22 August 2010 Sunday
Anchored 1.27.885N 103.16.219E at Pulau Pisang
Distance traveled: 45 NM
First day on western side of Malaysia was great. Not enough wind to sail, so we motored all day. But the sun was shining all day; sky was blue; seas were flat; and the anchorage for our first night out in such a very long time was wonderful. So what if the wind was too light to sail; this day was perfect!
We slipped the dock lines at One Degree 15 Marina at 07:45 and motored the short distance to the Western Immigration Anchorage to clear out with Immigration. The officials promptly arrived at our boat and soon we were free to leave Singapore for the final time and we were on our way at 08:35.
As typical, there were hundreds upon hundreds of cargo ships and tankers in the area. As we continued westward through the Jurong Anchorage, at one point we had to dodge between 5 ships coming at us from every direction. A little exciting but very easily navigated. The anchorage at the end of the Johor Strait between Singapore and Malaysia was full. We motored through between the huge ships at anchor, only having to watch out for occasional speeding tug boats. Then, as we continued westward along the Malaysian coast, we could see the heavy shipping traffic in the Malacca Strait off to our port side. This will continue all the way up to Langkawi. The designated shipping lane is very close in this narrow section of the strait. Heck, we could even see all the way to the Indonesian island of Sumatra on this clear day.
We opted to anchor overnight at the tiny island of Pulau Pisang. This is not an anchorage mentioned in our sailing guide, but we have tracks for 3 other cruising boats who have anchored here. The others anchored on the northwest side of the island, but we decided to anchor on the southeast side because the wind finally started to pick up (to a whopping 10 kts) just as we arrived at the island. The wind was from the NW and we did not want to anchor on a lee shore, so we veered right a mile or two before the island and entered a “deep” channel that leads up near the island. The water depth was 11 meters almost all the way to the island. Then we turned sharply to port over a narrow strip of 3 meter depth before finding another “deep” channel of 8 meters. Since we draw 2.1 meters, we get pretty nervous seeing depths of only 3. Anchoring was a bit unusual because the current was so strong. The current held the boat sideways to the wind.
Bill decided to run the watermaker for the first time since early last October. We had pickled it, of course; and we wanted to run it for a couple of hours before using the finished freshly produced water. It is running now and is producing over 200 liters per hour! It is rated to produce a minimum of 160 liters per hour, and it usually produces 180; but this is the first time we have seen it produce over 200 liters per hour. TDS at 85 ppm. That is better than Evian. It tastes great!
There is a small gentle swell slightly rolling the boat in the current. The fans have cooled the interior to a comfortable temperature. I precooked dinner last night so I just have to heat it up so the galley won’t get too hot. I love it! We will be gently rocked to sleep tonight. I AM SO GLAD TO BE OUT OF MARINAS!!!
23 August 2010 Monday
Anchored 02.06.393N 102.20.554E Pulau Besar (Water Islands at Malacca, a/k/a Melaka)
Distance sailed today: 72 NM
Our first night at anchor required a lot of adjusting to the heat and humidity. That was to be expected since we have spent all our time in this part of the world sleeping in air-conditioning. About 04:00 I moved up to sleep in the cockpit where there was a pleasant cool breeze. By 07:30 we had weighed anchor and were off again. There was no wind until mid-afternoon when it suddenly jumped from 3 knots to 25 knots right on our nose. After half-hour or so it subsided to 12 kts just off the port bow and we were able to motor sail the rest of the day. At 17:45 we arrived at Pulau Besar of the Water Islands, located right at the entrance to Malacca. There is a resort on this island and we were able to connect with their wifi, albeit a VERY slow connection.
Today we passed a continuous stream of floating plastic bags, plastic bottles, beer and soda cans, pieces of lumber, logs and every other imaginable kind of garbage. Most of it harmlessly bounced off our hull, and we altered course to avoid the larger logs and pieces of lumber. What a mess!
The shipping traffic was heavy all day in the shipping lanes to our left, and there were large barges being pulled on very long tow lines by small tugs in the area where we were sailing. Less than half these tugs had AIS transponders. I was glad the day was bright enough to see them clearly. It was very hazy today and we could no longer see Sumatra to the left. In fact, we could not even see Malaysia on our right -- and it was very close by! We saw no other pleasure boats, just cargo ships and barges with tugs.
