On June 24th, 2025 our catamaran, SV Aphrodite, was lifted out of the water at Lunas Shipyard, Langkawi, Malaysia. The woodwork was to take 6 weeks to complete. Life experience told us that things could go sideways. Yet, our hearts were full of optimism.
Our first inkling that things might take longer than we thought came from our contractor, Mr. Chong of Eastbay Teakdecks, himself.
“Well, maybe give me 2 months,” he said with a wink. Rick pushed back immediately.
“Six weeks.” Mr. Chong took a drink of water staring into his glass intently, and that was that.
After 322 days we launched into the waters of Langkawi.
What Were We Doing All This Time?
In the beginning, we spent our time doing schoolwork at the house that we had rented in Langkawi.
It soon became evident that the woodwork needed increasing management from either Rick or myself. The woodworking foreman moved to a different project after a falling out with his boss. The remaining woodworkers spoke very little English. We used Google Translate to overcome the gap. This was fun for the first 30 minutes as we translated our English instructions to Vietnamese for one worker and Bengali for another.
Challenges: language, expectation and loss
The language barrier wasn’t our only challenge. We soon realized that our expectations were not aligned. We felt that aesthetics and function should go hand in hand. Our woodworkers had different ideas.
For example, there is a small window in our saloon. We requested that the plastic trim be replaced with cherry wood. The new trim looked great but the window could no longer be opened. “Yes, it no longer works,” the woodworker agreed. It took some convincing for the woodworker to modify the trim so that the window could open.
Shortly after Eastbay declared they had lost about 40 cupboard knobs we deemed the woodwork complete. The knobs were Italian-made and we had them shipped to us from Germany.
Read between the lines as you may.
We decided, what was done was done and we’d finish the rest ourselves.
That left us to install our countertops, plumbing, and tables on our own in addition to completing some substantial boat work. In some cases, Eastbay had created new jobs for us to tackle, like repairing about 25 tiny LED lights behind our electrical panel, which had been lifted roughly during the woodwork finishing. This electrical work required hands sized like garden gnomes, and the LEDs had to be ordered and reordered to color match our existing system.
Assuming the role of finishers, we lifted, caulked, wiped, cleaned, and located screws.
We sent one of the countertops back to Kuala Lumpur to ensure a proper fit. This was no small feat.
The countertop was packed in a wooden box like a shallow coffin, which we screwed shut. I called around on the mainland to find a courier who could handle the package. Then, Rick hired a driver and accompanied the countertop by ferry.
The final fit was worth the extra effort.
At this point, we were still staying in a four-bedroom house. But our work was at the boat, which was about a 12-minute Grab ride each way. The hours were long. We ordered take-out, and took enough rides that I am now a Grab VIP member.
Sailing plans derailed: weather and politics
Other boats were leaving to cross the Red Sea or to the Maldives and onto South Africa. For us, the Red Sea passage was out of the question. With tensions building in the Middle East, I couldn’t face the possibility of being used as target practice.
Our plan was to go to South Africa via the scenic route instead. However, as time crept on, we began looking at a direct route from western Indonesia to Chagos. This would involve 2,000 nautical miles of bluewater sailing, no stops.
I began dehydrating food around the clock. At the same time, I was also looking into permit requirements to visit Chagos, a pristine dot in the middle of nowhere. There is a joint UK-U.S. military base in the archipelago but the Diego Garcia base is off limits to sailors.
Meanwhile, Betty was becoming increasingly worried about how she would finish her schooling on an ocean passage with many deadlines and potentially non-existent Internet access.
Then, Chagos appeared in the news. At first, the news was mildly concerning but when Trump raised the idea of launching missiles from the Diego Garcia military base, we folded our cards for the season.
We will sail across the Indian Ocean at the end of 2026 instead. The upside is that the trip will not feel as rushed; we will have time to visit the places we had planned to skip because we thought we were running out of time.
Logistics to Launch
It was costing us plenty to be in the house and the boatyard. We capitalized on our Grab rides to the boatyard and moved boxes with every trip.
Boat jobs that needed our attention included:
- managing bottom painting (6 coats of bottom paint, 2 coats of tie-coat, and 4 coats of primer)
- painting our keels (done by Karen)
- installing the rudders that were rebuilt at Lunas Shipyard
- reinstalling our propellers, which Henry secured with fantastic precision
- reassembling our 3060-watt solar panel configuration
- repairing our dinghy
- servicing our Yanmar diesel engines
- tidying the helm wiring and reinstalling the instruments
- reinstalling our cockpit enclosure and tracks
- installing deck hardware
- reinstalling a through-hull
- rebedding a hatch
- reinstalling our underwater lights
- servicing our fire extinguishers
- installing a flood light on our bow (wired and installed by Henry)
Lawd.
It is so easy to remove things, but so time consuming to put things back.
In the early days of our haul-out, screws had been put in bags and labeled “holding tank, starboard side” and “for blinds” but these bags got shifted about during our move.
I have never cleaned so many screws in my life.
On May 12th we launched. Here are some photos from our big day.
Singha Besar Island, Malaysia
We are now anchored off an uninhabited island called Singha Besar. There are lots of other kid boats here, and some, like us, are headed to Thailand.
Waterfall Hike
A couple of days ago, Karen, Henry and I went hiking with a German family to see a waterfall. It was really nice to be back in the foliage with the sounds of the forest, where the sighting of a python is a possibility. One of the girls carried two machetes to help us locate the overgrown path.
About an hour into the hike, the German mom told me that Singha Besar used to have a zoo, and that we could see the remains of the enclosures at the opposite end of the island. She mentioned that all of the animals had been released and that there were rumors of a panther on the island.
We didn’t see a panther. But, we saw the aftermath of boars digging for roots along the trail. I cannot find anything at all to substantiate the claim of the animals being released let alone a panther, yet it was a story that got my heart racing beyond the rigours of hiking in a rainforest.
Here are some photos from our waterfall hike.
We had a fantastic time. Here’s to adventurous beginnings after 322 days on the hard.
Becoming a Sailor 