Malacca Straits to Singapore
Eventually we had to tear ourselves away from the wonderful islands of Thailand’s west coast, and after a few days snorkeling in the nature reserve at Ko Rok we set sail south. The Butangs were a bit disappointing, as we had heard that the visibility is usually very good in this island group, but not when we were there. The islands are also getting a bit too crowded, with lots of longtails, high prices on Ko Lipi, the main island, and rather dirty water in some places. There aren’t many yachts but to be fair there are a lot of nice anchorages which we didn’t visit since we were on the move.
Langkawi was next, and we recommend this stop for all aspiring alcoholics! The booze is cheap and not counterfeited, a bottle of Glenfiddich 12 years old costs around 90 shekels, a good vodka is 30 shekels and there is duty free Belgian chocolate to go with it. The anchorage off Kuah town is free and reasonable holding, and quite a few cruisers stay here indefinitely. We got a Malaysian sim card, very good value except that it stopped working in the middle of the Malacca Straits!
Then we were off up the straits, and hoping for a good wind and current. The reports we had got spoke of fishing nets, no wind, hundreds of ships and strong contrary currents, all cited as the reason why it is impossible to sail. Well, you CAN sail the straits, and we did it, all the way. There is usually a good wind, caused by the sea or land breeze, and this can get quite strong. There is a current which seems basically to set northwards, but as the tide rises the current turns southwards and sets at a rate of probably a knot or so, usually a bit towards the eastern shore for some reason. There are nets, but you can sail between the buoys holding them up, and fishermen usually keep clear, although they have an annoying habit of trying to pass across your bow as close as possible. This isn’t just because they want to test their engine speed at maximum, they have a superstition that by doing this they offload their bad luck onto the poor boat behind them! Luckily for us, they sometimes can’t manage to pass and get all the bad luck back again!
We anchored every evening, usually at about 7 pm, just before dark. Anchoring is usually easy, mud and good holding everywhere and only a few places where the depth came up quickly. It was strange anchoring sometimes a mile or even two from the shore, but it is so shallow that that is what happens. We found that there were never any really big waves and no swell, except in the middle of squalls which passed over regularly. The usual pattern was for the morning to be fine with a good land breeze, a calm falling at mid day and a good sea breeze from about 1 pm. At about 5pm squalls would start to form and these would have an uneasy truce with the sea breeze until dusk, when the sea breeze would weaken and the squall strengthen. Usually we would be anchored before the first gusts, and the tarpaulin over the cockpit before any rain- often there was none, only wind. We made about 30 to 40 miles a day, although we did get stuck in the currents round Penang and Klang, two of the most annoying places in the world to sail, after the Gulf of Aden going east.
Singapore eventually got close enough to worry about, and as we had nearly finished our supply of tinned stewed pork we were glad. We anchored off the entrance to Johor port and had a good nights sleep before the harrowing sail round Singapore to the quarantine anchorage.
It took us 12 hours to get round Singapore, and they were not 12 easy hours. Although there is a shipping channel, many ships aren’t in it all the time, either they are coming out of port or going in, or just don’t care…it is nerve wracking to be a little yacht trying to stay out of the way and get to the right place, and we were glad it was day, good visibility and that, amazingly, our engine worked all the way. We got to the quarantine anchorage and opened a beer to celebrate, then called the authorities who actually answered after only two hours or so! A little boat came chugging up in the pouring rain of a squall and stuck out a fishing net! We had to entrust our passports to the dexterity of the mate, standing on the deck in a raincoat so big we could only see his nose, waving a stick 3 metres long in our general direction! Then we had to fill out rather wet forms which were passed over the same way, and then our passports reappeared, stamped with an entry visa for 14 days.
We weren’t going anywhere in that weather, so we got permission from the by now drenched customs officer to stay in the anchorage for the night, and next morning, with the favorable current whizzed up to Changi Sailing Club, where we are sitting now.
Changi is ok if you don’t mind sitting on a mooring where large ships go past every few minutes, giving you a good idea of what a tsunami would be like. The club itself is quite nice, wifi, swimming pool and restaurant basically, and although it is a long way outside the city there is a bus which seems quite regular and is not expensive.
Singapore is the most western and modern place we have been since we set out, and since we had a lot of things that we needed and couldn’t get anywhere else we were glad to get here. Electronics are worth buying here, and we got a depth sounder, finally, a new mini computer and a new gps since the old one had started asking us where we were. The good thing about all new electronics is that they all use much less electricity, and the depth sounder and gps together now use much less than the old gps by itself.
We also changed part of the rigging which was old and partly broken, and got a replacement for the bilge pump rubber diaphragm, repaired a sail and changed batteries of the laptop and small gps. Most of these things would be either impossible to do or more expensive in any other place so far, so although we have spent a lot of money here it is mostly on things which are worthwhile. Food is actually not too expensive, although not as good as Thai food. ( We are starting to suspect that there is no food as good as Thai food anywhere!)
Sightseeing is quite good here, we enjoyed Raffles hotel with its little museum, and the center of Singapore has lots of colonial relics, all very well preserved. Chinatown is worth a visit although nothing like the Chinatown in Bangkok which is much more lively, but the most interesting place we saw was the Changi Chapel, a replica of the chapel built by POWs in WW2 inside the Changi detention camp. This is a museum too, and it was very interesting to understand the recent history of Singapore. I had read King Rat by James Clavell, and as he was actually incarcerated here it was interesting to see the reality.
We are leaving soon, maybe next week, although the forecast doesn’t look too wonderful. Probably we will anchor off some bit of Malaysia and wait for wind, or else just tack back and forth disconsolately as usual.
Here is a link to the pictures so far from Malacca and Singapore- first time I have tried this so let’s see if it works!
http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e173/chasamba/Malacca%20to%20Singapore/
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