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We have launched and we’re on our way to Pulau Tioman, an island on the Eastern side of the main Malaysian Peninsula, the location for the filming of South Pacific, even though it’s in the North Pacific.

So due to the holiday, and nothing happening on the boat, we popped into Johor Bahru town, I was keen to do a bit of cultural stuff, some Sultan, back in the day, built a lot of amazing buildings and we were keen to explore the main museum, which was meant to be amazing, but finding it was difficult, even the taxi drivers didn’t know where it was, asking them for the cultural sights would elicit the usual ‘No have any‘ response we get for anything slightly out of the normal. eventually we found it , but it was closed. we checked out the ‘happening’ down town duty free zone where all the clubs where, but it was mostly closed, the duty free zone was somewhat disappointing, so we headed over back to a local shopping mall. I left Kathy there to browse, while I jumped into an Uber and headed back to Puteri Harbour, to collect my parcel, the missing blade for the wind generator. then back to the boat.
Thursday arrived and I fitted the blade to the turbine, not very well as it turned out. The guys arrived earlier to fit the new cutless bearing and the engineer amongst them understood exactly what I meant about the stripped inside of the allen screw, I could tell by the groan and look of despair on his face. However after 40 minutes, he had drilled out the old screw, without damaging the thread at all.

 

He instructed his assistant to cut out the old bearing with a hacksaw blade, a tedious job, it took me all day last time I tried this, but he had it done in 30 minutes, and the old cutless removed. The damage was clear, after I had pulled out the shredded rubber on haulout, there was about an inch of rubber missing, that still left 3 1/2 inches remaining, in good nick too, but I think it best to replace it, even if it might have continued working for a long time, I wouldn’t feel confident.

It all went back together fine, however they seemed to have some problems getting the shaft to fit into the collar on the coupling, but nothing had changed, so I think there might be a slight alignment problem. By mid afternoon they had completed everything, and I did a few jobs, mostly cleaning up and we were ready for a Friday morning launch.
The yard informed me I had to pay cash, so an ATM was called for, we decided to get an Uber into a big mall so we could stock up a little more. This was an amazing Mall, I don’t normally think much of Malls, but they had everything here, and I especially like one huge section called the Japanese village, full of Japanese shops, obviously I suppose, but all done very well.

I was up at 6:30 Friday, The sunrise was lovely, the light much nicer than the camera’s false blue haze. I managed to shoot a few good pics, at this time it was low water, on a spring tide, so very low, and there was only a few inches of water on the path we would have to take out. So it was good to be able to work out our exit route.

We launched at 12, Kathy and I stayed on board as the travel lift took us to the launch bay, I didn’t want to, in Europe it wouldn’t be allowed, H&S, but we had no choice they just took the steps away and started lifting the boat! As we lowered into the water, there were several disturbing jerks, where the wire supporting the front of the boat snagged then jumped, I reassured Kathy that we were over the water now so it would just make a big splash if the wire snapped, a very big splash I expect.
I rigged up a block and tackle to the topping lift, and was able to pull the mast back far enough to get the backstay onto it’s turnbuckle. I was worried I might have to slacken the Furlers, which is a major job, but it all went very smoothly, topped off the fuel from a drum raised up on a fork lift truck, (Malay style Fuel Stop) and we headed out. Now we are at anchor 4 hours away, close to the SE of Singapore. Tomorrow we head off towards Tioman, the wind has been consistent and good from the SW for a few days now, I wonder if this is the SW monsoon settling in now, I hope so, as it means good sailing tomorrow. We will find an anchorage half way to Tioman off the coast of Malaysia tomorrow, and maybe another before we arrive.
It’s good to be afloat again. At the moment, our delay has made me think it’s too late to make Japan and then America, so it’s looking much more likely we will do that next year, when we are better prepared. So I’m really looking forward to just chilling in Tioman.

Some pics from this morning before work started

Paul Collister

I had been excited about this trip ever since I’d learned we would be going there.  This is mainly due to my fascination with Raffles Hotel. It featured in Somerset Maugham’s short stories, a great favourite of mine, and also in the 80s drama series Tenko which told the story of a group of women who were taken prisoner in 1942 after getting caught up in the Japanese occupation after the fall of Singapore.  As with the location of ‘The Beach’ in Thailand, I never thought I would have the chance to visit it. So, despite the lingering lethargy from jet lag and heat, I was eager to get going on Tuesday morning. Thwarted in our intention to travel the short distance across the water via an Uber taxi, we asked the driver to take us to the Malaysian immigration building where we could get a bus across the Second Link Bridge which traverses the Strait of Johor. The taxi driver was most apologetic that she couldn’t take us (she hadn’t brought her passport and Uber drivers don’t necessarily know the destination when they take the booking), but she told us the bus service is regular and efficient. Once inside the building we joined a queue, our passports were stamped and we walked outside to wait for the bus. After a journey of about 5 minutes, we had crossed the mile long bridge into Singapore and we all trooped off the bus straight into another building to queue for the Singapore immigration process. This took slightly longer, especially as we had to sidestep the queue while immigration forms were found for us to fill in. This slight delay meant we missed the first bus into Jurong where we needed to be to get a train to our hotel in Chinatown.  It was raining heavily by then, so our first day in Singapore began somewhat unpromisingly in a cheerless, barn-like bus depot with several other people, wondering when the next bus would come along.

The first part of the journey to Jurong took us through through an industrial landscape of factories, trading estates and multi-storey office complexes. As we entered more rural areas, I noticed how well-maintained and wide the roads were. Further on, the views confirmed Singapore’s reputation as one of Southeast Asia’s wealthiest countries. The cars and motorbikes are mostly new and modern, while roadside shops, cafes, houses and even billboards all convey high standards of living and general affluence. The contrast to Thailand is staggering: there, the roads are bumpy and rock-strewn, cars and particularly motorbikes are often dangerously dilapidated. Singapore, at 580 square km is only slightly larger than the Isle of Wight but as the bus drew into Jurong and more and more skyscrapers appeared, it seemed incredible that we were in a small country. Its airport alone is a major hub for flights all over the world; one of the world’s busiest in fact. Looking around me at the huge town that isn’t even the capital I found it amazing to contemplate that the two islands are similar in size.

