Knickerless in wild weather

We left our beautiful anchorage at Teluk Dayang Bunting and made our way back to Kuah where we were to exit Malaysia and make our way to Thailand. 

 
Before leaving we had some important tasks to complete – have our fridge repaired, stock up on food and duty free alcohol and pick up our laundry which we had dropped off the previous week when we were anchored at the Hole in the Wall.  

The day after arriving we hired a car and started to get ourselves organised. We were happy to see our laundry all beautifully wrapped but to our horror when we got back to the boat we discovered that all our underwear was missing! We were knickerless!

Visions of having to hit Marks and Spencers in a big way on my return to the UK to restock our undies drawer were soon dashed when we returned to the laundry a couple of days later. The lady who had dealt with us previously wasn’t there and the man who was there didn’t know us and had no idea what we were trying to explain to him. With no receipt or laundry ticket to show him it was very tricky. 

Actions speak louder than words so we tried to act out that we had picked up our washing a few days previously and it had come back without our underwear. You can imagine how we looked – and the expression on his face. Meanwhile, we looked through all the piles of wrapped clean washing and after much searching eventually found a parcel containing our underwear. 

The chap looking after the shop looked faintly mystified but let us take the parcel without further ado. 
Not far from the laundry is our favourite duty free warehouse – good wine, cans of tonic and slabs of beer all at very reasonable prices. 

We had arranged to take Bali Hai into the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club to have the fridge fixed but decided to anchor out in Kuah Harbour until the appointed day. 

On the second day, early in the evening, we a wild wind suddenly blew up in Kuah Harbour and for the first time ever we dragged anchor! 

We were busy grabbing lap tops, phones, cushions etc to take down below and suddenly looked up only to see an old steel boat perilously near to ours! 

The rain was coming down in stair rods and the wind roaring. Thanking our lucky stars that we were on board at the time, we started the engine and steered past various obstacles (including moored and anchored boats) and then reanchored safely. 

There was mayhem in the harbour – several other boats were re-anchoring and some of the ferries broke their moorings. 

Fortunately their crews were on board and were able to take control by rafting up four up together. 

It’s an ill wind though – our wind generator which we thought was broken, started whizzing round like a maniac in the high winds and now works perfectly!

The weather was still quite unsettled when we motored to the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club but we had a pleasant enough trip. 

Getting into the Marina was a little bit hair raising as there was quite a current caused by the outgoing tide which we hadn’t taken into account (note to self always try to make a point of entering a marina at slack tide!)

After three or four attempts we finally made it in unscathed with the help of the very patient Marina staff. 

We thoroughly enjoyed a beer and meal in the yacht club deck watching the gorgeous sunset. 

Next day Dave and Rita from Beach House kindly gave us a lift to the wet markets to restock our supplies and then on to the ferry terminal for Rebak Marina so that Jonathan could pick up a parcel containing a part that should have been included in an earlier parcel with our new goose neck fitting. 

 

While Jonathan was on parcel pick up duty, Rita, Dave and I went for a delicious lunch at Red Tomato in Cenang Beach and then to several food shops that we hadn’t come across before which sold lots of items we had been on the look out for. 

Our fridge mechanic Adnam arrived as promised and took out the old (and broken) ice box and installed a wrap around plate, regassed it and at long last we had a fridge that was really cold and stayed that way without icing up. 

Clean clothes (including underwear!), duty free booze, fresh vegetables, other food basics and a working fridge – we were ready to leave on the next stage of adventure – next stop Thailand!