Crossing Singapore Straits

Oct 20-24

Hi All,

Nongsa: Turned out to be not too much to do in Nongsa except relax. It rained a lot so it was just easier and very relaxing to stay inside with the AC on…..yes, AC heaven. We had several HH/dinners at the restaurant which was pretty good and on Sunday they had an elaborate brunch…..some of the best beef we have had in a while…..think it was from Australia…….and pretty good prawns!!! We did take the shuttle into town one afternoon……boring, boring, boring…..they just took you to a mega mall which we completed in about an hour, then had to wait another 2 hours for the shuttle. The advertised electronic store was a huge bust…..mainly appliances……but we did get some fresh yogurt at the hypermart……haven’t had yogurt in a while!!!!

Batam was very different that the rest of Indonesia…..we maily saw some of the more remote places in Indonesia on the Rally. Batam is probably very similar to the cities in Java and Sumatra…..quite modern with a good infrastructure……and lots of resorts for the tourists, especially people from Singapore!!

The weather has just sucked as we approached Singapore and Malaysia…….very cloudy, gray, very hazy from 90%+ humidity……even the locals are complaining about the heat……the heat index has been well over 100….yikes and ugh!!!!! As we are now in the northern hemisphere it is fall and supposedly at the end of the rainy season and beginning the “less rainy” season. When we got to Puteri Harbor in Malaysia we talked to several boats who have been blasted in the Malacca Straits……what we take to head up the coast of Malaysia to Thailand……what is normally very calm waters has had gale force warnings and 10-12′ seas…..yikes. Sure hope it all calms down when we start traveling again in a few weeks!!! And today, it is hazy but sunny…..so there is a sun……but very, very hot, so we have to be careful what we wish for…..joy!!!!

Singapore Straits: Wow……very impressive indeed. Our AIS chart only goes to 100 targets and it was constantly maxed out. I thought transiting the Panama Canal twice would be good experience but holy ships batman……this was crazy busy!!!! Checking out of Indonesia at Nongsa was super easy!!! We gave the office our passports on Sunday am having given them all the paperwork when we checked in days before. At 6pm Sunday evening we picked up our passports, all the necessary clearance docs, and paid our bill (they took all our Rupiah and then let us pay the rest w/Visa). All this for IRP1million….about USD75.

We left at 5:45am Indo time on Monday 10/24 to go the 53nm to Puteri on Monday 10/24…..exactly 90 days in Indonesia. The marina and others advised going west, staying south of the shipping lanes until you are well west of Helen Mars lighthouse. You then go NW across the East bound lanes, then an anchor field and eventually across the west bound shipping lane as you head up the Johor Strait. For us, crossing this west bound lane was the busiest!! I think maybe there were more ships anchored than normal as many were oil tankers rafted up…..like in mothball waiting for the oil market to return…..seeing these gigantic tankers rafted was quite a site!!!! Actually, all the ships behaved….it was the ferries and the tug/barges that went anywhere they pleased. We probably had to divert 5-8 times for a tug/barge!!! And of course, about 8am for several hours we had a huge thunderstorm with 20kt headwinds and 1-2′ wind chop……we were still well south of the shipping lanes so we did ok but wow, at times almost zero visibility!!!

We arrived around 12:15pm…..about 6.5 hours…..8.2kt avg. But, that is 1:15pm Malaysia time……weird to set the clock forward as we went west?????? We think the marina will be fine……but not a great beginning, Kathy hailed the marina on the VHF for a good 20min with no answer……finally a guy yells at us from the dock and points to our slip…..ok….turns out no radio……hmmmm. I go to plug in to shorepower and it’s like the biggest socket ever……the guy says no problem you can rent a plug…..ok…turns out it is a 125amp plug…..we wire it to our cord and viola we have lots of power. We took all our papers to the office around 2:30pm to check into the marina and Malaysia. At 4:30pm they took us by golf cart to the local ferry office where Immigration electronically fingerprinted our index fingers and stamped our passports……and we are officially checked into Malaysia at no cost…..well, we think, unless there is a marina charge on the bill when we leave!!! In between those times we were able to get to an ATM for Malaysian Ringgit, get a new Sim card for the phone with internet, have a beer and our traditional arrival cheeseburger:))))……..as in our first cheeseburger since we left Australia 3 months ago…..actually it was quite good but the fries were even better!!!!

The marina is in a huge development complex that is still massively under construction……there must be 6, 50+ story condo/apt/hotels under construction……where do the people come from we ask…..well Singapore…..too expensive there so people live over here in Malaysia and work in SG. Our lunch was about USD15……very inexpensive here!!!

We are not quite sure what we will do in the next few days…….need to wash and wax Mystic which we contracted with some “guys” but they can’t start until the w/e……not sure what the cost will be as they have to check with the marina first…..hmmm!!

On Monday we go to Singapore for a 5D/4N mini-vacation…….running water showers…..yes, it’s the little things……room service, massages…..yep, a real vacation:)))) We come back on Friday the 4th and then will spend a few more days in the marina with the Sail Malaysia Rally and then around the 8th, 9th or 10th we will start to head northwest through the Malacca Straits…..it’s about 565nm to Phuket and our marina and we want to be there by 11/28!!

Hope all is well!!

John
Mystic Moon
Rest Mystic Rest