (we decided on a UNIVERSAL 3-cylinder, an identical size replacement for the old UNIVERSAL Atomic 4, which we had before) and its installation, before we can proceed farther up the coast to our final destination Phuket, Thailand.
However, life in harbour and in Singapore is very pleasant, and we are enjoying it. There are quite a few things to be done on the boat, and this is a good chance to do them, apart from varnishing which is precluded by the wet season with its frequent showers.
In fact, the monsoon seemed to have ended after a week of heavy showers here. The weather was sunny each day, hot and with very little cloud cover and hardly any rain. On the radio I heard that in Phuket they were getting worried, lest there be enough rain this monsoon, to last them through the next dry season. However, yesterday, the monsoon set in again with a vengeance. There was heavy rain, and halfway through last night, and most of this morning there was a steady drizzle. It certainly cools things down, when it rains, and it is quite pleasant.
Every day we are doing our little chores, like buying ice, and doing some little shopping for fresh meat and vegetables. In between, we are doing various chores on the boat, doing the cleaning and repairing one has not got the chance to do at sea. And in the evening it is relaxation with a good book or a nice show on TV.
As long as we live on the boat, and thus avoid the high hotel prices here, we can live quite cheaply. Apart from beer and liquor (and accommodation) most everything is quite cheap, not much more than half of what the same would cost in Canada, so we are having no problem to stay within the budget I have now set for ourselves after all the somewhat indiscriminate spending I had indulged in over the past six months. A pair of new eye glasses (frame and lenses), for example, for which I would have to spend well over $ 200 in Canada, cost me here only $ 80. The new engine will also help in this regard, what with using less than half the quantity of fuel per hour at a price per liter substantially less than the price for gasoline.
Two days ago we went downtown to, among other things, search out the Thai shopping district at the Golden Mile Plaza. We found it alright. Su could speak her beloved Thai and luxuriate in all the Thai products available, from spices to books, music tapes and newspapers. We crowned the day off with seeing the Canadian movie 'Black Robe' (again admission half of what it would have been in Canada).
Roland and Carrie were here for a week, and Kirsten and Jeff for a day,
before they all went off to Phuket for the 'Interhash' meeting, and subsequently
for a trip by bicycle down the Malay peninsula. Roland and Carrie we shall
meet again at the end of this month, when we are finally mobile again with
the new engine, to do a week's cruising around Penang and Langkawi.
28 July 1992, Loyang Bay, Singapore
This is dragging on and on. The engine arrived only one day later than promised, but the yard is fairly busy, and the fact that the mechanic has to come out in a dinghy does not help in my priority standing with them. Any excuse serves, not to come out, but rather do other work, either it is raining, or he has to wait for some parts, or what is left of the working day is too short to make it worth while to launch the dinghy to come here.
I did save myself some expense, and hopefully also waiting time, by going yesterday myself, to pick up a specially manufac-tured stainless steel water trap box for the exhaust system. They would have sent it over by taxi otherwise, at the cost of $ 30. I took the MRT (subway), and it was only $ 4 for me, plus my time. Anyway, before I took the part away I inspected it, whether it was done as instructed, and discovered an error, necessitating a change. That would have meant another two taxi fares, sending the part back and forth again. I also saved myself another $ 40, since I paid direct. If the yard had invoiced me they would have added 15% on top of the supplier's price.
Although I made these substantial savings, I am not happy, as today it rains on and off all day long, and nothing is being done to install all these pieces. I had also arranged for somebody from the Canadian High Commission to come out and witness the carving of the registration number on the boat on Wednesday morning, my proposed departure date. As I cannot move the boat to the yacht club dock without an engine, I shall now have to postpone this appointment, hopefully only for one day. The Canadian officials (two) seemed unwilling to come to the boat in a dinghy (cannot get your feet wet), although I could have supplied one pair of rubber boots.
As I was waiting at their office yesterday, I read in 'Maclean's Magazine' about the shattered expectations of Canadians. I had been preaching this for well over ten years now, that Canadians had been living far above their means, and that the time would come, when people would have to be satisfied with substantially lower living standards. It seems, that some educated Canadi-ans are realizing this now. Let us hope that those greedy Canadian labour unions will eventually do so too. It sure does not seem to have penetrated the minds of the staff of the Canadian High Commission here though. Life is comfortable here with living costs much lower, and this at the same salary as in Canada, and ALL the conveniences of home available here, and then some. The 'expats' have traditionally lived high on the hog in these lesser developed countries, luxurious accommodation provided by their employers, scores of cheap servants (here imported from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand), and a party with some of their other 'expat' cronies almost every other day. If on top of that you work for the government, not having to show a profit at the end of the year, you got it made. So, why not spend an entire half day, with two people, when one would suffice (the lady in charge with her male assistant 'knowledgeable in nautical matters'), and have a little outing, visiting a yacht to do a five minute job? What bothers me is that I am paying for all this extravagance with my income taxes.