Then the last 10 miles to the anchorage we dodged small fishing boats and fishing lines strung long distances across our route. The key is to look for a floating flag and then try to find which direction from that flag there might be a series of tiny floats. It is often impossible to see the tiny floats until you are practically on top of them. These fishermen go right up to the boundary of the designated shipping lanes, so there really is no way to avoid them. One must stay constantly vigilant. Excellent reason for not sailing at night because I know these little boats do not have navigational lights. Good thing it is so easy to day hop up this coast.
Marine life is almost gone along this coast. Yesterday the only marine life I saw were large jellyfish. Today I saw 3 fish and 7 birds. No dolphin, but I wouldn't expect there to be any left here since there are almost no fish left in these over-fished waters. I feel sorry for the local fisherman trying to eek out a living from these waters.
There is a ferry service from the resort on Pulau Besar to Malacca. I don't think we will be going. No one who has visited Malacca has told us of any reason why we should want to go there. We will give it a miss.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Saying final goodbye to Singapore
The first blog posting I wrote last night seems to have disappeared, so here is my second attempt.
Aaron reserved an hotel room inside the airport for his final night of vacation. All 5 of us took the MRT (subway) out there, and Bill and I waited inside the airport while Aaron checked into the hotel. We all enjoyed a Hong Kong style dinner and then all 5 of us (with attendant luggage) trudged up to the hotel room, luckily not past the front desk clerks. Some of us rested or slept off and on during the night. Shortly after midnight Bill took Zachary to the Singapore Airlines counter. Unlike in Houston, here in Singapore no family member is allowed to go with the unaccompanied minor to the gate; so Zachary had to say goodbye at the check-in counter for his 02:25 flight. He would arrive in Houston after 23 hours flight time, stopping briefly only in Moscow. Aaron and Elisabeth slept until the 04:40 check-in for their flight. They had a more difficult flight schedule of Singapore to Hong Kong to Chicago to Houston, taking a total of 26 hours flight time. I think the Moscow route is the best way to go -- unless you are flying free on earned points. Oh, how I miss those days of Bill having almost a million plus reward miles on 2 airlines! I miss those free flights!
Bill and I enjoyed a leisurely morning in the nice hotel room with king-sized bed and lovely large bathroom before taking the MRT back into the city to begin major provisioning for the upcoming Indian Ocean and Red Sea passages. We won't begin the Indian Ocean crossing until January, but Singapore is the last place to find western products. Cruiser lore says that good provisioning can be found in Langkawi and Phuket, but we have American cruising friends in Langkawi now who have scouted the local stores for us. Based on their findings (or lack thereof) we know that cruiser lore is yet again wrong. Most of the products we want are not available in Langkawi. As for Phuket shopping, I cannot believe we will find things in the little town of Phuket that were not sold in the big city of Bangkok. Western food items are specialty items in this part of the world. Singapore has a number of stores that stock typical western foods.
After a bit of difficulty we located the Cold Storage supermarket near the Bugis MRT station. There is another Cold Storage location in Vivo City at Harbourfront near our marina, but the Bugis location is a larger store with a better selection. We had chanced upon the larger store when we took a wrong exit from the subway when Lynn was with us in June. Otherwise, we would never have found this store. (When exiting the turnstiles from the Bugis MRT, turn right to the end of the hallway and then turn right again. Then take the first escalator up on the left. At the top of the escalator, turn left again and you will find the larger Cold Storage supermarket.)
We filled our first shopping cart with non-perishable foods; checked out; and arranged for delivery the next afternoon. Cold Storage delivers from any of their locations free of charge if one purchases a minimum of $150. Our first shopping cart was over $700 so we were well over the minimum free delivery limit. Next we filled a second cart with beef and actually identifiable cuts of pork. In Malaysia, when we found non-halal shops, all we could find were cuts of pork block and pork knuckle. Here we found actual center-cut pork chops. Certainly were not passing those up! Even found a couple packages of baby ribs!
