A very belated update to our blog from when we left Port Dickson towards the end of August to mid October 2022. Next month we'll be back in Malaysia and wanted to record our previous passage with photos and place names.
23 August 2022: The first day out at sea off Port Dickson and the sky was grey and heavy.
We passed several tankers in their anchorage near Cape Rachada.
It was about 7 hours to the island of Pulau Besar northern anchorage. Great to see hawksbill turtles nearby, no pics unfortunately.
The next day we headed to the river town of Muar. It’s very shallow on the approach to the river mouth. We crept over sandbars with the depth gauge showing between 0,4m and 0! It was just after low tide, not great timing but Pegasos can do it. Muar is clean and neat, and has some interesting colonial buildings.
The grand 19th century mosque on the Muar riverfront, Masjid Jamek Sultan Ibrahim:
Watched the sunset and sipped beer to the sound of calls to prayer from nearby mosques.
A barge being towed at snail’s pace over the sandbanks leaving Muar. Too wary to deviate from the recommended way points, we stayed behind it until there was enough depth to pass.
Thunderstorms a bit further south in the Malacca strait had caused wild seas again as we set off and we bounced around for 8 hours with spray splashing into the cockpit, dodging nets and large debris. With wind in front we could only motor again and after a few heavy smashes into waves it seemed that the engine was rumbling more than usual. Robert did a quick check and found the gearbox was leaking oil. Our destination of another river town Batu Pahat couldn’t come soon enough. More sandbanks to negotiate and we dropped anchor next to mangroves at the wide river entrance.
It’s a busy river entrance with barges, tugboats, Indonesian pinisi and local fishing boats all moving along the same narrow route through the sandbanks.
There was a huge thunderstorm as it got dark and rained all the next day. We stayed at anchor while Robert removed the gearbox and replaced the oil seal. Not a small task. There’s never too many spares to be carried on board.
We dried out on the muddy bank at low tide, really oozing yucky stuff.
The next morning we lifted the anchor with debris stuck to it by the gluey mud.
The
current was with us all the way down to Pulau Pisang (Banana Island),
a rolly anchorage for a night and then onwards through the busy entrance
of Johor Strait.
The red boat image is Pegasos:
We had booked a berth at Puteri Harbour Marina for a week and the marina office took care of the clearing in procedures for us. We took the Causeway Link bus to Singapore to spend a few days in Singapore celebrating my birthday and getting a new 90 day visa on our return to Malaysia. Singapore was entertaining as always and we had our fix of so many interesting places to see.
A rare pic of Robert wearing a shirt and not covered in grease and sweat:
The birthday girl highly recommends a Singapore Sling:
Setting off very early in the morning from Puteri Harbour Marina, we hadn’t got very far when the engine cut out. We turned around and puttered back with the small outboard engine to the marina basin and Robert had a look. It was air bubbles in the fuel system and it took some time to fix that. So we missed the favourable current and decided to anchor off the small island in the middle of the strait. Perhaps just as well as a thunderstorm sprang up and we saw 35 knots on the wind gauge. Wouldn’t have like that wind crossing the Singapore shipping lanes.
Another very early morning and we reached the westbound lane of the Singapore shipping lanes. So many ships coming past! The hovering Singapore police boat making sure we didn’t intrude in Singapore waters, we waited for a gap and hurried across and did the same for the eastbound lane.
We were now in Indonesian waters going east out of the shipping lanes. The complex currents were strong and there were hectic over falls and big patches of debris to dodge around. Our first intended anchorage turned out not viable so it was a long 9 hours to the next stop – off a beach near Nongsa Point. It was a sheltered bay in front of Montigo Resort. All very postcard worthy except for the annoying jetskis who were delighted to do doughnuts around Pegasos, treating us to noise, petrol fumes and bouncy wakes. We’re grumpy after 9 hours in Singapore Strait and just couldn’t wave back.
Our intention was to go north up the west coast of Malaysia to Tioman Island and the surrounding islands where we believed the weather to be better in the SW monsoon. This meant we had to re-cross those busy shipping lanes a little more eastward. The snag is those big ships speed up once past Singapore and crossing the lanes against the current is more tricky for us. Robert had worked out the best route across the lanes.
Here's our planned route in red, a sharp left turn and quickly dash across the shipping lanes:
But those big ships come along in fast moving
bunches and of course it started raining heavily and visibility was
poor. We waited and waited and waited, turning about and moving up
and down next to the eastbound shipping lane and eventually got a
gap. And so instead of our planned quick left turn, this shows our actual track in yellow!
Truly not the fun part of our journey.
We
anchored in a wide bay at the bottom of the west coast of Malaysia,
off a resort near Teluk Panggai.
Our next overnight further north in Jason’s Bay must be the fishing net
fiesta, there were so many nets. Robert took a quick dip into the water to
check the anchor chain wasn’t lying over one of the nets and
received a small jellyfish sting on his back.
A long stretch the next day with light wind, enough to put out all the sails but still motoring:
The lovely island of Sibu and a chance to snorkel on a coral reef between us and the shore in reasonably clear water. It's a decent reef with big corals and colourful fish. The only downside was that the water had lots of plankton type organisms floating in jelly like threads. Not sure if it was coral bloom or anything related to the full moon.
View from the boat:
View from the shore:
We saw plenty of turtles, dolphins
and a pair of fish eagles/buzzards (tried to look them up but
not much
info). The anchorage was pretty and the nearby Rimba Resort were happy
to serve us lunch (most resorts turn away visitors and only allow their
guests to dine). A nice lunch in an exquisite setting.
