Left at dawn to do the 45 miles to Port Klang. We have had the worst sailing we have seen since leaving Canada, we have pretty much motored or motor sailed all the way from Singapore, no wind.
There is a steady stream of ships up shipping lane off coast, not many fish boats today.
The Malay coast is not too interesting, suppose to get better further North.
We arrived at the entrance to Pulau Indah Marina around 4:30pm. There was a good current running with us as we approached marina, so we turned and came up into current to come along side outer pontoon and tie up. It took some playing with the throttle to get the speed right in the 2 knot current and get onto the dock without banging things. There is three separate outer pontoons, could squeeze two 40fters on each one. This huge marina is empty except for 4 boats. We had tried to call marina by phone and VHF 61, but no answer. Though someone did greet us to take our dock lines, I guess they saw us approaching. Another yacht said when they came in they were on their own and when they went up to office one guy was sleeping on couch and the other playing a video game. But they are friendly and laid back here.
It is not wise to enter marina until the current is near slack, there is no break water to stop current and apparently if they built one it would silt up marina. It is only $8.00 a day here, very cheap and has showers and power if you need them. Nothing else here in area. You can get a taxi into town for 35 to 50 RP.
There is a small grocery store, no veggies, about 35 minute walk away. Turn right at road and walk for 15 min and then go left and follow this road for about 20 min, go straight on this road, do not take any right or left turns, just go straight and after 20 min get to a intersection, and store is 200 feet to your right on intersecting road.
We had a montster Thunderstorm go by last night and were wondering if we were going to get hit. You could see bolts of lighting going straight down all around us and and huge cracks and then bangs of thunder, and the rain monsooned down on us.
Entrance waypoints to marina: Channel entrance 02 52.352 101 16.183 then 02 52.745 101 16.183 then 02 53.088 101 17.590 and Marina is at 02 54.453N 101 18.691E
I give these points off our track, because I noticed the depth got down to 13 feet at one point, very close to low tide. Not sure if this is where we were suppose to be but this worked for us and there is no channel markers. There was some small ships in here as well which gave us some confidence to enter river. We stayed more to the right side or South side of river as it looked like it would be deeper, generally 18 to 25 feet, low tide, then crossed near the marina, good depths.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Up Malacca strait to Port Dickson Malaysia
The time has come to leave Puteri harbour and leave friends behind. It was a nice place to stay. We left at 8am and of course had a 1.5 knot current against us as the channel ebbs South and the coast of Malaysia ebbs North, so can't have both. There was no problems with the many ships around as we stayed inshore of the shipping lane. The current was finally with us late in day.
We found that the current changes about 2.5 hours after the tide change on our Navionics chip. There was very little wind all day and when it did blow it was almost on nose. One big Thunder lightning storm went by but no problem. There is a few yachts that get hit every year and lose all their electronics.
By 4:30 PM we had the anchor down. Anchored of Pulau Pisang Island in 9ft at low tide at 1 27.936N 103 16.384E. All night there is sheet lightning on the horizon making for dramatic night scene.
Anchorage was okay got a bit bouncy for an hour or two. Left at first light to do 70 miles to next anchorage. Had current against us until late morning and then we had good going. Today we saw many fish nets. They are about a half mile long and very difficult to see. Usually have a black flag at one end and then small white floats along net and a vertical white float at other end. We ziz zagged around a few and actually went over the top of two during the day as we did not see them in time, but nothing happened
Often there is a small fish boat at one end of net but not always. Should probably stay on edge of ship lane but it is a few miles out.
We got in well after dark and anchored in 33ft at 02 06.233N 102 19.983E. Was okay here. Some people have anchored at 1 50.1N 102 45 4E about 35 miles south if they had bad conditions. The Malacca Strait so far has had very little sea and is surprisingly calm could anchor almost anywhere at night.
Left at dawn again for the 40 miles up to Port Dickson. Current direction changed around noon and then we where often hitting 7 knots and more instead of 3.8 to 4.5 knots. Arrived about 4PM and used approach waypoint of 2 28.45N 101 49.80E then to 2 28.80N 101 50.61E by entrance to Admiral Marina which is easy.
Did not see many fish nets today and shipping no problem, just had to watch for one near Malacca. We paid 50 RP a night here, pretty reasonable. The marina is nice with a free swimming pool and showers and wi fi at bar. The next day we walked part way to town for some exercise about 10 km north and then caught a taxi the rest of way for 10 rp though it is about 20 to 25 to get back. We caught a bus back for 1.3 rp.
In town I finally found a Celcom dealer with good english and who could make my Indonesian modem for USB port work with a new Sim card and get Internet working. Good to bring your laptop with you as I did, as it first did not work and they had to do something to get it working. For one month it is 48 RP. Much cheaper than buying their modem which other dealers try to force. Found some good grocery shopping in the two malls here. Both fairly close to each other and not far from Celcom dealer. The town otherwise is not particularly interesting, just a town.
