Category Archives: Passage

Time spent between destinations travelling on the water.

Passage from Port Dickson to Langkawi, Malaysia

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Yesterday we left a little after noon. Sea conditions were phenomenal, with winds ranging from 0 to 5 knots with flat seas, and conditions have pretty much stayed the same as of this writing at 2300 (11:00 pm). Speeds have also been good, averaging 6 ½ knots at 1600 RPM. Christi wasn’t feeling super good yesterday morning, and as the day wore on, she could no longer deny that she had picked up Eric’s cold. Christi is very thankful for the smooth seas, because she is feeling miserable and doesn’t think she could take a miserable ride while feeling miserable.

We went back out to the shipping lane and hugged the edge of it, as we had done on our way in. The farther north we got, the more the lane narrowed. There is a shallow shoal with a sunken ship on it near Port Klang, which further narrows the lane. Eric decided that it was probably better to leave the shipping lane near that area to avoid a congestion of big ships near the shoal. It was already dark. There was no moon out, and like most nights, it was mostly cloudy with few stars peeking through the clouds.

Only a few minutes outside the lane, something that looked like a wall suddenly appeared Continue reading →

Scary Singapore Shipping

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For the timing of our entry to Singapore to work out ideally, we needed to cross the main shipping lane at sunrise. It was going to take all day to get to Singapore Harbor, and we wanted to enter the harbor in the day.

Sea conditions had improved slightly by dawn, but conditions were still really miserable. Thanks to slow speeds from adverse wind and currents, we were still miles and miles from the shipping lane. Singapore is a small island just south of the coast of Malaysia. The continental land mass blocks a lot of the wind, so as we got closer and closer to our destination, the waves gradually got smaller, which we were grateful for.

The shipping lane keep traffic separated as it funnels into the port. We could see ships in the lanes ahead hours before we actually reached them. From the distance, it looked like a road on the water, with a consistent flow of huge ships going back and forth in an orderly fashion. The ships were Continue reading →

Days 2-3 from Karimata, Days 11-12 to Singapore

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Today we hit another huge milestone. We crossed the equator at 11:46 am and are now back in the northern hemisphere. Last time we crossed the equator we skipped the silly ceremonies and celebrated with champagne. This time there was no celebration at all. It was just too rough and we weren’t feeling festive. We simply counted down and then went back to what we were doing once the big moment had passed. Some shellbacks we are.

Sea conditions are Continue reading →

Bali to Singapore Days 3-4

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Continued from yesterday”¦ We neared a couple low, flat islands at 1700 (5:00 pm) on Wednesday. We changed course to get closer to them so we could be in more protected waters. Unfortunately, they were not a suitable place to stop, but at least in the lee of the island it was a little bit calmer. Christi’s nausea instantly went away and she ate a big meal. Eric felt less nauseous and managed to eat some crackers and drink some Pedialyte. We looked on the charts and found a suitable place to anchor off an island called Bawean that was 24 hours away. After an hour of idling, we pressed on, heading for the anchorage. Moving on was hard for Eric. He struggled with going out knowing the sickness would return. But he managed to do it.

Literally, the minute we were out in the big waves, Eric’s sea sickness returned. As the night wore on the wind and seas again got bigger. By Thursday morning the wind was at 34 with gusts up to 40 and the waves were 12 14 feet right on our nose (head seas). Surprisingly, Christi physically felt OK, but Continue reading →