Hong Kong to Port Klang Malaysia

Redwings Round the World

Hong Kong to Port Klang Malaysia 10 - 20 November 1997

10 November, Approx. midday position 21 deg 38' N 114 deg 18' E - Kerry/Aaron

Kerry - This is our first official entry at sea - I hope that I can hold out long enough here down below to write the full entry. Our 6:00 am departure from Shelter Cove was right on time. We loaded our bottled ice and meat provisions from the club freezer onboard and we were off. After a couple hours at sea, we realized again how important it is to lash, bungy, and tie everything down in the boat as much as possible so as to avoid unexpected, flying objects.

Seasickness seemed to set in for everyone to greater or lesser degrees except for Aaron (including once again Sybil and Basil). As Colleen couldn't stomach being down below, Aaron volunteered to take on Galley Duty which was supposed to be Colleen's responsibility today. Many bumps and bruises later, he produced a solid lunch of soup and sandwiches to be followed later by a delicious pasta dish for dinner. Though we are well provisioned and gave a good amount of thought to the food on board prior to our departure, crackers and water are my only desire right now.

The day's events consisted of all of our first day watches which were educational. Paul instructed Colleen and I on weather helm and we both steered our entire watches to get used to it. In between, it was most comfortable to sleep in the cockpit. Paul enjoyed more activity with the first catch of the trip - a medium-sized tuna which is saved for tomorrow.

After dinner, I tried to sleep in the forward cabin to prepare for the 0200 wake-up for my watch with Aaron. While in the cabin, I thought that surely we had hit much larger waves - as I could hear and feel constant pounding. However, Paul assured me that it had died down. So, I think I will be sleeping in the main cabin or cockpit to alleviate the action related to the forward cabin.

Aaron and I are a little over 3 hours into our watch. It has been a beautiful night with only a couple of boats in sight. While Aaron was below, it seemed to me that we were on a collision course with a fishing boat in the distance which turned out to be true. Aaron changed our course and we passed one another without incident.

Aaron - actually writing this at 0600 tomorrow - but it still seems like today. Over the past 24 hours, we have put in 175 miles in a straight line towards Port Klang. At this pace, we will be there on the 20th. Weather conditions are almost perfect for the trip. The Northeasterly Monsoon is blowing 20 to 25 knots pushing us at 7 to 8 knots towards Singapore. The boat is handling well with a full main and the number two genoa fully out. Seas are, however, a bit lumpy at 2 to 3 meters - thus the queasiness of the crew. Poor Basil the Cat just got a bit of food down and then lost it again all over our bunk. As the only non-seasick person, I've been marked as the official puke-picker-upper. Basil is recuperating on the chart table as I pen these words watching the stove swing back and forth in its gimbals. He does not understand why we are subjecting him to this ordeal.

Luckily, the important things seem to work. No problems with the rigging, sails, engine, or electricals. However, there are a few leaks in our cabin which is a bit of a bummer as we spent a huge amount of time and money trying to get it hermetically sealed during the refit. Hopefully, as the deck swells with the constant wash of seawater, the leaks will abate. My "douseable" cat box is a bit of a failure as well. Instead of litter, we filled a grated pan with rocks which sits above a regular sealed pan. The idea is that urine drains through and can be dumped out while poops rest on rocks and can be washed off with a quick douse of the basket over the side. My engineering was right, material selection wrong. We picked up a bunch of lava-type rocks and they seem to be absorbing the urine and stink terribly. The cats are also not too keen to use it. There is no back up litter on board so I guess I'll just have to wash the rocks in bleach and soap every day.

11 November, Approx. midday position 21 deg 38' N 114 deg 18' E - Aaron / Kerry

Midnight to Midnight run: 165 nm

A relatively relaxing day with the whole crew settling in to the cruise. The wind and waves steadily reduced and by the end of the day, the true wind speed was down to 15 to 18 knots with seas only six feet or so and a lot less chop. Just what we expected: one to two days of wind and slop out of HK, hopefully followed by several days of moderate winds and waves until we reach about 10 degrees North at which point we expect the winds to fade away to almost nothing.

