It was with great excitement that we met Mum and Graham in their hotel when they arrived at the Mutiara. Seeing family for the first time in 18 months I was especially keen to see my Mum. It was the first time we had family visit us on the boat.
We had plenty lined up for their holiday and kept them busy each day with tours around the island, a trip to the local waterfall, fabulous cheap dining, visits to local supermarkets and the night market in Kuah town. But our highlight adventure day sail out to the local island, Pulau Dayang Bunting (The Princess Lake) was the feature, being the first time our family had set sail on Ultimate Dream.
Although the weather was continually stormy and cloudy we picked a clear weather window and decided it was now or never. The day proved to be good one and rewarded us with sun and minimal seas.
Naturally the fresh water lake was busy with tourists but we enjoyed a swim amongst the many asian bouncing around in lifejackets.
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| Mum and Graham taking it easy after our swim and lunch on the boat. |
Richard kept Graham busy on watch on both passages, giving him the run down on basic navigation and in no time he was manning the autopilot while Mum took care of the couch. We can recommend Graham for future tasks onboard.
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| Graham at the helm, he had a job to do! Steer us home. |
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| Crew in training....looking good Graham, just smile. |
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| Mum looking so relaxed on the couch ready for our passage home. SO relaxed she went to sleep. |
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| Our visit to "The Big Eagle", Langkawi's famous mascot. |
A surprise visit by my Aunty Deb arrives up to our boat with her buddy Kapitano, an Indonesian skipper who happened to locate us for her. With little information to go by other then the name of our boat, Deb eventually manages to find us in Langkawi. After visiting nearly every marina in Langkawi Deb finally arrives in Telaga hoping we might be there and it turns out we were (now one week later yachties are notifying us that they were contacted to try and find us).
A spontaneous decision to come and visit us she arrived just in time to spend one day with Mum and Graham before they headed back to Melbourne that night.
In true family style Mum & Graham we to be greeted by Deb in disguise. Deb was renamed Sandra and was our latest crew member who had joined us onboard, so the story goes anyway.
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| Deb in disguise as "Sandra" checking out the goodies in the bakery. |
The surprise greeting went down a treat as Sandra revealled her true identity. The story unravels and Deb explains it all. Mum had no idea Sandra was Deb.
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| In shock. |
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| Richy rides the frog. |
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| Deb and Mum together. |
So as we said goodbye to Mum & Graham that evening after dinner Deb joined us on Ultimate Dream for 5 days.
We ventured on to the cable car minus Richy (who was too scared to go up again and didn't want to part with 30 ringgit unless it was for food) ha haa. Another great attraction of Langkawi, we managing a clear weather window for afew hours just enough time for the cloud to clear over the mountain and see the great views.
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| The lowest point of take off. |
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| The second ride to the highest peak. |
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| The suspension bridge was reopened, just in time for Deb's visit. |
We took Deb out to the Princess Lake picking a great sunny day. Then we headed back to Kuah town for the night market but Ramadan changed the plans and the night market expanded to become a giant food frenzy as the focus moves from Allah into eating. Richy loves this time of day.
Ramadan is more than just fasting its also about feasting, as we came to discover. Tasty treats sweet and savoury were sampled and taken back to the boat. We then said good bye to Deb as she head home for Cambodia somewhat reluctantly.
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| Me and Deb at Pulau Dayang Bunting enterance. |
