6-9 June  Passage Sebana Cove Marina, Johor Bahru, Malaysia to Tioman Island, Malaysia   Back to Malaysia East Coast Cruise 2005

6 Jun 05  Move to Santi River entrance

Paid the bills at Sebana Cove marina and left at 1645 for a short trip to the Johor Straits to overnight and get a good start at the first leg of 50 NM to Jason Bay.

After anchoring twice to get good holding near the Malaysia Navy wharf we were approached by a navy boat who told us it was a restricted area and we would need to move away.  How far?  They didn't know for sure.  I suggested to the mouth of the river and they were happy with that.

We backtracked a bit over one NM and anchored as shown in shallow water, about 9 feet under the keel with a predicted drop of 5 feet at low tide during the night.

This first leg was a whopping 7.3 NM and took two hours after all the messing about.

7 Jun 05

Getting underway the next morning, it took 20 minutes to hose the mud off the chain and anchor. 

Interestingly another yacht had arrived in the night and anchored exactly where we had been.

Our track around the southeastern coast of Peninsular Malaysia and north to Jason Bay is shown here.

We had light winds on the nose until turning the corner when the beam and following wind, though light, enabled us to motor sail the rest of the way

At 1330 we were nearing Lompat when the storm clouds started rolling across from the west.  We spotted a waterspout 8 NM to the southeast of our position and were relieved when it collapsed after about 30 minutes.

By 1400 we were in the middle of a torrential downpour with wind of only 12-14 knots.

As we neared Jason Bay (Sedili Kechil point shown on the left) we were racing a sumatera (very strong, quick moving storm with lightning) to the anchorage.  The sumatera won the race and we endured 28 knots of wind, heavy rain and TOO MUCH lightning, for about 45 minutes when it cleared enough for us to enter the bay and anchor.

With the thought of another sumatera that evening we put out 150 feet of chain in 15 feet of water.

The day's run was 49.3 NM in 12 hours.

Jason Bay anchorage:

8 Jun 05

With totally overcast skies, but no rain, we began our passage north.  The intention was to stop at Sibu Island.  A 3-5 foot swell and wind of 10-14 knots from the southeast gave us a rock and roll ride as we sailed wing and wing as far as Sibu Island.

Checking the possible anchorages at Sibu Island we could not see anything suitable so carried on to Tinggi Island.

The electronic chart is not very accurate since we dropped the anchor at the point shown and stretched out 150 feet of chain in 20 feet of water under the keel.  Unfortunately, we swung onto some coral heads which made music through the night (am sure the Frankenstein would have like it but we didn't).  In hindsight we should have put the anchor down a bit further to the west at the cross mark.

The day's run was 30.1 NM in 6.5 hours.

The swell wrapped around the north side of the island and made our night very rolly ... beam onto the swell and too dark (or lazy?) to set a stern anchor.

9 Jun 05

Though there are some interesting things to explore at Tinggi Island we decided in the morning to leave this place for some other time and got underway for Tioman Island.

The morning was again overcast and the conditions were a bit stronger than the previous day.  15 kts of wind and 3-6 feet swell from the south-southeast.

With the current behind us most of the way and with increasing wind (22 kts at the south west corner of Tioman) we sailed under genoa and awning.  Our day's run was 32.3 NM in 6.5 hours.

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