Penang and Sari Timur do not have a good track record. Back in 92 during our first trip here we were badly damaged. We came adrift from one of the mooring buoys that were laid where the present yacht club now exists. We were recovered by the local pilot ship but the damage they did during recovery was pretty extensive. Though all cosmetic, Sari Timur bore some of those scars right up until July of 2009. We later learned that Penang had a famous crazy man that was swimming out to the boats and setting them adrift. Why wasn’t this mentioned in the cruising guides?!
Anyway during the Raja Muda regatta 2009, we again had Penang as a stopover. This time we were to come into the marina that is pretty famous for nasty tidal currents. We were coming in with no rudder indication and a very tight squeeze. Throw the bow line, whoops, missed. Retrieve again, throw, please guy, who finally caught it, please pull our bow around. Can’t convey that message. Panic overrides and we manage to back out without hitting any boats. No problem, we give up our berth and head for a spot on the wave attenuator. Anyway we really didn’t get to enjoy ourselves on that trip so we thought a stop back on our way south was warranted. Penang is one of the premier tourist destinations of Malaysia and is described as Singapore 30 years ago. Famous for all kinds of food and small interesting shops on the streets of Georgetown, we wanted to visit it before we left this part of the world. But could we beat the Penang curse? Anyway just as we are approaching the north channel our wind instruments decided to quit working. Then to add insult we got hit by a sudden squall with winds of now untellable strength and visibility to about 50 feet, we figured we were going to miss the tide. We continued to plod on under MaxSea and crossed fingers. Anyway a mile from the marina, the storm breaks. We called them and they advised that we can still work the tide. So we head in. First attempt almost but no, the boat next to us is too close and we are at bad angles. Back up. Let’s go out. circle around and try this again. Sari Timur is a lovely boat but she has her own mind when maneuvering in marinas. And at 26 tons she is heavy enough to throw her weight around and get her own way. She needs about 2.5 knots of way on to steer her but then of course you have to stop that 26 tons as well. Anyway second attempt everyone including the guys on the dock were ready for us and we made it in. WOW!!! Time for a beer!!!. On the second day the constant waves and current cause one of our fenders to pop out and a bare screw decided to chew through our topside paint. Oh well, we will get Mohammed to fix this when we get back to Singapore. Let us enjoy Penang and that we did. We ate our hearts out. We shopped till we dropped and all in all, felt we did our Penang trip proud. Now it was time to leave. “Are you sure this is slack tide?” was the question to the marina guys when they came to help us cast off. Anyway out we went. Watch that bow, it is swinging, oh no, the stern is careening the other way. Slack tide my foot, we are in trouble here. Come on Sari Timur, full throttle astern please, let’s not hit anyone. Scrape, groan we get out but it is not pretty and there are some more scuff marks on the top sides. These will scrub out though but man talk about sphincter muscles being tight! Man I was worried about that. Anyhow we are out and heading under Penang’s famous bridge but now we have fisherman deciding to lay their nets across the channel. However, several fishermen come out and led us around their nets and we finally are getting away from Penang when the engine temp starts to rise. What is this?!? Anyway it turns out that we had sucked enough of the Penang rubbish that we had plugged both inlets to our manifold and the engine wanted cooling water. Luckily we had enough wind to sail and we had some room so apart came the fittings and clear the valves. Whoops one seacock ball breaks so after clearing the jam I can no longer close the valve. Pauline please come hold your hand over this while I try to put the hose back on. Then the second seacock has a leak in the hose fitting where it is sucking air. A quick unscrew, retape with Teflon tape and it seems to be fine. So we now have an engine. Let us motor sail to clear water and continue sailing south. Now we are relaxed and looking back at Penang fading in the distance we say it was all worth it!
Some pictures of the Penang bridge. We didn't take any pictures of Penang itself.
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