This is the strangest anchorage we have ever had. As I look around, all I can see is water. Yet, we are anchored in 14 feet of water and the seas are calm. I selected an anchorage for tonight that is about 12 to 13 nm from the nearest land. Inland about 15nm west the closest coastline to us is the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. We dropped our anchor on a part of a large area of shallows that the chart warns you of all of the fishing nets and fishing stakes in the area. As we approached our anchorage, we passed miles and miles of stakes jutting out of the water. Fortunately, we had selected a spot that is a mile or so past the last of these stakes. To the seaward of our location is a shoal that is offering a bit of protection from the seas if the winds decided to blow from across the Malacca Strait. While this is not the most perfect anchorage, it looks like it will work for us tonight. It is not as protected as we would like but the weather is not too threatening so I believe it will be just fine.

Our passage today was what is becoming a typical day. We had lots and lot of large cargo boats passing us in the nearby shipping lanes and we had to "step" around a number of fishing boats with nets out. However, we are becoming so used to this that it becoming just part of the typical cruising day. We also passed through a large cargo ship anchorage that was very active. There were about 30 to 40 ships at anchor and a number of them were in the process of coming in or leaving. A few passed us rather closely (i.e., within a 1/4 nm) but we could see them and they could see us. In one instance, I had to back off on the throttle and furl the headsail to slow us down to let a monster of a ship cut in front of us. As a cargo ship, he had the right of way so I just made sure that we were not in his way. We were going about 9 knots at the time and we ended up slowing down to just 5 knots to let him pass by.

The winds were same-o, same-o. This means most of the time there were 3 to 7 knots true but at times they picked up to 10 to 12 knots. We have just been motor sailing with the head sail since it is easy to furl when the winds drop or when they shift so that they are in front of us. As the day progressed the tidal current kicked in and gave us a 2 to 2.5 knot boast.

As usual, around 1500 the skies got dark and soon after we anchored we were "blessed" with another rain. However, this time it is was light and only lasted about an hour. Last night, at our prior anchorage, we had a steady rain through the night. Fortunately, it stopped about 0400 so when we got up, the skies were overcast but dry.

We hope to make an anchorage we have plotted which is about 55 nm from here. It will be our last anchorage before we get to Langkawi. We are planning to make an overnight sail from there directly to Rebak Island and the marina we will be staying at, just offshore from the very large island of Langkawi. It should be just a 28 hour sail so we hope to arrive around noon. We are anxious to get there and be done with this passage.

Once again, we have no Internet so I will use SailMail to post this blog.