A few days earlier Robert noticed that there was still an oil leak from the gearbox. The new oil seal hadn't lasted very long. So....yes, the gearbox came out again taking the best part of a morning to replace the oil seal yet again.
After a couple of days we headed for the next closest island, Pulau Tinggi. It seemed that the sea swell was predominantly from the south west so we decided on a tiny sandy bay on the north side.
It has a tiny secluded beach, no reef and a narrow entrance. We had a swim on the beach and in the evening watched a group of monkeys foraging along the high water mark and the young monkeys chasing each other and falling about on the sand. It is protected from the wind but not from the swell which now seemed to come from the north.
Another exquisite sundowner sunset:
To escape the swells, the next morning we motored around to the south side of Tinggi and went ashore to explore the tiny village. The tide goes out very far needing Robert to anchor the dinghy and wade over broken corals to shore. When we came back the water had receded far past the dinghy leaving us to pick our way over sticky mud and drag the dinghy back over rocks.
The neat police station in Tinggi village serves less than 500 people on the island:
Departure from Tinggi was a rare windy day so we could actually sail some of the way to Pulau Besar.
We had hardly dropped anchor near a resort on Pulau Besar when a huge thunderstorm hit and madness followed for a couple of hours until the sea calmed and we could safely lift the anchor and move to a better spot.
The incredible sunset after the storm:
A better south west anchorage off Pulau Besar:
Going ashore to stretch our legs:
Anchorage on west side of nearby island Pulau Tengah:
Local resort boats speedily departing the island before another approaching thunderstorm:
Passing fishing boats on the way to Tanjung Penyabong:
Tanjung Penyabong was a good spot for a night
We decided to go to Mersing, a large town on the east coast of Johor to see if the only boatyard there could assist us with our problematic engine. Unfortunately they're a busy commercial boatyard and were not interested in helping us. While anchored near the river entrance of Mersing, Robert took the opportunity to dinghy up the river and get provisions. I was sick with a tummy bug and stayed aboard Pegasos.
We set off eastwards leaving Mersing on the mainland and passed a few islands along the way until we reached a fairly sheltered anchorage between the islands of Sembilang and Seribuat, also known as Butterfly Island to some yachties. Super snorkeling on the reefs, corals in good condition, lots of colourful fish and we saw a turtle. There were no villages and no fishing boats and other than the occasional resort boat bringing their guests to stand in the shallows, we had the place to ourselves.
After a couple of days,a local transport boat came along and asked if we could use our dinghy to get a couple to shore as their boat could not get closer over the reef. So Robert obliged to carry a local man called Won and a volunteer, a girl from Prague, to their rudimentary camp spot on shore, as well as their supplies. Later Won's son and a friend came along in their dinghy. Turns out that one of Won's functions is to maintain the footpath on the island up to the lookout hilltop. We enjoyed their company and the following day we all went on our dinghies through the mangrove trees following Won along a tight shallow route which he obviously knows well.
Our next stop was Tioman Island. We had read lots of favourable reports about Tioman as a destination but the anchorages had little protection and were often bouncy in the few days we were there. Facilities on shore were limited too. Perhaps in pre-covid days it was booming but the restaurants were mediocre and sight seeing was limited to a short section on one side of the island only as no rental scooters are allowed to travel the steep road to the other side. At either end of the main road there were resorts which barred entry to the road and beaches. We got the impression that the resorts are probably "dry" as we saw only Muslim families on holiday there and surrounding restaurants did not sell beer. On the bright side, Tioman is a duty free island so we visited the duty free shop, bought lots of beer and stocked the boat.
We had to do the check in formalities (immigration, customs and harbour master) on arrival and again a few days later on departure. In between we explored our side of the island and swam off the boat.
Small airplane taking off from the tiny runway on Tioman:
We preferred Butterfly Island and headed back to our previous anchorage where we spent several days snorkeling on different reefs. We noticed that rain and thunderstorms were becoming more frequent and remembered that Won told us the north west monsoon would be arriving earlier this year. We had enough of thunderstorms and generally untenable anchorages on the east coast of Malaysia and decided to cut our trip short and head back south with the intention of leaving our boat at Puteri Harbour.
Thunderstorms occurred daily as we revisited some of our previous anchorages on the way back south:
Marine traffic increased as we got closer to Singapore:
Robert had planned our timing around Singapore shipping lanes to coincide with the best tide, current, weather, etc. with a nearby overnight stop for early departure. As luck would have it, just as we reached our overnight stop at Tanjung Pengelih, the alternator and fanbelt broke. We dare not get into Singapore shipping lanes like this! Robert arranged a berth with Senibong Marina which was closer and behind Singapore out of the shipping lanes.
The next morning we puttered along slowly behind Singapore using just the outboard engine. It was a slow day and we anchored in the evening in the Johor Strait near floating dwellings:
Along the way we passed numerous fish and crab farms:
It's a busy strait with fast ferries and ore carrying ships amongst the smaller boats so it was a little disconcerting to come across a group of 5 or 6 otters trying to cross the large body of water. Their frantic squeaking alerted us and we watched as they ducked under and surfaced as they grouped together tightly, taking turns to look around above water. Hope they are "street smart" and got across safely.
Otter relaxing at Senibong Marina:
We were glad to finally reach Senibong Marina. A mechanic took the alternator for repair and Robert has ordered new fanbelts. It took us about a week to pack up the boat in the intense heat, packing away sails, outboards, etc and wrapping up whatever we could to prevent mould. We flew home to Cape Town for family visits, Christmas festivities, medical check ups and enjoying the unique Kalk Bay summer vibe. Not to mention good food and wine and a real braai.
We hope to be back aboard Pegasos in early February 2023 for the start of new adventures.
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