Note to future cruisers: you will only find decent Australian beef in Singapore, and then only if you purchase carefully. The Australian beef exported to Malaysia is truly horrible. It is inedible except for the mince (ground beef). The mince is extremely lean and is good. We have learned that there are 4 grades of Australian beef. The top grade is kept for Australians and is not exported. The next best grade is grain-fed. The third grade is pasture-fed. The fourth grade is the inedible tough crap that is exported to Malaysia and Indonesia -- where they have no idea how to butcher it and sell block chunks of meat that are a total waste of money and time. Cold Storage had whole ribeyes and whole tenderloins of both grain-fed and pasture-fed. We opted for very well-trimmed whole ribeyes of grain-fed beef, which I cut into thick steaks and vacuum-sealed individually. Soon our second cart was filled with $400 of beef and pork. We would have bought more but that was all we could carry back on the subway and bus. Two days later I bought another whole ribeye of grain-fed beef at the Cold Storage located in Vivo City near the marina. I also purchased more pork chops at the Giant in Vivo City, but those were not the quality of the chops sold at Cold Storage. BTW, Giant , Cold Storage and 7-Eleven are all owned by the same company. So it makes sense that they share some of the same products. But the higher quality foods are sold only in Cold Storage.
Next step of our provisioning (which should have been done first) was to empty all the food lockers and take a written inventory. This is the only way to plan provisions for 6 to 8 months. I had saved my provisioning notes from Panama, so we have a guide to follow to know the quantities needed of each item. Taking inventory means cleaning out the lockers. This is the time to throw out any cans that are rusting around the edges. I found one can of fruit tucked in the back of one cabinet that was on the verge of exploding. Lucky I didn't wait another day or might have had a huge mess inside that cabinet. We have had only one food can leak once before, and that was a can of peaches. This time it was a can of pears (but not yet leaking, thank goodness). For some reason canned fruit does not seem to last as long as canned vegetables. We rarely eat canned fruit but I try to have a few cans on hand for long passages when fresh is not available. In the future I will make a special point of getting rid of any canned fruit when we complete long passages.
Before the kids left, everyone got to do their final favorite activity for the summer.
And we got the traditional photo of BeBe standing beside the boom of her namesake, S/V BeBe. We have similar photos of her beside the boom on her 6th birthday in Bonaire and her 8th birthday in Cairns, Australia. Now we add this one of her a few days after her 9th birthday in Singapore. Nice way to chart her growth progress through the years. Hopefully she will have her 10th birthday photo beside the boom in Greece.
It has been a very busy 4 days since the kids left. A major job was the provisioning, but there were several other chores. We have had the fire suppression system for the engine room serviced by NOAH. To our great relief we learned that it is not halon anymore; it is now CO2 and it good-to-go for at least another 5 years. Who knows where it will next be serviced. All the fire extinguishers throughout the boat have been either serviced or replaced. A few new flares purchased to replace those expired. NOAH also repaired our leaking dinghy and the patches look like they are holding well. Heck, they even chemically cleaned it. Looks better than it has in several years. We now have a good supply of 2-part hypalon adhesive and a large section of hypalon material for any future dinghy repairs. We plan to nurse this dinghy through a very long life.
The only thing we needed that apparently is not available in all of Singapore is a USCG approved horseshoe buoy that hangs on the life rail. Ours is expired and the yellow vinyl cover is deteriorated by UV damage. We see no point in buying one that will not meet USCG regs when we return to USVI or Puerto Rico. I think the silly thing is a waste of time anyway. If one of us falls overboard at sea, then he or she is toast. Recovering someone at sea is not as simple as it might sound. Why have a false sense of security just because there is a life buoy hanging on the rail. We do also have a life sling, and that is more likely to help effect an at-sea recovery than a simple horseshoe.
