Happy New year 2022

On 25th Dec we received onboard a couple new crew members we made haste and departed Maldives as instructed late in the evening. The wind and seas was against us all the way and it all seemed to be monsoon wind. At least the Malay peninsula gave us a bit of lee from the bad weather that was raging in Gulf of Thailand and South China sea. As per my charts the seasonal current was also against us so we barely made 9 kts at times. Anyway, our ETA held for the 1st of January albeit several hours later than estimated.

Indian ocean

Sojourn to Penang

When the port clearance was done I left with Jira for Penang (or Georgetown) with all passports to apply Thai visas for everyone. The ferry took 3 hrs to arrive. The trip was uneventful as the weather was fine. The ferry stopped by Pulau Payar to drop or pick up passengers and then we continued. Last time I had been to Penang was in 1998 with Superstar Sagittarius and boy had the place changed. The terminal was new and gone was all the shabby colonial buildings (well, most of them or they had been restored).

We checked in the Malaysia Hotel at Jalan Penang and after settling in went for search of some dinner. I found a local Thai restaurant and there we got our chili fix for the day. For rest of evening we walked around Jalan Penang to the shopping centers in Komtar and did not see anything worth mentioning except they had an excellent bookstore in there. Jira found herself a dress that she was very happy to buy. After awhile we took a rickshaw back to the hotel and retired for the night.

The Penang Clocktower