Fai Tira blog Thursday 2nd December 2010 in Penang 05:24.85N 100:20.62E

My last night in Singapore was spent in the company of the Moonshadow crew:  Peter, David and Mike.  We headed up to the top of the tower block with the boat on top.

The views of Singapore were spectacular.  They even have their own Singapore “eye”

Here we are before we headed to the roof top bar for a pint of Stella.  It was even more expensive than it is in the DA (Dartmouth Arms) back home.

We then headed down to Boat Quay and had a fabulous time negotiating for Chili Crab and free beer. We had a great night. 

John went into the city touring art galleries and ended up in “Little India” His commentary is below.

I arrived in Little India at dusk, and watched its transition into a buzzing hive of activity as darkness fell.

The Singapore Art Museum is the home of contemporary creation in the city, and houses a stunning variety of works contained within in a beautiful colonial building, both permanent and visiting. The  paintings and sculptures of artist Cheong Soo Pieng were particularly prolific and beautiful. What a jewel, I felt so privileged to have visited.

The brand new berths at Keppel Bay Marina, the best one we have stayed at yet.  It was clean and tidy and the staff couldn’t have been more helpful. We even got complementary  papers and cake delivered to the boat each morning.  It was here that John and myself were chosen to be interviewed for the Singapore national newspaper the Singapore Straits Times.  We haven’t yet seen the article but apparently they liked the quote "..they pooled their resources so that they could party around the world and leave their wives behind for two years". I think it must have been John who jokingly said this.

The next morning we reluctantly slipped our moorings and headed with the majority of the fleet to the customs and immigration rendezvous  point. Above is Aspen negotiating her way past the numerous anchored ships.  En route I was navigating and helming and got a bit confused about our position as we headed to where the others were congregating.  Unfortunately there was a reef in the way and to my embarrassment we hit it and were grounded.  We called for help but I managed to get Fai Tira off on our own, only to hit the same reef again.  I managed to salvage that situation as well.  We joined the other boats with me eating humble pie and passed the paperwork over to the officials in a fishing net.  All stamped we were ready to weave our way through one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world on our way to the town of Malacca via the notorious Malacca Strait.

Moonshadow got something around their prop so we were stood off whilst David from Las Vegas, posed for a photo (breathing in) before diving to extract a plastic bag from its blades.

Aspen ducks behind a massive tanker.  The waters around Singapore are besieged with literally hundreds of ships at anchor. Apparently most of them are waiting for their next load.  Our chart plotters kept crashing as they couldn’t cope with the large amount of AIS targets.

We headed north just inside the main shipping channel, trying to avoid the numerous fishing boats and nets as night set in.  The biggest navigational problem we all have encountered are the tugs towing huge unlit barges.  The tow lines on these can be as much as half a mile long.  The tugs with their three white lights on the mast head shine their spot lights at you if you get too close.  This kills your night vision and makes it even harder to spot the blacked-out hulk - sometimes the size of a soccer field - that is their cargo in tow.  A number of the rally boats have nearly hit one of these barges. 

Early the next morning we arrived at Malacca without an up-to-date pilot.  We knew there was a new marina but we didn’t know where it was or how to get into it.  We spotted some masts and headed for them. We had been warned by Tony of BWR that the entrance was silting up, and with us approaching at low water we watched our depth gauge drop until:  yes, you guessed it, we hit the bottom.  We decided to wait until the tide rose and with a bit of coaxing we got into the marina at about 08.40, to be greeted by Paco and Nina from Nautibuoytoo.  They have a sixty foot cat but no problem with depth coming in.

Malacca is one of the oldest colonial towns in Malaysia.  The Dutch settled here first only to be turfed out by the English.  The town is lovely and we explored the back streets looking for an ATM that worked.  It was Sunday and they have a massive night market in the old part of town, so after a beer we headed there and met up with Lucy Alice and Nautibuoytoo.

John managed to get a free caricature drawing of himself.  I bought some new shoes and a back scratcher.  Jeremy bought some snapcaps, nanchuku and a leather belt. The place bustled, with everything being so relatively cheap.

There was even Karaoke.

The next morning Ian and myself spent three hours booking into Malaysia.  The people were helpful and friendly but needed so many forms filled in.  A throwback to when the English administered here perhaps.  After we had finished the heavens opened, so we retreated to a nearby bar for lunch.

Ian outside the remains of the Dutch castle and a replica of the first Dutch ship to arrive.  It houses a museum.

We had a great night with Ian, Glenda and Phyllis.  This taken just before our meal arrived.  The next morning we set off for Penang.

Pete. John and Jeremy