I still remember the time, when I was in Kuala Lumpur some ten years
ago on a business visit. The Canadian High Commis-sion had assisted the
firm, I was working for, in collecting addresses of companies to visit,
and to show my appreciation I invited the officer, a lady, for lunch expressing
the wish to have some local food, but letting her choose the place. It
was a good place alright, also serving western food, but she expressed
astonishment, why we visitors would want to try local food, when we could
have excellent western food at one of the big hotels (Hilton). She also
said that they were rotated every five or six years to another location
in a different area of the world. Why? So they would not get too chummy
with the locals? This policy of the Canadian government is entirely wrong.
Especially orientals only get warm to an outsider after a long period of
time, and only trust foreigners after many years. How can Canadian officials
do their jobs effectively under these circum-stances, where they are prevented
from getting to know and like the local people and customs? How can they
earn the liking and respect of the locals, when they are merely short term
'visitors'?
31 July 1992, In the Straits of Malacca off Tanjong Piai
Finally underway again! After a lot of delays due to over commitments of the yard, we finally got the installation of the engine completed late last night. Then we took the boat on a trial run in the dark, and everything worked fine. At that time it was too late to buy fuel for the trip, so I decided to stay the night and get going in the morning. When I went to pay my bill at the yard, I was glad to learn that I had come out on budget, in fact $ 30 under. When I bought fuel this morning, I had another nice surprise. Diesel at the marine pumps is only S$ 0.50 per liter, so to fill up everything cost me only S$ 43, and that gives me a cruising range of close to 300 miles.
The engine has been running now for well over 10 hours, and is settling in nicely. The boat must be loosing some of the barnacles, which had collected in harbour, or else we are going with the tidal current now, rather than against it, because our speed is up to the expected five knots rather than the 3.3, we had been averaging around the southern end of Singapore. Of course, during this break-in period I cannot run the engine at full speed. So we shall need a few hours more to Melaka than the budgeted 24. I shall just miss the Saturday closing hour of the Immigration Department. Well, I shall just check in farther up the coast then. As nobody checks any boats around here, nobody will know that I have picked up a couple of passengers on the way. Anyway, Roland and Carrie are legally in the country already, as they arrived by land from Thailand.
It was an exciting vista passing along the Singapore waterfront. Traffic
is rather heavy along this waterway, and at any one time a number of super
tankers could be seen empty westbound and fully laden the other way. A
couple of warships passed us by also, the world's answer to the increased
incidence of piracy in these waters. Some fast boats were going to and
fro be-tween Singapore City and the Indonesian island of Batam, place of
duty free liquor and beer, among other things.
1 August 1992, Off Muar, Malacca Strait
We are only three hours away from Melaka now on this beautiful sunny and calm afternoon. At the moment we are motoring with the outgoing tide, and the GPS shows the impressive speed of seven knots over the ground. The engine is broken in now, and can be run at normal speeds. Of course, it has been running almost continuously since leaving Singapore, as the wind was either too light or against us to sail.
Consequently we have oodles and oodles of electricity. The fridge has also been running most of the time, and our drinks are virtually ice cold. Now I am also running the water maker, and all our tanks are full also. The engine is using substantially less fuel, than I had anticipated from the brochures supplied. So far we have averaged 1.5 liter per hour, which works out to Can$ 0.06 per kilometer on engine power.
I did not get too much sleep last night, having to have a look-out every 15 minutes. We were travelling alongside the main shipping lanes, and several times big freighters and tankers overtook us at close range. Once an unlighted very fast vessel with strong engines went by us, only some 20 metres away. I presume it was a Malaysian government patrol boat looking for pi-rates.
The calm weather changed this morning to a rain front coming across
from the Sumatra side. The winds piped up to some 30 knots for a short
while, straight on the nose. As the tide was also running against us then,
we were only just able to stem tide and wind, and remained virtually stationary
for a couple of hours. The rain came and it poured down for another hour
or two. At that moment I remembered, that the main fuel tank must be almost
empty, and that I should add some fuel from the Jerry cans. I did not want
to do this in the rain, not wanting any water contaminating the fuel. Neither
did I want to run dry. Al-though this engine is supposed to be self-bleeding,
I did not really want to chance, having to prove it. But then the rain
stopped and I added 20 liters of fuel, only to find out, when I measured
the depth of the fuel in the tank, that I did not need to have worried,
as the consumption had been substantially less than I had thought. Now
we are busy scraping off the barnacles off the rubber dinghy which had
collected during our long stay in Loyang Bay.
