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!
