Going south from Samui there’s nothing to recommend, but if you go north instead there is Racer Marina (https://noonsite.wccstaging.com/Countries/Thailand/pranburi). They have engineers and a good workshop.
Thailand is most likely better for repairs than Malaysia on the east coast.

I want to give a high five and recommendation to Yacht Supply Malaysia Chandlery at Rebak Island Marina. Mark and Emma are managing a well-equipped marine store and are attentive, helpful and detail oriented with knowledge and crew to match.

Whatever your situation, they are there to help and make your yachting needs easier to manage. As an added bonus….they have some of the best fresh ground coffee drinks in the area free to customers,yummm.

We cleared into Malaysia at Puteri Harbour Marina (Nov 13th 2018), and sailed up to Langkawi, making no other stops. When we went to clear out of Langkawi (December 7th, 2018), we were told we SHOULD have cleared in with the Harbourmaster in Langkawi when we arrived in Langkawi.

This is unclear in the Formalities section here. We did not have any trouble with Immigration when we cleared out, even though we hadn’t cleared in with Immigration when we arrived in Langkawi.

For clarification – Vern was clearing out to Puteri Marina, Johor Baru. Other friends of theirs just cleared out of Langkawi for a domestic voyage. There are two immigration offices there, one in Kuah and the other in Telaga. The office in Telaga knew nothing about clearing out for domestic voyages. It seems there is much confusion amongst officials as to what is actually required.

Hi BeauSoleil, thanks for the info.
Yes, the jack Russell bread is an asset to have would u agree, they are not only very entertaining but are very alert & vocal when it comes to anyone getting close to our possessions, u can also hide them in the swabs.?

Hi Gerry,
We are currently investigating this for you and are in contact with the DVS (Department of Veterinary Services Malaysia). Will post here what we find out.

We have also spoken with cruiser contacts in Malaysia who tell us whilst officially an import permit is required for your pet, there are many boats cruising with pets on board who have not declared the animals or sought official import status for them while cruising between countries in this region.

However, whilst there may not be much official scrutiny while you are cruising, it is always best to check with the authorities if you are unsure.

The question is really about current plans and/or future plans for the animal and it becomes an issue if you decide to take the animal off the boat to live ashore or commercially transport it back to a home country. In this case, the animal must be imported to Malaysia and go through whatever quarantine procedure the home country will require if you intend to export the animal.

Our thanks to Jennifer of AHOY Penang for help with this query, she can help with links to vets and pet transporters if anyone needs help with the process of export from Malaysia and import to the home country.
jennifer(dot)rouse(at)Hotmail(dot)com

If I may, I would like to thank David from Marine Supplies Asia, in his guise as the Spectra watermaker dealer /agent for making my new (6-month-old) watermaker serviceable. It was in an unserviceable condition as I discovered when it came time to attempt to open the cartridge bowls to change the filters. He spent some hours resolving the problems, which were not of either his or my making.

He did so in an extremely happy, friendly and professional fashion, for which I thank him immensely. I had until contacting David, spent an entirely unsatisfactory amount of time trying to get assistance to resolve the issues. He answered my email within hours and the job was done within a matter of days. As he is based in Labuan, and I am in Kota Kinabalu, it was a very impressive conclusion to my 5-month problem.

Feedback from noonsite contributors:

We haven’t been up to the Rajang River – hope to visit it in early 2016 when we return to Borneo from just one more trip to the Philippines this year – but we did meet an American cruiser a few months ago who spent 2 weeks up to the Rajang. He really enjoyed it, though he commented on the number of logs coming down the river, and the current, which he said was very strong at times.

I guess the best thing to minimise this would be to go in the dry season (NE monsoon, from Nov/Dec to March/April) and avoid the spring tide period. I doubt there will be any notices, warnings etc posted in the river, but locals are usually very helpful. Also, watch out for the tugs and barges which are plentiful along this coast and in the rivers. We heard of a large catamaran that was hit and sunk in one of the Borneo west coast rivers last year.

The Klias River is also a great one for exploring – you can go up the Klias for 28 miles to the bridge at Kota Klias. The Klias is close to Labuan and about 30 miles south of Kota Kinabalu. Lots of probosci’s monkeys and fireflies there. An interesting trip is to anchor at the town of Kota Klias, arrange for a local taxi to take you to the town of Beaufort early the next morning, where you can catch a local train (no frills, actually no seats either) up the valleys to Tenom, where they grow tea and coffee.

You would have an hour at Tenom before catching the train back to Beaufort, then taxi back to Kota Klias. I have put some details of the Klias River in my Sabah 2014 Passage Notes (https://noonsite.wccstaging.com/Members/sue/R2012-03-29-4.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Sue Woods

-ends-

This is the river that runs from Sibu inland. We only did a couple of the rivers at the mouth entry rivers which join into the Rejang at Sibu. We cut in behind Bruit Island to visit longhouses where we were made very welcome – overwhelmingly in fact. Crystal blues have done a more in-depth visit up these rivers many times. They have a blog

http://svcrystalblues.blogspot.com.au

If they are 2m draught – no problems. Just need to go with the tides.

The entrances can be shallow with shifting channels – we went through and at times were at less than 2 metres but a less than the optimal tide.

There are some photos back on our blog

http://www.sailblogs.com/member/charmar

kind regards

Chris

Friends staying at Danga Bay have informed me that it is to close permanently and be demolished at the end of June. No maintenance had been done for many months. The area will be absorbed into the huge satellite residential development that has been taking place in the area for the last 2 years. Many overseas owners have left their boats there permanently. What they will do now will be a problem.
SV Pelican

On the 8th July, I met a yachtie in Penang who motored a 42′ wooden boat from Langkawi to Penang. He said he has a fishing boat coming towards him. He changed course and the fishing boat continued to head towards him.

The fishing boat touched his boat and the boatman demanded payment for the damaged he suffered. This yacht told him to meet him in Penang and let the police settle the matter. The boatman got angry and threw at him a bunch of wood. He left.

I wanted to make this known as I have read these are the tactics used in other places to get money instead of catching fish from the sea.

Eric
44′ FRP Cutter