Cruising -Singapore to Malaka- Malaysia - 5 Oct 2010

We left Singapore on 5 Oct 2010 to cruise the 120 nm to Malaka in the Malacca Straits. First we had to clear Immigration at the Western Immigration Anchorage and then we were on our way through the busy more of the busy Singapore Straits.
 (Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them)

Lighthouse near  the Western Immigration Anchorage

Pollution Control Boats.

Once again we played dodgems with the huge ships anchored off Singapore and some of them were really BIG BOYS! According to our AIS the largest we saw in this stretch was 303 metres long and 45 metres wide. Bear in mind we are only 14 metres long and 4.2 metres wide! Scary! Thank goodness they were anchored and the visability was good. At one stage there were 60 ships anchored across our path.

Tom Hand Steering Between the Big Boys!

Once we cleared the Singapore Straits we entered the Malacca Straits and at midday we could see Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia all at the same time. We were motoring with the staysail up as there were electrical storms around. We put our handheld VHF and GPS in the oven to protect it from lightening strikes as this area is renowed for electrical storms. The oven acts as a type of Faraday cage.

We ancored at Pulau Tuandra in the Pisang group  about 48 nm from Singapore for the evening. It was a very stormy night. When we left the anchorage the next morning we found we were making very slow progress, about 2 knots, so we thought we may have had something around the prop. The current was very strong so we attached a rope to Tom so he could snorkle down to see but it was impossible to see as the water was so stirred up and Tom couldn't get under the boat as the stern was pounding up and town. So we decided to carry on towards our next anchorage.

When we out into the shipping lane we discovered that there was an extremely strong current against us. By 7pm we were anchored near Port Muar and were surprised to find we had Celcom coverage as we were now back in Malaysian waters. That evening we watched a beautiful sunset.

By 7.30 am we were on our way to Malaka 28nm away. As usual there were storms all around so the photos are a bit dull.

The Mosque at Malaka Seen from the Sea

Storm Over Malaka

The Entrance to the Marina with Wheel in the Background

We had hoped to get into the marina but the entrance was too silted up for us to even attempt to go in. We only had 0.6m under the keel! So we decided to anchor for the night and sail on to Port Dickson the next day.