Pulau Pisang to Sebana Cove
Tuesday, 01 April 2008 21:13
We had a very comfortable night at Pisang. So we were all rested for a trip through the Singapore Straits. It was pretty easy going for the first few hours as we were just on the edge of the outbound shipping lane. We made it across the tanker parking lot near the entry to Raffles Marina no problems. We started to be shadowed by a Navy boat and had three fighter jets doing circles above what seemed to be just us. We were starting to get a little paranoid. We had taken our Aussie flag pole down as it needed to be tightened up. Maybe they thought we were up to something. It turned out the Navy were doing a navigation exercise and we soon left them doing donuts behind us, but the jets kept circling for an hour. Now were in the path of a few large ships as we motored on. The sea started to get chopp from where all the different currents meet. Time to shut the hatches. Got all of them just in time except the girls cabin. We hit a patch of rough water and the boat slammed into it and sent a spray of water up to the cabin windows. Some water in but nothing that didn't dry out in an hour. As we started up the river on the Malaysian side for the marina the heaven opened up and visibility was pretty bad. We were lucky we had got through the traffic otherwise it would have been very unpleasant. The run up the river was amazingly rural and deserted. Hard to believe that 5 minutes the other way was the busiest shipping port in the world and you have the high rise and bustle of Singapore. It is like we are out in the wilderness. A bit like the Kumai river in Borneo. Bizare.

We arrived in about 4.30pm. Mike did a fantastic job getting us through Singapore waters without incident. He felt the new AIS system made it a lot easier than the last time. AIS is a system that allows you to see all the big ships and their course plotted on your navigation software. You can also see the ship name and call sign. They appear as little green triangle on the chart. A one point just about the whole chart was green.



Our friends Scotia are here in Sebana, so we will catch up with them today. We are planning a lazy day today with a quick recky trip to the local town. The ferry to Singapore is just next door so that is easy when we decide to go . Singapore is about an hour away on the ferry and Johor Bahru the nearest big town is about 1 and half hours by bus, so we will make a trip there later in the week.

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