All well with us after an interesting run from Nongsa Point in Indonesia. The marina did our clear out procedure from Indonesia with their usual efficency. I handed our passports and customs and immigration documents to them on Sunday morning and got them back duly stamped that afternoon for a fee of about $30.
We were told that there was no problem leaving the following morning which we did at about 0600H along with Ambika, Roxy, Ever After, Blue Heeler, Infini and Albertina who was towing Comedie who has a transmission problem.
We had a favorable tide to begin with and crossed the main Singapore shipping channel south of Raffles Lighthouse. About half way through the shipping channel we had a sudden loss of engine power, the chartplotter screen in the cockpit went dead and I lost my AIS receiver. We had to sail across the straight using an Ipad and the old Mark 1 eyeball. The wretched Volvo D3 has been showing a fault since Bali and will only run at low RPM due to a problem with an air pressure sensor. Fortunately, we did have enough engine power to proceed but the tide turned at about 1100H and it was slow going after that, dodging the busy ship traffic in this part of the world without the benefit of AIS.
Once west of Singapore, we turned north in the channel between Malaysia and Singapore where we met the usual hazard of fish traps dotted about the channel. Tide was still against us with no useful breeze and we plodded on at about 4.5 kts toward Puteri harbour. The final drama was the bridge between Malaysia and Singapore. The height of the bridge was advertised as being 25 metres at high tide and I know that Callisto's air draft is 22 metres but as we approached the bridge and eyeballing the height of the mast it certainly seemed like we could not get under. Rationality won over and we went slowly under the bridge without problem.
Entry into Puteri was very easy and the marina is only about 2 years old with friendly staff and is very clean. The restaurant and bar are alcohol free and the bacon is made of turkey. They would seem to take Islam rather more seriously in Malaysia than they did in Indonesia. The marina is also miles from anywhere but that suits us, as all we need is a safe place to leave Callisto for the next 3 months.
Oddly enough, once I shut down all the boat's electronics and started them up again all the screens and AIS worked again. This does not inspire much confidence!
The next few days will be spent on cleaning and maintenence chores and it's off to London on Saturday.
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