Hello Again Rebak

Hi everyone,
Zen Again is now back at Rebak Marina in Langkawi, Malaysia. We had a great passage from Phuket, logging 121nm in 24 hours. The nice westerley breeze (10-15 knots) and fine conditions lasted until 0300 this morning. Then we had a brief rain shower with 20-25knot winds. A good opportunity to try out the new reefing arrangements.

Zen Again's track

After the rain the wind was light but still westerly. We continued sailing at 2-3knots until about an hour away from Rebak. We motored in from there, with the only drama being when the motor stopped when just 100m from the entrance (and on a lee shore). We unrolled the jib, turned around and beat off under autopilot while I bled the fuel system. With the engine running again we entered the marina and tied up at pen B30.

There are several yachts here which took part in Sail Indonesia with us last year - good to see them. Some of the boats have had major "makeovers" as we have. An hour after we arrived a violent storm arrived and it blew 30+knots and poured rain for nearly two hours. Glad we arrived before that!

Moored at Rebak shortly after arrival

Rainstorm a short time later!

The direct passage from Phuket certainly exposed us to far fewer fishing boats and fishing nets. We passed half a dozen pair trawlers near Phuket but after that only saw individual trawlers occasionally, and stationary squid boats overnight. We passed through one big field of net floats in 50m of water west of Ko Rok Nok. Just after dawn we narrowly avoided a large tree trunk - just as well we weren't further ahead!

Zen Again at Rebak Marina

For those interested in single-handed short passage watchkeeping, I used the ten minute scheme. So day and night I set a 10 minute alarm, rested until it went off, looked out all round for traffic, checked sails, wind etc, and then set the alarm again. It worked well for me and it seemed it would be OK for up to perhaps 48 hours. Could be used when watch keeping on crewed passages too.

All in all, twas a great sail!

Farewell to Boat Lagoon

Hi everyone,
Zen Again departed Boat Lagoon, Phuket this morning after nearly 6 months of repair and refit. We fuelled up and then were guided out of the creek by one of the marina men. After clearing the creek I hoisted the main but had to motor for an hour until we excaped the lee of the island. We are now romping along in a great 10-14 knot WSW breeze, heading directly for Langkawi with the wind on the beam. No 2 and full main, logging 6.5 knots and about 7 over the ground. Dry bilge too!

About to depart Boat Lagoon

The weather has been improving as we sail south. In Boat Lagoon it was overcast with drizzle. Once away from the island there's been about 6/8 cloud cover and no rain so far.

Sailing out of Thai waters

It was a little sad leaving Boat Lagoon. They're a friendly crowd. Most importantly Precision Shipwrights did a great job on the repairs and refit, and everything appears to be not only looking good but working very well too. The dual mainsheet system atop the new s/s arch is working very well. The new cockpit teak is wonderful - no more sitting on a bed of nails!

New Sail Number - back to our old FSC 88
Note - not a bendy mast, rather a wide angle lens!

Right now we're in position 07 38.9N 098 39.5E, doing 7.2 knots over the ground. But you can see all that on our new PredictWind tracker page (on the right hand side of the blog home page).

Still charging mid-afternoon (speed or amps? Both!)

Trust all's well where you are.