We left Rebak with our refitted prop shaft knowing that it would be a fairly short time out as one of the new owners of Serenity was coming for a handover in less than a week. We thought of going back to Hole in the Wall or elsewhere in the mangroves but on rounding the SE point of Langkawi Island the rain poured down and restricted visibility. We decided to anchor in a small bay and wait for an improvement, but it was so nice we ended up staying a couple of nights. The only disturbance was the wash from the ferries as they go up the narrow channel on their way to Thailand.
Having rested here over the weekend on Monday, a National holiday, we returned to Kuah town. On Tuesday we made enquiries about the possibility of using a local service similar to Citizens Advice to notarise our Bill of Sale but this service is not available from them to non-Malaysian citizens. We spent the rest of the day having a really good sail back to Rebak tacking up the channel with all plain sail set, mainsail, staysail and headsail. Hard work when tacking with two headsails to sheet in and running back stays to set up, but Meikyo sailed really well. Running backstays are set up when using the staysail to give extra support to the mast where pressure from the staysail tries to bend it forwards, there are two of them and as the boat tacks through the wind one is slackened and the other tightened.
Wednesday, we did the handover to Jordan, one of the new owners, explaining all of the systems on board Serenity and now that the money is in our bank we are free to go. Rachel, the agent, will arrange to have the bill of sale notarised at the beginning of July, when the notary is back in Kuah. Leaving the marina we sailed north around Langkawi Island and back to Hole in the wall so that we have now completed a circumnavigation of the main island. Saturday saw us back anchored off Kuah town for last minute shopping and then on Sunday we visited Port master, customs and immigration for clearance, topped up the fuel in our cans and were off.
We headed for Pangkor where we will leave Meikyo while we have a three week break in Thailand. This is normally a three day trip with stops in Penang, north and south and then down to Pangkor Island before going into the marina. We had decided to spend two nights in Straits Quay marina to visit the quality supermarket and Marks and Spencer.
The passage from Langkawi to Penang was almost windless and what there was direct on the nose so we were motoring. After some 7-8hrs of steady motoring there was a horrible noise from the engine and we had to turn it off. Investigation showed that the prop shaft had become detached again, the tightness of the bolts had been checked before setting off but the hours of motoring had driven the propshaft forward and the shaft key had come clear of the coupling. This really is a strange setup.
The engine is fitted with a vee-drive gearbox, this enables the engine to be fitted further aft in the boat. The drive comes from the forward end of the engine and the vee-drive connects to the propshaft which then runs under the engine and out through the hull. Quite a nice compact arrangement until it goes wrong. The shaft and coupling have a key-way to transfer the drive and two pinch bolts to hold the coupling to the shaft. The pinch bolts are all that stop the shaft moving forwards or back, the coupling and shaft are so worn that this is not holding properly. Phil was able to reconnect them and Sarah got Meikyo sailing in the light wind. We couldn’t risk motoring for any distance but hoped that it would all hold together for the final manoeuvres into the marina. With about 20 miles to go Meikyo sailed really well if a bit slowly in the very gentle winds. We were outside the marina by seven in the evening, just before it was dark, had the dinghy in the water in case it was needed to help manoeuvre in the marina and put the engine in gear at low revs. No problems we made it to our berth.