1st March 2011
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| It was time to fly home from Langkawi |
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Leaving Rebak Island Resort Marina, Langkawi on the free
water taxi and heading for Langkawi airport |
Four weeks after we arrived in Langkawi we were on a plane, heading home to Western Australia for a month. Catcha Star was all tucked away in pen A22 at the 5 star marina resort Rebak Island Marina. We felt the cost was cheap insurance considering most of what we possessed was on our yacht.
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| Cathy gets a free blow-dry on the water taxi |
Kuala Lumpur was different to what Mark had expected, there is still a lot of older buildings and he had expected a far more modern city like the new parts of Singapore. Saying that, some of the new buildings in K.L. are of quite spectacular architecture. One of our favorite places was the Twin towers.
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Petronas Twin Towers K.L
If you’re travelling to Kuala Lumpur, be sure to add a visit to the Kuala Lumpur Petronas Twin Towers to your itinerary. The Twin Towers—as they’re known locally—are one of the tallest buildings in the world. A unique aspect of the Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers is that its design is influenced by the geometric principles unique to Islamic architecture, we are sure that the young at heart will like us enjoy a visit to the Science Discovery Centre on the third floor. Also, the Hop On – Hop Off Double Decker bus is a great way to see the city. |
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| Go Girl - Go! |
A complete circuit of K.L. with time at a few key attractions will take up a full day.
We had a fun two nights in K.L. shopped till we dropped and then took the Star transfer coach to the International Airport, for our flight to Perth. Mark’s Son Chris kindly picked us up and took us to Garry’s work where our car was waiting for us. Garry’s Dad had spent a lot of time detailing the whole car for us, it looked and smelt like new. We then drove up to Cathy’s Dad’s in Woroloo, after an hour Chris and Mark excused themselves and left Cathy to catch up with all the family stuff.
The first two weeks were spent in Perth, catching up with doctors, accountants, doing some business and most importantly sailing with our lovely friends Vince and Denise. We set sail from Fremantle Sailing Club on “Anki II” and headed for Rockingham. It was Labour Day long weekend and although we had not told many of our club mates, we were quietly hoping to see a few of them on the water that weekend.
We were not disappointed and many of them were doing a double take when they saw us. Cathy’s birthday (BIG 50) was only a few days away, and the celebrations were not holding back, thank you so much to Vince and Denise for making the weekend so perfect. For Cathy's birthday we went to lunch at Cottesloe and we then had a wander through the art display on the beach. While in the Tea Rooms Cathy took a call from an old friend, she had worked for many years with Brendon. He had read on her Facebook that we were back in Perth, he was only a few minutes away and came for a chat. Many years ago we took Brendon out for a sail, he still had the sailing bug and was green with envy by the time we had told him about our voyage so far.
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| The annual Cottesloe Beach Sculpture display always has some interesting displays |
Cathy’s Mum had flown in from England, and would be staying with us at Cathy’s sister Jill’s home. We then drove down to Denmark to see Mark’s parents and sister Ruth. While there we did some business and had a great time just catching up. Cathy’s Mum came on down a few days later and also stayed with us at Mark’s parents.
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| While back in |
After seven days it was time to head back to Perth for another week, and to help celebrate Mike Jackson’s 40th. This was another event where many of our friends were not expecting to see us. There were many surprised faces, we’re sure that a lot more of our friends are now planning to go sailing after hearing about some of our adventures. Time was slipping away, so off we went back down to Denmark for another few days of tranquillity, the pace is so much slower in the Greater South West and there is always something special about being pampered by Mum and Dad.
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| Denmark |
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| Believe it or not the water was 23 degrees Celsius in Denmark |
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| One of Albany's local fishing boats |
The last few days in Perth were also very special, we stayed at Mark’s mate Punny’s home one night and caught up on all the latest motorsport news, this is an essential thing and needs to be done. It was great to catch up with you both Punny. Our last visit was with our dear friends Garry and Lisa, also yachties and for the moment retired cruiser’s. Garry and Lisa lost their yacht “Biscayne Bay” in the American Samoa’n tsunami and are now breading horses in the Perth hills. We had a wonderful night with them, catching up on all their news and having the privilege of staying on their new property, they had only just moved into………. Moving house is one thing, can you imagine moving farms? Sadly we did not have enough time to see all of our friends and a lot of the friends we missed seeing are Cruiser's that were also back in Perth for a visit. Bjorn and Christina on "Mischief" had flown in from Malta, Gus and Gabby on "Pampero" from QLD Ralph and Lynne on "Yandanookat" were about to sail to Bali.
We had stayed at Jill’s something like twenty four nights while in Perth, and only ate there twice. Sorry we missed you guy's, but thanks for passing on all the information on Thailand and good fair winds to all our friends sailing in the Bali Rally. We are so lucky to have such great friends and family, so understanding about just how hectic our visit back home was…….Thank you, we love you all.