Navigating the MRT subway system proved to be gloriously simple. We bought cards that provided unlimited travel and boarded the train bound for Chinatown. Needless to say, the stations and trains are clean, spacious and efficient (chewing gum and eating on the subway carry sizeable fines).  It was 1 pm by the time we got to our hotel but we couldn’t access our room until 2 so we left our bags there and went for a wander around the area. The black and white-themed Mono Hotel is in the middle of charming Mosque Street which has some beautiful colonial-style buildings.

Chinatown itself was a delightfully busy hub of noise, colour and appetising smells, much like Chinatowns globally tend to be I guess, but this one seemed to me to convey an additional upmarket, wealthy vibe in its streets. One street we passed had a plaque displaying information about its history. Boon Tat Street used to known as Japanese Street because it was the street where the Japanese brothels were located. It states that in the early 19th century, the prostitutes ‘plied their trade in an oddly noble effort to finance their country’s military campaigns’. Other streets used to be full of opium dens and illegal gambling venues. It was all happening there!

It got steadily hotter as we walked so we went for lunch in an air-conditioned mall which offered an abundance of food options.  There were a lot more healthy choices here than I’ve seen in any other part of SE Asia. We opted for a place that was a bit like Subway but which used flavoured wraps instead of bread. After a bit of confusion and dithering on our part about how to choose from the options and deals, which the server handled with admirable patience and good humour, we ordered spinach wraps and chose from a delicious array of fillings (including a ‘protein’ section).  Back at the hotel, soon after we checked in, I felt ready to flake out again so Paul went off to buy some of the items on his list from SIMLIM, a huge shopping complex solely devoted to selling technical parts and components, while I slept for a couple of hours.

Chinatown had really begun to liven up early in the evening when we went out again. People were filling its prettily-lit streets looking for places to eat, or browsing the stalls and street markets. We headed for the waterfront, a short walk from Chinatown where the Singapore River runs through the central area of the city and empties into the ocean at Marina Bay. The river was lined on both sides with plush bars and restaurants offering al fresco dining where the average price for a glass of wine was, we worked out, £8 a glass! We bought a small bottle of wine, some water and a coke for half of that price in a Seven Eleven and sat on a riverside wall – thus achieving the same effect for a whole lot cheaper ;).

We ambled around the bay area and bought vegetable samosas from one of the street vendors to munch on as we walked. There was a warm wind blowing across the river but it was the coolest we had felt all day. Singapore’s skyline is famous for three buildings with what I think looks like a plane but is in fact a ship lying across the top of them. We hadn’t seen it during the day but came upon the view of it by chance further along the riverside. It’s quite striking in the dark, the blinking lights on the ‘fuselage’ giving the appearance that it is still operating while stationary in its incongruous position.

The structure as a whole is The Marina Bay Sands Resort, completed in 2010, with a state of the art hotel, shopping malls and casinos – the ship on top is a 340 metre SkyPark complete with a 150 metre infinity pool! Would you fancy a swim in there?!

As the hotel didn’t include breakfast, we went out to find something nice after having coffee in the room.  It was quite late by the time we hit the streets so when Paul led the way to a Chinese vegetarian place he’d found online, I was hungry enough to agree to the prospect of what was bound to be more substantial fare than cereal or toast.  It turned out to be absolutely amazing! Everything in the bain-marie dishes on display was vegetarian and the helpful Chinese lady who served us explained what all of them were (although it has to be said we were none the wiser with some of the dishes). We were both game enough to try anything, though so we simply pointed and she heaped our plates. We took them to a table on the pavement outside and ate like the locals. It was unusual and delicious and vegan and it set us up for the rest of the day.

I needed that sustenance for the next venture. After a quick change in our room we headed for Little India on the metro to collect more of the things Paul needed for the boat.  I got to see the SIMLIM complex that had impressed Paul the previous day. Keen to save my flagging energy for Raffles, I elected to stay in a café nursing a single glass of coke and reading while Paul browsed and shopped to his heart’s content. I think I even dozed off at one point I was so relaxed in there. I soon woke up when it was time to head to Raffles. It was only a short journey on the metro and a five minute walk from the station before the legendary beautiful building came into view. I still smile when I think of how pleasurable that sight was. Surrounded as it is by modern high rise apartments and hotels, Raffles shines both literally and metaphorically. The sunlight lit up the brilliant white façade and emphasised its immaculate, elegant appearance. The hotel doormen, dressed in Imperial Indian soldiers’ uniform, who were helping people out of a limousine as we approached completed the impression that this is still a place of opulence and luxury.

Visitors are welcome in the grounds and certain parts of the hotel but there is a dress code for specific areas. For afternoon tea it is smart casual – no shorts, bare shoulders or flip flops. We weren’t interested in that (especially at £36 a head), although I couldn’t resist a peek through the window at the three tier cake stands on tables loaded with dainty sandwiches, scones and fancy cakes and pastries. Refurbishment is taking place in some of the bars and restaurants so The Long Bar, where the famous Singapore Sling is usually served is closed and has moved to The Bar and Billiard Room, where there is thankfully no dress code. Before going there, though I had a browse in the souvenir shop while Paul sat in the courtyard to take a phone call.

There were enticing items in there (none of the usual ‘tat’ but the prices reflected that) and some intriguing books with information on the hotel’s development and history. I contented myself with some bookmarks and a small print of the building in colonial days. That it is expensive is not surprising – its reputation is built on its exclusivity: room rates here start at around £400 a night. I had wanted to see The Writers’ Bar but one of the doormen we asked explained that we couldn’t go in because it was open to residents’ only. Seeing my disappointment, however, the smartly dressed Indian doorman offered to escort me inside to show it to me (Paul couldn’t because he had shorts on). So I entered the palatial lobby and he led me over to the surprisingly small but stylish bar where writers, including Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad, Noel Coward and Rudyard Kipling used to drink, and it’s largely unchanged he told me.  It was really kind of him, and it also gave me a chance to see the beautiful grand staircase in the lobby (I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside unfortunately).

