Always something happening in Langkawi

After our trip into the huge mangrove forest of Langkawi we continued sailing around the island. Past the east-entry to the mangroves, very scenic with the steep face on the left and right, we head towards the south and Pulau Tuba. There we meet again our "beloved" fishing boats - this time purse seining fishermen. They drive around like crazy and wait either for the terns, who indicate a shoal of fish, or they look themselves for jumping fish somewhere. Then they speed over and put down their nets (which have a diameter of app. 100 m) around the shoal in a circle as fast as possible, beat on the water or make a din in any way possible to drive the fish into the mesh before they haul the nets in again. Since there are 30 to 40 boats in this small area it's a funny sight. After we escaped those fishing boats we kept on sailing to the west side of Langkawi and Telaga harbor. We use the time to beach Pakia tea at low water to fix cable ducts leading to our copper grounding plates below the water line. The bay at Telaga harbor is really good for this because it's very sheltered and the beach is rising very slowly and without any stones, which could damage the keel.

One day we decide to head outwards onto the open ocean to activate our watermaker. There the water is not as green and clearer than close to the island so the prefilters don't get clogged as quickly. When we finally were far enough on the ocean we could see how a big squall cloud was developing between our boat and the island. I could see one part of the cloud hanging down like a cone and Tom could finally watch how this cone developed to a tornado. What now? Put the sails down and try to get away by motor? But that's too slow, better to try sailing away with the sails up. Lucky for us the tornado moved away and finally disappeared and we escaped with nothing more than a fright. If you get right into one of those tornado's your mast would probably break and your sails would tear. We don't want to try it out. In the meantime all our sailcovers and awnings as well as the cover for our steering area are finished. Now we don't have to stand in the rain and wind anymore. How it will be in practice we don't know yet but it was great in the first windy and rainy weather. Big Thanks to our tailor Nasir, who helped a lot with his skill and know how.

Our time here in Langkawi is almost over. We have to say goodbye to Malaysia and sail towards Thailand. As a farewell we want to show you some of the great sunsets of Telaga harbor.