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Langkawi Nature Blogs
More about Mark
I am Swiss, born 1945, star sign “Lion”….
During many years, I worked in different offices in Switzerland
and Germany, and dreamed of
owning my own big boat.
My time, to realize my dream,
finally came in 1999, when I flew
to Australia to find my catamaran.
And of course I made the biggest mistake one can do: I bought the first cat I saw, as it was a decent size and had a price I could pay.
But, I had no clue about boats….
Which left me in Australia with a 2 1/2 year repair cycle on my boat. It was a 52 ft cat, ex Wharram design, with a huge superstructure. I fixed the boat and sailed it – with no prior experience of sailing – along the east coast of Australia, up to Darwin and later through Indonesia up to Langkawi.
This was in 2002.
The photo above was taken in front of Kuah. (Please notice my perfect waterline :-))
I lived for 7 years on this boat, day and night – then, one day I discovered that the termites had started to eat it up.
The condition was bad and I didn't have the means to get it repaired professionally.
And, for far too long, I had been kept busy running after all the things necessary to maintain the old boat. At this stage, the boat was about 35 years old and originally built as a 'one off' by an Aussie 'Boatbuilder' who didn't have much money and couldn't always afford the best quality material.
When I decided to free myself from this old beautiful junk - I sold it at a very cheap price. And yes, I told the buyer all the bad things. So that's how I became a "Langkawi land-lubber".
"Why are you here?" – I am often asked. And I say: "Because nothing disturbs me here." I didn’t choose Langkawi – the 'White Ants' of Langkawi worked hard to persuade me to stay. Through this change in my life I started to work on the Internet and a lot of new things opened up for me. And now I am engaged in running the 'Langkawi Gazette' and hopefully getting your support to make it a real communication tool for this Island.
I would be happy if you help me to reach this goal.
Mark
