Back on Island Time

After Singapore we returned to Artemis and a broken fridge. We dismantled it, found the broken bit, ordered it, replaced it and left to go sailing. Once clockwise round Singapore.

The winds were light and the tides not too helpful so it took us three days to get around the tiny country. At one point we strayed fifty meters in to Singapore harbour waters and immediately there was a police boat telling us to move back in to the traffic lanes. We obviously got a bad name from then on as we were shadowed by a total of four police boats during our trip. Off the Raffles Lighthouse we were overtaken by a monster squall which brought howling wind and rain that reduced visibility to zero. This is less than optimal next to the busiest shipping lane in the world but at least the police could no longer see us as we moved away from the ships and back in to Singapore waters.

Once we left Singapore we continued to the first anchorage in Malaysia. More bad weather helped us sail along at a great speed but made anchoring unthinkable when we arrived. We hove to behind a giant ship and waited for things to calm down enough to anchor and weather a bumpy night exposed to the waves.

Day four we only wanted to travel through a short channel to re-anchor in a protected place but lost our nerve when the depths shown were almost equal to the depth of our keel. We turned round and sailed to Banana Island and anchored under the lighthouse. The currents were so strong that we didn’t leave the boat but we did enjoy a days rest. Another few difficult days of sailing and uncomfortable nights at anchor saw us hidden behind Besar Island. Three thunderstorms hit us there but the island took the brunt of the first two. Unluckily the third one came in straight from the sea during the night and was so strong that we dragged across the bay and in to deep water. Re-anchoring in wind, rain and choppy seas at night is never great fun.

The next day we moved on to Malacca and anchored in front of the city. Another rolly anchorage and more muddy water but we could leave the dinghy at the silted up marina and “do” the tourist bit. Malacca has an amazing history going back four hundred years but today it is a riverside lined with bars and a street lined with restaurants. Maybe we have just been away from reality for too long but we were glad to find a side street to buy fruit, vegetables and bread and return to Artemis. We did manage to buy some needed spares and met Alex who owns Explorer, a boat building company. He showed us around his factory set among the rice fields which was interesting and found the electrical parts that we needed.

From Malacca we sailed to Cape Rachado, past the Tanjung Tuan Whirlpool and then anchored off the beach at Tanjung Biru, also know as the “Blue Lagoon”. Here we are protected from the waves, the water is clear, there is a jungle on land to explore and no reason to set the alarm clock. Finally we are back on Island Time.