On we went to get a Singapore Sling – well it would have been a shame to miss out :). Immaculately dressed staff wait to escort people to a table where they are then presented with a menu listing the drinks and snacks on offer. The prices were eye-watering! I knew Paul wouldn’t have entered the place had it not been for me, and since even the soft drinks were extortionately expensive, we ordered just one Singapore Sling for the princely sum of 31 Ringgit (about £6). I just hoped they wouldn’t bring two straws! The bar reminded us of some that we’d been to in London and, it has to be said, some Wetherspoons’ pubs – except that guests were provided with complimentary sacks of peanuts in their shells and were invited to follow the custom of throwing the empty shells on the floor. The floor was littered with them and we added to it by consuming copious amounts of those nuts – they weren’t just any nuts after all, they were ‘Raffles’ nuts.

The drink was nice enough, a bit sweet for my taste and it may have been the sweetness which masked the alcohol but I’m not convinced there was much alcohol in it at all. The ingredients are listed on my souvenir bookmark, shown below, but I would have got more from my usual white wine and soda. Still, it was nice to sit there people watching for an hour.

On the way out, I paid the cashier 36 ringgit (the hike in price was for service apparently) while Paul took a few shots on the billiard table. The story goes that in 1902 a wild tiger had found its way into the hotel and was hiding underneath a billiard table in this very room. A local man was called upon to remove it and fired five shots under the table before finally hitting it between the eyes. It’s said that this was the last tiger to be shot in Singapore, but the hotel claims that the tiger was not wild – it had in fact escaped from a travelling circus. I couldn’t resist looking under the table and trying to imagine the scared tiger cowering under there :(.

Returning to Chinatown late in the afternoon, we collected our bags from the hotel, got the train to Bugis and walked to Queen Street near the border control to find a taxi rank. It was a huge relief that Paul was able to get a taxi to take us all the way back to Puteri. My legs and feet were really aching and we had heavier bags than we’d arrived with.  All we had to do once we were sat in the back seat was hand our passports to the driver who presented them at the immigration and customs points along with his own. The immigration officer looked at us closely from his booth and held our passports up, said our names and we nodded.  Paul was questioned about his immigration stamp, probably because it wasn’t from an airport like mine was, but we were waved through with no delays. The boat was like a furnace after being shut up all day when we got back on board in the evening but I had a feeling we wouldn’t be awake long enough for it to be too troublesome.

Some more images of Singapore below

Kathy

We are hauled, and awaiting repair.

Not long after we anchored the sun set and the fishnets we anchored off moved a lot closer. I have noticed this before, at night hazards always seem to move closer, not sure if this is an optical or psychological effect, either way, it’s a pain, we moved very close to the nets, and I made a good note of where we are by taking transits around the area, that basically means lining up the edges of the net with something on the land, and making sure they stay lined up. Of course, a few hours later the tide turned, we swung and ended up even closer to the nets, which was odd as I thought we should have gone further away. I told Kathy we might need to re anchor, but I sat on the bowsprit for 20 minutes, enjoying the fading light and watching my transits, only to decide we were safe. After a lovely pasta & pesto dinner, I went to sleep in the cockpit, waking every hour or so to check my transits, until at 3am, when the tide swung us again, back to roughly were we started, then I slept through to sunrise.

Looking over to the yard, I could just make out the route in, but it looked shallow, sticks in the mud showed the way and later I watched a motor boat make its way in which gave me a boost.

The nets looked amazing in the morning sun, they are all different coloured 5 gallon plastic containers, large jerry can size.

These drums above on the right are spares I think, they were about 40ft to our stern. This is what you can see from space, credit to google earth.

So just 30 minutes before high water we headed in, Kathy called out the depth. We started with a metre more than when we went aground, so I was optimistic, however we soon hit 2 metres, but were still going, we should be aground at 2 metres, but I added a little into the calibration of the meter to help, but when we reached 1.8 I was wondering how we were still going forward, whatever was under us must have been very soft, so I upped the revs, and we raced in, I figured if I was going aground I wanted to plough through, into the deeper water in the boatyard. It quickly went back to 2 metres and stayed around that for the short trip to tie up alongside in front of the travel lift.

Once tied up, the first of several disappointments arrived, I was told the travel lift is to small to take us in the normal way, so I had to drop the backstay, remove the wind generator and reverse into the travel lift. I didn’t want to do the backstay as it’s going to be difficult to get it back together without loosening the forestays, which means taking the headsails off and removing the furling drum.  I will have to think of a cunning plan, probably involving rope and pulleys.

I managed to keep the wind generator on, the problem would come later once we were on land, then the travel lift wouldn’t be able to escape without decapitating the turbine, and that’s normally my job, using a fishing rod or forehead. To turn the boat around, a man was dispatched into the water to push it around, A dinghy might have been better, but who am I to judge.

The next blow was that rather than change the bearing and launch in the morning, I was told that they couldn’t start today as planned, as they had to do another boat in an emergency, and that tomorrow is national holiday, but they could start on Thursday. So the earliest we can launch will be Friday, I expect it will end up being Saturday. The tides are good until next Monday, after that we can’t get our for another week or more.

I was able to see that some more rubber had worked it’s way out of the cutless bearing, you can see a strip of it here, I have pulled it out to see better, but it didn’t take any effort, so I’m assuming it’s a bit of a mess inside the bearing.
I removed the blades and vane off the turbine so they can get the travel lift away, then I set about doing the job myself, I thought perhaps I could get the prop off, and pull the prop shaft, making it easier for them, I’m still going to be paying them, whoever does the work, but at least this way I might get away earlier. The prop came off no problem, but the PSS dripless shaft seal won’t come off. This is a device that stops the water getting into the boat through the tube that the prop shaft goes out of the boat through. It seems that the LBM engineer, who was the last one near it, had stripped one of the 2 allen grub screws that holds it in place. This is a tiny grub screw made of 316 stainless steel, inside a block of 316 stainless steel, in the bottom of the boat in a most inaccessible place.I’m at the point of drilling it out, but that might damage the seal, and I might end up having to wait a few weeks to get a replacement shipped in, so I’m going to wait until the yard’s engineer turns up, and get him to sort it. Good engineers know how to sort these things. I once had a similar problem on the baba 30 which required me to cut the prop shaft in half to get the job done, I really don’t want to go down that road again.

I forgot to add this AIS chart yesterday, you can see us as the little boat with the white dot, down in the middle, working our way east and edging across the channel getting ready to hang a left up to the eastern buoy and back into Malaysian waters. You can see it’s busy, each triangle is a boat, mostly big tankers or container ships, doing between 5 and 20 knots.

