August finally had us departing for Tioman Island in Eastern Malaysia
We had a get going dinner of red wine and BBQ pork ribs a must in any Islamic country 
It was lovely easy motor sailing and sailing down to Penang. A bit stressful for me after all the work. Would everything all hold up ok? The plan was if something failed before the halfway to Penang mark was to limp back to Langkawi. Fortunately all was good. Less good as always were the fish aggravation traps that are sometimes unlit at night.
Great fun hitting one at 2 AM 
Penang at night on anchor, we used the stop to get more food as always 😎
the leaving Penang breakfast, the spoils of a great supermarket stop.
On the way out there’s a 25 meter clearance bridge and although we only go up 20 I stress to make sure we are well centred.
Arriving in Pankor I’m less than thrilled to find out someone didn’t check the watermaker inlet sea clock to make sure it opened and close. Result a fast haul out to replace it. 😡😡😡😡 It had been put on a task list and wasn’t done. Me steaming off to get the new part and arrange for a haul out.
But hey when you get going like this it’s hard to stay upset. Again a lovely trip down to Port Dickson long but almost effortless. Ran the Port tank for the first time on an extended run.
Admiral Marina was a great stop. We met a lovely family from Denmark taking a year off to sail cruise while the kids were still young enough. Ready to move on….nothing the engine won’t start. 🤠What? It ran fine on the way in. Turns out the air vent line on the Port tank is blocked. This means I had to bleed the full lines to get all the air out. Getting to be quite the mechanic…sigh….
The cat in the slip next to us had found the mainsails were a great sleeping spot. Woke up one morning and she was up on ours.
coffee the elixir that fuels a boat. We make fresh ground French pressed every morning. 🤓
Malacca was a handy anchorage to avoid a long night sail, so we made an early stop and I tried my hand at fishing.
It’s called fishing not catching. My normal catch of nothing was had. That night a Sumatran storm came. Woke up feeling something was amiss, and started organising the boat. Didn’t want to bother folks over nothing so waited till it was on us to roust people. Got the anchor up just as the wind climbed over 20 knots, we were anchored with less than 2 meters under the keel so I wanted out quick. 3 lovely hours ensued of steaming along in 35+ knot winds in water that was much more shallow than I wanted to be in. 
6 hours after it started we had this… the hazardous reputations here in the Malacca Straight are well deserved. 
Singapore’s welcome sign facing Malaysia. A warning telling illegal border crossers that they shoot to kill. An unfortunate sign of things to come for us….
Putri Harbor time for another food shopping spree, more diesel and water and one more go at bleeding the engine. 🤨 I guess I’m getting good at this now. Next post will cover fun times to Tioman and fun with the Singapore police/navy 🤬
My Road 