Captain @ KapasPirateKing

CAPTAIN (derived from Lat. caput, head, through the Low Lat. capitanus), a chief or leader, in various connexions, but particularly a grade officer in the army or navy.
At sea the name of captain is given to all who command ships whether they belong to the military navy of their country or not, or whether they hold the substantive rank or not. Thus a lieutenant when in command of a vessel is addressed as captain.
In France a naval lieutenant is addressed as mon capitaine, because he has that comparative rank in the army. The master of a merchant ship is known as her captain. But the name is also used in the strict sense of foreman, or head man, to describe many of the minor or "petty" officers of a British or American man-of-war - the captain of a top, of the forecastle, or of a gun. The title. "post captain" in the British navy means simply full captain, and is the equivalent of the French capitaine de vaisseau. It had its origin in the fact that captains appointed to a ship of twenty guns and upwards were included in, or "posted" on, the permanent list of captains from among whom the admirals were chosen. The captain of the fleet is an officer who acts as chief of the staff to an admiral commanding a large force. The position is equivalent to flag rank, but is held by a captain. Staff captain is the highest grade of the officers entrusted with the navigation of a ship or fleet.
The military rank of captain (Fr. capitaine, Ger. Hauptmann, or in the cavalry, Rittmeister), which was formerly the title of an officer of high rank corresponding to the modern general officer or colonel, has with the gradual subdivision and articulation of armies, come to be applied to the commanders of companies or squadrons, and in general to officers of the grade equivalent to this command (see Officers).

The Malay Peninsula

MALAY PENINSULA (called by the Malays Tanah Malayu, i.e. the Malay Land), a lozenge-shaped strip of land projecting into the China Sea, and forming the most southerly portion of the continent of Asia. Geographically, the peninsula begins at the isthmus of Kra, io° N., at which point it is only between 60 and 70 m. in width, and the distance from sea to sea is further diminished by a large irregular salt-water inlet. Politically and anthropologically, however, this upper portion must be regarded as a continuation of the kingdom of Siam rather than as a section of Malaya. From the isthmus of Kra the peninsula extends south with a general inclination towards the east, the most southerly point being Tanjong Bulus in 1° 162' N. A line drawn diagonally down the centre from the isthmus of Kra to Cape Romania (Ramunya) gives the extreme length at about 750 miles. The breadth at the widest point, from Tanjong Pen-unjut in Trengganu to Tanjong Hantu in the Dindings territory, is about 200 m. The area is estimated at about 70,000 sq. m. The peninsula is bounded on the N. by Siam, on the S. by the island and strait of Singapore, on the E. by the China Sea, and on the W. by the Strait of Malacca.

Just 27 days to Retirement.

To whom it may concern,

Am still entitled to 8 days leaves but will not be taking any until my final day on 31st Dec'08. Also have some ECC entitlement off days earned to-date.
Helen, Would appreciate if you can advise HR that I will be selling off my annual and ECC leaves days back to the Company.

Oooohhhh Yes,,,,,,,see picture of sailing boat built in Pulau Duyong, Terengganu. Guess who is the dark fellow at the helm ?. My 'yoo ho hoo' days are back again-lah.

Note; Thanks everyone for the interesting work/play experience with you guys !. Just drop in to Pulau Kapas one of these days to say hello to this oldman on the island. I will finally retire as a fisherman and watch the sun rise & sun set everyday for the rest of my life. Catching fish to earn my living as well as opening my home as a guest house or home stay for travellers would be my final destination. Being a beach bum come pirate has always been my dream life style !.

Hope to be closer to the BIG Boss, once am back alone in the middle of nowhere onboard the island or my fishing boat. Life had been most interesting on the main land and in particular in Sarawak !. The people here are just great and I will indeed miss all of you, especially those in skirts and hot pants. Just kidding-lah.

Anyhow, I will still be coming back to Sarawak very often since my wife and son will remain here until my son finishes his schooling here in Miri. Both my daughters had their secondary schooling in Miri and that their basic education/exposure have done them good. Somehow, the schooling plus culture in Sarawak had made them a better Malaysian since the issue of race or religion shall not be a factor in their life.

OK guys,,,,,,,bye !.,,,,,,,,,Kita Boleh.