As it’s a holiday tomorrow, Kathy and I will pop into Johor Bahru and check it out, it’s supposed to be a bit of a party town, so I better get my John Travolta suit out, just in case we go dancing 😉

Paul Collister

 

Now if that isn’t clickbait, I don’t know what is.

So we arrived safely, at the entrance to Dalac Marina, We have to wait for high tide in the morning to get in, we went ashore earlier, well the boat did, we stayed onboard. We were looking for somewhere to anchor outside the boatyard. It’s a bit scraggy here, lots of rubbish in the water, we are kind of out of the way, tucked behind the docks, and opposite a big Singapore port, but the charts don’t cover this stretch, other than to say it’s all mud. When we arrived, we went right past the spot we are supposed to anchor in. All along the coast here for a few miles are fish farms, not a type I’m familiar with, they seem to be laid out in an S shape but with scores of bends. See pics below.

We found a gap, about 100m wide between two sets of nets that leads to the boatyard. We approached slowly as we are only a couple of hours after low water. The prospect looked great, the chart plotter said we were in 1-2m of water, but the depth gauge said 14m. the depth dropped steadily and Kathy called out each 1/2 metre drop every 30 seconds or so. When we got to about 5 meters I put her into astern to stop her as that would be fine, however, we went from 5 to 3 to 2.5 to 2 and aground as quick as Kathy could read them off, It wasn’t a problem, and I managed to reverse back after a few thrusts with the engine, and we anchored in 8 metres. It’s all mud here, perhaps a bicycle or two, but we’ve taken on Thai Granite rocks and survived, so there Mr Mud!

As to the police bit, yes that was a touch embarrassing, to get from One side of the causeway that links Malaysia to Singapore you have to almost completely circumnavigate Singapore, it’s a bit like if they had built a causeway/low bridge from Gosport to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, boats would have to go all around the island to get from Portsmouth to Southampton. I realise that means nothing to many of our readers.
Anyway, the Singaporeans won’t let boats into there waters unless you are visiting and check in with an agent and all that entails, they have police patrolling the island in varying sizes of patrol boats from 30 fast launches, through 60 foot very fast motor boats, right up to Navy Destroyers and frigates. We got the middle size one. Add to this annoyance, there is a traffic separation zone all around the bottom of the island, which is a bit like a motorway, central reservation included, The separation zone ensures traffic heading west is in the lane near to Singapore, we were going East, so we have to be on the other side. This means crossing the separation lane, very much in the way someone on a pushbike might cross a busy motorway, very carefully. There is a little bit in the middle you can be safe in. The lane is about a mile wide. Once across, then we flow with the big ships steaming up from behind us for 30 odd miles, then do the frogger game imitation again and cross back to the other side. Now in most places I have sailed, small boats like me sneak along the outside of the separation zone, on either side, and nobody cares, but that puts me in Singapore’s waters, but I gave it a try. I got about 3 miles along when I accidentally strayed , just a tiny little bit into the traffic zone, it was quite safe because the big boats in the lane all go on the other edge as it’s more direct. I was only there for a couple of minutes before I noticed and quickly turned to head back to the inshore bit, but too late. Screaming towards me with spary gushing from either side of his bow was a Singapore police launch. They looked very much like they were going to escort us back to the nick, as one of them started organising ropes on the side the where they were approaching us. By now I was out of the lane, still no other traffic around so no harm done, but I was told in no uncertain terms, but in a very friendly manner that I could not do my journey in their waters and I must cross the separation zone to the Indonesian side to continue. I also got told off for having my AIS off, which surprised me as I was using it loads. I asked ever so nicely if I could motor through the anchorage ahead then cross the zone there, which would save me an hour, they agreed, but followed me all the way, and shadowed me across the separation zone.  I suppose it’s a bit like driving up the hard shoulder between a couple of junctions on a motorway, but being on the wrong side, and doing it in full view of the police.
I checked the AIS and found I had disabled the transmitter, yes that was right, I had assumed it defaulted to on after a power down, but no, I turned it back on, and a few minutes later the police launch screamed up to us again, just to tell us they had us on AIS and all was ok. Which was nice of them. Once across the zone, we were in Indonesian waters, and they don’t go there. But later we had to make a load more detours just to keep away from their coast. Seems a bit over the top to me.

 

The Johor Strait, which is were we spent all afternoon is full of shipyards and old ships, ferry ports and docks. Very busy really, but some parts had lovely beaches. I’m sure Kathy will have more in her post.

We left this morning at 6:50, just as the sun rose, and just a few hours before my replacement wind generator blade arrived. That’s a good game to play when cruising, “What’s my postal address”.
We arrived and dropped anchor just as the sun set at 7:10.

Paul Collister

Yes, our time lazing around in Puteri harbour marina is up and we head off to the boatyard tomorrow.  I’m hoping to leave at about 06:30 as it’s a good 10 hours+ and I’m planning to pick up some fuel on the way from a barge moored in a river. It’s going to be an interesting passage, we could save an hour or more if we pass south of two little islands, but I have been told we will be in trouble and chased away by the Singapore marine police, so we have to go to the north of them which adds a few miles. We will be motoring through one of the worlds busiest ports, looking at the chart it looks mad, millions of buoys, loads of no entry areas, and exclusion zones. and there will be scores of ships motoring through a hundred odd ships at anchor. It’s good Kathy will be here to help, she can steer while I stare at all the AIS targets on my MacBook, trying to work out which one is which, and is it heading our way. The worst of it should last for about 5 hours.
We will anchor outside the entrance to the yard tomorrow night and wait for the high tide in the morning before we can get in. That should be fun, we need to anchor in-between two fish farms. It’s a very rough looking yard, and we are living on the boat for one, maybe more nights, so out with the DEET (mossie spray), I don’t expect they have much in the way of toilets or showers, so it will be a relief to be back in the water later in the week.
I have been looking into the route to America from here and we will probably not go this year. Lots of reasons, but mainly it’s unlikely we will do this passage again, so I want to do it justice. To get to Japan missing the cyclones, we would have to race there, missing Taiwan, Japan would be rushed, Theres a port in Russia, north of Japan, that I hear is well worth a visit and I have heard Alaska is an amazing place, worth a year or two of cruising. Coming down from Alaska, I would love to spend a lot of time exploring the inner passage around Vancouver Island. All of these places would get crammed into a few weeks, plus the fact that we want to be home for all of September makes me think It’s just too much of a rush.
So I have put our next port of call as Tioman, a beautiful Island about 150 miles north of us, on the eastern side of Malaysia, as our next port of call.
We will spend about 5 days slowly making our way there, it would have been on our route to Japan, so if I revert back to the Japan plan, we don’t lose anything, but I expect by the time we have had a few days there we will have worked out some more destinations. We have a lot of options, which is nice, Staying in the gulf of Thailand is possibly and should provide good sailing during the SW Monsoon season, we can visit Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Or we can hop over to Eastern Malaysia on the island of Borneo, popping into The Kingdom of Bruni, or going to the rain forest music festival in Sarawak. We could head don to Indonesia and travel along those islands heading towards Austrailia. We shall have to see.