Colleen, Kerry and Paul are feeling better as are the cats. Kerry was on "Mom Duty" (each person is responsible for all the cleaning and cooking for one day on a four day rotation) for the day and cooked up a wonderful tuna / veggie dish for dinner. The tuna was a small several pound skipjack, was caught by Paul yesterday. We all (including the cats) enjoyed fresh sashima before dinner. We also caught a small (several pounds) wahoo this afternoon, but threw him back as we had not yet eaten the tuna. We should probably make a big effort to catch something tomorrow as the fishing dries up between the Parcell Islands (where we will be tomorrow) and 10 degrees North (three days South from here).

We are doing well on power with no fridge and actually generate a net positive 5-7 amps per hour during the day with our four solar panels and new wind generator. So far, we are down only 70 amps out of a total capacity of 840 (but we only want to run this down to about 600 before we charge). So no need to run the engine until tomorrow or the next day for power reasons.

However, we have already run through all of the water in our tanks. The boat has only 250 liters capacity, about 40% of the original capacity, as the watermaker can produce about 40 liters per hour when it is operating. Kerry and I are now on watch and after I finish this, we are going to dump the 40 litres of water we have on deck in jerry cans into the tanks. This should be good enough to get us through tomorrow.

I'm hoping / betting that the wind will fall further tomorrow and that we might gain some additional speed by motor sailing for a few hours during which time we can top up the water tanks and jerry cans as well as fully charge the batteries. I really don't want to start the engine until we can gain some utility from motoring. If we permanently run out of wind within the next two days, it will be a stretch for our fuel capacity to motor all the way to Port Klang.

Kerry - The aforementioned dinner was certainly an experience. Stove and oven swinging, timing the movement of the boat to shove things in and out of it, catching sliding utensils before flying to the other side of the boat, lighting and re-lighting the burners etc. Fortunately, it all turned out well and the pressure was off as I know all eyes were on the first of my attempts at providing adequate cuisine. Colleen had told me months ago that peanut butter sandwiches wouldn't cut it.

After the kitchen work-out, I was able to get close to six hours of sleep before our watch. The sea is calmer than last night, allowing for fewer collisions with sharp corners. I have welcomed the change. On to helping Aaron fill the water tanks.

12 November, Approx. midday position 16 deg 32' N 113 deg 04' E - Aaron

Midnight to Midnight run: 145 nm

A very active day. Where to begin. After getting about twelve hours sleep yesterday, and taking a strong hit of coffee with Paul as he adjusted to life and got ready for his 0800 watch, I was ready for the day notwithstanding the fact that I had been on watch since 0200. I felt very motivated to start moving on our lengthening list of fixit / organizing jobs.

First stop: bottom spreaders to re-bolt the port spreader light which was working loose. This was my first time going up a rig while under sail. Somehow, one of the bolts holding the spreader light to its bracket had fallen out and the other one was very loose. I noticed from the deck yesterday that the light was wiggling around a lot. This should have been an easy job, but I'm still not that comfortable in a climbing harness on a swinging rig and it took me about 20 minutes to get the bolt in and tightened during which time I sustained multiple bashings. To make sure the nut did not slip again, I coated the threads and all of the other nuts on both lights with Loctite, a red goo that makes an epoxy-like seal between the threads of the nut and bolt. I had to open the cap with my mouth which gave me a recently-fed vampire look on return to deck.

To further improve on my bloody-face routine, I belted myself in the nose with a pair of wire strippers while doing my next job: installing a new light in the galley. I now understand that it is not a good idea to look directly up at the stripper as one pulls down to effect the strip. Nice bruise and open cut on on my shnoz. Anyway, I was able to cut down the old light and reconnect the new one successfully completing my first attempt at an electrical job. Ok this is as simple as it gets, but you've got to start somewhere. I've always been intimidated by the box of multi-colored electrical connectors and various tools for crimping them which came with the boat, but now realize that its really a pretty simple process.

To round out a series of minor victories, I was able to fix the leaky galley faucet. All that was required were two additional "O" rings and an extra lashing of PTFE tape around the threads (thin white tape which is sticky on both sides and helps seal the threads). Again, pretty easy stuff, but I'd never actually done it before. Now that we are out here without help / the yard, we're pushed to fix (or at least attempt to fix) everything ourselves. I'm hoping that only relatively simple things continue to need fixing as we come up the curve.

