A sailor on a booze cruise with free beer? What were they thinking?
Shane and I got back to the hotel from Underwater World with little time to prepare for the planned Sunset Cruise. Once aboard the catamaran we took front row seats on the upper deck and settled in for a quiet trip around the harbour. As we left the marina and the hotel behind it was not reassuring to see a rubber duckie racing up astern of us with a deckhand that somehow got left on the wharf. “What would this evening be like” I thought to myself?
Anyway as people milled around and we were 5 minutes into the trip I noticed an esky down aft. Needing a drink I wandered up to the crewie tending the ‘bar’ and asked what we had to drink. “Soft drink, wine, some spirits, water and Skol Beer” he said. “OK” I replied “1 softie and 1 beer thanks. How much will that be”? You could have knocked me over with a feather when he said “It’s all free sir”. Towards the end of the night I had lost count at around 9 or 10 coldies so I don’t know what the final count was but he said he was amazed. I was pissed!
Going back to the cruise the BBQ ‘chef’ had dinner well under way while we sat and enjoyed the passing scenery. The shoreline and islands are very reminiscent of a small Halong Bay in Vietnam. About 15 minutes into the cruise the crew threw a scramble net over the stern and told us if anyone wanted a swim you could jump off the bow, swim to the stern (as the boat sailed past you still underway) and climb on to the net. This is right up my alley. Living on the Great Barrier Reef Shane and I have enjoyed this past time on many occasions so over the side I went. The water was warm as you’d expect in the tropics and it was great fun. Shane was a little more sedate climbing on to the net from the stern ladder because of some stitches in her shoulder. With a beer each in hand we smiled for the camera and laid back enjoying the evening swim.
After our dip Shane and I headed back up top until dinner was called. We ended the evening dancing and watching passing fishing boats in the night while enjoying sunset. One surprise for me was what I thought were green navigation lights in a line through the inlet. It turns out they were in fact squid fisherman who use green lanterns (no not the super hero) to entice the squid to the surface before scooping them up in nets. In the second last picture you may notice lights on top of the mountain range in the background. That is the Cable car and Sky Bridge.
As we got closer to the hotel I dived for a final beer (shocking the deckie) to end a great night.
If you ever go to Langkawi we highly recommend the sunset tour very highly.
Cheers
Garry (and Shane who is now sober).