23 September 2016 Pulau Seri Buat, Malaysia
It was a beautiful morning, with a light southerly wind, so we motored south (into the wind of course) heading for Pulau Sibu, 35 miles away. It was very uneventful and boring. We anchored at the west side of Pulau Sibu because there was some swell from the east and the forecast was for the wind to go to the east tonight. Our anchorage was at 02°12.84N 104°03.78E in 5 metres of water next to some kind of hotel.
In the late afternoon, a huge thunderstorm streamed off the coast to the south of us and then seemed to head north towards us. The wind picked up from the south-west causing waves to build up and bouncing us around - we just can’t win in this area.
An hour before dark, there was no sign of the wind abating, so we debated whether to dash to towards the mainland, four miles away and anchor next to the coast where there would be more protection from the south-west wind.
We decided to stay put and hoped that the thunderstorm would bugger off. It was a little tense for a couple of hours, then thankfully the wind dropped and the waves started to calm down.
24 September 2016 Pulau Sibu to Tanjung Pengelih Malaysia
After a peaceful night, we were up before dawn and away as soon as we could see. It’s a good job that we waited because there was a fishing net strung right across our route out of the anchorage, which we had to skirt around.
Again we had a south wind, so we were motor-sailing into it with just the main up. It was a long, 70-mile day, but we were fortunate to have at least a knot of current with us for eleven hours, so we were able to get around the corner into the Singapore Straits and anchored at Tanjung Pengelih at 01°23.28N 104°05.84E in 8 metres of water. It’s a popular anchorage with tugs and small ships, but it’s surprisingly pleasant with forested slopes ashore.
We’re still in Malaysia, but about half a mile to the west of the anchorage, is Singapore’s territorial border and they’ve got immense land reclamation occurring on an island called Pulau Tekong, which is going to double the size of the three mile diameter island. Malaysia has tried to stop the work, which is narrowing the channels around the island and affecting the coast line of Malaysia, but Singapore’s need to expand its land area has prevailed.
25 September 2016 Tanjung Pengelih to Admiral Marina Malaysia (Day 1)
No rest for the wicked, we were up at crack of dawn again. We skirted around the land reclamation project and into Singapore waters. Above us we had lovely clear skies, but to the west we could see a huge, black squall line coming towards us. It was a classic Sumatra - caused by the southwest monsoon. I found this description of the phenomenon:
During the southwest monsoon, south-westerly winds pass over the mountains of Sumatra and create mountain waves on the leeward side of the mountain thus creating an unstable atmosphere. As the atmosphere becomes highly unstable, the thunderstorms begin to merge into each other forming a squall line. This squall line is then steered by the south-westerly winds causing the storm to move north-eastwards and into the Straits of Melaka.
When this squall line moves offshore to the Straits of Melaka, it is usually night and thus, warmer air rising over the Straits of Melaka causes the squall line to intensify. As the abundance of moisture over the Straits of Melaka condenses, it releases huge amounts of latent heat of condensation and this helps the squall line maintain its strength and intensify even more.
This squall line then moves towards the coast of Peninsular Malaysia and usually arrives during the pre-dawn and early morning. As this squall line moves inland, it is deprived of latent heat of condensation and hence, dissipates rapidly.
It was interesting to motor west into the rising wind and watch this classic weather system pass overhead. The maximum wind that we had was 25 knots from the west and we were lucky because most of the rain showers missed us. It was all over within an hour and the skies cleared, but left us with an annoying 15 knot west wind, into which we had to motor for a couple of hours.
We had a favourable tidal current with us all morning, giving us a 3 knot boost at times and allowing us to clear the busy shipping lanes by 13:00. As we headed north up the west coast of Malaysia, the skies were pleasantly sunny, but the wind contoured around the peninsula mainland and constantly headed us - a very boring afternoon of motoring.
The evening was incredibly peaceful with calm seas and light 5 knot winds - we motored along the edge of the shipping lane out of the way of the fishing boats. Our only concern was dodging tugs who were following the same strategy.
26 September 2016 Tanjung Pengelih to Admiral Marina Malaysia (Day 2)
At our change of watch at 04:00, there were flashes of lightning from the west over Sumatra, so I dropped the main sail - it wasn’t doing much and we didn’t want to get caught by a 35 knot squall. Two hours later, Glenys dragged me out of bed before the end of her watch because a huge thunderstorm was approaching us from the west with impressive (and scary) flashes of lighting.
Our tablets and small electronic devices went into the Faraday Cage (oven); my laptop computer was unplugged; and we switched on our rarely used Raymarine plotter to watch the thunderstorm on radar and navigate. Actually it wasn’t too bad, we had 30 knots of wind from the north-west and 30 minutes of rain, and it soon cleared up.
The next four hours were unpleasant. The wind dropped to 15-20 knots from a frustrating 20 degrees off our port bow, so we still couldn’t sail. Then the waves built up giving us a horrid pitching motion.
Fortunately, we didn’t have far to go and we arrived at Admiral Marina at 11:30 - 170 miles in 28 hours giving us an average speed of 5.9 knots, which is not bad for that passage. Admiral Marina is going to be our home for the next six weeks while we catch up on jobs and do some land-travel in Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia.
