Just Cruizin On Bluemoon

Log 80

Wow! Cannot believe how time has flown by since my last update!Were supposed to set sail on the 22nd, but with the weather throwingout huge sqalls we decided to stay another day and just chill, swimand relax. This place truly is what we call a luxurious safe haven!LOL

We left Port Dickson before 8am to face a lovely, slightlyovercast, misty day... and what a great day of motor sailing it was! The winds were very light but with the sail and the motor on wegained an extra 2 knots. We were all surprised to see the sky lookingas if it was heavily polluted... and were not sure if it wasjust a storm brewing... yet that did not stop Justine from baking herwinner "Banana Cake"  which we all thoroughlyenjoyed!!

We anchored 8 miles off of Melacca at the water islands. It wasquite fun for us seeing Melacca from a different view, spotting theBig eye, and, and, and....

Just past the crack of dawn we headed out into a very hot andhumid day... all enjoying the sail, with alittle more wind... thoughvery calm... surprised to see how flat and uninteresting the coastalline actually was!

A little excitement for the day when a tug boat pulling ahumongous barge started to hoot at us signalling he was turning toport and we were just a little in front of him...  so wereunsure of what he wanted...

We tried waving but did not want to change course due to it beingtoo shallow around then the Captain called us up on channel 16 to which he greeted all of us - they were checking us out with thebinoculars .... then had a long chat about where we were from, wherewe were going and so forth... really quite nice...

He turned to Port and we stayed on course along with Plain Sailingbehind us.  We anchored at Pulau Pisang (Banana Island) at fourthirty after sailing a 75 miler skirting the area for a good spot asthere were lots of rocks around!! Ate an early supper, showered thenhad an early night. We were all exhausted!! And really suntanned!

It was anchors away early the next morning, heading for Danga Bay,Johor Bahru... our destination... We had not seen any boats from therally so were expecting to see them all when we arrived..

After a few hours sailing we headed into the shipping lane whichleft our mouths wide open!! We had never seen so many ships at onetime!! Wow!!  01 deg 16. 07 N  103 deg 33.47 E on Googlemight give you an idea... We were headed for the bridge which has aheight of 25M so of course we were all trying to work out if we wouldmake it LOL! We are around 19M so would easily get through, thoughyou still wonder.... hehehe There is one boat which we know of, amono, that can only go through at low tide or WILL get stuck!!Theirmast makes it by a hairs breathe and they have to be dead centre ofthe bridge!

We also sailed by Indonesia (at a distance of course) but alsoreally quite close!!! We dodged a few huge ships going into port....feeling very VERY small next to some of them hehehe

We were using the video camera trying to capture the memory as Ihad dropped our second camera and the on button was broken, the watercamera's battery was dead so.... video it was.... we had Malaysia onone side and Singapore on the other... the two countries are RIGHTNEXT to each other!! Suprisingly close! About 200 meters plus orminus.... We went under the bridge easily which was quite an excitingthing and especially because of the current that was rippingthrough!!!! 

We had Plain Sailing right behind us with us constantly checkingthe depth sounder ... Plain sailing did not have a depth sounder...and some parts were really shallow and the alarm would go off... yetthe incredible and funny thing was two Singapore customs guys inspeed boats would speed up to certain part then stop in the middle ofthe channel showing us which side to stay on!!

If we deviated onto the Singapore side they would come speeding atus to warn us LOL!! Then the fun begain while I was at the helm! Thecurrent was really ripping through and I was on course having a greatcuppa, next minute I hear the star board motor drop revs and just dieon us! So I switched her off then tried to get back on course whichbelieve me was truly quite a mission!!! When John and Jono flew downto the starboard side to check out the problem, they both saw thatour alternator belt had popped off!! So immediately started to sortthe problem out … Talk about great timing!!

If you could have seen our chart route.... you would genuinely seethe track zigzagged all the way up the channel! It was truly toughkeeping her on course!! John and Jono were sweating their buts offtrying to get the star board motor going while I was doing my best toplay dodgem cars!!!! And that is not even a joke!! Those Singaporeofficials must have thought I was teasing them coming close to theirside heheheh They kept a close eye on us!! Keeping in mind that theyhave an electric fence going all the way up the channel on theirside, with lookouts at every few metres from the other.... so even ifyou wanted to sneak in I think it would be impossible!!!

That alarm went off consistently... which was quite stressful withjust one motor and such a strong current and the chart seemed to lookout to me!!!!  I am convinced it is out in this area!!! I am notsure what those customs people thought when I headed toward Singaporethen back to Malaysia just to keep her on course a good few hundredtimes!!  Never mind other traffic coming and going!! LOL

Justine was my co-pilot  and was doing a great job giving meco-ordinates and markings which helped us up the channel... John,with the help of Jono managed to get the starboard motor workingwhich was such a relief and make the helming way easier almostinstantly the motor was back in use!!!!  Everyone relaxed whileJess made another great cuppa to calm the nerves LOL

As we suspected, a lot of yachts from the rally were all anchoredout or moored up at Danga Bay! Which was rather exciting having sucha full marina.

