After a delayed start because of the rogue anchor we set sail to Penang. We sailed in company with about 12 other boats all heading for the Penang as well and we all had to sail under the Penang Bridge to reach the anchorage. It was quite spectacular looking up at the huge span above and we had to race to the anchorage before the rain came as you can see from the above photo – we only had minutes. – continue reading….>
After our overnight sail to Pangkor we anchored just outside the marina and just chilled out for the day. We wanted to organise fuel, laundry etc and have a lazy day as all cruisers do on arrival at a new port.
One of the stops on this leg of the rally was a day trip to a place called Ipoh. I had never heard of Ipoh and was I in for a surprise. Ipoh is the capital city of the state of Perak and was once a very large tin mining town. -continue reading………>
On our return from Singapore we headed back to Country Garden Marina for a couple of days and then set off for Langkawi via the Melacca Straights. We are taking part in Sail Malaysia which is a rally which goes from Johor to Langkawi. It is not a long rally and there are many stops in marinas which is unusual for us – anchoring being our preference. Our first stop was Admiral Marina continue reading…
As Singapore is only a couple of miles away, it seemed a shame not to visit and experience yet another different culture. We travel slowly when we are sailing, sometimes only a couple of miles an hour but we don’t usually mind the slow pace – in fact we cherish it as it is so relaxing and peaceful. Not so the journey to Singapore. continue reading….
To get to Malaysia from Indonesia you have to cross the notorious Singapore Straights – the busiest shipping lane in the world – they are not kidding. The actual crossing is only about a mile so takes only a short time but you are dodging huge tankers, tugs and cargo ships, all of which are doing at least double your speed. It was quite fun weaving in and out of them and once we had crossed we just continue reading…….
We stayed for a couple of nights on Kentar – a small island in the Riau group before we all headed into Tanjung Pinang on the island of Bintan. I had been here 16 years ago on a work conference and had not seen any of the island except the resort we were staying, so I wanted to explore it this time. It is very close to Singapore and as a result the tourism industry consists mainly of Singaporeans and Malaysians. The port town of Tanjung Pinang was hectic continue reading…
There is a tradition amongst sailors that those who have not sailed across the Equator are called Polywogs and those who have are called Shellbacks. Ian and I were both Polywogs when we left but all was about to change. At precisely 11.06am on 25th October 2016 we sailed (slowly) over the Equator and can now proudly continue reading…
We sailed to the small island of Ketawai off Bangka with no pre-conceived ideas of what to expect. Every stop in this trip through Indonesia has been completely different but Ketawai was the jewel in the crown.
We arrived at about 9am to a cacophony of horns and sirens – all our friends who had already arrived cheering us in. We in turn did the same to arrivals after us – I think we knew this was a special place after that. Within about 30 minutes of our arrival a small boat arrived -continue reading…->
We arrived at Belitung after a three day sail from Kumai. It was not a great sail, the anchorage we stopped in was very rolly and we dragged along with two other boats in the night which gave us a bad nights sleep which is dangerous in itself. We travelled with 5 other boats and all arrived in Belitung late afternoon just in time to have a few beers continue reading…
We arrived in Kumai after a slow slow motor/sail from Karamungjawa – there is just no wind here which is starting to really frustrate Ian. Kumai is in Kalimantan which is the Indonesian side of Borneo – the other parts of Borneo (Sarawak & Sabah) belong to Malaysia. The reason we came this far out of our way was to visit the orangutans in their natural habitat in a huge national park called Tanjung Puting – which promised to be one of the highlights continue reading..
S/V Indian Summer 1 