After lunch, we went for a walk to the local shops which are about a mile away. We found a place to hire a car for £20 per day and bought groceries from a good supermarket, which is typically Malaysian chaos, but has a great fish counter and a good selection of bread. We actually found Tortilla wraps; a fabulous whole grain loaf and they had Ribena - we’re going to stock up with gallons of Ribena before we sail across the Indian Ocean.
When we got back to Alba, I fancied a nap to catch up on a bit of sleep, but my bed was very hot like there was an electric blanket on the mattress. Further investigation revealed that the batteries under my bed were very hot - too hot to touch. Not good - thank goodness that they are sealed AGM batteries and not conventional “wet batteries” because they would have boiled dry and given off poisonous gases.
I tested my batteries a few weeks ago and knew that the three domestic AGM batteries under my bed are faulty and not holding their charge, so I’ve already ordered three new ones to be delivered in two days’ time. Being continually charged during 28 hours motoring has obviously been the final straw and overheated one or more of the batteries.
I decided to remove the faulty batteries and dumped them on the pontoon at the side of the boat. I then arranged to have the new batteries delivered tomorrow. It took four hours before the cabin and my bed had cooled down enough to sleep in there - thank goodness for our air conditioner.
27 September 2016 Admiral Marina, Malaysia
Our propeller has had some galvanic corrosion in the past and is not in the best of health. I had it tested in New Zealand and the galvanic corrosion doesn’t seem to have got any worse, but we have about 14,000 miles of sailing (and motoring) to do over the next two years in fairly remote areas, where obtaining a new propeller would be a problem.
I’ve found a company in Malaysia who will manufacture a new 3 blade propeller for £800, so we’ve decided to bite the bullet and get a new one - we’ll then have the old one as a spare in case we hit something nasty. Unfortunately, I don’t know the exact size of the propeller and the only way to make sure that the new propeller is correct is to send the existing propeller off to the manufacturer.
It was with some reluctance that I donned my scuba gear and jumped into the murky marina water. Pushing aside the scary-looking white jelly fish, I managed to remove the zinc anode and the nut holding the propeller on the shaft.
The propeller is located on the shaft by a keyed taper and, of course, it wouldn’t budge. I used a two arm puller and, after a ten minute struggle (including the judicious use of a large hammer) it suddenly popped loose. Fortunately, I managed to hold onto the puller, hammer and the propeller and stopped them plunging to the sea bed.
Of course, I hadn’t anticipated the change in my buoyancy caused by the sudden application of 10 kilos of weight, so I started to sink rapidly towards the sea bed. With my hands occupied by the puller, propeller and hammer, I couldn’t operate the inflator on my BCD and even worse, I couldn’t clear my ears as I descended. There was nothing else to do, I filled my lungs to capacity and finned desperately for the surface.
Glenys had been assisting by handing tools to me and was sitting on the pontoon. She was very surprised to see me shoot to the surface screaming “Take it” through my regulator. Fortunately, she understood, grabbed the propeller and all was well.
After lunch, the three batteries arrived. They cost us £300 each, so the bank account is taking a hammering again. It only took me an hour to fit them because I’ve bought exactly the same make and model as before, so they slid into place with no modifications. The guy delivering them had a sophisticated battery tester and tested the old batteries for me, which revealed that one had a failed cell which was probably why it overheated.
28 September 2016 Admiral Marina, Malaysia
We went into Port Dickson to do some errands. Our first stop was the car hire place, where we booked a car for five days in October, so that we can go on a road trip to the Cameron Heights and see a bit of Malaysia.
We stood at the bus stop for ten minutes with no sign of a bus, then a taxi pulled up alongside us and offered to take us into town. The taxis normally pick up paying passengers in Port Dickson, but then return empty, so they make extra money by picking up people from bus stops. I knew that the locals only pay 2-3 Ringgit, but the taxi driver told us 10 Ringgit - white man prices. To be fair to him, he soon caved in and agreed 6 Ringgit which was probably more than he’d get from a local. On the way to town, he still managed to squeeze in another couple with two kids, so he had a good trip.
Despite having official clearance from Tioman to Langkawi, we decided to check in here in Port Dickson because we’ll be staying for six weeks. It didn’t take long - ten minutes at the port captain, five minutes at the customs and fifteen minutes at immigration including the ten minute walk to the ferry port.
One of our cooking gas tanks is empty and there’s nowhere in Malaysia that I can get it filled because in most towns they only exchange tanks and even if I can find a filling station they won’t be able to handle our POL valve. The only solution is to buy a Malaysian gas tank and to decant the LPG gas into our tank.
Yesterday, I asked in various hardware stores wanting to buy a valve that will fit onto the Malaysian LPG tanks without regulating the pressure. Of course, no one had such a valve, but one guy said that there’s some kind of gas shop “opposite the Petronas petrol station at the traffic lights before you get into Port Dickson”.