Our friends cat came to say goodbye yesterday, they have headed off to Tioman as part of the ‘Sailing east’ Malaysian rally, I expect we will bump into them later.
A lot of people use these air berths for their power boats, I think it’s because the warm waters cause growth under the boat to be accelerated. but they look strange. A small pump fills the big tanks with air to raise the berth, or the tanks are filed with water to lower it.

Here the boat has been driven into a submerged berth that has then been partly inflated

It looks like they have invented some kind of boat launcher

Fully inflated.

Paul Collister.

At midday on Friday 28th April I left my flat in Liverpool after a great month spent with friends and family in Liverpool, Wirral, Swindon and Milan to begin the journey back to Malaysia. From Lime Street I caught a train to Manchester Airport for my connecting flight to London. Luckily (for me at least) it wasn’t too hot and sticky a day because I was pulling a suitcase weighing 22kg, containing not only the usual clothes and toiletries, but also several items Paul needed for the boat and a fair few food items, including packets of vegan cheese and jars of peanut butter.  It was a relief to check it in at Manchester where I wouldn’t see it again until it was time to collect it from Kuala Lumpur Airport the following day.  It was late afternoon local time on Saturday 29th April when Paul met me after a 12 hour flight from Heathrow. My body clock was still on British time where it was mid-morning, and I hadn’t slept much on the plane so it was disorienting to say the least, especially when we went for dinner when I’d not long had breakfast on the plane! Still it felt good to be back ‘home’ and to see Paul again. I had been looking forward to being back on board Sister Midnight and seeing her new berth right on the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia. There was one more flight to do before that, however. From KL we had to fly to Johor Bahru, a journey of about 45 minutes, but this flight was delayed for an hour and was followed by a 30 minute taxi ride from the airport to the marina, so it wasn’t until the early hours of Sunday morning that my journey back to SE Asia came to an end.  Walking along the pontoons in the dark I felt the residue of the day’s heat and it struck me that the journey had taken me from the comfort of a hot water bottle and heavy duvet at night in England and brought me instead to the relief of cooling fans and cold showers. Paul had added another fan to the boat in my absence which is set up to rotate above us like a ceiling fan to circulate the air more effectively.

I hadn’t been able to see much of my surroundings the night before, and when I woke up I almost expected to see the familiar sight of Langkawi’s Royal Yacht Club from the last time I’d woken up on the boat.  Talking to Paul and reading his blog posts about Puteri (pronounced Pootree) I was prepared to be unimpressed because he’d been fairly noncommittal in his descriptions. It had looked pretty enough all lit up in the darkness, and the short walk through the marina reception had revealed a clean, newish building leading out to a courtyard with bars, palm trees and benches overlooking the harbour. From the cockpit, viewing it all in the light of day, I was pleasantly surprised to see a hive of activity in the marina complex and resort. Music was playing from a stage on the second storey of a shopping mall where activities for children were in full swing by the sound of it. The marina was full of people who would be taking part in the Sail Malaysia ‘Passage to the East’ Rally the following week, and the associated festivities had culminated on Saturday night with a jazz festival (I wasn’t too disappointed to have missed that ;)). It was a bank holiday weekend here in Malaysia too so visitors had come to stroll around the complex and have their photos taken against the harbour background.  The semicircle of land around the public marina is taken up with attractive blocks of serviced apartments and a huge hotel, the marina clubhouse with its services and facilities (including a library), and several smart-looking bars, coffee shops and restaurants.

The floor above, accessed by an escalator, is signposted as a shopping boulevard.  I saw all this as we took a walk around so that I could get my bearings. Paul was right to state that the shops aren’t much to get excited about. They are mostly retail outlets for designer brands and a string of shops and stalls selling children’s toys, clothes and sweets. Quite a few units in the mall are still waiting to be sold. Hello Kitty is very popular here – there is a ‘land’ devoted to her somewhere close by and the hotel offers trips to nearby Legoland. The convenience store on the ground floor sells plenty of chocolate, crisps, and fizzy drinks but little else. Still the atmosphere was good and everywhere is very clean and well maintained. It’s a fairly new resort so it’s still being developed but it seems to be a popular destination for daytrippers at weekends and holidays already. Staff, especially the gate guards, are very friendly according to Paul. They are employed to let marina patrons in and out of the pontoons, but they also spend a lot of time blowing whistles to tell people not to stand on the marina walls. It’s a long drop down into the murky water but it’s a popular place to pose for photos and naturally, children can’t resist climbing them even though there’s a play area right next to them.

It was too hot to linger outside for long – it will take me a while to become reacclimatised to the heat and humidity I expect. It feels a lot more humid here than it did in Langkawi, but it is the height of summer and we’re that bit closer to the equator. Most of Sunday was spent unpacking and sleeping off more of the jet lag. Early in the evening we went to a shop inside the ferry terminal which is a short walk from the marina, to get some bread. Thunder was crashing around us and it had grown very dark. Paul told me storms are frequent here but they are over quite quickly. There were some interesting sculptures made out of bamboo in the green areas next to the path, and a quirky swing that I was keen to have a go on but it was full of people and we needed to get back to the boat before the rain fell. I did get to go on it a few days later though as the pic below shows (it looks better than it actually was).

On Monday I still felt very lethargic and only felt up to doing a bit more unpacking, looking up information relating to Singapore and Raffles Hotel on the internet, and lounging by the fans dozing or reading. In the evening we went for dinner in one of the waterside restaurants called The Olive Kitchen, although it specialised in Indian cuisine with not an olive in sight. TV screens were showing music videos featuring songs from The Eagles, Pink Floyd and The Bee Gees. Paul wasn’t impressed but I loved it, and the food was good too. Back on the boat I packed a small bag ready for our visit to Singapore, the third and smallest South East Asian country on our journey so far.

