We completed our 1,300 nautical mile trip from Indonesia to Malaysia in August this year. But the big question for us is will it be our last ever sail? Or at least the last in this part of the world?
This final leg began with an early start, leaving our quiet anchorage to head towards one of the busiest shipping areas in the world. The passage would take us across two separation zones, and up the south west coast of Malaysia towards Pangkor. That’s a passage of 300 nautical miles (550 kilometres).
We hoped to get some rest along the way, but that would be weather-dependent.
Having sailed the Malacca Strait a few times already, we knew this could be a gruelling trip. Our success would depend as much on our own stoicism as it will the winds.
Fortunately it didn’t take long for the wind to fill our sails.
As we approached the narrowest point of the straits, we decided to skirt around the outside of the separation zones. Traffic tends to bottle-neck here an also come from all directions, with ferries criss-crossing between Indonesia and Singapore, as well as fishing boats bobbing anywhere with their nets out.
With the wind behind us, we headed north-west to the last Indonesian island of Karimun Besar.
Crossing the shipping lanes
The further north we went, the longer the gaps between the commercial vessels. Immediate hazards were now just fishing boats and tugs, so once we were clear of them we needed to wait for a gap to make the passage across the separation zones.
Continuing northwards
With the crossing of the main shipping lane complete we continued north west. This took us past a congested anchorage, but the only traffic moving were large commercial vessels off our port beam travelling in the same direction as us.
The lane is narrow and remains busy, but we were pleased that we had managed to navigate the worst of it in daylight.
Sailing through the night
The Malacca Strait sees over 200 ships pass through every day, that’s more than one a minute. Many are more than 350 metres long, travelling at over 14 knots. For us, sailing at 6-7 knots, this was easy to manage.
We had intended to anchor for the night to take a rest because we knew the real navigational hazards were yet to come. But the winds were predicted to die, so we carried on.
Staying on the edge of the separation zone, we were able to steer clear of most local traffic, and just had to contend with the big ships.
One hair-raising encounter with a non-communicative vessel heading straight for us kept us on our toes. We talk about this more in the video linked at the bottom of this page. This ship displayed an all-round flashing red light, and after checking the ColRegs, we understand it could have been a Bravo light, signifying that it’s carrying dangerous cargo.
As we made our way we caught up with this ship and others, now at anchor and all with the same light configuration.
This seemed to be where ships dump their ballast. Vessels are not allowed to discharge ballast water in areas where water is drawn for a water supply, or in areas where national or local authorities prohibit waste discharge. This is in order to avoid introducing invasive species into the marine environment.
Some vessels carry so much ballast and cargo that the crew, seen walking along the deck, appear to be walking on the water. The first time we saw this we couldn’t believe our eyes.
Port Klang was going to be our next stop, but with only another 24 hours of wind predicted, we sailed past into the night.
Klang is surrounded by shallow water and a phenomenon known as sand waves, which can change the charted depths.
It’s also where the official shipping lane ends, so we had an interesting time navigating around a brand new lighthouse that wasn’t charted, with the old unlit lighthouse left behind close to our course.
Still, we had some excellent wind and with the change in course to a northerly, we had a superb night passage with all sails out and the sea lit by a full moon.
In the end, we sailed non-stop all the way from Kapalajernih Island in Indonesia to our final destination at Pangkor Marina, Malaysia.
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