Since the last update, we've left Indonesia, crossed the equator, checked in to Singapore & stayed 9 days, checked out, did an overnight to Malaysia and checked in! It takes a fair amount of running around to get all the stamps and papers you need to move through countries.
From Singapore

The passage through the last of Indonesia was calm and easy, but it was like we were in thick fog in Maine except it smelled and burned our throats. It is no exaggeration that we didn't see the sun any brighter than a red circle for a week and on the last night, the moon never showed itself even though we would have had it for many hours. We'd worried about FADs and fishing boats and how we would see them but really, there wasn't anyone around anywhere except for lots of ships and we could see those on radar and AIS. We traveled with Jan & Rich and it was nice to have the company. One the morning that we approached the Singapore Straits & passed some of the last of Indonesia's islands, it was very interesting to see the massive ship servicing facilities they had. There was all sorts of heavy work going on with huge cranes and lots of noise. Who would've thought after several months of stilt villages and small fishing boats.


Crossing the busy Straits was very easy for us. We crossed perpendicular to the lanes, waited for one ship to pass and went right off its stern, hovered between lanes for a couple of minutes while a big LNG tanker went by and then went like hell across the other two lanes to get to the clearance anchorage. We have never seen so many ships. Clearing immigration in Singapore is unique & efficient. After completing some forms & emailing them a few days prior, you just pull into the immigration anchorage zone and circle while the officials approach your boat with a net extended to grab your passports. Then they stamp them and pass them back to you in the net & you can proceed to your marina of choice! Both us & Jan & Rich decided that One Degree 15 Marina was going to be our headquarters for touring Singapore. It just so happens it is the fanciest marina we've ever stayed in for a fraction of the price we've paid to stay at marinas back home. It is customary in Singapore & Malaysia to have "Leisure Clubs" and resorts with marinas attached for wealthy Asians. So a marina stay includes all the amenities of a resort which was most welcome for us. And the marina location is perfect for enjoying the city. It was so nice to have a hose to wash off the boat and get rid of all the fallout from the bonfire that we'd been living in. Although we hadn't come all the way out of the smog yet- it was affecting Singapore too. We got a real kick out of our dockmates. A Singaporean guy we met in a back country hiking hut in Tasmania told us that if you were wealthy in Singapore, you would have at least one person working for you around your home, if not more. So our dock was filled with worker bees living on these fancy boats while their owners were off making money all week. But they couldn't really live IN the boat using all the facilities, they really lived in the cockpit & probably used a bunk down below. All day they would be out polishing and washing, but in between, all meals were cooked in the cockpit, the rice cookers would be going, they would fish off the dock, they showered and washed laundry in the hose and when they opened up the dockbox, it was full of pots & pans and personal items, not fenders and wax- too funny! During our time on Singapore, as sophisticated as it is on the outside, you could still get many glimpses into a full on behind the scenes lifestyle that is going on too. It is like old juxtaposed with modern. And in this fancy marina, no one bothered them, and they were as friendly as ever. Our next door neighbor's name was Wilson & he was from the Philippines. We enjoyed talking with him.
From Singapore
From Singapore

On the 3rd day, we awoke to see blue sky and the rays of the sun. The "haze" as they called it, had finally gone to someone else's back yard. We had a fantastic time in Singapore and like a lot of the places we make it to, it was a long time in the planning. We had always wondered what it was all about and now we have hoofed and subwayed over a lot of it. The reputation stands true that it is a garden city. There is beautiful landscaping, parks and trees everywhere. Fancy public spaces, attention to detail and quality seems to be a part of everything they do and it is very organized. There were so many elaborate, modernistic buildings, they had a knock your socks off free botanical garden with spectacular orchid area, the zoo was one of the best we've ever been to, there were museums, interesting neighborhoods like Chinatown & Little India, temples to wander through and malls to duck into for some much needed AC. We even bought an AC while we were there. We and everything on the inside of the boat are a lot more comfortable now. And at the end of a big day in the city, coming back to the marina on the free shuttle bus and submerging into the pool was the ultimate in luxury life by our standards. There were finally decent grocery stores too so we knocked some of our cravings off the list too. I know it doesn't make up for the real thing, but the zoo had such a moving orangutan exhibit that I think we are not feeling a real need to go back to Indonesia to see them. I'm angry with Indonesia for their stance on the orangutans & their rainforest anyway. Instead, we made a promise to ourselves to be more aware of and use less of palm oil products. Its easy with food since generally anything with palm oil in it isn't good for you anyway, but other household products like shampoo are going to be harder.
From Singapore
From Singapore

From Singapore
From Singapore

From Singapore

From Singapore
From Singapore
From Singapore
From Singapore


All in all, Singapore is a great place & they're trying so hard and we're so glad we stayed for a bit to see all that we wanted to see. By the end of our stay, we were all ready to move on to Malaysia.

