East coast Malaysia

Simanderal
Michael Hughes and Ger White
Fri 25 May 2012 12:03
Exciting day today--sailed round the south of Singapore island from West Malaysia to the East coast of Malaysia, dodging the traffic on the way! Passed literally hundreds of boats,most at anchor, but many on the move, tugs towing barges, ferries etc.----but no mishaps nor even a close encounter!  58 miles of concentrated navigation!
 
But to re-cap--we got back to Simanderal in Port Dickson on 16 May after a couple of weeks in Europe and a great wedding in Aviemore! We spent a few days provisioning--and fixing pumps and the VHF speaker----and set off south on the 21st. A series of day sails with anchorages off the Water Islands and Tanjung Tohor (where we experienced a "sumatera"--a gale force wind from SW with an electrical storm and heavy rain lasting for somewhat over an hour---around 0200 hours--sat up on anchor watch, but all well despite the wild sea and wind) and then a long sail in a great wind down to Puteri marina--where we spent an idle day topping up provisions etc.
 
Which brings us to today--and arrival on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia and anchored in a rather rolly bay--Teluk Punggai. We'll carry on north tomorrow, heading for a group of islands of which the best known is Tioman----location for the film South Pacific as it happens, albeit it's in the South China Sea---I guess that doesn't slip off the tongue so easily. I'm practising "Happy Talk" for when we visit the waterfall!  Better stop--no one under 60 has seen the film. But that's likely where the next blog will come from.