Armed with this flaky information, I marched Glenys a mile out of town in the blistering heat. Surprisingly, we soon located the “gas shop” (next door to the 7-11 shop). After showing the guy a picture of decanting LPG tanks and a valve that I’d used in Indonesia, he amazingly produced the valve I wanted and a hose fitting - it was all sorted for 80 ringgit (£16). I like it when a plan works out.
After a long, hot walk back into town, we wandered around a few malls and supermarkets - it’s a surprisingly large town centre, if a little spread out for pedestrians. We had lunch in an Indian-run restaurant. It was self-service, but they did a mean Goat curry - it has to be good if it makes your nose run. After a quick visit to a supermarket, we caught a taxi back to the marina.
I called in at the marina office and asked about getting an LPG gas tank. Within an hour, Sara had organised the delivery of a tank - 100 Ringgit (£20) deposit and 28 ringgit for the gas. The marina staff even brought the tank over to the boat and helped me lift it on board. I’ll be decanting it tomorrow.
29 September 2016 Admiral Marina, Malaysia
I went for a run for the first time in ages. It was only 1½ miles along the beach and back along the main road, but it felt good to be exercising. Glenys went to the marina’s gym and ran on a tread mill rather than exposing her body to the devout Muslim men in the area.
Back on the boat, I rigged up the gas bottles and started to decant the cooking gas. It takes hours for the liquid, low pressure gas to flow into the bottom tank, so I left it running, while I removed the starboard anchor bow roller, which has split in half. Fortunately, I was able to swap out the damaged one and replace it with the roller from the port side.
The port side roller is only used for the rope snubber that I always attach to the anchor chain, so I’ve rigged up a temporary roller using a bit of 1½” plastic water pipe. I now need to get another bow roller made out of nylon.
By the end of the day, I’d managed to decant all of the gas out of the Malaysian bottle and we have one full tank and one 7/8ths full, which is enough gas to last us 6 months.
30 September 2016 Malacca, Malaysia
We travelled to Malacca for a mini holiday. It was all by bus and we were very lucky - having to run for the first bus into Port Dickson, then only having to wait ten minutes for a bus to Seremban.
The bus station at Seremban was very busy with dozens of buses lined up. It seemed like every bus belonged to a different company, each with its own little ticket booth. The local ticket touts were very helpful and we soon found the correct ticket booth to get us to Malacca.
Again, we only had a ten minute wait before we were on-board a comfortable air-conditioned coach albeit with very funky upholstery reminiscent of a 1970s night club. The trip into the central bus station at Malacca was mostly along a motorway and was just over an hour. The bus station at Malacca is huge and it took us ten minutes to find the correct bus, but we were soon dropped off in the centre of Malacca next to the clock tower. The whole trip took about 3½ hours, which was amazing considering that we had to catch four buses.
Malacca has a rich history, originally founded by Sultan Parameswara in 1402, who established the town as an international port by compelling passing ships to call there, and establishing fair and reliable facilities for warehousing and trade. It was a major stopping point for huge Chinese trading fleets during the 1400s - which is probably why 30% of Malacca’s population is Chinese.
The Portuguese invaded in 1511, followed by the Dutch who conquered Malacca in 1640. The town was handed over to the British in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 and became Malaysian when they gained independence after the Second World War.
By the time that we’d visited the tourist office to pick up a street map, it was lunch time, so we walked a short distance to Kedai Kopi Chung Wah. This odd little restaurant is very popular, with people queuing outside the door at most times of the day - we were lucky and managed get a table immediately. The restaurant is very basic with plastic chairs & Formica tables and only serves Chicken with Rice Balls. A guy by the front door chops up steamed chickens into pieces with a cleaver, while the waiter simply asks how many plates you want. The chicken is very tender and the rice balls have been cooked in chicken stock and are very soft and delicious. It was a fun place to eat.
After lunch, we dropped our bags off at the Hotel Puri, which is a lovely building on the famous Heeren Street. It was the ancestral home of a wealthy Chinese merchant, built in 1822 and has high ceilings and open courtyards to allow air movement through the building. The floors are adorned with 19th century mosaic tiles and the walls have attractive wood carvings. Nice place.
We wandered around town for a while and then visited the Cheng Ho museum. This guy (also called Zheng He) was amazing. He was captured by the Chinese Ming army when he was a small boy in 1380 and promptly castrated. Cheng Ho then became a servant of the Prince of Yan, who later became the Emperor.
After a successful career as a Commander in the Emperor’s army, Chengo Ho was appointed as Admiral of China’s great treasure fleet. From 1405 and 1433, a huge fleet of over 300 ships and 20,000 men sailed on 7 great expeditions to Java in the south, Africa in the west and even visited Mecca in the Red Sea. They traded extensively and produced comprehensive charts of the China Sea and Indian Ocean.
In the evening, we visited the street market which happens every weekend on Jonker Street. There are hundreds of small stalls lining the road, selling Chinese cures, toys, tourist souvenirs and street food. Thousands of people stroll up and down the street making it a fun event. We sampled various street food and my favourite was quails eggs poached on a skewer with slices of chicken sausage.
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