January 28th: Our gorgeous grandchild, Charlotte turns 2 today! Wow where has that time gone, it has just flown! Of course they seem to be growing up really fast because we aren’t there to see them. A big downside to this travelling is not seeing our family. We had a quiet day apart from checking into Immigration, they have a little portable office right on the beach. It was quite straight forward and nothing to pay. Steve and Claire off Almacantar checked in yesterday and were asked for a bottle of wine, which of course they did not provide. We had a really nice officer and he did not ask anything out of order.
We had a swim and lazed on the beach for a couple of hours reading our books. Steve and Claire came over to Southern Star for dinner and we cooked some of the NZ fillet steak we brought in Langkawi which was absolutely beautiful. A quiet night and reasonably early to bed.
January 29th: Stay on the boat jobs day today, but it was one of THOSE days and very frustrating! Whilst replying to emails and sorting out some international payments, Outlook decided to block us sending emails, so then had to nominate 2nd email account, which was our Ocens.net account, and we had 10 minutes to retrieve password from that account, and wouldn’t you know it that wouldn’t work either. Plus Robbie was fitting some new coloured strip lighting that he thought wouldn’t take long, and that has taken most of the day (in-between him losing one of the power supplies that he eventually found under the chair, and the sticky paper on the strip lighting not wanting to come off) Plus we have been arguing with customs and freight company in K.L. over the delivery of our NT cards which we sent to Australia to get updated with the Med. And Turkey charts, which were supposed to be delivered to Langkawi, which is a Tax and Duty free state. Anyway to cut a very long story short, after a lot of emails, telephone calls and debate we have to pay the duty. BUT – they don’t accept Visa and want cash on delivery. Dodgy brothers I tell you! More phone calls and emails and thank goodness Noel from Yacht Supply on Rebak Island is going to organise delivery of the goods and pay the duty in cash for us and we will fix him up. Have to say what a great service he provides on Rebak, (Chandlery, rigging, mechanical, sail repairs and generally everything) we would have been really stuck without him. We were just astounded that we have to pay duty on something that A. belongs to us anyway B. is used or second hand goods C. we ordered new parts and goods delivered to Langkawi and never had to pay duty or customs on them. But that’s South East Asia for you!