Puteri Harbour marina

Well what I found with regards to the alternators was that we had a cooked start battery that had overheated and blew up. This caused the overheat protection to kick in and shut the alternator down. So now that we have taken out the faulty battery all systems work ok. Big relief for us.

We enjoyed being at Port Dickson as we along with Callisto rented a car, (you can ask us about that sometime) and drove up to Fraser Hills which are at the 5000 foot level on top of a hill surrounded by jungle with temperatures much cooler. We spent two nights in an old Tudor designed boutique hotel. It was not as good as the one we stayed in at the Cameron highlands but we had a good time. At this time of the year there are no tourists around so had the place to ourselves. The world wild life group has a big influence here and there are many trails through the jungle to see the many birds that live here as well as a few monkeys, Marian and Ann had a nice early morning walk before breakfast and enjoyed the flowers and birds. After two nights we left and drove to Malacca for a quick look and enjoyed going back to Chang Ho museum which has been much improved since we were last there. It is a good place to just wander around and have a meal. We got back to the boats late in the evening and spent a relaxing day around the pool.

Saturday morning we were off, not too early as we only had thirty five miles to go which we did under power as there was no wind. Sunday was a long day of about seventy miles to the next anchoring islet. This was ok with us managing to motor sail most all the way. Running the engine with the sails up adds a couple of knots to our speed which makes a big difference. Running down the Malacca straights, which used to be a pirate ally not so long ago, there are not many good anchorages and we do not want to run at night as there is so much garbage in the water plus lots of small fishing boats with no lights. This is why we do these different mileages some days rather than averaging them. On Monday we were off early and arrived through the massive amount of ships at anchor off  Singapore to arrive at Puteri Marina which is on the Malaysian side across from the island of Singapore. We got in around noon and fueled up and then found our berth with the help of the boat boys. Then it was down to work setting up Kilkea II to lay up for the next three months. I changed the engine oils and Marian started up on the big cleanup in the cabin, not that is was bad, but when we leave the boat in these tropical climates it really pays to have everything clean so that we do not have to come back to a boat with any mildew, bugs or worse.

For the last few days we have been working on the boat jobs and finding new ones to do when we come back. It is beastly hot and taking down the sails and putting up the cover over the whole boat nearly killed us. Thank god for beer which even Marian is enjoying. Today is Friday and we will leave tomorrow to go to Singapore for the night before flying out early on Sunday morning for Japan and then onto Vancouver arriving there still on Sunday morning! It is going to be a very long day! We are looking forward to some cool weather and seeing all the family and friends.

Port Dickson

We left Straights Quay marina around 1400 on the high tide as the entrance is silting in and we would be dragging the keel in the mud on any other tide. It was beastly hot when we left and we motored through the downtown area of Georgetown to a little island on the south end of the island. We spent a night that was just plain uncomfortable with the heat and humidity and left at dawn the next  morning. One small problem was a large abandoned fishing net was hooked around our anchor and that took a few minutes to get clear. Once away it was a day of avoiding floating plastic and other junk that is so prevalent in these waters. We motored and sailed, but mostly motored the 65 miles or so to Pangor island and anchored at the south end. The day had a number of thunder showers and rain on the way down and this managed to clear the air and it was a comfortable night. Off at daybreak again for the next seventy miles to Port Klang. We arrive an hour before sunset at a small islet with a light house on it fifteen miles north of the port and spent a short night with some sloppy waters on the tide change at the anchorage. Thankfully it did not last more than an hour or so and again we were off at daybreak through the port of Klang. This is the main port in Malaysia just outside of KL and it is big dirty with miles of docks and cranes and ships loading and unloading which is rather interesting to see. We arrived in Port Dickson at Admiral marina around five in the evening and were greeted by four boat boys who helped us tie up. We have been here before in November 2012 and found it to be a nice place to hang our for awhile.

Boats!!! Well we have another problem and this time it is to do with the alternator on the engine which is putting out way to much power and causing problems with the new batteries. Being Saturday we will have to wait and see what we can do come Monday. I have made a call and there is a possibility we can get someone who knows about electricity and stuff down on Monday but!! Other wise all is well and we have done this trip of just over two hundred miles in the last three days in the company of Callisto and are planning another get away to the hills for a couple of days and then to Malaca for a day before continuing south towards Singapore and our destination of Puteri Hbr where we leave Kilkea II and return to Canada for the summer.

Cameron Highlands

We had a great two day trip up to the Cameron Highlands with Anne and Mike. The drive up there was about four to five hours and the elevation was up at five thousand feet. The road was a freeway for half the way and then a very bendy road up into the hills. There is a big difference of the temperature and humidity up there as it was cool and fresh. This is an area of farming up the many terraced hills grows lots of mixed vegetables, many flower and orchids as well as many tea plantations. We saw how the tea was produced and tasted the local brew. The others seemed to appreciate the smells of the different teas but my smell is so bad that I couldn't tell the difference or really smell much of anything. Oh well at least the others did so I guess the old nose is not what it used to be. We stayed at the Lake house hotel which is very small and resembles and old English country home. It only has sixteen rooms and the service was great along with the dinner and breakfast. Anyone heading this way we would recommend it highly. The drive back was good although we had a few thunder storms with lots of rain to contend with. We did come back on the new bridge and causeway that is about 20 km long and just opened a month ago. We posted some pics last year when we went under it before the center span had been completed.

The boat stuff was not done when we got back which should be a simple weld of a stainless steel pipe. Today we got it back and it is now worse that when we sent it in!! Amazing that no one in Penang seems to know how to weld stainless or more likely they just don't care enough to do a good job. So we are here another day and hope a new one is fabricated by tomorrow?? If not we have a fall back plan with a part from Callisto that should work until we can get someone to fabricate a new piece. Tomorrow we will be off south towards Pangor and down to Port Dickson which will take us about four days as we will be anchoring at night. Far too much junk in the water around these parts to travel in the dark.


tea plantation in the Cameron Highlands
 



more tea plants



Lakehouse hotel
 



four poster bed with mosquito net plus nice orchid