Bill kitted up and dove on the hull again. At least the water in this marina is clearer (and cleaner!) than that in Puteri Harbour in Malaysia and the visibility was much better. He wanted to use underwater adhesive to securely attach the rubber cover for the B & G sonic speed sensor that he broke off when he tried to remove a barnacle a few weeks ago. However, as luck would have it, when he removed the rubber cover he dropped it. No way was the water clear enough for him to see a 3/4-inch circle of black rubber on a brown muddy bottom. So we are attempting to source a replacement cover -- either in Phuket to be shipped to the marina in Langkawi or in Florida to be shipped to Houston and we can pick it up during our trip home in November. Maxsea provides us with speed-over-ground data, but it is nice to also have the speed-through-the-water data so we can determine when we are sailing in current streams. Until that black rubber cover is replaced we will not have the speed-through-the-water data.
We also had a seat cushion reupholstered this week. I had gotten a bit too aggressive when cleaning a spot with a brush and had ruined a small section of a seat cushion in the main saloon. Unfortunately, this ruined section was in a most visible area and it really bothered Bill to see it daily. Amel provides a removable cover for the bed in the owner's stateroom, which is never used............well...........because it is a bed. The only time one might want that cover in place is to take a photo of the room. Otherwise, the cover is removed so you can make up the bed and sleep on it. This bed cover is the same upholstery that is in the main saloon, so we had plenty of fabric to recover a seat cushion. The newly recovered cushion was delivered Thursday evening.
Friday evening 2 very nice ladies delivered a few bottles of the new product RejeX. Bill loves Corrosion X and uses it on everything electronic or anything that needs corrosion removed. It is a wonderful product and indispensable on a boat. The same company now makes RejeX and we plan to apply it as a substitute for wax on the hull during our next haul-out in Turkey. Since Corrosion X is such a great product, we are hoping that they have gotten the chemicals right on this new RejeX product. So nice of the ladies to go out of their way and deliver it personally to the marina.
Friday afternoon we asked the marina office to estimate our electricity through early Sunday morning and we paid the tab for the past 12 days. Today we were cleared out with Customs for 07:00 departure tomorrow morning. The plan is to depart Singapore at first light tomorrow morning and begin working our way up the Malacca Strait. The advice we have received from several friends who have already made this trip this year is to NOT sail at night because of all the fishing stakes and fishing nets and unlit small fishing boats outside the designated shipping channel. Pleasure yachts are not supposed to sail inside a designated shipping channel. And there is all the fishing junk to avoid outside the shipping channel. So it is strongly advised to navigate through this area during daylight. We hope to find places to stop nightly as we head the 450 miles up to Langkawi, with longer slightly longer stays in Port Dickson and Penang.
Singapore has been one of the stars of SE Asia to us. We like this city very much and will miss it. We will be posting updates via radio email as we progress up the western coast of Malaysia. Won't have internet access again for awhile, but email always works to contact us. Just be patient waiting for a response.
Aaron reserved an hotel room inside the airport for his final night of vacation. All 5 of us took the MRT (subway) out there, and Bill and I waited inside the airport while Aaron checked into the hotel. We all enjoyed a Hong Kong style dinner and then all 5 of us (with attendant luggage) trudged up to the hotel room, luckily not past the front desk clerks. Some of us rested or slept off and on during the night. Shortly after midnight Bill took Zachary to the Singapore Airlines counter. Unlike in Houston, here in Singapore no family member is allowed to go with the unaccompanied minor to the gate; so Zachary had to say goodbye at the check-in counter for his 02:25 flight. He would arrive in Houston after 23 hours flight time, stopping briefly only in Moscow. Aaron and Elisabeth slept until the 04:40 check-in for their flight. They had a more difficult flight schedule of Singapore to Hong Kong to Chicago to Houston, taking a total of 26 hours flight time. I think the Moscow route is the best way to go -- unless you are flying free on earned points. Oh, how I miss those days of Bill having almost a million plus reward miles on 2 airlines! I miss those free flights!
Bill and I enjoyed a leisurely morning in the nice hotel room with king-sized bed and lovely large bathroom before taking the MRT back into the city to begin major provisioning for the upcoming Indian Ocean and Red Sea passages. We won't begin the Indian Ocean crossing until January, but Singapore is the last place to find western products. Cruiser lore says that good provisioning can be found in Langkawi and Phuket, but we have American cruising friends in Langkawi now who have scouted the local stores for us. Based on their findings (or lack thereof) we know that cruiser lore is yet again wrong. Most of the products we want are not available in Langkawi. As for Phuket shopping, I cannot believe we will find things in the little town of Phuket that were not sold in the big city of Bangkok. Western food items are specialty items in this part of the world. Singapore has a number of stores that stock typical western foods.
