22nd December 2010
As we set sail from the little village near Penoh Island S00 04.3 E104 50.9 at sunrise, the weather forecast was good and it looked like it would be a very pleasant day to cross the Equator. "Mandella II" were first to cross the line, followed closely by "Cockatoo II" then ourselves followed by "Black Pearl" As we approached the line I noticed that the volts were down to 11.9 and slowly dropping. We had no auto pilot, so the chart plotter, fridge and freezer were the only major draw on the batteries. After we had crossed the line I confirmed to Cathy that the Alternator was no longer producing any power and it was not a simple belt or fuse. The tear in the headsail was not getting any bigger, so we carried on motor sailing and conserved battery power as much as we could. As we approached the narrow passage at Temiang N00 15.2 E104 28.1 the motor spluttered and stopped..... "This is not good" I said to Cathy! I disappeared into the engine room flushed some fuel out and changed the filters. The motor started and sounded okay again. As we approached the channel between Duyung and Mesanak N00 22.2 E104 30.4 the motor stopped and would not re start. We still had a fully charged cranking battery, but no fuel was getting through to the primary filter.
We sailed for Mesanak Island and anchored in about 10M of water, where we could sail off the anchorage if needed. We were only a day from Singapore and were running out of systems.
With advice from "Cockatoo II" and the help of "Black Pearl's" crew member Rob, we managed to clear the fuel blockage and all was good again. The fuel we had purchased from the little village near Penoh Island was severely contaminated. It appeared to not only have water, sand and dirt in it but also seaweed or possibly a fungus that grow in diesel known a black death.
We made for Tg Cakang N00 36.6 E104 17.5 for the night, arrived just after sunset. While anchored I checked the fuel and changed the fuel filters again, just to be sure. I also had dosed the fuel tank with a special fuel conditioner and all was looking good, no more water and no sign of any contamination.
Just before daybreak we set sail for Singapore.
Our passage up the Selat Riau was relatively uneventful, apart from a few zig zags to avoid fast ferrys, a tug or two and the occasional ship we had a pleasant run.
As we turned left at the top to join the Singapore Straits we became aware that what we had tried to imagine was a huge underestimation. There were literally hundreds of ships, of all sizes and shapes travelling east to west and west to east along one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. I had always pictured in my mind that they would all be doing 8kts at a reasonable distance from each other. "Wrong", some are doing 8knts, but most were doing between 20kts and 30kts, it's like a race and then you have tugs crossing like J-Walker's after closing time, towing God knows what. As far as most of the ships were concerned, we did not exist. To ad to all this fun we discovered that our electronic chart of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand had no information on it for the Straits and Port of Singapore, not a thing. We had no depths, no navigational marks, no shipping channel marked and no rocks or hazards marked. It was really a blank sheet for the whole area....... Great!!!
We first became aware of rocks when "Black Pearl called us up on the VHF and asked if we realised we were heading for rocks. Staying outside the shipping channel was not going to work for us. Talking on the VHF was almost impossible, every channel was absolutely full of chatter, most of which was unessential and some was just whooping noises made by bored local fishermen and kids. The current started to run and was against us, the over falls and swirls were as big as any we had seen in The Kimberley. We needed to cross over this dual carriageway for shipping to the north side of the Straits. To do this we needed to carry on up the straits for another 3nm, this was o allow for the strength of the current that would push us back down the straits as we crossed.
We ducked behind one huge bulk carrier and then behind another coming from the opposite direction. It was a bit like being in a dog fight, Cathy would say have you got that black one at 3 o'clock? Then, see that blue one behind the tug at 10 o'clock? We both had to laugh when the black ship called "Bliss" almost ran us down, Bliss is the name of Cathy's sister'd dog. No wonder we drink!!
Immigration do their thing on the water, this was a first and as it turned out quite good fun. You call them up on VHF channel 74 and they give you an ETA when their boat will come alongside. For us that was only a matter of a few minutes, we barely enough time to get all our documents ready. Fifteen minutes later we were on our way to One Degree 15 Marina, wherever that was?
We also realised at that moment we had completed another leg of our voyage and more importantly our cruising in company with "Black Pearl" had come to an end.
