Hello Malaysia!

Crossing the Singapore Strait in a small boat is not for the faint-hearted. It is one of the busiest commercial shipping channels in the world with super tankers and ships of all kinds passing through it every few minutes. It has a Traffic Separation Scheme which means that eastbound ships pass in the south lanes and westbound ships pass in the north lanes – at any given time ships are also moving into and out of the strait to various ports or big anchorages within the strait. 

This is what our AIS screen looked like. The green and yellow triangles are ships, the red boat icon lower middle of the screen is us, and the blue line is our planned route.

So of course we did our research carefully, taking into account the currents and boat speeds and the large ship anchorage area in the middle that allowed us to cross one lane at a time. Still it looked hectic.

We set off from the Indonesian side early in the morning and waited at the edge of the south lanes for a gap in the shipping traffic and then we upped the engine speed and motored across as quickly as we could. So far so good. We moved through the middle anchorage area staying far away from the bigger boats. We waited longer at the edge of the north lanes as it was busier and more boats were moving into the strait from Malaysian ports.

We got a gap and motored hurriedly. About 90% of the way across, a Singapore police boat called us up on the radio and came alongside asking us to stop. They wanted details of our passports, etc. We hurriedly gave them the info and then they asked us to accompany them back towards the middle – eeek! – we really didn’t want to repeat this crossing exercise. While they laboriously captured our info, we kept looking around anxiously at approaching tankers.

The Singapore police waved us on saying we should follow a passing navy ship’s route (going much faster than us) and stay further away from the Singapore area. We complied for a short while and then dodged around a large anchored boat into a side anchorage off the channel.

We wound our way around the big ships anchored keeping an eye out for those still moving with tugs.

We passed through the anchorage and went up the Johor Strait – Singapore on one side and Malaysia on the other side. We soon passed a group of high rise buildings and we knew we were no longer in Indonesia – we hadn’t seen a building over two storeys in months.

We passed under the Tuas bridge which links Malaysia and Indonesia. It has a clearance of 25 metres at high tide – we knew we could pass under but the closer we got, the more it seemed that the mast would touch. Of course, it didn’t.

After a couple of hours we reached Puteri Harbour and berthed at 1’15 Marina and went to the Marina office to arrange clear in. Immigration was quick and easy, the official barely looked at our passports, stamped and we were waved back into the Marina shuttle bus and taken back to the marina about 500m away!

We spent about 2 weeks at 1’15 Marina – it was incredibly hot and humid with barely a breeze in the marina and the heavily polluted water is not for swimming. One day our neighbour on the next boat fell into the water as he was cleaning a mat. I rushed over to help and later he said “You didn’t jump in to save me” and I replied “You would have drowned before I jump in that water.” Robert set about attending to the various boat jobs saved up for the time spent in the marina, and one of them was getting the aircon to work. We had never used it since we bought the boat in 2017 but I was feeling faint in the intense heat. Luckily he got it right and I was so happy! Pure bliss inside the boat, the deck was too hot to walk on and the tent structure too hot to touch. We spent a lot of time sitting in front of the aircon.

One of Robert’s jobs was taking the faulty radar down:

After sunset when the air cooled down, we occasionally met up with the other rally people for drinks or dinner at the nearby bars and restaurants.

The highlight was being in a pub watching the Springboks win the Rugby World Cup, made even more enjoyable by a few Brits nearby who were crowing loudly about their team but became much quieter as the game progressed while we got louder.

Puteri Harbour is a strange place – it has many high rise residential blocks but hardly anyone living in them. Wide 3 lane roads but few cars on them. All new and landscaped with wide pavements and newly planted big trees. It’s like a brand new ghost town waiting for people to happen. The locals said the buildings are built for the richer Chinese who work in Singapore and cross over the congested Tuas bridge everyday.

All of these buildings have few occupants

Wide landscaped pavements waiting for pedestrians

After the sparse shops in Indonesia, we were delighted to find a huge western style supermarket with goods from all over the world (at a price) and a non-Moslem section selling a large range of beers, bacon, etc. It had fantastic air-con.

No visit would be complete without a trip to the street night market, away from the modern buildings where tasty (and some not so tasty) strange traditional foods add to the experience.

One day we took a bus (cheap and empty) to the city of Johor Bahru. It is an interesting mix of old and new, small old buildings and modern skyscrapers side by side.

We visited the oldest Chinese temple and wandered about the heritage street in Chinatown and the Indian shops and the modern high rise City Square shopping mall.

The Sail Malaysia Rally organisors had arranged a sumptuous dinner hosted by the Johor Tourism Dept and the next morning we set off back along the Johor Strait, crossing another shipping lane and headed westward to Pulau Pisang (Banana Island). 30 seconds after dropping anchor a torrential downpour of rain started and built up to a thunderstorm that lasted for hours. So glad we anchored in time.

