Seven weeks of visitors

Seven weeks of having visitors was really really nice. I have had an amazing time with them all and I have spent a lot of time planning and looking forward to it beforehand, however, I must also admit that (now, almost two weeks after my mum left) it was pretty nice to be back to normal.

It was of course all planned around this lovely event, or actually our wedding came about because everyone were coming to visit, not the other way around! We knew that Langkawi Regatta was in the middle of January, so we allowed ourselves one week after the regatta to catch up on work, and then my twin sister Karen arrived. Actually she's a super cool mum, she flew here alone with three kids aged 2, 4 and 5!

Week 1 & 2: Phil slept on a couch at the loft and I sailed Karen and her three boys to Ko Lipe (Thailand).
Week 3: Karen's boy friend arrived and they stayed in an apartment in Kuah.
Week 4: Everyone arrived and we got married, and we all spent one week in Langkawi,
Week 5: Phil and his family went to Singapore while my family went to Ko Lipe, Phil joined us halfway through
Week 6 & 7: My mum stayed on after everyone left, we hung out in Langkawi, cruised a bit, and visited Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

Here we go, 28 photos of lots of fun in seven weeks.

Pure joy

Snorkel time

we have a new fun toy on Sophia, a stand up paddle board, or a SUP, lots of fun and supposedly good exercise. The kiddos loved going for a ride

checking out hermit crabs

cute and gorgeous photo

Sailing back to Langkawi (25 miles) was a windy affair and of course on the nose! One was sick from the night before, the other seasick

visiting the crocodile farm in Langkawi

super nice pool where Karen and family rented an apartment in Kuah

early morning walk up the hill with Karen

now everyone have arrived, here we're celebrating my dad's birthday the day before our wedding

We stayed at Sunset Valley, an amazing place in the middle of Langkawi, everyone loved it, each little family stayed in a traditional Malay kampung house, only one more house was occupied by another family, otherwise we had it to ourselves, Beautiful view of rice paddies, here they are being burned off after harvest

girly time the day before wedding, we got a massage and scub and had yummy Indian food

Cassie snapped this photo of Phil and I the evening before our wedding

Sunset Valley had a swimming pool and that's where we spent most of our time, I love these aerial jumps of each of my nephews

We also did some sightseeing in Langkawi, here Cassie, Pat & Colleen are in the gondola going down from the mountain view point

last night at Sunset Valley, we did a nice casual bbq and invited Glenn and Erja to come along and a really lovely evening

Now in Ko Lipe, we stayed in these three huts right on the beach and a couple in behind as well. 

these two have a special connection, and this photo captured it beautifully

off on a kayaking adventure

watermelon shake and cake break

Holger age five improved his swimming skills immensely after five weeks and at this stage was able to snorkel with his dad for 45 minutes with no inflation help and he even dove to 2-3 meters!!!

Now only my mum is left. We went to Penang to explore, here at the hill top

natural fish spa at the Tropical Spice Garden, a really cool place to visit

Chinese temple

See more Penang photos in this old post from when we first visited it a year and half ago

I love Penang's architecture, here's an example of a traditional airwell in an old shop house, now museum. 

I also took my mum cruising on Sophia (Phil was in Singapore racing). Langkawi has 99 islands and has a ton of anchorages which we embarrassingly hardly have explored

Proof you can go sightseeing in shops, here Rams in Kuah, it tells us lots about Malay style, lets just say, it's different :-)

we spent the last couple of days in Kuala Lumpur, here we're up the Menara Tower

May's cruising expenses for Thailand and Malaysia

May was our most expensive month EVER at NZ$ 4573. This was no surprise as a lot of expensive things happened this month. Travelling and shopping is expensive. We spent ten days away from Sophia in Thailand and Kuala Lumpur. The main purpose was to do the TOG regatta and we then spent two days in KL on our way back. The tickets were a bit last minute, so not the cheapest. We spent about NZ$1768 on flights, accommodation, race fees and food in Thailand and KL.

Shopping is another big item! My old second hand computer that I had in NZ before we left finally gave up the game. $600. We also splurged on a new phone for me, my first phone in two years and my first new phone in about seven years. $355. H&M clothes shopping was another splurge, cruising is (also) hard on clothes and we both needed new stuff. $227. I (heart) H&M.

Finally Sophia also needed new stuff, new batteries this time! $859. One of the very first things we did up in Auckland right after we had purchased her 3 1/2 years ago, was to get two 6V Trojans. They have served us well, but have taken a beating (I think initially we only looked at battery capacity % and not voltage!). A few months ago in Thailand we came back to Soph after having been away a few hours and the bilge pump was going, and it had really drained the battery. After that it has been a very fast steady decline, some mornings towards the end the fridge was off because the voltage was low 10s!. Phil build our battery box to fit four, which we now finally have, and it's great. On the wish list is more solar!