After a bit of difficulty we located the Cold Storage supermarket near the Bugis MRT station. There is another Cold Storage location in Vivo City at Harbourfront near our marina, but the Bugis location is a larger store with a better selection. We had chanced upon the larger store when we took a wrong exit from the subway when Lynn was with us in June. Otherwise, we would never have found this store. (When exiting the turnstiles from the Bugis MRT, turn right to the end of the hallway and then turn right again. Then take the first escalator up on the left. At the top of the escalator, turn left again and you will find the larger Cold Storage supermarket.)
Before the kids left, everyone got to do their final favorite activity for the summer.
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| Aaron enjoying his last Tiger beer |
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| BeBe finally got yellow cheese |
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| Zachary lazing on his last day |
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| BeBe aboard S/V BeBe on 9th birthday in Singapore |
The only thing we needed that apparently is not available in all of Singapore is a USCG approved horseshoe buoy that hangs on the life rail. Ours is expired and the yellow vinyl cover is deteriorated by UV damage. We see no point in buying one that will not meet USCG regs when we return to USVI or Puerto Rico. I think the silly thing is a waste of time anyway. If one of us falls overboard at sea, then he or she is toast. Recovering someone at sea is not as simple as it might sound. Why have a false sense of security just because there is a life buoy hanging on the rail. We do also have a life sling, and that is more likely to help effect an at-sea recovery than a simple horseshoe.
Bill kitted up and dove on the hull again. At least the water in this marina is clearer (and cleaner!) than that in Puteri Harbour in Malaysia and the visibility was much better. He wanted to use underwater adhesive to securely attach the rubber cover for the B & G sonic speed sensor that he broke off when he tried to remove a barnacle a few weeks ago. However, as luck would have it, when he removed the rubber cover he dropped it. No way was the water clear enough for him to see a 3/4-inch circle of black rubber on a brown muddy bottom. So we are attempting to source a replacement cover -- either in Phuket to be shipped to the marina in Langkawi or in Florida to be shipped to Houston and we can pick it up during our trip home in November. Maxsea provides us with speed-over-ground data, but it is nice to also have the speed-through-the-water data so we can determine when we are sailing in current streams. Until that black rubber cover is replaced we will not have the speed-through-the-water data.
We also had a seat cushion reupholstered this week. I had gotten a bit too aggressive when cleaning a spot with a brush and had ruined a small section of a seat cushion in the main saloon. Unfortunately, this ruined section was in a most visible area and it really bothered Bill to see it daily. Amel provides a removable cover for the bed in the owner's stateroom, which is never used............well...........because it is a bed. The only time one might want that cover in place is to take a photo of the room. Otherwise, the cover is removed so you can make up the bed and sleep on it. This bed cover is the same upholstery that is in the main saloon, so we had plenty of fabric to recover a seat cushion. The newly recovered cushion was delivered Thursday evening.
Friday evening 2 very nice ladies delivered a few bottles of the new product RejeX. Bill loves Corrosion X and uses it on everything electronic or anything that needs corrosion removed. It is a wonderful product and indispensable on a boat. The same company now makes RejeX and we plan to apply it as a substitute for wax on the hull during our next haul-out in Turkey. Since Corrosion X is such a great product, we are hoping that they have gotten the chemicals right on this new RejeX product. So nice of the ladies to go out of their way and deliver it personally to the marina.
Friday afternoon we asked the marina office to estimate our electricity through early Sunday morning and we paid the tab for the past 12 days. Today we were cleared out with Customs for 07:00 departure tomorrow morning. The plan is to depart Singapore at first light tomorrow morning and begin working our way up the Malacca Strait. The advice we have received from several friends who have already made this trip this year is to NOT sail at night because of all the fishing stakes and fishing nets and unlit small fishing boats outside the designated shipping channel. Pleasure yachts are not supposed to sail inside a designated shipping channel. And there is all the fishing junk to avoid outside the shipping channel. So it is strongly advised to navigate through this area during daylight. We hope to find places to stop nightly as we head the 450 miles up to Langkawi, with longer slightly longer stays in Port Dickson and Penang.