We will probably leave in a day or two for port Klang.
We found that the current changes about 2.5 hours after the tide change on our Navionics chip. There was very little wind all day and when it did blow it was almost on nose. One big Thunder lightning storm went by but no problem. There is a few yachts that get hit every year and lose all their electronics.
By 4:30 PM we had the anchor down. Anchored of Pulau Pisang Island in 9ft at low tide at 1 27.936N 103 16.384E. All night there is sheet lightning on the horizon making for dramatic night scene.
Anchorage was okay got a bit bouncy for an hour or two. Left at first light to do 70 miles to next anchorage. Had current against us until late morning and then we had good going. Today we saw many fish nets. They are about a half mile long and very difficult to see. Usually have a black flag at one end and then small white floats along net and a vertical white float at other end. We ziz zagged around a few and actually went over the top of two during the day as we did not see them in time, but nothing happened
Often there is a small fish boat at one end of net but not always. Should probably stay on edge of ship lane but it is a few miles out.
We got in well after dark and anchored in 33ft at 02 06.233N 102 19.983E. Was okay here. Some people have anchored at 1 50.1N 102 45 4E about 35 miles south if they had bad conditions. The Malacca Strait so far has had very little sea and is surprisingly calm could anchor almost anywhere at night.
Left at dawn again for the 40 miles up to Port Dickson. Current direction changed around noon and then we where often hitting 7 knots and more instead of 3.8 to 4.5 knots. Arrived about 4PM and used approach waypoint of 2 28.45N 101 49.80E then to 2 28.80N 101 50.61E by entrance to Admiral Marina which is easy.
Did not see many fish nets today and shipping no problem, just had to watch for one near Malacca. We paid 50 RP a night here, pretty reasonable. The marina is nice with a free swimming pool and showers and wi fi at bar. The next day we walked part way to town for some exercise about 10 km north and then caught a taxi the rest of way for 10 rp though it is about 20 to 25 to get back. We caught a bus back for 1.3 rp.
In town I finally found a Celcom dealer with good english and who could make my Indonesian modem for USB port work with a new Sim card and get Internet working. Good to bring your laptop with you as I did, as it first did not work and they had to do something to get it working. For one month it is 48 RP. Much cheaper than buying their modem which other dealers try to force. Found some good grocery shopping in the two malls here. Both fairly close to each other and not far from Celcom dealer. The town otherwise is not particularly interesting, just a town.
We will probably leave in a day or two for port Klang.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Singapore and our first week in Malaysia
Puteri Harbour marina turned out to be a nicer place than we thought and very well protected. Nicer than Danga bay we thought after a speed boat trip up there a bit later. We found a few boats we know in our marina which was nice. Shadow Trader gave us the scoop on the area, buses and shopping and Mojombo told us the ins and out of going to Singapore.
We took the free shuttle into the night market the 2nd day there and then another free shuttle up to a big mall not too far away. I got a broken tooth that needed fixing. Puteri front office suggested a local dentist. I went in without an appointment and had to wait a few hours and then went in and found it was a old office and equipment you would find in the 1950's. He drilled about around the tooth and filled it, no x-rays or freezing. Though it did not hurt. When it came time for the bill I was a bit worried, but all's they asked for was 50rp or about $16.00, super.
We did a bit of cycling in the area as the roads in this area have no traffic as they are in the middle of building a city here and have just done the roads and started a few toweres, so no one is living here yet except us. The walking is great as well, fantastic after Indonesia with it's lack of sidewalks and narrow busy roads and if there was sidewalks they had 2 foot holes in them or motorbikes parked on them or people selling their wares on them.
Today just got back from a day trip into Singapore. It is an exciting place and would keep any shopaholic happy for months. We bought some electronic toys I wanted and a couple of small items for the boat and just explored the city and waterfront, well worth the trip in. It took about 2 hours to get right into town from Puteri , 2 buses and the train and through Malaysian customs and Singapore customs each way.
We are thinking of leaving Puteri Harbour in 2 or 3 days and start heading north and seeing some of Malaysia and Thailand.
We took the free shuttle into the night market the 2nd day there and then another free shuttle up to a big mall not too far away. I got a broken tooth that needed fixing. Puteri front office suggested a local dentist. I went in without an appointment and had to wait a few hours and then went in and found it was a old office and equipment you would find in the 1950's. He drilled about around the tooth and filled it, no x-rays or freezing. Though it did not hurt. When it came time for the bill I was a bit worried, but all's they asked for was 50rp or about $16.00, super.