With a warm welcome we had Ron and two other guys help to moor uson to the dock which went very smoothly and were so thrilled aboutmooring up with the wind howling and getting stronger...  so attwo thirty on the 25th of May we moored up safely in Danga Bay...with a picturesque view of land behind us giving us the feeling thatwe were anchored out ... and where they party all night, every nighttill 2am... we are just loving it!!

The following day I caught a cab with Laurence and Babs to PelangiPlaza to do some shopping and I laughed all the way there recognisingthe many roads we took!!! It was the same roads we got so horriblylost on when on our road trip just a few weeks earlier to Johor!! 

You can imagine my surprise seeing many South African products!!!Mrs Balls, Bovril!! Tennis biscuits and just so much more - at areally huge price!! I could not believe it when I saw red meatpackaged the way I remember!!! Boy was I in my element!!  Nevermind the price... I bought surprises for the whole family and blewthe budget big time, but with such a happy family at the surprises,we adjusted the budget somewhat LOL

A week later, the girls and I headed back to Pelangi Plaza andwaved a taxi down... only problem was he could not understand myaccent and so did not know where we wanted to go!!! After fiveminutes having him run through every shopping mall there was in Johorwe got the name of the mall we wanted to go in his language! And Iwas on the clock for those five minutes!!!!  

John and I decided to go to Singapore agin to pick up some of ourspares that we had ordered and were sure had arrived and so were upearly, caught a bus to city square, then a bus to customs, anotherbus to Singapore customs, then another to the MRT in Singapore,bought our tickets for the MRT to the area we were going... WoW! Thehospitals here are really big, clean and so organised!!! Then it wasoff to Little India, and around, then Little China and a few otherplaces walking quite far to find the shops we needed to go ....Thanks to Bebert for showing us the ropes into Singapore when we wereon our road trip, which has made the process of going to Singaporeand getting around just so much easier!!! We arrived home after ninepm happy with our day.

Also had a really wonderful day going to lunch with wonderfulpeople for Laurence's birthday! Laughed so much and definitely had alittle too much red wine! Had a T-Bone steak for the first time intwo years??? Wow!! Made sure I enjoyed every mouthful!! Laurencequietly told me they don't eat the bone!!!! hehehehe well.... weheaded back to the marina after the five of us shopped the centreout!  Then it was straight off to the braai/barbaque where thewhole marina had been invited... We all brought salads and our owndrinks - Bebert bought chicken for every one.... John had smoked awhole chicken which was absolutely wonderful!! He got a smoker fromBebert as Laurence does not like smoked food so John was a VERY HAPPYman!!! And every night John wants to smoke everything we eat!!!hehehehe

We have been here now for four weeks and boy has one day blendedinto the next so quickly!!

Have finely done our lights!!! LEDS which are brilliant and suchpower savers!! With all the rain and storms we have been having doesnot help our power!! We have not had a galley light for a few weeksnow, so again, we are like little kids having lights for the firsttime!!!! Such a normal thing you would think, till you didn't have itfor awhile... You see, what happened was, we bought plugs inMalaysia, that looked the same as ours - only difference was thereconnectors were shorter than ours and so caused the casing to meltand burn the plugs!! Also the on off swith button... So ... till wefigured out the problem, we had gone through all the plugs having tochange them all!!! The actual switch melted from the heat.... so...all the plugs have been changed, wiring done correctly and lights onagain!! 

Every day, regardless of the weather, you have up to five brideshaving their pictures taken on our little beach behind us!!! Theycome from Singapore to get married in Malaysia because it is so muchcheaper!! And wow... some of the brides are truly stunning!!!!!

Have caught the bus to do some shopping at a few places now andare enjoying Johor though we miss our friends in Langkawi!!!!!

Kids are working hard with their extra credits, and getting aroundthemselves with the bus...

Jono has made quite a few friends while skating, one guy is fromthe Marina, (USA) also sailing and so went to Singapore on his own ashe registered with the other skaters for the GO SKATING competitionin Singapore!

It is really quite funny actually, but you will see all over theplace in Singapore, NO skating signs everywhere!! And the localswould change the N to a G so it read go skating.... then Vans one ofthe advitisers set up a go skating day every year for the skaters sothey arrange a few buses for all the registered skaters and get takento skate shop to skate shop, skate park to skate park doingcompetitions and just skating... they also get a gift package as wellas a whole PIZZA for lunch. He loved the experience so much!!! Metso many other people and also many foreigners who come from all overthe world for the GO skate day! He arrived home after 11pm very tiredand very sore! hehehe

John went with Bebert to a few electrical shops to get the rest ofthe goods we need, so am excited for him to get back...

In the meanwhile we are still waiting for our passports toarrive... then will plan our next leg of our journey and who knowswhere that could take us... LOL

We think about you all often and hope to hear from you all soon x

P/S: Will be sorting out my photos real soon, so will be takingoff alot of them to put on new ones, and that can take me quite awhile!! Also busy capturing our video tapes as we speak from overfive to six years ago!!! So....

Remember... you have one life to live... so live it to the fullestand always count your blessings x

Love John Jenny Justine Jessica and Jonathan x