Singapore has been one of the stars of SE Asia to us. We like this city very much and will miss it. We will be posting updates via radio email as we progress up the western coast of Malaysia. Won't have internet access again for awhile, but email always works to contact us. Just be patient waiting for a response.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Snow City birthday. And Pink Dolphins!
Another birthday for our granddaughter aboard the boat named after her. Elisabeth, a/k/a BeBe, celebrated her 9th birthday aboard S/V BeBe on August 12, 2010. She is beginning to think this should be an annual event. She celebrated her 6th birthday with us in Bonaire; she celebrated her 8th birthday with us in Cairns, Australia; and now her 9th with us in Singapore. And she has all intentions of celebrating her 10th birthday with us next summer in Greece. I baked a chocolate cake with plain white frosting (as per her request). I don't have food coloring so I tinted the frosting with grape jelly to write "Happy 9th Birthday Elisabeth" on it in a very girlie pink.
We went to Snow City to celebrate -- again, as per her request. Bill refused to go back into that cold; so it was just Elisabeth, Zachary, Aaron and me freezing in the19F temperature. We paid for 1 hour and managed to stay inside there almost the full allotted time. Aaron and I made a deal with the kids -- we would slide down the hill only one time and then we were leaving. BeBe and Zach trudged up the hill and slid down many times, but Aaron and I stuck to our guns and we did it only once and then high-tailed it out of there. Our noses were freezing!!! The parkas provided by Snow City were quite warm; and I rented heavy gloves for the kids so they could throw the snow; but our noses were freezing. You slide down the hill on packed snow while sitting/laying atop a small inner tube. The tubes work great except that your butt is dragging in the icy snow at least half-way down that 100-ft hill. It was cold!! The heat and humidity of outdoor Singapore felt wonderful after being in that cold chamber for an hour.
I spent almost all day Friday doing laundry. During the afternoon Bill and Aaron took the kids to the swimming pool for several hours. The pool at this marina is very nice. It is especially nice because it is shaded by adjacent tall buildings during the afternoon. A great place to spend a hot afternoon.
Saturday we took the local small shuttle bus to the Beach Station; then the Blue Line bus to Siloso Point. One Degree 15 Marina is located on Sentosa Island of Singapore, and there are tons of tourist attractions and things to do on Sentosa Island. The marina is situated on the eastern tip of the island. On the western tip of the island is Fort Siloso, which dates back to the 1800s and played an important part during WWII with the Japanese occupation of Singapore. Aaron wanted to see the fort. However, when we stepped off the bus it was lunch time and also was beginning to rain. So we switched plans and went into Underwater World, which was located right at the entrance to the path to the fort. Seemed a much better idea to stay inside rather than walk around a fort in the rain.
There was a hologram of a great white shark that appeared to project out from the wall. However, the programmer or installer did not take into account the height of children's eye level. The kids could not see this hologram at all. Nothing showed up. We adults could see it just fine. Bill went into a corner and snapped a couple of photos so that the kids could see that there really was a hologram of a shark just above their heads. 
Saturday evening Bill and I met fellow Amel owners at their home for a delicious chili dinner. Mike and Peta recently purchased an Amel Super Maramu 2000, a little newer than ours and located on the southern coast of France in the Med. Peta's British version of chili was very different from traditional Texas chili, but was a welcome treat to these 2 Texans. We are hoping to meet up with Mike and Peta somewhere in the Med either summer 2011 or 2012.
Sunday we hoped to try again to visit Fort Siloso but were rained out. Instead we went to Vivo City food court for lunch and did a bit of shopping in the Giant supermarket. The afternoon turned bright and sunny, and Bill decided to service our winches. We wanted this routine service maintenance performed before setting off across the Indian Ocean in a few months. He managed to finish 3 of the cockpit winches before sunset and will work on the others over the next few days.
