Kailana

Vessel Name: Kailana
Vessel Make/Model: Nauticat 38
Hailing Port: Fremantle
Recent Blog Posts
06 November 2014

15. Singapore

Singapore is an amazing city. It is the city that never sleeps, always something going on with a plethora of places to eat, shop and drink. You can buy a cheap meal in a hawkers food stall for $3-5 (Beef Hor Fun quite a good choice) or you can go to a fine dining establishment and feel the need to either [...]

06 November 2014

14. Kumai to Singapore

From leaving Kumai (Borneo) we headed to Pulau Belitung. A distance of 330Nm, which we completed in 51 hours, hence 2x overnighters in a trot - not really our favourite. There was quite a bit of traffic to avoid at night, with both tankers and fishermen dotting our path north and not always on AIS, so [...]

26 October 2014

13. Kumai (Borneo)

We were quite surprised to hear that Sam, our Sail Indonesia agent, had made his way to Kumai. After going AWOL in Bali we basically wrote him off as being of any assistance with our visas, leaving it to a 'proxy' Agent named Ruth to organise the passports to be sent to Nongsa Point, our designated check-out [...]

22 October 2014

12. Java Sea Crossing

In the last blog we were happily sailing away from Bali, safe in the knowledge that our passports and visa extensions were speedily and professionally being processed before being sent ahead of us. Or were they? We had now dropped behind all the rally boats due to the immigration administration slow-boat [...]

07 October 2014

11. Gilli Air & Bali

The last you heard from us we were on our way to Lombok from Sumbawa. We are now back in the company of our other yachties. The crossing to Lombok was easy enough, only being able to sail about half the way. We stayed in a decent enough anchorage on the North East of Lombok, which proved to be a bit [...]

17 September 2014

10. Labuan Bajo to Sumbawa (via Komodo & Rinca Islands)

Indonesia really is a unique place. With a population of about 190 million, it has 300 different ethnic groups living within it, over 13,000 islands, with 580 languages and dialects spoken. That is diversity at its best. Not only does it have the largest population of Muslims, but it also has the [...]

14. Kumai to Singapore

06 November 2014
From leaving Kumai (Borneo) we headed to Pulau Belitung. A distance of 330Nm, which we completed in 51 hours, hence 2x overnighters in a trot - not really our favourite. There was quite a bit of traffic to avoid at night, with both tankers and fishermen dotting our path north and not always on AIS, so full lookout required around the clock. There ain't no nodding off in these here waters! We thought that we were going to be doing the passage alone - however lo and behold....Sagata, Esoterica and Apa Lagi (the usual suspects) were right behind us. They eventually caught up to us as we were only going about 3 knots with all our sails up pretending to be real sailors, with them cheating using their 'iron mains'.

The Rally schedule would have seen us go towards Manggar on Belitung Island, and this would have been a very attractive option given that the shire of Manggar was offering 100 litres of free diesel and as many as two cans of Bintang beer to those who came. Two cans of warm Bintang on its own would have been a hard sell however free diesel? Yes please! Alas it was not meant to be. It was always known as a difficult anchorage to enter, with rumours that it had, or maybe had not, been dredged. However, after hearing reports of yacht 'Sweet Surrender' experience, we opted out of this anchorage and for good reason. They were following a pilot boat, which directed them squarely to getting stuck on some reef, with the tide going out. Stuck solid they watched in horror as the pilot boat disappeared to leave them to their fate. Eventually with the poor yacht laid on its side they were collecting their belongings for an abandon ship maneuver. However, after 4 hours they were saved by four passing fishing boats that basically dragged the yacht, still on its side, into deeper water at high tide, a very harrowing experience for Sharon and Matty onboard, but Sweet Surrender is a tough old girl and no real damage was later found Call us silly, but we like to keep Kailana upright if possible. Maybe the two cans of Bintang were offered to alleviate the stress of getting grounded and the free diesel was for the poor bloke who had to drag you off the rocks in his fishing boat.

That said we headed to a lovely spot called Tanjung Kelayang Beach located at the northwest side of Belitung Island. The coastline has lots of big granite rocks sticking out of the water, some of which have multicoloured lights afixed that light up at night. The locals were very excited about our visit and had a small welcome ceremony planned which none of the yachties knew about (Sail Indonesia organizational skills strike again....) - but Rebecca managed to go ashore and got the 'paparazzi' welcome, was given a flower wreath ('lei'), a very uncomfortable 'hat' and had many photographers taking her picture for the local rag. For those towns on the 'Rally schedule', this is 'quite a normal welcome'. Tanjung Kelayang had lots of restaurants on the beach and the people were very, very friendly. After recovering from our passage from Kumai, we organised to hire motorbikes the next day with Apa Lagi and Sagata. We had no idea where we were going but ended up in the main city for a nice lunch, did a trip to the museum / zoo and then a ride around the countryside before heading home as the sun went down. The zoo that was attached to the museum was the most horrible sight you have ever seen. Indonesians do not do zoos well, if you can actually call them zoos, more animal concentration camps. The turtles were ankle deep in scummy water, the crocodiles were in pens just about their own size, and the birds had lost all their feathers ... the list go on. We got out of there pretty fast before Rebecca figured out what the right words were in Indonesian to abuse the people on the front desk.