7 August 1992, Lumut
Here we are at this lovely sheltered anchorage in front of the Perak Yacht Club. This is where I am planning to leave the boat for three months, while returning to Canada by air, in order to improve my cash balance, by engaging in some income gener-ating activities. There only remains a trip to Penang and back, before I leave.
At Melaka we picked up Roland and Carrie who had been cooling their heels there, waiting for us, after completing their bicycle trip down from Thailand. We had a good trip together, motoring practically all the way. For their sake though, there were a couple hours of wind, when we could sail and demonstrate to them the working of the wind vane self-steering gear.
At Melaka, Immigration and Customs had been expecting me, since Roland
had been inquiring for me several times in the preceding days. Even though
it was Sunday, they were open for the daily boat to Sumatra, and before
Roland and Carrie had arrived at the boat from the hotel, the formalities
had all been dealt with. So we left right away.
8 August 1992, 16 miles north of Pulau Pangkor
Su and I are at sea once more on our way from Lumut to Penang. This will be the farthest north we shall make it by boat this season. Roland and Carrie had left the boat the day before yesterday for Kuala Lumpur airport on their way to Europe.
A few days earlier, after meeting with Roland and Carries, we had left Melaka in the morning, and anchored for the night just around the corner from Cape Rachado, some eight hours up the coast. As we were feeling our way in towards shore on the depth meter, and were turning to go back into deeper water from the 10 foot depth we had reached, the bottom of the boat scraped against something hard. What I first noticed after that was, that the rudder was not turning freely, and could only be moved past the mid position by applying some force. Obviously the rudder had struck a coral head, while we were turning. If we had been proceeding straight, only the keel would have struck, as it extends down further than the spade type rudder. Another calamity? What to do?
We anchored the boat, and I dived down to inspect. It appeared, that the rudder post was bent slightly backwards, and the rear top portion of the rudder was binding against the hull. No problem, when it was off its mid position. Bending the rudder post back into a straight position was out of the question, unless the boat was on the dry. But since it was binding against the hull only in this one position, I decided to shave off a portion of the rudder with a file. This proved to be insufficient, so I went at it with a hacksaw (under water), taking off about a centimeter off the top corner of the rudder. This destroyed the protective cover of paint on the rudder, and exposed the apparently relatively porous interior of the rudder material to the sea, but it did not bind any more against the hull, and the rudder now turned freely. I shall have to get some advice, what to do about the rudder in the long run. At least, I shall cut that corner off cleanly, and cover the cut with epoxy and paint the next time I have the boat up on the beach for bottom painting.
During the night we had some more anxious moments, as the wind turned, and the shore became a lee shore. We were swing-ing against the shore and its coral heads. But a shortening of the anchor rode brought us off again, and the wind did not in-crease to any strength, to make it necessary to move.
The next morning we went into Port Dickson, eight miles away, to do our shopping, and to take on some more fuel. This town is a charming and quaint little place. Quaint enough not to have a Malaysian Airlines office, and quaint enough so that the girl at the only travel agency was quite lost at Carrie's request to buy a couple of air tickets from Penang to K.L. Well, we gave up that idea in the end, and decided for Roland and Carrie to leave from Lumut by bus or taxi, to catch their flight out of K.L., and from there to Europe. To get our fuel we had to take a taxi to a roadside filling station.
Just after noon we were on our way again. Then followed the night crossing to Lumut, which we reached the following after-noon. We by-passed Port Klang, the major port of Malaysia, skirting the mud banks lying across its approaches, and crossing a number of sand bars. For Roland it must have been a very interesting experience (he was standing half the watches during that night), navigating at night, watching out for the frequent ocean going ships, and steering a course from the chart to avoid the shallow banks. There was no sleeping between lookouts, and I was having a hard time to stay awake during my watches, and not nodding in, while reading my book in the cabin between lookouts. Su did not get much sleep either, as she felt she had to keep awake, when I was on watch to prevent disaster or collision with another vessel. She was a lot more confident about Roland's watching habits.
As we had decided for Roland and Carrie to leave from Lumut, after arrival at this port, there was another day to spend. We decided to go to one of the nearby beaches for a day trip. However, when I started the engine the oil pressure alarm came on. This killed that idea, and virtually the next two days were spent to trace this problem in the system. It delayed our departure from here by a full day. Between changing oil, filter and oil pressure sensor, and consulting by long distance telephone with the dealer and a neighbouring yachtsman, we finally traced the problem to a faulty integrated circuit linking the high tempera-ture alarm with the oil pressure alarm. But I knew that I could disconnect the high temperature alarm, as I also had the tem-perature needle type indicator to warn me of unacceptably high engine oil temperatures. A new circuit will be shipped by the dealer in a week.