We decided to do an overnight to Port Dickson in Malaysia rather than day hop up the coast since we couldn't get off the boat till we were checked in anyway. Plus, we wanted to have plenty of time to get some boat projects done and tour Kuala Lumpur (the capital) of Malaysia before the Sail Malaysia Rally starts next week. Most all the boats joined this rally to head up toward Thailand in the next month because it follows the Indonesia rally so nicely and has a great reputation. So the 4 of us headed out around the tip of Singapore and up the Malacca Straits. Even though we don't follow the news, we do get whiffs of news events & rumors regarding piracy & safety and it does cause some anxiety if we start to think about it too much (mainly me). So we were nervous about moving through this area because historically, there have been some incidents here. However, they are mainly to do with commercial shipping, not private yachts. So we stuck close together anyway and rode the very edge of the shipping lanes all the way up to where we are now, for 26 hours. Coming around the tip of Singapore, we passed so many factories, stacks billowing out putrid air, oil refineries, heavy shipping equipment and general pollution & trash we couldn't believe it. We were on the downwind side of the garden city and it was like another world. And there we were motoring past it using fuel ourselves. Good grief!

Once we got past that, things settled down and we even sailed for a couple of hours but mainly it was a nice motor up the straits. A continuous line of ships passed us the entire time, one right after the other as close as 1/2 mile, but it was easy with the charts & AIS to see what was going on, even through the night. We didn't hit any large debris, we had a lot of heat lightening and one light squall, but we all agreed it was a great passage.

So now we're in another club resort with marina- Admiral Marina- and it isn't as fine tuned as One Degree but it's still very nice with a big pool & ice cold workout room and with the exchange rate, it is $15US/day for us to be here. Can't beat that. We've gotten the sandpaper & varnish brush out, done some engine maintenance and are moving through the list of to-do's. Jon & I started running again after a 5 month hiatus since we've got the gym right here. We took our bikes out today for a scorcher ride to a forest park where we saw some new species of monkeys in a mature rainforest. On the way back, we stopped at a 7 Eleven to get a slurpee and sat at a table for a few minutes talking with some friendly locals. They are always so outgoing and strike up conversations with us. While this was going on, we watched people come in one after another with very large containers that they would fill at the slurpee machine. Like big tupperware jugs, a 2 gallon tub, huge cups, you name it. We finally saw the sign that today was the" bring in your own creative container for one fixed price" day, back by popular demand. They went through a lot of slurpee syrup today but everyone was leaving with a big grin on their face. For us, we only had the container we bought it in, but since 4 ringits equals less than $1, we just bought another one....

Tomorrow we are sharing a cab with Jan & Rich to head to Kuala Lumpur for a few days & explore the city. There seems to be a lot to do and it is Malaysia's largest city. We had happy hour the other night with a few of the other boats that are here that we know from the Indonesia rally. One remarked that he was sort of in shock when he arrived here and went to town to complete formalities in that he "didn't feel the love" as he did in Indonesia. True, no one was calling our "hey mister" and he wasn't asked to pose for any pictures. The people we've met so far are very friendly, but I guess they are also sort of absorbed in their own lives a little more, I'm not sure. It does seem more advanced here, maybe it is just this part of the country. But it did make us think that one thing that we'll never forget is the way Indonesians treated us overall. They were teaching their tots to call out, wave, come running and just really get excited about us white visitors. And the adults were the same way really. It made you feel welcome to say the least, but with the kids, it was downright funny and made you laugh. It is not like that here in Malaysia yet but at the same time, the people have been great. Admittedly, we have been sort of preoccupied with enjoying the docks and marina for a change, but the little bit we've seen has been nice and we're excited to explore more tomorrow- beyond the walls of this addictive leisure club!