Top of the Gulf regatta and Kuala Lumpur visit

A few days after our visitors Cassie and Pablo left, we flew to Thailand. More specifcally to Jomtien Beach, just south of Pattaya in the Gulf of Thailand. Each year Ocean Marina hosts a big regatta called Top of the Gulf, this year was the 10th anniversary. Phil has been there twice, 8 and 5 years ago and has supplied sail for a few boats. One of them is the beautiful Souay (also means beautiful in Thai), a J41 owned by French-Canadian Jean. He had kindly invited us to come racing with him. Or more likely, he was keen for Phil to come, and I came along as part of the package.

The race consisted of one practice race day, and four days with several races each. The weather gave us some interesting conditions as the sea breeze fights the squalls that were building up over land. Sometimes the squalls simply killed our wind and dumped rain on land, but other times they gave us wind and rain. It did provide for lots of beautiful could photo opportunities.

The racing was pretty close and we did OK and on the final day we did really well, and we actually won our class, the IRC class 3, very cool. Each night there were drinks and sometimes food too, or else we'd go out for dinner with the rest of the crew, so we had some pretty long and very social days, good fun. After the race we stayed a couple of days and did a few touristy things with Jean. One funny thing was that Jean normally takes his visitors out sailing. Phil and I politely declined this offer, as we had just raced on his boat for five days, and because that we live on a boat and visit lots of beautiful islands, we didn't really feel the need for that. Instead we rather wanted to explore inland.

On our way back to Langkawi we had two days in Kuala Lumpur. It's our first visit to the city, but hopefully not the last. It's a cool city, relative compact and easy to get around, lots of contrasts (old and new), and some good shopping. Our hostel was right across from a huge H&M, how lucky was that! And we were also in walking distance from the computer and mobile phone mall, from where we spent lots of $$$ (yes, May is going to be very expensive). Pablo and Cassie happend to be in KL exaclty the same two days as us and stayed in a hotel just down the road from us, so of course we hung out some more with them, total bonus.

Guest blog post by visitor Cassie

Worth the wait, Cassie has kindly written a guest blog post from their visit on Sophia in the second half of April. Visitors are such a great reminder of how fantastic our cruising life is and Cassie's post below is a testimony to that. Thanks so much for coming to visit us and for writing this.

" I wanted freedom, open air and adventure. I found it on the sea " - Alaine Gerbault

With these words in mind, we set off for our own adventure on board SY Sophia!

Leaving behind the growing chilliness of Argentina and after re packing some summer essentials in Sydney we landed in the Malaysian night to a wall of humidity and boy did that make me happy! Astrid wasn't lying when she said 'no long pants or sleeves required!'

We awoke the next morning to a beautiful Langkawi morning, boats docked all around, the sound of water lapping at the boat, we were in heaven.

That same day we headed off to Thailand! I hadn't been onboard a yacht since Phil's Mum and Dad, Colleen and Ron had their old Beneteau cruising around the Whitsunday Islands and wasn't sure how this body was going to be on water again! Worse still was Pablo, being a mountain man rarely ever on water he had as I discovered been popping his sea sickness tablets from the night before! Luckily neither of us felt sick and we cruised happily into Lipe Island that evening.

Lipe was quintessential postcard Thailand! From the long boats, white sand beaches and azure blue waters it couldn't have looked more idyllic. We drank coconut and mango shakes, ate Pad Thai and curries and of course got our white untouched skin completely burnt! There is nothing better than being able to jump into sea water at any time the heat requires it!

We headed off in search of good snorkelling and weren't disappointed. On the other side of Lipe was beautiful coral reefs, full of vibrant fish and coloured anemones. We spent hours in these waters emerged in another world and time.

Exploring on Sophia opened up a whole new world of travel. There are places you can access and thing you can see are just not possible via land. We explored islands and trekked to waterfalls. We dove and swam and explored. We ate and drank and played too many games of Settlers of Catan! (Phil you are a monster!)

Its a wonderful world amongst this boating community, always there are welcoming neighbours to share stories and advice.. and not to mention recipes! Lucky for us we had the best cook around, Astrid is, as all the other boat families know, is a great cook! We were lucky to have fresh baked bread in the mornings and cakes for afternoon tea. (and thanks to Phil for being the best washer up around!)

After spending a blissful week or so around Thailand's wonderful islands and spending more time to the water than out, we headed back to Langkawi thoroughly toasted, salted and happy.

These two are living the dream! We enjoyed our time on Sophia so much and I in particular have been re inspired to pursue this lifestyle in the future! (currently familiarising myself with all things catamaran!)

Thankful to have such a great cousin in Phil and he in turn having such a great girlfriend in Astrid! Thank you both for the weeks of wonderful adventures and opening up your gorgeous home on the water to us! We will be seeing you soon, very very soon!

Cassa and Pablo