Singapore
Digiboat's "Product Testing"
Simon Blundell
Sat 15 Feb 2014 00:07
01:20.61N 103:38.03E
2347z
14/02
Arrived in the Johor
Straight a few miles from Raffles Marina right on sunrise this morning after an
interesting overnight passage through the Riaus. So with everyone well satisfied
- particularly Bligh - after a pleasant day exploring and swimming in the
postcard perfect anchorage off the deserted tropical Keling Island, we pulled
anchor at 3pm yesterday expecting a leisurely 15 or so hours at a 5-6kn average
motor for the 130 mile leg.
A 12 kn breeze
coming down from the NNE had other ideas and we jumped to 9-10kn close reached
heading for the Durian Straight. With Lu on watch (who'd slept while the rest of
us Shore Party-ied all day) we made much to good progress up until I came on
watch a few hours after sunset. Still managing to sail close hauled at the S end
of Selat Durian we had hit a strong head current which slowed us down to
3-4 kn and put us back on average for a daylight arrival.
A relatively
uneventful crossing of the Malacca Straight shipping lane in the pre-dawn hours
made easy with the use of AIS "video-game" technology on the computer nav
system. Not quite so perfect an arrival time though as 7:30am is probably too
early to really be enjoying the traditional "Arrival Beer". After Lucian docked
and then redocked the boat due to a booking confusion, a manoeuvre he'd not
previously performed (being only at anchor thus far during his 5 week long
tenure as Captain)and including a 200 metre reverse through a very narrow space
with a 5 million dollar 120 year old classic yacht a few metres or less off the
beam looking very little like a fender; we eventually tied to land for the last
time and hit the restaurant and pool.
Aphrodite is settled
in Raffles Marina for a few weeks now with her next adventure likely being a
recce cruise to the Anambas Island group 150 mile E of Singapore which is set to
be her new stomping grounds. I'll probably be back to take the owner on that
trip while Lu is on a break back in Aus, then it'll be back to Myanmar to get El
Oro ready to splash after her major facelift and return her to duty at sea with
the Pacific Ocean, Galapagos, Panama Canal and the Caribbean on the events
calendar for her this year....
SJB