Belitung is quite a big island so you really need a few days to be able to see it all. We unfortunately did not have the luxury of time as we had to get up to Nongsa Point to clear the boat out of Indonesia. We felt sad to leave, as we could have easily spent a few more days there. Tanjung Kelayang is a very popular holiday destination for locals from neighbouring Jakarta who fly in for the weekend. Now, we can see why. Plenty of islands to explore, clear water to swim in and good food.

As part of the welcome for the Sail Indo Rally, a few events were put on for us - we went to one which was a night of music and dancing on the foreshore. Most of the yachties showed up and we got to see some faces we hadn't seen for a while. The music went on all night and there were five dancers that worked hard at enticing the audience (e.g. the 20 odd sailors watching) to get up and dance. Kev got dragged up onto the dance floor by a woman with quite masculine features. Up close and intimate Kev was then able to confirm the authenticity of these masculine features and that his new dance partner 'Sasha' was in fact a man! One song seemed to drift into another with no apparent end in sight...and poor Kev was held hostage on the dance floor by the lovely 'Sasha' for what seemed to him...hours. 'Sasha' took quite a shine to old Kev whereas poor Kev just looked incredibly uncomfortable. Kev finally made some lame excuse that he had to go to the toilet and you have never seem someone run to the toilet as fast as he did.

Next stop was South of Lingga Island, which took us a night and day to get to, completing 211 Nm in 33 hours. This was to be our last overnighter in Indonesia. We attempted to anchor at a deserted island about half way, however it went from 25 metres to 3 metres really quickly and we would have had to anchor quite far away from land - so we aborted. Quite a shame as the island looked very explore-able and it would have been nice to have had the island all to ourselves. We had timed it so that we would arrive at the south end of Lingga islands before dark, however we misjudged by about an hour so we came in just after dusk - always a nerve wracking experience entering an anchorage you have never seen and won't see until daylight. We found a very quiet anchorage (0.18.536s / 105.05.337e) where there were just a few fishing boats and us (and Sagata). Keen to get on the road again, we upped anchor early the next morning and headed for Kentar Island. This was going to be a special day as we were going to be crossing the equator!

Actually 'sailing' across the equator was not going to be an option due to lack of wind. There is a huge ceremonial legend around crossing the equator that have its origins going back to ancient times when sailors were very superstitious and made pleas to the God 'Neptune', the ruler of the seas, to bring them home safely. Sailors that have already crossed the equator are called 'Shellbacks', or 'sons of Neptune'. Those that have not are called 'Pollywogs'. Kev was a pollywog, whereas Rebecca had crossed the equator 24 years prior when sailing to Brazil so she was a Shellback. Technically speaking Rebecca should have been dressed as King Neptune as the role goes to those that are eldest and have done the crossing before. However, so as to avoid any domestic arguments, Kev dressed up as King Neptune and no more was said. Equator crossings feature 'King Neptune' and things in the colour 'green' so we dressed up in anything we could find that was green, cracked a beer - offered up some to the Neptune God by pouring it into the sea, and then crossed the line! The sweat was pouring off us at '0' degrees North / South!

The trip to Kentar was about 28 nautical miles (just a hop skip and a jump away) and we came into the anchorage and found two other yachts on anchor, a French yacht we hadn't seen before and fellow Rally boats; Dream Maker and Esoterica. Everyone seemed to have dressed their boats up in flags to commemorate the big crossing, so we wasted no time in hoisting all our flags and keeping up with the Jones. We then put out the call on the VHF radio for an 'equator beach BBQ'. Everyone brought their own meat and drinks and something to share and we lounged and talked shit until the wee hours. The French couple came ashore and have been sailing away from France for 40 years now! Talk about long term cruisers! Incidentally, it took them a whopping 20 minutes to get their visa extensions, compared to our 20 days! The next morning we had just finished upping anchor when John from Esoterica shot over in his dingy in a panic. John couldn't get his engine to start and was keen for some help. We then rafted Kailana alongside Esoterica while Kev and John sweat bullets in the engine room. Meanwhile, Rebecca and Karen enjoyed a nice coffee under the cool of the fan. Problem soon fixed, we were back on our way headed north.