Lumut is a neat and compact little town. The yacht club is very informal, and the charges for visiting yachts, food and drinks, and for long term mooring extremely reasonable. How long these low prices will remain is another matter. There are some 15 yachts moored here now, and there is little other space left for more boats. Many of the yachts, the keel yachts are all foreign, have been here for quite a while, with or without their owners living on them. It is getting to the point where the Immigration people would like some of them to move on, and they are starting to subtly exert some pressure, like refusing to extend their visas. Although Malaysia has no import tax on boats, these yachtsmen have also been told to take their boats with them when they leave. How much legal muscle is behind this request is not certain. In any case, when I indicated to the Immigration people that I wanted to leave my boat here for three months, they did not balk. Perhaps I am a new face, and have not been here long enough to cause them displeasure.
Life is certainly cheap here, the anchorage is very safe and pleasant, and I surely cannot blame anybody wanting to stay as long as they can. But so is life in Thailand cheap, and there are also some safe and certainly many pleasant anchorages there. As one of the yachtsmen remarked, he does not listen to the weather reports any more. Every day it is the same. During the northeast monsoon it is sunny every day with a gentle wind from the shore, and during the southwest monsoon, sunny weather interspersed with heavy rains and the wind from offshore. But never is there any storm to speak off. The people are friendly, and it is always warm. What else does one want?
The place virtually compels one to stay and to laze around, and have a party once in a while. There are quite a few boats with these lazy characters aboard, who have been here for years, and likely will remain here until a stroke or other ailment of ad-vanced age compels them to make other arrangements. As a matter of fact, there have been THREE cases of that only during my short stay in the area, where the owner of a boat had been incapacitated by a stroke, and had to be evacuated to a hospital in the U.S. or to Australia. I figure that I have quite a few years to go before that fate befalls me.
The Malaysian authorities in this haven of Lumut are getting wise to
the 'tricks of the yachties', as they put it, that is, going back and forth
between the Malaysia and Thailand, and thus being able to stay virtually
forever in the immediate area. There are plenty of other places to hide
out here though, perhaps not quite as convenient as this, but adequate
nevertheless. And then there are always the Philippines, where the women
are just as beautiful, and life is just as cheap as here, and cash
bearing yachties, although the amount they spend is a lot less than the
average five-star hotel visiting Japanese tourist, are still quite welcome.
9 August 1992, Fort Cornwallis, Penang
Our diesel engine performed well on this trip, which was right into the teeth of the wind all the way. We had to work against a four foot sea on top of fighting against the wind. As a matter of fact, when we turned the corner at Muka Head at the north-west corner of Penang, the wind turned with us. Obviously, disconnecting the temperature alarm on the engine has had no ill effects. The trip took 24 rather than the anticipated 20 hours, and the diesel fuel consumption was a little higher at 1.7 liter/hour than on the section up from Singapore.
Just before sunset, about halfway up, we met the catamaran 'On-On',
going in the opposite direction, and had a nice little chat over the VHF
with its owner, Ian. I got the sum total of 1.5 hours of sleep last night.
But here at Fort Cornwallis, right in the heart of Georgetown, we are at
one of the moorings of the future yacht club, and apart from a couple of
hours of sleep just after tying up, we shall have a full night's sleep
without interruption from worrying about the safety of our boat.
Epilogue
11 November 1994, Phuket, Thailand
I am writing this well over two years after my diary abruptly was discontinued at the anchorage at Georgetown. Somehow, there was not sufficient time, or inclination, to continue writing. I was pressed for time though, having to take the boat back to Lumut, for storage, while I travelled back to Canada, to generate some more income.
The following year I returned. We sailed 'Caraboi' through the lovely islands of the eastern Andaman Sea to Phuket, where we have settled now for good. I found a job, so the recurring trips to Canada are not any more necessary. I can be with Su on a permanent basis, and I can also enjoy the company of her two lovely daughters, Chim and Chuang, every day. 'Caraboi' is anchored in a safe bay on the east side of Phuket Island, and we can use her, whenever we want, to explore the beautiful beaches, bays and scenery of this area.
I have become like many another 'farang', who has found a life-long
mate in one of the beautiful and affectionate Thai ladies, and who has
fallen in love with the people and the country. Many a sailor, like my
friend, and now brother-in-law, has gotten stuck here, deflected from his
plans of circumnavigating the globe in his boat, beguiled and captivated
by the ambience, the smiles, the food, the beautiful scenery and the weather,
and will never move anywhere else.