After a long string of flights (40+ hours) and one midnight boat ride, I made it back to the boat!!
here’s the funny travel story
Almost missed my 4th flight on the way over… very stressful , was running through kuala lumpur airport sweating my a** off, with huge surfboard bag and another checked bag full of sailboat parts. Malaysian and Indian families were looking at me like I was this crazy maniac.. haha.
Gave myself 3 hours to connect to my last flight of the sequence but after the string of immigration customs baggage claim, terminal transfer shuttles, long pedestrian walkways I made it to check in counter only for them to tell me they were closed for that flight and that i’ll have to spend the night in kuala lumpur… after 2 + days i was so beat i refused to accept that as an option, so I ran around to a different baggage officer..6 cut the whole line with my huge bags (people i’m sure we’re not stoked).. and begged the lady to send them through- she said she would but no guarantee they would make it… Great i thought… but let’s do it. sprinted to the gate - at this point i’m covered in sweat and have a pounding headache from the humidity and lack of water over the past few days of travel. Malaysian tsa officers and local families are like “who is this guy!?!? and what’s his deal??” I guess doing whatever it takes to get it done at all costs is maybe viewed differently here. either way I pushed on and made it to the flight and landed at my last destination, grabbed my bags grabbed a taxi and headed to the ferry doc at 10pm local time.
My boat was sitting on concrete forms “on the hard” on rebak island.. off of another bigger island (langkawi) off the mainland of malaysia 😂
so after i made it to the final flight destination (langkawi) I had to get a boat ride to the last neighboring island (rebak) where my boat was located.
Made it to the boat dock around 10:30 pm and the last ferry ride was around midnight. Get there in time to catch the earlier one … only to have to ferry guard tell me “ sorry sir, no surfboard bags allowed on the ferry, not my rules i just enforce” … haha after all that here i am - some random boat dock on and island in malaysia. so close but so far away from my boat - my home and i’m stuck once again.
After about 30 minutes of pestering the guy about how my clothes are in the surfboard bag as well and I live on my boat.. i was able to crack through his facade of Mr. officer. the language barrier and my sure determination (I annoyed him enough) for him to say “watever there’s nobody here tonight so just get on”
I was SO RELIEVED to finally be on that ferry. nothing outside of my control could stop me now from getting to my boat and going the heck to bed. thank goodness.
After schlepping all my heavy bags to the boatyard (another 20 minute walk from the ferry dock) i’m walking down the boatyard to where I left the boat. it’s dark, hot, humidity, and I can feel the mozzys already trying to suck my blood. I’m passing hundreds of boat masts looking for my unique Polynesian double hulled double masted schooner. something easy to spot amongst the more standard aluminum masted sloops.
I walk all the way down to the end of the boatyard where my boat was, I have been dreaming of this moment for months now, getting back to my boat and I had it alll mentally pictured in my head. However when i get to hardstand spot #8 my boat is not there… there some monohull in my spot … im thinking … WHERE TF IS MY BOAT.
To move a boat amongst a boat yard it takes a large crane - danger of damaging the boat is highly possible. Most boat owners are present and very attentive to when this happens. I have seen boats be dropped before in thailand. only to have a crew of boatyard people run over, patch it up and finish the launch… sketchy, and dishonest to say the least. you want to keep a close eye on your home and how it’s handled especially on a haul out.
frantically pacing through the boatyard, still schlepping my bags. I feel like my arms about to fall off. rows and rows of boats go by and I scan for my raked back shorter masts. I come across Vasco halfway down the other side of the boat yard. I’m exhausted and now i’m pissed that my boat was craned and moved with any notice to me. At to make things worse. The crane operators took my ladder. So here I am it’s midnight in malaysia after. 40+ hours of travel, sweaty exhausted finally made it to my boat after many hoops jumped through. and i’m staring up at the deck 20 feet above me… and I have no way of getting up there. I contemplate stealing one of the neighbor boats ladders just for the night casing out which boat looks like nobodys home - but to avoid conflict I don’t endulge in this idea. Instead I take another 30 minutes casing the boatyard, and find a ladder by the crane operators workshop building, I take it, and justify the stealing in my head by reassuring myslef that the crane operators were the ones that put me here in the first place.
I climb up to my boat throw dock lines down, climb back down the ladder, hoist my 60lb surf board bag full of clothes 20 feet in the air, tired, sweaty, and utilizing every ounce of energy left. Several grunts and cursewords later I get both my heavy bags up on deck. I turn on the boat batteries, do a quick once over of the system, and notice the breaker for my fan isnt working. too tired to deal with it I accept defeat in area and fall asleep on deck of the boat with no blankets or cushions. even the bright lights of the boatyard that stay on through the night could not stop me from conking out cold on the deck.. haha.
I woke up the next morning with a few mosquito bites on my arms and legs - and realized I would have to figure out a different arrangement for the future. I got to work unlocking the boat, checking systems, and going through lists in my head of things to do. Lots of cleaning and organizing had to be done. the previous owner left alot of stuff onboard, most useful, but lots unnessary and needing a good sort through and chuck out. I realized the fans worked all along and I could have used them last night but it was so dark I must have hit the wrong breaker. I am here now - let the boatyard projects commence …. :)
