This morning we woke up in the marina in Langkawi and it was still dark. Dawn was slowly lighting up the Eastern sky. A quick check on the watch: it was already past 7 a.m., and still dark? Clearly things have changed from the usual schedule we had in Singapore (almost on the equator with 12 hour days year long). Time for an early morning school lesson.

A quick check on Google shows that the day in Langkawi is 15 minutes shorter:

We have traveled about 500 nautical miles up the Malaysian coast. So how far North have we traveled? And what is that in relation to the distance from the equator to the North Pole?

We kind of remembered, but validated the Earth’s circumference, and then had a side debate on how you calculate circumference from diameter or radius, and how the moon compares to the Earth (about 1/4 the circumference of Earth)

So if the circumference is 40k, then the distance from equator to North Pole is 10k. How much of that did we cover?

We assume the angle of the Malaysian West coast at 50 degrees off North (this should probably be closer to 30 or 35 degrees, but let’s go with 50 for now).

If we draw a right angle triangle we have the hypotenuse at 500 nautical miles, and the angle at 50 degrees, and want to calculate the length of the adjacent. Thank you to the MathIsFun website, we can look up the formula cos(°)=adjacent/hypotenuse, and then calculate:

We have traveled approx 595km due North, so about 1/17th of the distance to the North Pole. Causing the “winter” days to be 15 minutes longer. Isn’t Math fun?

On December 13 in batu uban marina Penang  we saw Otters. first I saw something like a coconut that kept disappearing, then it jumped out of the water I called my family and they said it was otters then my older sister saw another one, in the end there were three. then a lizard came and went swimming. It was very special.

Posted By Niki

Monthly Yacht- December- Christmas Edition.

READ it somebody!

CactusGirl3

a.k.a

The Editor

P.S. Merry Christmas

Tuesday,11 December,2018

Crystals

Today we went to a crystal museum in Penang. They had a lot of big crystals which were supposedly in geodes. They were very pretty and the inventive people at the museum gave them all names for what they looked like. I like crystals and many of them also have added benefits. For example, peridot is supposed to reduce stress.

On December 5 we completed 3 months of living on Rainbow Safari.

We motorsailed 65 nautical miles from near Pangkor island to the southern tip of Penang, and were greeted by a rainbow (and later a massive thunderstorm).

We have moved quite far, and also made good progress in calling the boat our home. I would argue that the kids are pretty comfortable around the boat!

Reaching Penang by boat felt special, an exciting moment as we sailed under the second Penang bridge. I have always liked this straits settlement since our first visit in 2002 (?). It is a highlight of our journey up the Malaysian coast.

The next few days are dedicated to exploring Penang, reprovisioning for the trip to Langkawi, and of course as usual some boat maintenance. Our starboard motor cut out and refused to start just as we arrived in the marina. Hopefully the Yanmar warranty team will be able to fix it when they arrive on Monday. Ah, the joys of boating!