As we set sail from the little village near Penoh Island S00 04.3 E104 50.9 at sunrise, the weather forecast was good and it looked like it would be a very pleasant day to cross the Equator. "Mandella II" were first to cross the line, followed closely by "Cockatoo II" then ourselves followed by "Black Pearl" As we approached the line I noticed that the volts were down to 11.9 and slowly dropping. We had no auto pilot, so the chart plotter, fridge and freezer were the only major draw on the batteries. After we had crossed the line I confirmed to Cathy that the Alternator was no longer producing any power and it was not a simple belt or fuse. The tear in the headsail was not getting any bigger, so we carried on motor sailing and conserved battery power as much as we could. As we approached the narrow passage at Temiang N00 15.2 E104 28.1 the motor spluttered and stopped..... "This is not good" I said to Cathy! I disappeared into the engine room flushed some fuel out and changed the filters. The motor started and sounded okay again. As we approached the channel between Duyung and Mesanak N00 22.2 E104 30.4 the motor stopped and would not re start. We still had a fully charged cranking battery, but no fuel was getting through to the primary filter.
We sailed for Mesanak Island and anchored in about 10M of water, where we could sail off the anchorage if needed. We were only a day from Singapore and were running out of systems.
With advice from "Cockatoo II" and the help of "Black Pearl's" crew member Rob, we managed to clear the fuel blockage and all was good again. The fuel we had purchased from the little village near Penoh Island was severely contaminated. It appeared to not only have water, sand and dirt in it but also seaweed or possibly a fungus that grow in diesel known a black death.
We made for Tg Cakang N00 36.6 E104 17.5 for the night, arrived just after sunset. While anchored I checked the fuel and changed the fuel filters again, just to be sure. I also had dosed the fuel tank with a special fuel conditioner and all was looking good, no more water and no sign of any contamination.
Just before daybreak we set sail for Singapore.Our passage up the Selat Riau was relatively uneventful, apart from a few zig zags to avoid fast ferrys, a tug or two and the occasional ship we had a pleasant run.
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| These guy's are in the middle of the shipping lane |
As we turned left at the top to join the Singapore Straits we became aware that what we had tried to imagine was a huge underestimation. There were literally hundreds of ships, of all sizes and shapes travelling east to west and west to east along one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. I had always pictured in my mind that they would all be doing 8kts at a reasonable distance from each other. "Wrong", some are doing 8knts, but most were doing between 20kts and 30kts, it's like a race and then you have tugs crossing like J-Walker's after closing time, towing God knows what. As far as most of the ships were concerned, we did not exist. To ad to all this fun we discovered that our electronic chart of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand had no information on it for the Straits and Port of Singapore, not a thing. We had no depths, no navigational marks, no shipping channel marked and no rocks or hazards marked. It was really a blank sheet for the whole area....... Great!!!
We first became aware of rocks when "Black Pearl called us up on the VHF and asked if we realised we were heading for rocks. Staying outside the shipping channel was not going to work for us. Talking on the VHF was almost impossible, every channel was absolutely full of chatter, most of which was unessential and some was just whooping noises made by bored local fishermen and kids. The current started to run and was against us, the over falls and swirls were as big as any we had seen in The Kimberley. We needed to cross over this dual carriageway for shipping to the north side of the Straits. To do this we needed to carry on up the straits for another 3nm, this was o allow for the strength of the current that would push us back down the straits as we crossed.
We ducked behind one huge bulk carrier and then behind another coming from the opposite direction. It was a bit like being in a dog fight, Cathy would say have you got that black one at 3 o'clock? Then, see that blue one behind the tug at 10 o'clock? We both had to laugh when the black ship called "Bliss" almost ran us down, Bliss is the name of Cathy's sister'd dog. No wonder we drink!!
Immigration do their thing on the water, this was a first and as it turned out quite good fun. You call them up on VHF channel 74 and they give you an ETA when their boat will come alongside. For us that was only a matter of a few minutes, we barely enough time to get all our documents ready. Fifteen minutes later we were on our way to One Degree 15 Marina, wherever that was?
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| We called One15 Marina on the VHF and they gave us accurate directions on how to enter the Marina. That's us in the corner Pen B01 |
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| The front entrance to One Degree 15 Marina |
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| David, Louis, Anna and Rob saying goodbye as we made our way to One 15 Marina. |
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| Kepple Marina, Singapore, where "Black Pearl" is living for a while. |