In the afternoon, we decided to motor for awhile to fill the water tanks a bit, recharge the batteries, and make a bit of speed. Turn the key. Nothing. Look at the connections. All are attached. Mild (but suppressed) panic sets in. Ding... of course. The shaft lock is on. There is a sensor on the control to prevent "idiots" from engaging the shaft while it is locked. Thank God! Ok simply back off the lever... nothing is happening. It went in tough, maybe I need to pull a bit harder.... SNAP! Good job. Broke the cable. Apparently, at the 4-5 knots we were doing, there was too much friction on the pin. Dammit! This should not be like this. We can't stop the boat every time we want to lock / unlock the shaft. What if it's an emergency? Another winner of a job by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Yard.

Paul takes charge and goes down to try to get the pin out manually. I bring the boat into the wind to try to slow her down enough to ease the release. I'm focusing on what Paul is doing in the bilge, not on steering the boat. Colleen yells out "were tacking" ahhhhh - we've got a preventor on as well as a running backstay. She's too far gone, I can't bring her back. Paul is moving faster and more decisively than the rest of us and quickly gets the preventor and starboard genoa sheet off and instructs Kerry to release the port runner. We get the boat on port tack, unsuccessfully attempt an off-speed tack back, and then jibe around back to starboard and back on course for Singapore. Luckily there was not much wind or it could have been real nasty. Paul points out that he's glad it was not a man overboard situation. Key lessons: 1) focus on what you are doing 2) all crew should be ready and able to let off any line under load quickly when necessary.

The fridge. Ay yaaaaa....... Colleen said she heard a "funny noise" in the galley. Sure enough, there was a whirring emanating from under the sink which sounded like a small motor running. On inspection, it seemed as if the fridge (which was off and has not worked to date) was running. The whirring seemed to be the fan and the motor was hot so we were sure the compressor unit had for some reason come back to life and decided to start itself. Very strange though as it was switched off on the circuit board and on the fridge control panel. Oh well, lets see if it will get cold. It did not. So better shut it down. It won't stop. Hmmmm. Doesn't make sense. Perhaps the panel switch is broken. I disconnect it from inside. Still running. Don't understand. This should have cut the power supply. It must be hot-wired somewhere else along the line. Back under the sink, I cut the power supply cables going right into the unit. It's still running!!! Obviously a haunted fridge!!!! But wait a minute. The noise seems to be emanating from a bit further back behind the compressor unit and the unit is also cooling off....

A trip to the engine room reveals that I had left the water maker on when we shut down the engine. A flik of the switch stops the "funny noise". So not only have I severed the fluky fridge's power supply, but possibly trashed the water maker by not shutting it down properly.

While all this was going on, I was receiving and pouring over a steady stream of weather faxes. It seems that the small depression we had been watching has turned into a Tropical Storm and has moved very quickly from about 1,200 miles southeast of us to 300 miles due east of us. Unfortunately, our most recent surface analysis fax is pretty grainy and we are not sure if its a forecast (where the storm will be) or actual. If its actual, then this storm is moving very fast and if we don't move quickly, it will hit us within 24 hours. It does not seem like it could possibly have moved 900 miles in 72 hours, as it was and is still relatively small, but we don't want to hang around and find out.

Engine goes back on and we make for Singapore at 7 knots. (First, however, I depressurize the water maker. We then turn it back on and re-pressurize it. It works fine. This thing seems to keep going no matter how badly I abuse it.) We will keep a close eye on the weather. Hopefully, we can get a clear and up to date fax in the morning.

13 November, Approx. midday position 14 deg 14' N 111 deg 44' E - Aaron

Midnight to Midnight run: 155 nm

The real cruising life. Today was a lazy and relaxing day.

By 0800, the wind had picked up a bit to about 12-15 true and we decided to put in some more sailing time. We need to sail at least 200 miles of the remaining 1,000 (i.e. we've got fuel for only another 800 miles or so of motoring). As the wind will likely get consistently lighter the further South we go, we need to try to sail whenever we can. As a rule of thumb, if we can make better than four knots VMG (velocity made good - the speed at which we are actually making progress to our destination) towards Singapore, the sails go up. Once we get our 200 miles in the bag, we can motor / motor-sail the rest of the way and make 6-7 knots. We need to keep averaging 150 mile days (6 knots / hour) or better if we are to make it by the 21st.