We did a bit of cycling in the area as the roads in this area have no traffic as they are in the middle of building a city here and have just done the roads and started a few toweres, so no one is living here yet except us. The walking is great as well, fantastic after Indonesia with it's lack of sidewalks and narrow busy roads and if there was sidewalks they had 2 foot holes in them or motorbikes parked on them or people selling their wares on them.
Today just got back from a day trip into Singapore. It is an exciting place and would keep any shopaholic happy for months. We bought some electronic toys I wanted and a couple of small items for the boat and just explored the city and waterfront, well worth the trip in. It took about 2 hours to get right into town from Puteri , 2 buses and the train and through Malaysian customs and Singapore customs each way.
We are thinking of leaving Puteri Harbour in 2 or 3 days and start heading north and seeing some of Malaysia and Thailand.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Enjoying Belitong and on to Singapore
The four days we spent in Belitung flew by. We enjoying a couple of free tours of the island put on by the local government. Part of one tour was to the local schools where we talked to the students and they could ask us questions in minimal English.
On Belitung we had our biggest welcome anywhere in Indonesia. We joined up with the rally for this island and the locals went all out. They put on lots of performances for us and greeted us everywhere we went with big smiles and 'hello mister'. We had our pictures taken with dozens of young people who would walk up and ask to have their picture taken with us. They had vans available to drive us into the nearby town for shopping. They supplied a driver and guide and the vehicle for $10. great deal. We just told the guide what we wanted and they found the correct store for us, even a store with a rat trap. That story coming up.
We had a Canadian thanksgiving party on the Canadian yacht Cop-out with all the Canadian yachts in anchorage.
We left Belitong late in the morning to do a 125 mile overnight passage to the NE corner of Bangka Island. After motoring for the first two hours we had a nice sail for all but the last 40 miles. We crossed two busy shipping lanes in the day and a big fleet of fish boats at night.
We dropped anchor late in morning in 19ft at 01 30.627S 105 52.478E. It was a pretty spot with a nice beach that we took a walk on. Not sure how legal that was as we were officially checked out of Indonesia and suppose to leave directly. No Internet here, but tons of room for many boats.
The next morning we left at 7:30 am for Kentar 115 miles away. Had mostly good sailing and got to Kentar near dawn and decided to keep going another 26 miles to Mesanak island which is anchorage #85 in book. We arrived mid afternoon at waypoint recommended in book and found it very bouncy and windy with the E wind we had so decided to go on to the Asundra group about six miles away. This turned out to be a great anchorage, well sheltered. We dropped the hook in 25 ft at 00 28.466N 104 26.382E There is a village on stilts nearby and we even got some Internet here.
We left at first light to go between Bintan and Batam Islands, up Selau Riau Channel. After motoring for an hour we sailed for a few hours and then back to motoring as we got up the channel. A large T storm and heavy rain squall grazed us and we had rain for 2 hours but avoided the worst of the lighting. These storms are now becoming daily as we get into the storm season. We found a good anchorage on the East coast of Batam about 10 miles South of Nongsa point marina. Anchored at 01 03.571N 104 09.516E in 40ft. was a quiet anchorage but not very pretty with the ugly shipping port on other side of channel. We could have anchored a half mile south in the bay but a big tug and barge were messing around there so we moved up a bit to the waypoints I gave above.
Left at 2:30am for the Singapore area, a big day today. We had hoped to spend a few days at Raffles marina in Singapore but it was full. Instead our destination now is Puteri Harbour marina just across the channel from Singapore, in Malaysia and 5 miles further up the channel than Raffles.
We had to motor pretty well all the way. As we headed along the North coast of Indonesia we had a 2 knot push with the current . We stayed on this side (South side of channel) until near Buffalo rock and crossed here to the Singapore side.
Our Ais on the chart planner was going mad. This is the busiest shipping area in the world. The chartplotter would lockup every hour or so as it got overloaded with all the hundreds of targets. I heard several other Raymarine plotters had same problem on other boats. There was not too much traffic on the Indonesian side but now as we lined up to do a 90 degree crossing of the shipping channels we could see a steady line of ships. Supposedly they average about 1 every 12 minutes. We motored to edge of channel and then waited 15 minutes for two big ships to go buy and then saw a larger gap and gunned the engine and crossed the east bound channel and then stopped again for a few minutes and shot across the next channel to arrive safely on the Singapore side. We could see the high rises of the big city near by.
We then motored along the shore out of the shipping lanes, dodging the occasional ferry or work boat. The shore here was lined with hundreds of fuel storage tanks and ship loading cranes and also piles of dirt as they filled in more of the ocean to reclaim more land.
After we turned the corner to head North up the channel we left all the ships behind and and had a easy trip up the channel. We called Puteri Marina as we neared the bridge over the channel. No answer from them, we tried 4 or 5 times over the next hour and finally got them and they said they were ready for us. There was a two knot current against us up this channel.
