Well, we upped the muddy anchor again this morning, getting underway about 0800 heading north again up the Malacca Strait. We made a decision to stop at Port Dickson at the Admiral Marina. Only one other place to anchor near here and it didn't get a good write up in one of the books we read. So the marina was the only other choice.
As we made our way north, it was the same weather we have had for the past two day. Winds from the east to northeast till 1100 when it shifted coming at us right on the bow. We'd been having winds in the low to mid teens so it made for great sailing. Only problem today was that we had to go past the city of Malacca and it's a busy shipping town with lots of ships either sitting at anchor off the harbor or making their way in or out of the harbor as space became available. We threaded our way through the melee. Once past, we rolled out the genoa as we had already pulled up the main sail. Off we went. We'd been running the engine so we would have the maneuvering ability should one of the ships change course and head our way. Once past, we turned off the engine and started sailing. Only problem was that a barge and her tugboat wanted to to ride right along side of us, about .8 miles off our side. We normally like to give boats like that a wide berth but this one just stayed right there matching our 6.8 knot speed. To get past them, we started the engine again and as we were putting some distance between us, the wind shifted coming at our bow. It slowed us down enough that we were again side by side. Only choice and action was to change course and head a bit closer to shore. That's just what we did and we slowly put some distance between us. By 1130. the wind had shifted to be coming out of the west south west again filling the sail. Again, out came the genoa sail at the bow and off we went again. Most of the time, we were well over 7 knots up the strait. Good time.
I placed a call to the marina to let them know we were coming and asked for a bow in starboard tie up slip. Apparently no problem as that is just what they assigned us. We were lucky enough to still have internet, so I pulled up the marinas website and it even has a great diagram of how the marina is laid out even giving us what each slip was numbered. I drew a diagram for info once the marina told us what slip to go into. As we entered the marina, we called them on our new VHF radio and they sent two men down to help out. Only problem was that the boat next to us still had his dinghy in the water next to his boat and that left little space for us to wedge ourselves into the slip. We asked the marina men if we could have a different slip and they moved us down two to one with no boats next to us. The owner of the other boat that was taking up a good bit of the slip came out and also helped us get in the slip as a good bit of wind was now pushing us around ad we slowly made out way in the marina and slip. We tied up nice and easy and you could see the man who was in the slip where we were supposed to go was relieved. He'd just spent a year redoing his boat and it looks great. They are taking off tomorrow for the trip to Singapore. The same way we had just come.
We got checked in nice and easy and walked around the the marina looking at other boats, including a big yacht that's for sale at only 6.2 million, just reduced from 8.2 million. A motivated seller for sure to take that kind of a hit. Later, we headed up to the pool to cool off and then showered off the sweat of the last day. It's hot and humid here. We settled in for the evening in the cockpit with the mosquito coil burning. Nasty little sucker down here.
Tomorrow, off for Port Dickson and maybe the town of Malacca. It's supposed to be a fascinating town but not a safe place to take your boat as rumor has it, you might get broken into. Not something we wish to experience.