The 1130 surface analysis weather fax brings relief as it it turns out that the fax we saw yesterday was a projection and the storm is still 500 miles away - and it looks to be heading North.

Yesterday, we changed the genoa from our working 130% #2 to our medium 150% #1. A good exercise in sail handling for Kerry as well as general review for all. We also threw a reef in the main late last night during our watch (Kerry and I) as the sail was flogging a lot due to the roll of the boat through the swell. Kerry is steadily absorbing the various concepts and procedures. Fortunately, the conditions are forgiving and Paul and I can (hopefully) provide decent explanations on the hows and whys of what we are doing.

So this morning, we decided to go wing-on-wing dead downwind and poled the 150% genoa out to port and strapped the main out as far to starboard as possible with the boom preventor. We also poled out the staysail to starboard with the reaching strut. Although we were about 10 degrees low on our course for Singapore, we were able to make an average of 5 knots VMG.

With the sails set and poled out, and the bimini pulled over the cockpit, we settled in for our first of two bacon-based meals prepared by Paul. Given the fridge situation, the only meat left in edible condition was the bacon (due to its high concentration of carcinogenic preservatives I guess). A yummy brunch of bacon, scrambled eggs, and fried veggies. Our first "civilized" meal using the new cockpit table.

Naps, photo taking, book reading, and general lazing consumed most of the remainder of the day. But just as we were finishing Paul's delicious Bacon and Mushroom Linguini dinner, Paul looked up and said "there's some action on that rod" pointing to the port trolling gear. Sure enough, the pole was twitching in that distinctive pattern that indicates a billfish is having a think about dinner (they whap their prey with their bills to stun it before they chow down). Wheeeee...... the line shrieks out. Paul jumps to the poop deck to grab the rod, I take the boat out of gear (we're motoring again since 1630) and hop down below to get the video camera. By the time I'm on deck, the fish is gone from the line, but still visible jumping and jumping and charging off in a maddened state. It's a big (for us) marlin and Paul estimates it was 200 to 300 pounds. Beautiful fish. The line comes back roughened and broken (brand new 80 lb. test). Seems like he probably hit it with his bill weakening it and then was able to break it with a hard snap of his head. We also had the drag set pretty tight and the boat was still moving forward at 4-5 knots. Oh well. Too big for us to have kept anyway. We do need to catch a fish tomorrow though or we will have to move on to canned food.

Boat Babes

14 November, Approx. midday position 12 deg 13' N 110 deg 16' E - Aaron

Midnight to Midnight run: 160 nm

We continued to motor-sail through the night, but with the wind again picking up at dawn, went back to our wing on wing mode at 0830. We've been making an average of 6.5 knots so far which puts us in Klang early in the morning of the 20th (a ten day trip). Looks like I'm well positioned to win the ETA bet. If we can only get in another 24 hours of sailing at 6 knots or better, we will have enough fuel to motor the rest of the way if need be.

I spoke too soon the other day about the watermaker. For some reason, it stopped working after a couple of hours of operation in the wee hours of the morning. Nothing happens when the on / off button is pushed. Seems like the electrical circuit must have shaken loose or the feeder pump (which pumps the water out of the sea, through the primary filters, and then to the high pressure pump which blasts it through the osmotic membrane where the water is "made") may have packed up.

As we don't have gauges on our water tanks, its difficult to tell how much we have. I believe they were about half full when we started production last night and that we probably made another 10 or 20 gallons before it packed up. All in, we've probably got enough for three days of normal use ex-showers (though we've plenty of additional bottled drinking water to make it for a week if necessary).

I really did mean to take a crack at fixing the beast today, but today is my galley slave day and I was too busy / knackered to tackle it. My "vegetable soup", which consisted only of rice, onions, and carrots, was not a big hit, although everybody pretended to like it (Kerry was reportedly waiting for me to duck my head back down in the galley so she could chuck it overboard I found out later). Hey, I can't help it if we are running out of good food! Paul, catch some fish!!!!....

...He almost did: two on and two off during the day. At least we are getting into fish country. Perhaps tomorrow...