 

You can probably tell from the title, this post isn’t going to be a bundle of laughs, but I just managed to upload these pics, my iPhone wouldn’t hand them over yesterday until I rebooted my mac, an iPhotos problem I expect.

If you look closely you can see the one above has some rubber on the edge, and is noticeably thinner at that point. The other end is fine, so I suspect there was a manufacturing problem at some point with this one. I’m going to use the other one and keep this one as a spare.

It does make me wonder about the provenance of this, it’s marked as being made by MORSE in the USA, and has a morse part number on it, but the quality and finish seem a bit rough and ready compared with the countrose one I bought in the UK.
So could this be a ‘knock off’ cheap Asian counterfeit, or possibly as is more and more common, Morse now subcontract the production of their bearings to an Asian company. I would think it’s come from the same source as the one it is replacing, also bought and fitted in Malaysia a year ago, so I’m no worse off. I will have a look at them when we reach the shores of North America and ‘compare and contrast’

Other techie news, I bought a new PSU for the macbook air and that’s solved my charging problems, Apple now have another £60 to hide away somewhere offshore 😉 but I’m made up, what with a brand new replacement iPhone that charges quickly and takes brilliant pics, I’m feeling properly tooled up (IT wise) again. However WhatsApp is weird with new phones, and deleted all my history, which is a pain.

We have just had a load of fighter jets fly over us, the Singapore military have a base directly over the Johor strait from us, less than a mile, and every few days they make their presence felt with an air display, or a display of firepower.

Paul Collister

We are just back from a couple of days in Singapore. I had originally wanted to take the boat there, but it turns out to be very expensive to keep a boat there, it’s also difficult from a paperwork point of view, you have to go to a certain place in the straits, and anchor and wait for a customs/immigration guy to visit and check your papers, then you can proceed to a marina, where you have to appoint an agent to make your application to stay and clear you in. You need an agent to clear you out as well.
However, you don’t need to go through all the border crossing by road hassle in order to do a bit of shopping. We had to leave Malaysia on Tuesday morning, and check in and get a visa for Singapore, then do the same on the reverse. I wonder if the UK will have to go through this rigmarole when we brexit, it’s certainly looking bad, I guess it’s ok if like a lot of people in the UK who don’t travel much, but I would hate it. On the way over we used busses, you first get in a queue to leave MY you get a bus over the bridge, a short ride, get off the bus, get in a queue to enter SG, get in a queue to get a bus to the Metro. It took us about an hour for that bit, sometimes it can take 3 hours if it’s a public holiday or rush hour. We took a taxi back, that was much quicker as they stamp your passport at the toll booth and you stay in the car. The Metro in SG is brilliant, new, clean, quiet, frequent, very cheap, for £7 we got a card that covers all busses and metro for 2 days. 

I headed off to the chandlers to pick up the bearings I had ordered, passing this temple above, which like the chandlers, is in Little India. Sadly despite the fact I had a text msg from the chandler (aqua) saying he had 2 in stock and would be happy to sell them to me on Tuesday, he seemed to know nothing about it and didn’t have any! He said he could get them for tomorrow but I had to pay in full up front. I explained that I wouldn’t, as he had proved to be useless so far, and I wouldn’t risk it, he said they were in his warehouse and he would bring them early, but must be paid first. I pointed out there was little chance of me not turning up, and should I be struck by lightning, he could just take them back to the warehouse. I think that I might have said the wrong thing, because he then got upset and deplored me not to talk bout being struck by lightning, that it wont happen, and I mustn’t say that, he was genuinely concerned for me, which was nice. There’s a lot of superstition out here. Anyway, I found another chandler, MarineTech, just around the corner, that had a nice lady running the show and a deal was done for her to get the bearings, for a much better price for the morning. I also spent a load more there too, stocked up on varnish now. She had a liferaft for just £750, which is about what I am thinking of paying in postage to get a decent one shipped here. This one is made in China, I explained to her, in my most diplomatic way, what with her being Chinese ethnicity, that I had heard some unfavourable comments about Chinese liferafts, she had heard them too, but was keen to point out that she had sold loads, and had no complaints. But isn’t that the way with liferafts? I have a picture below, I think attention to detail is important in this area, so not checking the spelling of fiferatws is disappointing to say the least. 

Disappointed as I was to end up on top of a rock  a few weeks back, that’s nothing to how the skipper of the ship below must have felt we he hit these three skyscrapers.

Below is a very sacred buddhist temple, a fragment of the Buddha’s tooth is here, we didn’t see it, and frankly, I don’t remember teeth being that big a deal in any of the buddhist teachings I read, but all the same, I thought the temple very beautiful and I’m very pleased to have been able to visit.

In many ways, the towns we have visited have architectural similarities, brought on by necessity, the shop houses , where the shop is on the ground floor and the living quarters above, make sense for a small business, the covered raised walkways are perfect for a place where it can chuck it down at any time, and the roads can turn to rivers, and they also provide a great shade from the hot sun the rest of the time. On top of that, the shops can conduct their business outdoors where it is cooler.

So Tuesday night, and we had a lovely walk around town, it’s a very pretty place downtown by the river at night. Kathy has pictures, I can’t find mine. It’s like a mini manhattan, but all the high rise are clumped together, making it feel quite open.

Wednesday morning, I picked up the bearings, and bought lots of hose/pipe and stuff, I found a shop selling a TDS meter, but it turns out I have no chance of buying a membrane for the watermaker here. They have to be shipped from the USA. but I have everything except the membrane, and I have membrane cleaner, so I’m going to give it a go. I’m hoping I should be able to make water, but at a reduced rate. The TDS meter measures the salinity, and the purity of the water, so that will be useful.