Our next sail to Pulau Besar was mostly motor sailing as the wind was light. We had the current with us for the last 5 hours so we skipped out 2 possible anchorages and kept going. Ten and a half hours later, we had done 69 nautical miles. It was tedious as there were lots of fishing nets strung out from many small boats and we had to change course constantly. It’s difficult to distinguish between fishing net floats and floating plastic rubbish so we both kept our eyes peeled all the time – very draining. We were too tired to appreciate Pulau Besar’s nice looking beaches and fell asleep early.

The next morning was a short sail to Malacca (Melaka) dodging more nets along the way and we anchored in a shallow wide bay with nearby dredging operations underway. A couple of rally boats were there already and more arrived later to total 13 boats. We parked our dinghy at a nearby marina that is no longer used for sailing boats since it was damaged by a storm a few years ago. We set off to explore Malacca in the afternoon and was surprised to find that it’s a colourful vibrant city steeped in history. Restored architecture, attractive river canal with shops and restaurants, different cultures side by side, a mix of old and new that works so well there.

Gaudily decorated rickshaws waiting to attract customers

Colonial influence in architecture - British...

...and Dutch

This visitor's co-ordinated outfit was co-incidental

We walked up a hill to the ruins of St Paul’s Church, built in 1521 it is the oldest church structure in Southeast Asia.

The interior walls are lined with headstones from Dutch colonialists and set in the middle of the floor is a slab that marks the grave of Maria van Riebeeck, wife of Jan van Riebeeck who spent many years in Malacca. Evidence of Dutch and Portuguese and British occupation of Malacca is everywhere and many buildings remind me of Cape Town’s old sites.

The following day Sail Malaysia had organised a tour and lunch hosted by Malacca Tourism. We visited the Malacca Museum and an hour and a half is not enough – interesting history from the founding of Malacca through the Portuguese, Dutch and British occupations, as well as Japanese – no wonder the sense of cultures and heritage is so prevalent in Malacca.

We did a riverboat cruise – somewhat reminiscent of Dutch canals lined with narrow buildings and flowers.

Large monitor lizards inhabit the canal - this one almost as big as a croc

At night, the long crowded Jonker Street turns into a night market with various traditional foods and interesting stalls.

The more interesting old buildings are in side streets off Jonker Street and we enjoyed strolling around the area.

We left Malacca thinking we’re definitely coming back to spend more time.
 

Island hopping across the equator - goodbye Indonesia!

The weather was changing as we got closer to the equator. The winds were lighter and thunderstorms more frequent. There is no accurate mariner’s weather forecasting service in Indonesia. Mostly we are using the Windy app which is vaguely accurate but in the transition period at the end of October we seldom experienced SE winds, mostly winds from North – NE and NW, although it was a bit early as noted in various cruising guides. Also our new B&G radar had stopped working shortly after we left Australia and we can’t get it fixed until Malaysia. It would have been useful to see approaching storm cells.

After we left North Bangka we overnighted at Cebia Island, fringed by extended reefs and we didn’t go ashore. There’s about a dozen houses at most. 3 other rally boats anchored around the island. Very early the next morning the sky seemed dark and we thought it was pre-sunrise. We had just moved off along with the other yachts when the storm cell hit and we immediately experienced thunder, lightning, 24 knot gusting winds and torrential rain. We heard on the radio that one of the other yachts had seen the storm cell on his radar and tried to run around it and was “bitch slapped”. The other 3 yachts were monohulls and turned to face into the wind, a large Oystar boat screaming towards us with sails out and I hoped it saw us then it shot past our back. Robert said as a multihull we should run with the wind and we got Pegasos around and it was more comfortable in the rough sea although we couldn’t avoid the rain. We were blown off course for a bit but in less than 20 minutes the storm passed over and we were back on track.

After the storm the sun came out, the seas smoothed and it was a pleasant 6 hours to Saya Island. We saw dolphins swimming near the boat. From a distance coming from the south Saya Island looks steep and mostly granite.

 

As we got closer and moved around towards its west and north side we saw tiny pretty beaches, thickly forested slopes and granite boulders. We eventually found an anchor spot off the surrounding reef on the north side and it was peaceful and exquisite.

 

We went ashore to walk on the tiny beach and swim under the overhanging trees in crystal clear warm water.

It’s a beautiful postcard worthy spot and as always, marred by the plastic rubbish so prevalent in Indonesia.

In the afternoon a small traditional fishing boat came and anchored nearby, sorting out their buckets of fish and ice. Our sundowners on deck in this calm lovely setting was curiously watched by the fishermen.

 

A swiftlet visited the boat inspecting the inside and went off to get Mrs Swiftlet. It seemed to meet their approval as the next morning the bird was still around and stayed on the boat until some distance from the island. We often have hitchhiker swiftlets but none so keen as this one.

There is so much plastic rubbish floating on the sea and we often see the seabirds sitting on a piece of polystyrene floating past or surfing down a swell.