15 November, Approx. midday position 9 deg 39' N 108 deg 07' E - Kerry / Aaron

Midnight to Midnight run: 205 nm

Kerry - Having switched my 2:00 am to 8:00 am nightwatch schedule with Colleen, I have spent the last two nights on the much more reasonable 8:00 p.m. to 2:00 am watch with Paul. It has been really quiet tonight, no boats and not many stars as it is very cloudy.

I survived yet another day of galley duty. Similar to what is now termed road-rage, the uncontrollable feelings of frustration and anger while sitting in traffic or driving in downtown Boston near the central artery project, I have come to know galley-rage. One has no control over the conditions surrounding him or her, and is driven to the edge by the challenges presented by fixing an otherwise simple meal.

I was fortunate today to have fresh fish to work with for both lunch and dinner. Tuna marinated in Aaron's leftover salad dressing for lunch, and dorado marinated in garlic, lemon, onions, shallots, and lemon zest (KAZ - I hope you are reading this) for dinner. Though I had a favorable day of duty to the fresh ingredients available to me, it still didn't make up for the angst brought on by the slipping, sliding, and flying kitchen items. An Olympic event of sorts, it is a work-out in and of itself. As Colleen summarized, the only satisfaction she receives throughout her day on duty lies in the knowledge that she doesn't have to do it again for another three days.

The snickers rations are running low - causing deep suspicions that there may be some amongst us who are not keeping accurate track of their own ration. We should be breaking into the cookies soon - though who will monitor those rations, I can't say - none can be trusted at this point.

While I cooked most of the day away, Paul caught the fish (a dorado, a tuna, and a wahoo), Colleen recovered from a difficult evening the night before when Aaron's rice and carrot soup spilled all over her lap, and Aaron spent his time in the engine room trying to fix the water-maker. Almost as important as the snickers ration discussion, we will need to start rationing the water as well if the water-maker isn't fixed soon. Showers are already scarce.

Aaron - We are thumping along!!! Just before Colleen and I came on watch at 0200, the wind had come up to about 20 knots true dead behind us and Paul and Kerry had the boat moving at an average of eight knots. Paul had extended the main sheet so the sail could go fully out while the 150% genoa was poled out on the other side. I eased off the backstay exposing more sail area and bringing the rig forward a bit and we picked up even more speed surfing down some waves and close to 10 knots. A full moon-lit sleigh ride. The wind stayed strong and steady all day and we put in a whopping 205 miles all under sail (possibly a boat record?) We now have more than enough fuel to make it all the way to Klang under power if need be and I am pretty confident we will make it by the morning of the 20th.

Thumping along at an average of 8.5 knots towards Singapore

With galley duty behind me, and the boat pretty comfortable heading straight down wind in following seas, there are no excuses not to attack the water maker. First, I changed all the filters to see if a blockage had resulted in stopping the pump. No luck. Next I removed the primary pump and tested it directly on the battery - whirrr hey it works! The problem must simply be a loose connection somewhere. Pump put back in with new electrical connections. Clean and reconnect all wires in the control panel. Flick the switch: nothing. One last wire to trace: power supply. Sure enough, one of the wires was broken at the contact point where it hooks into the power supply to the starter motor on the engine. Replace and reconnect, switch on the unit: whirr from the primary pump and click from the high pressure pump. We are in biz.... I'm so proud of myself given how generally useless I am with mechanical and electrical things. Time to make water. Not. Everything switches on, but no water seems to be coursing through its veins. I've opened the seacock. All hoses are reconnected. I can't see water spouting out anywhere. Perhaps the impeller in the primary pump is trashed. We run a bucket of water through the cleaning intake valve: slurrrrrrrrp it sucks it right down. Hmmmmmm. Do I have to siphon the salt water up to the pump (which is located above the waterline)? Too late to push on. Try again tomorrow. Sticky smelly bodies and or salt water showers tonight!

Note: For those who care (John Potter?), the solution was to route a tube directly from the sea cock to the primary pump and to lower the pump below the waterline. This resulted in positive pressure to the pump from the sea water inlet. How the hell it worked before I do not know. Will have to continue experimenting.