Our departure time from Indonesia was drawing near and we needed to get ourselves up to Nongsa Point, so we headed to our next stop which we didn't have a waypoint for, but proved to be a great anchorage. The fishermen had homes/fishing shacks built up high on stilts above the water, and we anchored right in the middle of them. The locals were a little inquisitive about us and motored past in their boat to have a closer look. The next day as we got closer and closer to Singapore, we started to see more and more traffic. We hugged the east side of the channel for as long as we could and then made our crossing over to Nongsa Point Marina. Nongsa Point is on the island of Batam in Indonesia and this was to be our last port of call in Indo, prior to clearing out of the country and heading over to Singapore. We really enjoyed Nongsa...and were there for a very relaxing 5 days. The facilities were fabulous - couldn't fault the place. The floating dock was great, food in the restaurant very good, a massive pool that got a huge amount of use, and very helpful staff. There were a few fellow rally boats there (Murrundi, Cayenne, Minnie B, Beau Solais, Sagata, Rio). The pool seemed to be the meeting place, and due to the heat, this was where you found most of the yachties most of the time. It was a good place for us all to unwind and recount our experiences after 3 months in Indonesia. We had a few social events while we there, firstly celebrating Phil's (Sagata) 62nd birthday at the Marina restaurant (never did get that free shout he promised everyone - Phil, hope you're reading this). Another night we all walked round the corner to a neighbouring resort and had a sundowner at an island bar and then a buffet dinner in the hotel. Lastly, we had a 'finger wharf' party on the dock, where everyone brought their own meat, chair and drinks to the jetty. It proved to be a very fun night, with 'Murrundi John's' homemade Gin getting a bit of a beating. We enjoyed breakfast aboard 'Cayenne' (Guy and Cath from Darwin - also from Tipperary Marina crew) one morning, where we heard horror stories of how Cath mangled her hand in the windless a few years previous. She is still awaiting surgery to remove one of her fingers after this as it is essentially useless now. Anchor windlasses seem to offer the most horror stories. After we had all our laundry done, all paperwork in order and we were no longer legally allowed to stay, we left Indonesia on the 27th October to head across to the Republic of Singapore yacht club on the South south west corner of the island, 91 days after entering Indonesia.

The trip across the Singapore Straits is one of, if not 'the' busiest shipping channels in the world....was mind boggling, a bit like a real life game of Frogger! To cross it you have to entering into a massive 'T' junction in the sea where all the boats entering or exiting Singapore have to pass through. The ships all range from speeds of 5 knots to 20 knots, so you have to time things right and the AIS system really is worth it wait in gold. It is amazing to see how much traffic goes in and out of this place, and it is no wonder when we learned that 90% of the world's trade is actually carried by sea. Seaborne trade remains the most energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly mode of transporting cargo. Without it, half the world would starve and the other half would freeze! We had the current in our favour which saw us doing 9 knots in places. The tankers towered above us, and it was no surprise to learn that at any time about 1000 ships are 'on anchor' in the Singapore port. About every 2 minutes, a ship arrives or leaves Singapore and it is the top bunkering port in the world (ship refueling) even though it doesn't even produce any oil!

We stopped in at the 'Sisters Islands' where we cleared into Singapore. This was a relatively quick process, whereby a customs boat came up to us and stuck his little fishing net on a stick out for us to deposit our plastic bag of paperwork and passports into. Based on our previous experiences of paperwork in Indonesia, the efficient Singaporean method was quite refreshing. With ourselves all 'cleared in' we were on our way to Singers!
The Republic of Singapore Yacht Club (RSYC) was the only marina that we could get into, of the 6 or so marinas in and around Singapore, and we only just got a spot. We had heard that the marina was quite 'rolly' due to much neighbouring marine traffic, however the lure of plugging into the mains and getting endless amounts of freshwater was too enticing. Also, we wanted to explore Singapore and to commute from Malaysia was not really an option, as it would cost in time and money. Our pal Linda was coming to visit - so RSYC made sense.

From Kumai to Singapore saw us coving a total distance of 680 Nautical Miles.

The Republic of Singapore Yacht Club is the oldest yacht club in Asia and was founded in 1826. The history of the RSYC goes back more than 181 years to an elegant era when the officers and men of Sir Stamford Raffles were their earliest members. Most of the facilities at the marina are excellent. There is a tasty and reasonably priced restaurant, a mess bar, a library, a chart room, a gambling room (for those inclined), a karaoke room (for those inclined), a laundry and a massive big pool. The big downside is the amount of traffic from the water taxis that drop off and pick up crew from the nearby anchored tankers. They are loud and, since there is no breakwater, create a huge amount of 'wake' that ripples across all the boat pens. The marina has big plans in place to overcome the lack of comfort that yachties experience here (bow and stern lines get chaffed easily and the boat jerks violently at times), but they are as yet, unapproved plans. The first few nights we had little sleep but are starting to get used to the horn blasts, loud rumbling engines and the squeaking of the lines as they desperately try to keep Kailana tied up to the dock. Sagata actually broke two mooring lines with the violence of the movement. When you read the previous commodore names etched into the wooden plaques - they all seem to start with 'Sir'....testament to colonial times. One of the 'Sirs' who was commodore pre war times, was a prisoner of war on the Burma Railroad during he war to then come back and serve as commodore post war on three separate occasions.

With money in our pocket and earplugs to help us get to sleep at night, we were ready to take on Singapore.
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