Capt. KapasPirateKing

Back to Kapas Island after the 2008 Market Crash.

just back to paradise,,,,,,,,,kapas island.

hi guys,,,,

hoped that you guys had followed my earlier advise to sell just before the market crash !!!,,,in fact, I managed to recover from loosing too much myself. .....Darm,,,,was just a bit late but not too late in disposing my stocks & shares. However still lost about 28% of my total investment to-date.
Should have retired much earlier-lah, i.e. way back in 2006 but unfortunately kept myself busy playing around with the market since I was so called gainfully employed and in constant contact with Investors and Investment opportunities,,,,geeeee if only I had retired as planned and cut-off any link with the out-side World then.
Anyhow, am now preparing for some interesting yet hard survival life style back on Kapas Island and will be there during the existing monsoon season which will last until end Feb' every year.
Had stayed on the island many years ago during the monsoon season with my workers while building the Capt's Longhouse. Ferried across not less than 70 tons of timber and building materials ,,,,,,,yaaa but my body was much younger then too. Now, I have to again bring across many many tons of building materials,,,,and may hire a barge this time round with a forklift rather than using manual strength as done before.
Whatever, I will be looking forward to this new project of mine i.e. to built a mini Malaysia village onboard the island. Guess the 'slowly slowly catch the monkey',,,,,strategy should work but guess the monkey would somehow turned up as a gorilla as per many times from past experience !.
Keep track of my blog if you guys are really interested to know more about the old pirate at Kapas Island since I hope to keep it up-dated & current there.

Hi again,,,,

I have a bone to pick with Shell Malaysia because the Company had clawed back from the Company's Retirement Benefit Fund (RBF) all the amount that the Company contributed plus interest into my EPF fund. As such, here itself I lost another approx. RM750K which we are now fighting against the Company in the Federal Court.
Talking about Pirates,,,,now I know where this pirate mentality comes from. Am working with one-lah.
Fixed Deposit itself might not be safe if the Bank is not stable !. Bonds worst still. Stocks and Shares not recommended at all at this time of day.
Guess, am thinking of investing in a fishing boat,,,,,some kind of liveonboard plus fish for food lifestyle i.e.,,,,,,,,,after being on the island for too long ?. In fact, island living is almost similar if am not wrong to liveonboard.
Am also stuck with properties,,,,,,not able to sell at the price am asking for. What to do ??? Relax-lah,,,take it easy.

Yes,,,,,its the Pirate lifestyle that awaits me !!!!!!,,,,,,,beware the PirateKing of South China Sea will be back alive and kicking.

Yo Ho Hoo.

Islands off Trengganu from one Mr Trengganuman

ISLANDS IN THE SUN
Now to the subject of islands in the South China Sea off Trengganu kita. ,,,,,,,,, Ok, lets start from Kuala Terengganu. The capital is always a good place to start anything. There is a pulau right in town. It is called Pulau Kambing even though only one part of it has a large body of water which is the Terengganu river. Probably a long time ago, it was an island and inhabited by goats. (Indeed there is a new island off pulau duyong, being built up after deeping of the trengganu river recently, where-by many goats are living happily) Pulau Kambing now is the "industrial" part of the town with factories and godowns. The first ice factory is near here.

Further up we have the sweetest island in Trengganu, Pulau Manis. We also have the lightest island in the state, Pulau Sekati. The metric system hasn't affected its name. Nobody wants to call the island Pulau Sekilo.

Then we have Pulau Rusa. In the coffee shops of Kedai Payang they are still debating whether to translate this "island" as Deer Island or Lonely Casuarina Island.

In the river opposite Kuala Terengganu we have small islands like Pulau Wang Mbong and Pula Wang Mang named after its owner or the early inhabitant.

Pulau Duyong, the big island nearby, the famous boat-building place was probably named after the mythical mermaid which Terengganu people call ikang duyong. Awi Yellow house is located here.

Now we go past the river mouth and if you look right, you can see Pulau Kapas (where the infamous Kapas Pirate King stays nowadays after his Sarawak sting) and a smaller sibling, Pulau Gemia. There is no cotton grown on Pulau Kapas. The only cotton you can find would be the cotton buds left behind by untidy visitors. Legends has it that long ago, when the people of Marang looked across the sea, they saw the island (which was unnamed then) covered in soft fluffy white foam. They thought it looked like "kapas" (cotton wool) and they decided to call the island Pulau Kapas. As for the smaller island, there was a gemia ( a thumb-size sour fruit) tree on it so naturally it was known as Pulau Gemia. Afterthe resort was built, the island is sometimes called Gem Isle in advertisments. Sometimes its also known as Sultan's Island, apparently the Royal family has a share and owner of this gem of an island.

Further right, in front of Dungun, there is a bigger island called Pulau Tenggol. I am not sure what "tenggol" means. I am afraid to ask. The island has nice diving spots although the currents can get pretty dangerous sometimes. Perhaps there are many ikan tenggol there too ?.

If you look to the left, you can see many more islands. There is Bidong Laut which used to be a center for Vietnamese refugees. Bidong Darat is a big hill on the mainland, facing it. Old people in Merang used to tell me that the island and the hill are part of the stuff carried on the yoke (kandaran) of Sang Kelembai, a giant. Sang Kelembai dropped the load for inexplicable reasons. One became the island, the other became the hill. Right.

