S/V Indian Summer 1

After a delayed start because of the rogue anchor we set sail to Penang.  We sailed in company with about 12 other boats all heading for the Penang as well and we all had to sail under the Penang Bridge to reach the anchorage.   It was quite spectacular looking up at the huge span above and we had to race to the anchorage before the rain came as you can see from the above photo – we only had minutes.  Actually we didn’t even get that as the squall came in minutes before and we had to anchor in no visibility with the rain actually hurting us it was so hard.   Beers well deserved this time….

The next day we were all leaving in a convoy of about 20 boats to sail under the second bridge while the marathon was being run over the bridge above us.  There was media present and many other people taking photos of us and waving – it was good fun.  On approach to the bridge, we spotted a large water hyacinth mat with what appeared to be a large bird sitting in the middle of it.  This weed mat was at least 20 foot round so we sailed up to it to take a better look and saw to our horror that there was a beautiful German pointer dog struggling in the middle, trapped by her legs.   I grabbed the net but had no hope of bringing her in as she was so weak – and then we saw Giovanni from Lazy Jack dive over the side of their boat, swim towards her and disentangle her from the weeds, and bring her round to our sugar scoops.  We hauled her on board, wrapped her in towels and let her just rest for a while.

I have never seen anything so exhausted in my life.  She just lay there, not even able to raise the energy to drink.   We got her off the sugar scoops but she didn’t want to go into the cockpit, she was happier on the deck.   We cleaned her up as best we could, as she had many scratches on her legs from the water hyacinth branches.  She ate some bacon and eggs and eventually started drinking.   She only took about half an hour before she was up and wandering around and wasn’t frightened of the boat so we assume she was a boat dog that had fallen over.

We were very lucky that we were heading into Penang, as there is a large ex-pat community here and she was taken aboard one of the boats from the marina who live here and they are going to try and find her owners.   We are very grateful to Jennifer Rouse (M/VTigerLily) for taking her as she really is the  most gorgeous dog and so gentle.   Jennifer had the vet come over and he thought she had been in the water for at least 12 hours – all through the night.  We named her ‘Summer’ and she is now temporarily the pet of the Straights Quay marina! The rally did a whip round as we raised enough money for her vet bills, collar & lead and feed.

By the time we left Penang a week later, she appeared none the wiser. Her skin was healing well, her nails had been clipped, she was eating and drinking and seemed very happy.  The guy whose boat she was staying on seemed smitten with her and she didn’t want to leave his side so it all ended well.  We are still hoping her owners can be found but if not then I know the guys in Penang will look after her.