We soon arrived at the entrance waypoint to the marina I got off google earth. 1 24.929N 103 39.750E and it was bang on.
We were greeted at the dock by a couple of line handlers and were soon tied up. Welcome to Malaysia they said and to come up to the office when ready for customs clearance. At the office they did the preliminary clearance and then drove us down to the customs office in town and while we sat in a chair they took care of everything. The customs and immigration people did not say a thing to us. All was down in 10 minutes, easy, no hassle, what a difference from Indonesia.
On Belitung we had our biggest welcome anywhere in Indonesia. We joined up with the rally for this island and the locals went all out. They put on lots of performances for us and greeted us everywhere we went with big smiles and 'hello mister'. We had our pictures taken with dozens of young people who would walk up and ask to have their picture taken with us. They had vans available to drive us into the nearby town for shopping. They supplied a driver and guide and the vehicle for $10. great deal. We just told the guide what we wanted and they found the correct store for us, even a store with a rat trap. That story coming up.
We had a Canadian thanksgiving party on the Canadian yacht Cop-out with all the Canadian yachts in anchorage.
We left Belitong late in the morning to do a 125 mile overnight passage to the NE corner of Bangka Island. After motoring for the first two hours we had a nice sail for all but the last 40 miles. We crossed two busy shipping lanes in the day and a big fleet of fish boats at night.
We dropped anchor late in morning in 19ft at 01 30.627S 105 52.478E. It was a pretty spot with a nice beach that we took a walk on. Not sure how legal that was as we were officially checked out of Indonesia and suppose to leave directly. No Internet here, but tons of room for many boats.
The next morning we left at 7:30 am for Kentar 115 miles away. Had mostly good sailing and got to Kentar near dawn and decided to keep going another 26 miles to Mesanak island which is anchorage #85 in book. We arrived mid afternoon at waypoint recommended in book and found it very bouncy and windy with the E wind we had so decided to go on to the Asundra group about six miles away. This turned out to be a great anchorage, well sheltered. We dropped the hook in 25 ft at 00 28.466N 104 26.382E There is a village on stilts nearby and we even got some Internet here.
We left at first light to go between Bintan and Batam Islands, up Selau Riau Channel. After motoring for an hour we sailed for a few hours and then back to motoring as we got up the channel. A large T storm and heavy rain squall grazed us and we had rain for 2 hours but avoided the worst of the lighting. These storms are now becoming daily as we get into the storm season. We found a good anchorage on the East coast of Batam about 10 miles South of Nongsa point marina. Anchored at 01 03.571N 104 09.516E in 40ft. was a quiet anchorage but not very pretty with the ugly shipping port on other side of channel. We could have anchored a half mile south in the bay but a big tug and barge were messing around there so we moved up a bit to the waypoints I gave above.
Left at 2:30am for the Singapore area, a big day today. We had hoped to spend a few days at Raffles marina in Singapore but it was full. Instead our destination now is Puteri Harbour marina just across the channel from Singapore, in Malaysia and 5 miles further up the channel than Raffles.
We had to motor pretty well all the way. As we headed along the North coast of Indonesia we had a 2 knot push with the current . We stayed on this side (South side of channel) until near Buffalo rock and crossed here to the Singapore side.
Our Ais on the chart planner was going mad. This is the busiest shipping area in the world. The chartplotter would lockup every hour or so as it got overloaded with all the hundreds of targets. I heard several other Raymarine plotters had same problem on other boats. There was not too much traffic on the Indonesian side but now as we lined up to do a 90 degree crossing of the shipping channels we could see a steady line of ships. Supposedly they average about 1 every 12 minutes. We motored to edge of channel and then waited 15 minutes for two big ships to go buy and then saw a larger gap and gunned the engine and crossed the east bound channel and then stopped again for a few minutes and shot across the next channel to arrive safely on the Singapore side. We could see the high rises of the big city near by.
We then motored along the shore out of the shipping lanes, dodging the occasional ferry or work boat. The shore here was lined with hundreds of fuel storage tanks and ship loading cranes and also piles of dirt as they filled in more of the ocean to reclaim more land.
After we turned the corner to head North up the channel we left all the ships behind and and had a easy trip up the channel. We called Puteri Marina as we neared the bridge over the channel. No answer from them, we tried 4 or 5 times over the next hour and finally got them and they said they were ready for us. There was a two knot current against us up this channel.
We soon arrived at the entrance waypoint to the marina I got off google earth. 1 24.929N 103 39.750E and it was bang on.
We were greeted at the dock by a couple of line handlers and were soon tied up. Welcome to Malaysia they said and to come up to the office when ready for customs clearance. At the office they did the preliminary clearance and then drove us down to the customs office in town and while we sat in a chair they took care of everything. The customs and immigration people did not say a thing to us. All was down in 10 minutes, easy, no hassle, what a difference from Indonesia.
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