In front of Pulau Bidong is a small island called Pulau Karah. Turtles that Terengganu people call Penyu Karah used to land on this island for maternity reasons. Behind Pulau Bidong are two islands whose waters are infested by sharks of various temperaments. So, they call the island after these creatures. The bigger one is Pulau Yu Besar (Big Shark) and the smaller one Pulau Yu Kecik. Indeed, there are lots of hammerhead sharks there if you are interested about getting to know more about sharks.

To the right of Pulau Bidong ( looking from the mainland) you can see Pulau Redang. For those newsreaders, Redang is pronounced as ray-dung and never rur-dung. They always make me radang with the wrong pronounciation.If you want to pronounce it the native way, say ghe dang. Redang is named after a tree, so I have been told.

Then there is Lang Tengah. There is no Lang Tepi so I have to find out the origin of the name. Maybe it was named after a a midlle-born lang (eagle).

Further up, nearer to Setiu, there is a lump of rock in the sea called Pulau Gelok (The Jar Island.) On a hazy day, it looks like a jar.

Then nearer to Perhentian Island, there is an island still untouched by greedy developers. I used to fish here. Cik Awang, my guide told me the island is called Susu Dara which may or may not mean a virgin's breast. But I hope and pray the island will remain dara (virginal) for a long time. Then nearer to the mainland, just across Bukit Keluang in Besut is Pulau Rhu which used to be our place to stop for prayers during our fishing trips. Pulau Rhu has a lot of snakes and the beach has a lot of dead corals.

The last (but not least) Terengganu island would be Perhentian. Perhentian means a stop, a station. Fishermen used the island as a refuge from bad storms. One of the smaller islands in the Perhentian group is called Pulau Pinang. Do not expect nasi kandar here though.

Early days and about retirement.

Capt's Longhouse has left a new comment on the post "Early Retirement? ":

Retirement is not in my vocabulary !. As long as I can earn a living i.e work for it, guess I will continue earning-lah. Its not so much for the money but rather than just staying around doing nothing, its better to work on something worth while. Being paid may not be in terms of cash, having fresh air and friends around might just be it.

Indeed, I started very early in life to earn the money for my survival, in fact at the early age of 6 years old, I was selling cat fish and bring back cash to my mother !. I was the only child that would go out into the dirty drain behind the house to hunt for cat fish !. Ikan keli was marketed at the local toddy shop by me-lah. Selling it beside some babi hutan meat sold by my friend's father in Ipoh.(Kinta Road near the main Ipoh bus station) I was so good in selling ikan keli, so much so I skipped schooling at times at the early stage. Only learning to read and write in standard 4 onwards !!!! cas. for not attending proper classes. Guess its another interesting story to write about my early days yaaaa????.

PirateKing

The Kapitan of Cotton Island

Capt Mohamed Shariff Abbas [Executive Summary]
Currently serves in an Oil Exploration & Production MNC as Logistics Strategist and Planner. Double-hating as EPA GLMS Project Implementation Manager. Holder of ATPL Helicopters DCA, Malaysia.Qualified Helicopter Instructor UK (RAF) and Qualified Helicopter Examiner DCA Malaysia. Had served for 22 years including as Head of Aviation & Aviation Advisor in SMEP, Shell Malaysia. Incorporated Aviation HSE-MS in SMEP Flight Operations and for Aviation Contractor, MHS Aviation Sdn Bhd. Line Training Captain for MHS Aviation Sdn Bhd and Bristow Helicopters Company Ltd. Head of Operational Conversion Unit in Kuantan & Kluang Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF). Formulated the Emergency Response Coordination Centre for Sarawak Shell Bhd. Act as Company Rescue Mission Coordinator plus Oil Spill Coordinator. Qualified Aviation Management and Human Factor Management from University of Southern California, UCLA, USA. Attended numerous in-house Financial, Technical and Managerial Courses while in service with the Company. The focal point as in-house Logistics Consultant and Advisor to green field projects plus Aviation Specialist to Shell Operating Units in Asia Pacific Region.

Supports the skipper for Miri RTW solo yachting challenge 2008/2009. Tested an IRC Class Yacht ULUMULU's Skipper's readiness on a yachting voyage Miri-Labuan-Miri from 30th Apr to 03rd May 2008 during Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar very badly. On Post NRD till 30th Sep 2008. Owner and part time operator of Captain's Longhouse Resort on Pulau Kapas, Marang, Terengganu, Malaysia. Owner plus as Managing Director of Sabbas Excellence Sdn Bhd and also as Consultant for Logistics Excellence Services.