When we left Saya Island the sea was glassy smooth in complete contrast to the previous morning. It stayed flat and windless all the way to our south Lingga anchorage. Once again we saw dolphins nearby. Interestingly, we also saw a sea snake almost every day, the banded variety.

Our south Lingga anchorage had the strongest current we’ve experienced so far and Robert tied ropes onto the boat so we could hang on for our swim off the boat. I certainly couldn’t swim against that current. A few other rally boats overnighted there too.

In the morning some of the other boats headed for a nearby island lagoon for a BBQ but we needed to move on further to keep to our exit schedule. We had no internet for a few days.

Between south Lingga and our next stop we crossed the equator!

As luck would have it, the sea was calm and there was no wind so who could resist a swim over the equator while we let Pegasos drift. The water temperature was a glorious 30 degrees.

Keeping with tradition, we also gave Neptune a hearty slug of rum.

The anchorage at Kentar Island is actually between two islands, Kentar and Bakau. There are quite a few fishing platforms in the area and a stilt village nearby. A young fisherman came up to our boat, sailing along in his small home made canoe with a home made tatty sail. He was interested in our boat and chatted with Robert in broken English. He said he’s 25 and a fisherman although it seems he hardly catches anything. We can’t help feeling a bit sorry for the young man trying to eke out a living in a stuffed up fish ecology. There will be less and less fish to catch each year and the fishes that are caught now are not much bigger than pilchards.

Our next stop was the island of Benan which was also a rally stop. As we moved north we saw more and more plastic rubbish in the water. We had to keep a sharp eye as there are many small white buoys with fishing traps underneath and from a distance a floating plastic bottle or styrofoam looks like a buoy.

We were almost half an hour from Benan island when a strong tropical storm hit us. There was not much else to do but ride it out. We watched the wind gauge climb up to 35 knots! The boat bounced up and down in the churned up sea while everything seemed to strain and creak in the wind. Torrential rain made visibility difficult and we were soaking wet. Robert increased the engine speed hoping to get closer to Benan. It was almost impossible to make much headway and at best we were doing 2,5 knots. I was feeling quite scared as the storm seemed to last longer than normal and the wind wasn’t dropping. Robert decided to edge towards the east side of Benan as the wind was from the west and we should get some protection behind the island. Eventually we got on the lee side of the island and felt the wind drop and the seas clam. Robert motored up and down checking the sea bottom on the sonar – it seemed all sand so we edged closer in towards the beach and dropped the anchor to sit out the storm. One of the rally boats at anchor on the other side radioed us to find out if we were ok – Karen had seen our progress on AIS. Their anchor had dragged in the storm, luckily they were on board.

After the storm passed we dried out the cockpit as best we could and motored around to the anchorage next to a stilt village. In the late afternoon we went ashore with Karen and Frank for some dinner. There is only one “restaurant” and you either get Nasi Goreng or Mie Goreng.

 

Off to the market ...

A market was set up next to the “restaurant” and we bought fresh fruit and veg to take back to the boat. Our food stocks had been getting low and we were resorting to tinned food - “woof” or “meow” dinner menu depending on whether it's corned meat or tuna. We don’t have a freezer and I would rather be vegetarian than eat Indonesian meat or chicken from their open outdoor markets as the cloud of flies is intense. Their fish are small and bony. Fishing off Pegasos is 'fishless' in these fished out waters.

 

Island transport

Robert’s computer with the charts, Google Earth and AIS overlay had been giving display problems and finally crashed in Benan. We had a late morning start from Benan Island to Petong Island as Robert spent time fixing his computer crash. It’s working again but not 100% yet.

Moving northwards now means a light wind always from the north so we couldn’t put up the sails. It’s a bit tedious motoring all the way. At Petong Island we anchored off a mini island – there were several beautiful mini islands scattered about.

We went for a snorkel on a nearby reef and saw lots of “Nemo’s”.

The beach was really tiny and fully covered at high tide.

Interesting to see that there is a lot of varied vegetation thickly covering the small area.

 

Our last day in Indonesia was about 7 hours of motoring along the Combol Strait passing beautiful islands on both sides. Had we known these islands were so inviting we would have allowed more time to explore them. Well, next time…..

We had some rain along the way but just as we were within metres of our anchorage in the north bay of Kepalajerih, the heavens opened and the rain came down in buckets. Typical of these parts it soon cleared up and we sat on the deck having our last sundowners in Indonesia. We were next to the very busy Singapore Strait and could see many big ships passing – a taste of things to come tomorrow when we cross to Malaysia. We could also see the lights of Singapore on the opposite side of the Strait. It seemed a bit surreal to think we have come so far in Pegasos from Brisbane to Singapore. As a real novice back in Brisbane when the first time on a boat for me was when we sailed out the Brisbane river, I didn’t think we could do it. But here we are!

Goodbye wonderful Indonesia – we’ll be back….