Now I went to an area called Sim Lim, where there is Sim Lim Sq and Sim Lim Tower. I may write a separate entry on this, or even start a new blog devoted to them, but I was amazed, It was lie going back in time, floor after floor after floor of myriads of shops within a maze of corridors, and every shop selling stuff that cannot be bought in shops in England anymore, Im taking everything from resistors, capacitors, switches, cables, all the Maplin/Radioshack type of things but add on top of that, everything you need to build a recording studio, or a radio telescope, or a 3d printer or . . . the list goes on, I left Kathy in a cafe where she was falling asleep with Jetlag, and I wandered for a good hour. Here’s a shop that sold connecters 

Some speakers or cones

Reluctantly I had to leave, but Kathy was pleased, especially as the next port of call was to be Raffles, for a famous Singapore sling. Kathy seemed to like it there, I suspect she might mention it in her blog.

And here is the said Singapore Sling in the raffles bar /  snooker room.

Lazy day tomorrow as we watch the marina empty of the yachts, they are all heading off on a rally “Sail Malaysia, Passage East”, we might end up following and meeting them on our way north.

Paul Collister.

Generally I’m quite a positive person or so I like to think, but a run of annoying problems had me despairing last week, the cutless bearing, the watermaker motor / gearbox, all things I felt were out of my control and required me to bring the experts in. Normally I see most things as a challenge I can overcome,  normally I would take the view, as made famous in “The boys from the black stuff” with the phrase  ‘Gizz a job, I can do that’. For example, if I was a long way offshore, and I had a mad headache problem requiring surgery, I’d be up for a go. I mean how difficult can it be, I know doctors spend five years + studying, but I gather a lot of that time is spent doing practical jokes on each other, and anyway I bet there’s a whole stack of videos / tutorials on brain surgery on youtube these days. So Friday dawned and it was with this renewed attitude I went back to the watermaker. I’m saying nothing, but check out the video below!

It doesn’t actually make water yet, a trivial point, but it does pump sea water around the system at 800PSI (ish) and brine / sea water is returning from the membrane.
I was able to tease the old brushes out of the motor, and clean it all up quite well, I think the pump does need to be replaced at some point, but I left the motor running for an hour and it didn’t get hot or make any funny noises so I think it has some life in it yet. The main problem now is, 1) the pump needs the seals replacing, I have 2 seal replacement kits on board. 2) the Membrane needs replacing, I can’t be sure, but everything I have read says it has to be stuffed, especially as 3) some of the pipes in the system have started to dissolve and produce an oily black substance from their inner rubber lining, so all the piping has to be changed. I’m hoping to pick up the bits I need on Tuesday when we go into Singapore.

Last Thursday I took a cab over to the boatyard, it’s 40 minutes by road, about 14nm away, but I will have to take the boat all the way around Singapore because of the causeway being in the way. Thats more like a 10 hour trip for me. What’s worse is that the entrance to the boatyard is very shallow, and I have to wait for spring tides to get in, which is another 10 days away, this means that by the time we launch, we will be much further into the cyclone (aka hurricane) season here and the trip north will have more chance of bad weather. Fortunately cyclones are big business here, they are regular each year and do lots of damage so there is a lot of support available. Forecasting is very good, protected harbours are available to jump into, so most of the time it’s not a big deal. Of course there’s always the chance of an unpredictable storm, and a boat problem combining to bring grief, but lets not look on the gloomy side. I’m picking up a new bearing in Singapore on Tuesday, and a spare, incase I should take up fishing again 🙁 It’s not going to cost that much to haul, and do the job, there’s even a chance It might be something we can do in the slings, but unlikely.

Of course the main event of the week/month, if we put the watermaker to one side, was the return of Kathy. I met her in KL yesterday and we flew back, after a much delayed flight, to the boat. It’s great to have Kathy back, and she brought lots of goodies as well. Sadly the missing blade for the wind generator, which the astute of you will have spotted, was 20cm short, can’t see that working. but I have lots of bits to fit to the boat now to make it just that little bit better, a lot of USB charging sockets is one of these additions! I also have a lovely new iPhone, so lots of pictures now. Thanks to Yaz and Chris for sorting that out, it’s only when you need a replacement phone and you live in another country that you see how mad things can be, the old phone couldn’t be posted back, required by the insurers, no carriers will take phones as air cargo at this end. Then the phone comes unlocked, but locks itself to a network, which then has to be unlocked. Then you need a human to transport it back as carry on. What a lot of bother, I’m definitely not jumping into the marina again with it in my pocket.
I expect it won’t be long before Kathy posts her thoughts on Puteri Harbour, she likes it more than me.
I’m spending tomorrow working on the SSB radio, I have just learnt how to use the tuning, and how the bands work, I need to get the wefax and pactor working now. I also need to get the satphones out and fired up before I go into Singapore.

Paul Collister

Apologies to Robert Browning for rehashing the title of his famous poem, but April is here and I am in England. It’s almost time for me to return to Southeast Asia for more adventures but before I left Malaysia I didn’t get a chance to post my blog entry about our final few days in Thailand so here it is with accompanying pictures of more gorgeous places.

Wednesday 15^th March – Ko Lipe

During the night I was woken by howling! It was very loud and sounded just like the wolves in horror films. As I came round a bit and heard barking too I realised it must be coming from the stray dogs we had seen on the beach. I went into the cockpit to listen some more, hoping it wasn’t howls of pain I was hearing but they stopped after a few minutes. Paul told me he’d heard them too and decided the dogs probably just followed suit when one of them started making a noise: ‘oh, what do I do, shall I howl or bark – I’d better do both, that’s what all the other dogs are doing’  :). The strays appear to be very well looked after here. I saw a few signs on display on the island advertising the charity that cares for them (Animal Care Lipe), and the ones we saw looked well fed and content. After a lazy day on board we had a look at the other beach (Sunrise Beach) late in the afternoon. There were even more dogs on this beach and it was a lot less touristy. The bay was full of moored longtails and as its name suggests, it’s the beach where early risers can see the sunrise.  After an early evening drink in a bar, where a gorgeous little pup wanted to make friends with Paul, (see pic) he went off to a beach bar while I browsed the shops.

Since it was probably going to be my last chance to do so and also because I’d backed out so many times before, I braved having a Thai massage. I’m very pleased I did – it was wonderful. For an hour, you just lie on a mattress where incense is burning and soft music is playing while a professional masseur kneads and bends, manipulates and even walks on, your muscles and limbs. The price (£7) includes head, feet, neck and shoulders – very relaxing, and highly recommended. I met Paul in the bar two hours later just as the beach nightlife was starting to heat up. Fire dancers were twirling blazing batons to a growing crowd of onlookers on the sand, beachside clubs were booming out music and staff from bars and restaurants begged passers-by to choose their establishment. It was back to the boat for us sleepy party poopers, though :).

