Could we have been more wrong?
21 February 2014 | Jason Bay, Malaysia
Bill
We'll start with yesterday. We put on our masks and fins and swam to shore about a half mile from Zephyr. Sure glad we had the fins. Nice beach that is rarely visited. Easy to tell by the number of shells along the sand as well as all the human trash. Great beach for exploring. Stayed about an hour and swam back to Zephyr. The steaks we had planned for lunch were defrosted and I put rubs on both of them to highten the flavor. They were great when they came off the grill. As the afternoon passed, the winds started to pick up as did the swells in the bay. Not bad but bothersome. Neither of us slept well last night as poor Zephyr was rocking all night long. This morning, we had planned to start the trip farther south so we would be in the right spot for crossing south of Singapore. When we looked out this morning, it was blowing a bit but didn't appear to be bad. We did find that we had been joined in our bay by a big warship as well as six decent size fishing boats. They were all at anchor. Seeing all these boat should have told us what to expect when we finally left the bay. Winds were up in the high teens to low 20 and continual. Swells were growing from one meter to close to three and they were hitting us on our port side as we made our way south. We decided to put a double reef in the mainsail even before we pulled it up. Smart move on our part as the winds kept growing. We decided not to use the genoa as there was too much wind and instead pulled up the forestaysail. A nice smaller head sail to balance out the boat. We lowered our DuoGen to make electricity and turned on the Hydrovane to steer for us. South we went with strong winds and getting pounded on the port side by the continual and growing swell. Every now and then, a wave would crash into the side and spray us with water. If we had been smart, we would have just stayed in the bay and read more books and played more games. We were in the wrong place doing what we shouldn't be doing. Zephyr was getting knocked around every time a wave hit her and she rocked violently from side to side. We were heading for Jason's Bay, about 20 miles south of Sibu for the night. In checking the coastline for places to stop, it was the only one we had seen that might actually provide us with some cover from the wind and waves. Out other option was to just keep going got the cape near Singapore. Biggest problem with that was that we would be arriving there in the early evening and that is not the place to be during the night facing all the freighters coming and going from Singapore. We made the decision to try Jason's Bay. We'd read a small blurb about it from some one else's website. It said it was a decent place to stop but this cruiser had been here a different time of year when the winds were coming from the opposite direction. As we neared the harbor, we pulled into the wind(now in the mid 20 knot range and 3+ meter waves) and took down the sails. I'd put on my life jacket before leaving the cockpit(I'm not that stupid). Down came the forestaysail which got lashed to the foredeck. Then I went to the mast as Tracy undid the halyard holding up the mainsail. I slowly pulled it down and eventually had to climb up the base of the mast to get the last section of the mainsail under control as it come down the mast. I took the halyard for it and fastened it under one of the cleats on the mast. It wasn't going anywhere. Tracy slowly turned Zephyr to starboard and we slowly headed into the bay. On the outside of the bay is a light beacon that marks rocks and a reef. We wanted to stay as far away from that as we could. To add to the fun, there were numerous floats in the water marking fisherman's nets. We had to go around them or risk the lines getting into our propeller. Now what you want in this kind of weather on a lee shore. As we neared the rock/reef, a big fishing boat appeared on our starboard side heading into the bay the same time we were. We would just follow them in. As we looked at the electronic charts we use to navigate, there were no depth marking so we had no idea how shallow it was. As we came in(following the fishing boat) it just kept getting shallower, at times under three feet under our keel!!! We saw the depth sounder go to zero feet under the keel once. Tracy, still at the wheel as I watched the depth gauge was beside herself. We each have our own comfort zones when it comes to depth under the keel and Tracy's is much closer to 15 feet than 1.5 feet. The depths went up and down as we moved in. The waves were slowly tapering off but the wind just kept on blowing. For most of the trip in the bay, our depth was about 3.5 feet under the keel. As we neared the river at the end of the bay, we found electrical power lines stretched across the river, about a half mile inside the mouth of it. We were not going in there. The wires were no where near as high as Zephyr's mast is. We decided to just pick a spot and drop the anchor as long as we were not in the way of the traffic coming and going along the river. We picked a spot and dropped the anchor in about 12 feet of water. It got deeper the closer we got to the river. They must dredge the river but not the bay for a channel. Down went the anchor and after we pulled back on it, we were in 8 feet of water. The wind was coming from the north and the current was coming from the south into the river as the tide was going up. A few hours later, the tide changed and then we were having wind on the starboard side and the current pushing us south but our anchor held just fine. We set a drag alarm just in case we moved. It takes some of the pressure off us when we are at anchor. We did all this and were at anchor by 1300, in time for another of Tracy's great lunches. She cooked as I put things away on deck so we didn't look so bad to the boats coming and going in the bay. The forecast is for these winds and seas to continue for the next two days so we are just sitting it out here. It's actually quieter here and less rolly that any of the anchorages we have been in for quite some time. The wind is still howling outside and the wind generator is spinning away. We are now in muddy colored water from the river with fishermen sticks in the shore line between us and the shore. The Mosque is putting out their call to prayer and we are looking forward to a nice glass of wine.