A waiting game now
18 February 2014 | Palau Sibu, Malaysia
Bill
We upped the anchor a couple of hours ago and headed south for Jasons Bay along the coastline. It was just 22 miles south of where we were. We started reading about when was the best time(calendar wise) to make the push past Singapore to Jahor Bahru. The sheets we have say to do so "Depart at local high water before the Higher low water of the day, 2 days after either the first or the last quarters of the moon". By our calculations, that would be the 24, 5 days from now. We are only 53 miles from where we turn right up the strait to go past Singapore. There are a few places to stop along the way but all are along the shore line and might be a less than hoped for anchorage. With North winds and a Northeast swell, we would be on the lee shore(shore line behind the boat) and we don't normally like to anchor that way. If the anchor should drag, we could be in a world of hurt quick. So with that being said, we made a prompt right turn and headed around the north side of Palau Sibu and dropped the anchor in 15 feet of water just off shore. Still have some winds from the north and that is keeping the wind generator happy and the swells are just about broken by the north point of the island so we are sitting nice and still for a change. The tide is coming in and crests at just after 1800 so we might have some more swell then but not much. Yesterday afternoon as we sat at anchor, we were joined by Darwin's Sound, a 70 foot sailboat that had been anchored about where we are right now earlier in the day. We know this since he has an AIS transponder that tells us where he is and what he is doing. He dropped anchor well over a mile from us and with two fishing boats in the bay, that was all that was there last night. A nice quiet anchorage with just a bit of swell and some wind to keep us rocking and cool. A pleasant night sleep. So now we have a few days to slowly go down the coast so we hit the correct tide time to get past Singapore. We'll be launching Puff this afternoon to do a bit of beach walking and exploring. Tracy is in the galley making Tacos again with the last half of our chub of beef we started using yesterday for hamburgers.