I spent the weekend getting the boat ready for an off on Monday 31st August and also getting as much rest as possible given I was soloing the next leg. The Pinetree marina is a nice enough spot. The marina itself is small but pretty modern and in a man made basin surrounded by apartments with shops, restaurants and bars below. It seems to be part of a planned residential development for the area.
I spent a bit of time planning the sail to
Lumut. The Malacca Straits are pretty
congested and there are all sorts of horror stories about interactions with
fishing boats, unlit obstacles, the larger commercial traffic and even
pirates. On top of that we were just
coming off a full moon and the tides were particularly strong. After looking at the route and currents for a
while it became apparent that serious consideration needed to be given to
aligning the passage with the timing of the north flowing tides. I got my buddy Grok to compile a matrix showing
tidal strength every 10NM along the route and for each hour for the next five
days. With this I could plan to
sail/motor with the tide and anchor up once the tide turned.
I departed the marina at 0330 on the Monday and
motored down the Johor Strait.
Visibility was excellent given the clear skies and almost full
moon. As I turned into the Malacca
Straits just before dawn however a Summatra unleashed itself. Summatra’s are localized violent squalls which
develop over Summatra Island and then move eastward across the Straits of Malacca,
bringing sudden heavy rain and severe gusty winds. The wind went from almost zero to 35 kts in minutes
and the rain sheeted down cutting visibility to less than a hundred yards. The sea was whipped up and as it was norherly
it was almost directly on my bow. After
battling with the weather for a while I gave up and turned Sea Otter around to
go with the storm back towards Singapore.
Luckily these events are short lived and by the time daylight was upon
us I could turn back onto course and keep going. I would encounter one more of these squalls
before I reached Lumut.
At around midday I reached the first stop and
anchored off Palau Pisang a small island about 20NM into the Malacca
Straits. I stayed here for a few hrs and
then once the tide was right around early afternoon headed north again. This was the pattern for the rest of the
trip. The tides were good from around very
early morning to just after day break and then from early afternoon to
sunset. So I would head off on the tide around
1am or 2 am for around six hours and then anchor up and get some rest until
midday when I could up anchor again and keep moving until sunset always making
sure I was anchored while it was still light.
I did not really know what to expect in the
Malacca straits regarding other marine traffic but in the end it was not too
bad. There were a lot of fishing boats closer
inshore within the 10m contour with and without lights and then the big
commercial vessels in the traffic separation zones but it was not so bad to
navigate through in between the 10m contour and the TSZ.. There were also a lot of anchored vessels at various
points along the route particularly tankers and gas carriers.
I got into the routine of sailing with the tides and made it to Lumut by Thursday morning 3rd September having motored most of the way. It was a short journey up the river to the Lumut Marina and Yacht Services Facility where I was given a berth.
The Lumut area is quite amazing – it’s a hive
of shipbuilding activity and the infrastructure is pretty impressive. There are a couple of marinas and the LMY
yard is the newest one and so the facilities are still a bit spartan but the
rates are very good for long term storage.
This is the home for Sea Otter for the next few
months. I stayed alongside for a few
days getting the boat ready for storage and then I was lifted out on Tuesday 8th
September and parked on the hard stand. The
boat had not been out the water since the Bay of Islands in Dec 2024 but the
hull looked in remarkably good condition.
I will have a few bits of work done while the boat is here but nothing
major needs done.
I flew back to Perth on Friday 11th
September and now have to decide what the plan will be for 2027. The main choices are between staying in this region for another year or making the jump across to Europe.
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