Monday, August 9, 2010
The end of our long stay at Puteri Harbour Marina
Our younger son, Aaron, arrived last week to fly back to the States with his daughter on August 17. I am afraid he has endured a boring time during his short stay with us in Malaysia, as we have done nothing other than the typical marina things -- walks, bike riding and pedal boats. I suggested renting a car and driving to Malacca or somewhere else, but none of us were keen on that idea. Aaron stays very busy in his normal work life at home, so maybe a few days of kicking back and lazing around the boat was just what he needed for the beginning of his vacation. Plus adjusting to jumping ahead 13 time zones takes its toll on anyone's energy level. Most of our time the past 5 days has been spent couped up inside the boat sucking up the air-conditioning either because it was raining or it was too danged hot to tolerate being outdoors.
Late this afternoon one of the guys on the marina staff took us to the PTP (port?) terminal and assisted in clearing us out of Malaysia. It is very nice of the marina to provide transportation to the distant port facilities and to provide staff to handle all the paperwork. They handled our clearance both into and out of Malaysia for a total cost of 50 ringitt ($15.85). No place else we have visited provides services and transportation like this for such a low fee. In about 2 years the authorities will have a clearance office situated at the marina. That will be very convenient for cruisers berthing at Puteri Harbour Marina. There also will be a fast ferry to Singapore. Lots of improvements are planned for this nice marina.
Yesterday Bill kitted up and dove under the boat to clean away any marine growth that had accumulated in the past 2 months since we moved back into this slip after our short trip to Singapore to pick up the grandkids. I think the last time Bill donned a scuba tank was in the Caribbean more than 2 1/2 years ago -- and possibly even 3 years ago. Everyone else we know enjoyed beautiful diving spots throughout the South Pacific, but I do not like diving so Bill did not have a diving buddy and he missed out. Yesterday he was breathing very hard and managed to suck up a full tank of air while cleaning the boat bottom. He found about 8 barnacles on the entire hull -- pretty darn good for bottom paint applied in New Zealand 17 months ago! Micron 66 is a very good anti-foul paint. During that same haul-out, we had Prop Speed applied to protect the prop and it did not hold up nearly so well. It worked beautifully for the first year, but at the end of that year it the effectiveness stopped completely. Yesterday Bill found the prop was covered in marine growth about 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick on both sides of each blade..
Bill surfaced shortly after going down and said "that prop does have 3 blades, doesn't it? I can only find 2 blades." Well, that sounded like very bad news!! But the water was so murky that he simply could not see much of anything down there. He had to clean the prop by feel rather than by sight. After chipping away the growth on the first identifiable 2 blades he was able to find the third blade. Whew! We carry a spare prop, but changing the prop out in this murky water was not something either of us wanted to think about having to do.
Next he moved to the front of the boat to check our speed sensors. The speed sensors on our Amel are not the usual paddle-wheel type. Amel installs B & G Sonic Speed sensors. Basically, one sensor is on the front side of the keel and another sensor is mounted on the front area of the bottom of the hull, facing backward. The 2 sensors face one another and somehow determine the speed the boat is traveling through the water. When we took the boat over to Singapore a couple of months ago, the speed sensors were not working. When we apply anti-foul paint, we are very careful to tape off these 2 sensors. They are the only spots on the hull beneath the waterline that are not painted, so we figured 1 or both sensors had a barnacle growing on top. Sure enough, the forward sensor (rear facing) had a good-sized barnacle growing on it. Bill grabbed it and pulled it off. Luckily, he surfaced to show me the barnacle. He obviously does not wear his eyeglasses while diving. He has corrective lenses inserted in his diving mask, but he really cannot see well underwater with those.
I looked at the barnacle and could see there was something rubbery and black on the bottom side. I scratched off the barnacle growth and found a rubbery circle about the size of the nail bed on an adult's finger and 1/2-inch thick. It had a small indention all around the bottom of the circle. Very obviously this rubbery piece was a part of the sonic speed sensor. I returned the cleaned-up piece to Bill and he dove again and replaced it. I pulled out a hammer and he tapped into place as tightly as he could -- considering that he could not see much of anything in the nasty water. We emailed Amel and learned that this piece is a protective cover for the actual sensor and that without this cover that the water turbulence might cause incorrect speed readings. But at least we don't need to worry about water leaking into the boat if the cover is lost.