Thursday 16th / Friday 17th March – Lipe, Barat and Rawi

We decided to leave Lipe mid-morning. Not to go very far, just to have a look at some of the other  islands around us. Paul’s makeshift gearstick worked well and we arrived at Barat at noon.  There wasn’t a lot to see there, apart from a few divers on a nearby man-made pier, but at least there weren’t as many longtails racing past us. Once we’d secured a mooring buoy, Paul took the dinghy to check whether the island had anything on it that might be worth a closer look. It didn’t, so we had a leisurely rest of the day and prepared for a rocky night because the weather began to deteriorate early in the evening.

As it turned out, there was a storm in the night but it wasn’t a bad one, compared with others we’d seen in the Tropics but the sea state caused quite a bit of rocking. The swell made the boat rock from side-to-side, so sleep was disturbed by some items becoming dislodged and falling and we had to close all the hatches and windows when the rain got heavy. Paul went for a snorkel with the Go Pro this morning because the water is so beautifully clear here, but with the rocking making everything that bit more difficult we decided to slip our mooring and move on.

Hardly a minute had passed when we experienced an alarming jolt and heard an awful grinding noise -one that I don’t want to ever hear again.  I was convinced whatever it was had gouged a hole somewhere in the hull and ran to the bow to look over the sides to see if I could see anything. Paul has described the sequence of events in his post. At the time, I just followed instructions as it happened. One of these was to lift up the floor hatches in the cabin to check if water was coming in!  I don’t mind admitting I was scared then because I had no idea how serious things were, or might get. The situation was made worse because the swell kept making the boat jolt and crunch as it repeatedly came into contact with what turned out to be a boulder directly underneath us. I had to suppress the urge to squeal each time it happened in case water was about to gush in. I was actually planning what to try and grab to chuck in the dinghy when I heard the longed-for cry from Paul ‘it’s ok, Kathy we’re clear’! The swell had finally pushed us off the boulder. It wasn’t until later, though after Paul had checked all around the hull that I felt completely secure. He really does know exactly what to do in any crisis, and more importantly, he does it without panicking. He did say that I reacted very well though so maybe I’m getting better at remaining cool, calm and collected :).

After that drama, we didn’t move very far but we moved to the wonderfully peaceful and picturesque location of Rawi. No longtails at all here and no rocking, which was just what we needed. It was too hot to do much else but sit by the fans until the sun lost its fierceness.  At 5 we set out to explore the serene-looking island, marvelling at the clear water on the way.  The pictures show just how fabulous it was, all the more so for being deserted and quiet.  We clambered over rocks, paddled in the warm water and watched the living shells and crabs scurrying along on the sand. Paradise found!

On our way back to the beached dinghy we spotted a few uninvited guests investigating it.  The monkeys we had seen when we arrived had evidently heard us and had emerged from the woods to see if there was any food going. One of them picked up a mosquito repellent spray, and threw it down in disgust, while another was taking great interest in one of the oars. Seeing us approach, and hearing Paul telling them to clear off made one run at us – it looked aggressive and I reacted by running into the sea to escape its wrath but it was all bravado because it thought better of tackling Paul and scurried away. My fear came from reading a sign on the beach that warned people not to feed the monkeys because they can be dangerous, but the picture below shows their possible reaction to it.

We took our time getting back to the boat, lingering in the dinghy to look at the incredible scenes of the marine life under the surface of the water. It was so clear it was almost better than snorkelling. While the monkeys scrapped and chased each other on the beach, we watched sea urchins, vividly coloured tropical fish and living corals. It was the ideal antidote to the anxiety we’d experienced from the rock collision earlier in the day.

Saturday 18th March – A bit more Lipe

We returned to Lipe this morning, mainly because it’s a good point to leave for our next stop -Telaga Harbour in Malaysia, and we also wanted to take a look at the island’s other coastlines. However, after motoring around and assessing (and rejecting) the suitability of various likely spots we ended up in the same place we’d anchored at before. Same 23 metres of water but this time using the makeshift gearstick, which is becoming more familiar now that I’ve had some practice. The humidity forced us to relax in the cabin all afternoon and it wasn’t until 6 30 that we ventured out in the dinghy to get provisions. Walking Street was hot and sticky and crowded so we got what we needed pretty quickly (I tried not to flinch at the cost of five pounds for a jar of peanut butter) and headed back to the cooler shore. Since this was our last night in Thailand, we went to The Paradise Bar at the end of the beach that we’d become fond of, and had drinks while listening to great music and chatting to the friendly staff.  It would have been lovely to stay longer but as the only drinker of alcohol I had to remain ‘steady’ enough to help carry the dinghy to the water, and more importantly, be able to get into it in a graceful manner.

We had a somewhat disturbed night due to loud music from the bars wafting over and the fact that the wind had increased in strength.  There was a possibility that boats moored or anchored nearby could swing and hit us and we were concerned that we, too might drift if our anchor dragged.  Typically, that had to happen while we were both asleep so we had a rude awakening at 7am when a strong thud jolted the side of the boat. It was better than any alarm clock – Paul was up above in a matter of seconds to discover that the anchor had dragged and the boat had struck the ferry that had been quite far away when we went to sleep! Thankfully, though it wasn’t too serious a collision, just a scratch on the paintwork. As we made a sharp exit out of the bay, I saw a sleepy looking crew member from the ferry looking slightly bemused.

We made it back to Telaga Harbour without any further incidents, and from there back to Langkawi’s Royal Yacht Club.  There was a maritime festival going on not long after we arrived. The boats in the marina were festooned with artwork, flags and lights and there was a party atmosphere in The Deck Bar as well as in the local cafes and shops. We walked to Eagle Square and watched the parade of boats on finale night. It was quite a sight: flashing lights, dancers in national costume, music and a spectacular firework display at the end. In a few days I would be leaving these hot, sultry nights for the more temperate climes of the UK and Italy and would not be seeing Langkawi on my return at the end of April.  There are other countries and waters to explore and navigate then, and I’m thrilled at the prospect of seeing our first one at the beginning of May: Singapore – and the famous Raffles Hotel beckon.

Kathy