Goodbye Indonesia - Nongsa Point Marina to Puteri Harbour Marina, Jahor, Malaysia

Gaviota
Sat 29 Oct 2016 03:19
001:25.072N 103:39.458E

We cleared out of Indonesia on Sunday 23rd October and left at 6.30am on Monday 24th to cross the Singapore Strait, one of the busiest shipping routes in the world with large commercial vessels transitting at 12 minutes or less apart.  Our route took us along the edge of the main shipping lane.  The sky started getting ominously black and it started pouring down again making visibility extremely poor.  When we reached the point of crossing the worst of the squall had passed and we looked for a suitable gap in the traffic.   It was a case of dodging and weaving our way and keeping a very alert lookout at all times not only for the massive tankers but the high speed ferries which appeared from nowhere, luckily the visibility had improved and we eventually crossed the main route.  From then on we motored on  through the hundreds of tankers and container ships at anchor waiting to load or unload their cargo in Singapore.  Our route took us into the Strait of Jahor which was lined with warehouses and industrial units on both the Singapore side and Malaysian side.  Eventually the bridge came into sight and we both wished we had taken the time to measure Gaviota’s mast!!!!!!   Syd remained cool and calm as we edged slowly closer to the centre of the 25 metre high bridge, I lay on my back on the back of the boat trying desperately to judge the clearance (if any!) and was all for about turning and heading into Raffles Marina, I was totally convinced Gaviota’s mast would be snapped in two.  Slowly we edged under – it looked like the top of the mast was scraping the underside of the bridge but we were through and the mast was still standing.    Sigh of relief plus note  ‘must measure the height of the mast’!!!!  From there on it was a short distance past the Singapore Military Firing Range and into the creek which led into Puteri Harbour Marina.  First surprise – this was quite definitely not third world – we were amazed at the towering high rise luxury apartments and shops surrounding the Marina.  The Marina was pretty luxurious large new pontoons with superyacht sized berths, 24 hour security and excellent facilities all for £80 a week!!!!  Welcome to Malaysia.  The weather though has not been very welcoming with regular torrential downpours but the upside is we have not had to clean the boat!
 
 
 

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