Tomorrow morning we will slip the dock lines and head over to 1° 15 Marina on Sentosa Island in Singapore. We hope the rubbery piece is still in place when we arrive at that marina. The water there is very clean and clear and Bill should be able to see much clearer to make sure it is properly inserted to cover the sensor. Waterproof epoxy should do the trick.
As much as we have enjoyed staying at Puteri Harbour Marina for the past 9 1/2 months and traveling almost all of SE Asia, I cannot express how delighted I am to be moving again -- even if it is only 30 miles to another marina in Singapore.
Late this afternoon one of the guys on the marina staff took us to the PTP (port?) terminal and assisted in clearing us out of Malaysia. It is very nice of the marina to provide transportation to the distant port facilities and to provide staff to handle all the paperwork. They handled our clearance both into and out of Malaysia for a total cost of 50 ringitt ($15.85). No place else we have visited provides services and transportation like this for such a low fee. In about 2 years the authorities will have a clearance office situated at the marina. That will be very convenient for cruisers berthing at Puteri Harbour Marina. There also will be a fast ferry to Singapore. Lots of improvements are planned for this nice marina.
Yesterday Bill kitted up and dove under the boat to clean away any marine growth that had accumulated in the past 2 months since we moved back into this slip after our short trip to Singapore to pick up the grandkids. I think the last time Bill donned a scuba tank was in the Caribbean more than 2 1/2 years ago -- and possibly even 3 years ago. Everyone else we know enjoyed beautiful diving spots throughout the South Pacific, but I do not like diving so Bill did not have a diving buddy and he missed out. Yesterday he was breathing very hard and managed to suck up a full tank of air while cleaning the boat bottom. He found about 8 barnacles on the entire hull -- pretty darn good for bottom paint applied in New Zealand 17 months ago! Micron 66 is a very good anti-foul paint. During that same haul-out, we had Prop Speed applied to protect the prop and it did not hold up nearly so well. It worked beautifully for the first year, but at the end of that year it the effectiveness stopped completely. Yesterday Bill found the prop was covered in marine growth about 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick on both sides of each blade..
Bill surfaced shortly after going down and said "that prop does have 3 blades, doesn't it? I can only find 2 blades." Well, that sounded like very bad news!! But the water was so murky that he simply could not see much of anything down there. He had to clean the prop by feel rather than by sight. After chipping away the growth on the first identifiable 2 blades he was able to find the third blade. Whew! We carry a spare prop, but changing the prop out in this murky water was not something either of us wanted to think about having to do.
Next he moved to the front of the boat to check our speed sensors. The speed sensors on our Amel are not the usual paddle-wheel type. Amel installs B & G Sonic Speed sensors. Basically, one sensor is on the front side of the keel and another sensor is mounted on the front area of the bottom of the hull, facing backward. The 2 sensors face one another and somehow determine the speed the boat is traveling through the water. When we took the boat over to Singapore a couple of months ago, the speed sensors were not working. When we apply anti-foul paint, we are very careful to tape off these 2 sensors. They are the only spots on the hull beneath the waterline that are not painted, so we figured 1 or both sensors had a barnacle growing on top. Sure enough, the forward sensor (rear facing) had a good-sized barnacle growing on it. Bill grabbed it and pulled it off. Luckily, he surfaced to show me the barnacle. He obviously does not wear his eyeglasses while diving. He has corrective lenses inserted in his diving mask, but he really cannot see well underwater with those.
Tomorrow morning we will slip the dock lines and head over to 1° 15 Marina on Sentosa Island in Singapore. We hope the rubbery piece is still in place when we arrive at that marina. The water there is very clean and clear and Bill should be able to see much clearer to make sure it is properly inserted to cover the sensor. Waterproof epoxy should do the trick.
As much as we have enjoyed staying at Puteri Harbour Marina for the past 9 1/2 months and traveling almost all of SE Asia, I cannot express how delighted I am to be moving again -- even if it is only 30 miles to another marina in Singapore.
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