Having arrived Lumut safely Owner and us had some errands to tend to in Kuala Lumpur so we got a car loaned and drove up there. Turned out my errand was not needed so I got a few days off and a visit to KL. Impressive city but impossible to find a taxi unless you were booking via a dedicated app, so we rather ate from eateries close by the airbnb than taking tax to some other venue. We actually found a very nice Mexican restaurant. After 3 nights we headed back to Lumut and left Owner to tend to his own business.
KL skyline
Leisure area of the AirBnB
Foodie road
KL skyline
KL traffic
Somebody's fond of Herbie
On our way back we chose the coastal road instead of the one leading beside Genting highlands via Ipoh. The road had a number of speedbumps but I reckon it was as fast as the other option. The only hitch was that when we're about to reach Lumut we were stopped at a police checkpoint and the policeman thought I was not fit to drive with my license but Enok was, I guess for some reason he thought it was not a valid document. Oh well, life goes on and Enok was driving.
Fanny in Lumut
Fanny in Lumut
Once back in Lumut I returned the car to my friend. In KL I had to repair the tyre as it had been punctured at some point. One morning it was flat so I had to put on the spare tyre and drive around until we came across a tyre shop.
At the 2nd hand dealers
Then it was onto pressing matters, I checked into the marina how the flag change process was going and was happy to receive the digital copy of the certificate of registry. Now I had more to get the insurance quote going. Then I had to source some canisters for spare extra fuel, the longest leg where it would be needed was Maldives to Djibouti.
At the 2nd hand dealers
At the 2nd hand dealers
At the 2nd hand dealers
At the 2nd hand dealers
My friend too me to a local junkyard selling all used things, there I found just what we needed. 20 pcs of 25ltr cans we could strap to the railing wires. Actually when filled they could fit 30ltr of diesel.
Extra fuel tanks on deck
One day my friend took me to see a local chaps fishfarm in the Lumut estuary "Pangkor Laut". It was very peaceful and he caught a fish and served it to us at the same time. Best lunch in a long time.
Visiting a local fishfarm
Visiting a local fishfarm
Visiting a local fishfarm
Visiting a local fishfarm
Chinese breakfast
Then one morning as my friend was ferrying us around he picked up another chap who lived on a slow paced lumber yard. Around the yard was scattered old heavy work machinery and trucks. Some of them were the classic Mercedes Benz 911 trucks. The joke was that one could call the girlfriend and say that "I'll be picking you up in my 911".
Local timber mill abandoned transport
Chinese lunch
Chinese lunch
Our friends treated us almost on a daily basis to the local Chinese cuisine not to mention one factory owner making shock cords donated us a bunch of lengths that would come handy in securing e.g. jerry cans. Another one who owned the fish farm gave us discarded small pieces of nets he could not use that I then made into a vegetable hammock.
Orchids
Orchids
Chinese dinner
Chinese dinner
Chinese dinner, spirit house
At the wetmarket
Lumut estuary, one of the inland "fiords"
Last breakfast
Local catamaran in Lumut marina
The local business men in the area had gotten into building their own leisure cats equipped with gasoline outboards for propulsion. They were entirely made of plywood, glassfibre on the outside and epoxy painted inside. On deck there were small gensets to power entertainment systems and aircon. Nice platform to have fun on but I could see they were not strongly powered and as such would be having handling difficulties in adverse weather conditions with the considerable windage and very shallow draft.
Fishermen going out
Malaysian Navy
Merchant vessel
Sunset
Tanker
Then finally thought we had everything we could possibly think of needing we were joined by Tim, our 4th crewmember for the trip. He came late one evening having flown in from Phuket and joined our farewell do for all local Lumutians that had helped us along. The next day was last minute shopping that I did not participate in and we got even more stuff to stow away. Then we did our out clearance and were cleared out of Malaysia. The evening was going to go easy as Owner elected to leave next morning, that was no problem as the port clearance was in force 48hrs (or perhaps 72?). Come evening our Chinese friends turned up again with gifts and then we put on the BBQ and had a nice time. Meanwhile I was tuning up our satcomms and managed by midnight to get test messages through. On the morning of 17th April we got up to a sunny and quiet morning. I got up and by 0812hrs we let go and were on our way towards Maldives. After communicating with the Agents there it seemed we could provision and bunker in Uligamu and would not need to trek down South to Male' for it, this would save us 2-3 days.
Indonesian fishermen
Indonesian fishermen
As we were puttering into the Malacca straits we could see from time to time huge merchant marine vessels and one morning when we were passing the Northern tip of Sumatra we were accosted by Indonesian fishermen, the came driving about in funny shaped boats asking for drinks. Our deckhand Tim then slowed down and threw them a couple of beers which was a big mistake, after half an hour we had like 5 boats hovering around us. The weather had still not favoured us with any wind so we were motoring.
Tanker
General cargo vessel
General cargo vessel
Rainfall
Sunset
Sunset
Sunset
Sunrise
Sunrise
Sunrise
Sunrise
As we puttered along and passed Sri Lanka we lost sight of most merchantmen because our route took us S towards Uligamu and the merchantmen headed for the high risk area towards Oman or the Gulf (or came from there). When passing Sri Lanka we saw the Island nation covered in towering cloud formations, the coast was still quite busy and again we encountered thirsty fishermen as the monsoon had not to our luck set in. As we passed Galle I could see on the radar quite a few ships anchored off.
Sunset
Sri Lankan fishermen
Sri Lankan fishermen, pulling net up
Sri Lankan coast, massive hotel structure, looked unfinished
Sri Lankan fishermen, catamaran type boat, remarkably fast on remarkably small outboard engine
Sunset
Sunset
We had some spectacular sunsets and sunrises, only a day in the middle we had a bit of wind, the sea developed a weird kind of chop that one would not expect in the open ocean, waves were more like on a lake. This made Fanny to hobby horse and roll from time to time but luckily the catamaran hulls right themselves pretty quick.
Sunset
Sunset
Sunrise
Sunrise