16 November, Approx. midday position 7 deg 14' N 107 deg 29' E - Colleen

Midnight to Midnight run: 165 nm

Its 4am (Nov 17th now), and we're two hours into our night watch. I'm starting to feel sleepy again. Last night we were all feeling pretty grotty without showers, deep humidity, and no sure relief in sight from the water maker. Around 6am during our watch, there was evidence of a rain shower building in the distance. Aaron and I got some good practice running around deck taking down the sails, and lashing everything to the boat in anticipation of the black clouds rolling our way. As the storm hit just around sunrise, the sky had an errie orange glow to it with grey chunks all over the horizon of the rain water lines. As soon as we had finished "battening down the hatches" our immediate thoughts turned to hygiene. Our opportunity to finally catch a shower. We ran down and put on our bathing suits and grabbed the shampoo. There was just about enough rain water to lather up and rinse off. God did that feel good.

We ended the watch at 8am feeling clean and ready for naps. Aaron and I slept for about an hour and a half and Kerry continued sleeping while Paul got up for his watch. The three of us then reemerged around 10:00am to stifling heat and no wind. It was as if my shower had done me no good at all. Feeling groggy and hot, the three of us just sat looking at each other in the cockpit for ten minutes, trying to come back into this world. I, unfortunately had to come back to the world in a very concrete way - its the day of my dreaded galley duty.

Just to think about facing the galley I had to stand by the side of the boat and pour buckets of sea water over me for a few minutes. The salty residue isn't too nice, but its the only way to cool your body temperature down. Against Aaron's good advice, I was still a bit wet by the time I went down to the galley. Slipping across the galley floor with my wet feet didn't help my mood. I somehow managed to produce, chips and guacamole, as well as a tomato cream soup (the pressure cooker is coming in very handy). We finished off with pomelo. Eating lunch in the cockpit, we got very silly. I think its somehow related to lack of oxygen flow to the brain.

I hadn't even started the dishes and I was already on afternoon watch. I spent most of the watch cleaning up after lunch and preparing for dinner. Paul caught a nice tuna; I prepared a marinade of lemon juice, orange juice, shallots, onions, ginger and garlic. Paul gave himself and his laundry a salt water bath, and Kerry made the first attempt at "exercise". She seemed to lift a few diving weights and make situp-type motions on the foredeck. Aaron read the gripping "12 Volt Bible" to prepare himself for another wrestle with the water maker later in the evening.

Other diversions included weighing the cats with Paul's fish scale. We've had a long going debate about Basil's weight. Paul been claiming he's only about 3.5lbs, the rest of us claimed at least 5 or 6. Fatty actually weighed in at 10lbs! Even scrawny Cybil managed 7lbs. Must be all those tuna scraps we've been feeding them the past few days... After dinner we lamented over our dirtiness again and backed up Aaron in his attempt at the water maker. There is a god because around 8:30pm, he finally got it going. I'm sure you were all riveted by Aaron's detailed essay on the watermaker situation in the last entry, but I'll spare you the nitty gritty for today. Time to get some sleep then for my 2am watch. I tried sleeping in Kerry's cabin for the first time to avoid the noise of the engine and chatter heard from the aft cabin. I had the best night sleep of the trip I think. Kerry and Paul looked very satisfied as they finished watch. Apparently Kerry taught him how to play backgammon during the session, and won 15 of 20 games.

Dodger Patrol

17 November, Approx. midday position 4 deg 40' N 106 deg 11' E - Kerry

Paul and I did have an enjoyable evening on watch, complete with a small backgammon match. Between each game, we'd check the boat (and semi-tenuous-looking jury-rigged watermaker), check for other boats, and continue with the competition. Though Colleen reported the score incorrectly (a small detail which maybe she thought I would overlook), it was a successful night. As Paul has had his warm-up round, tonight we may place a small wager - to keep the night watch moving along. I may venture to gamble for a night of Paul's galley duty if he'll wager a surrender of the Van Halen CD's for the remainder of the trip.

No more cat games today - we are running out of entertainment on the seventh day of our trip. Paul did catch another nice size dorado and is currently preparing a curry to accompany it for dinner. Watermaker running, we all enjoyed freshwater rinses once again. Colleen's favored cool-down, salt-water rinses are at risk as the second of our two buckets may also be lost at sea - emergency retrieval procedures are in process as I type.

Backgammon update - After conferring with Colleen about her assumed jesting in the score report, I have since learned that it was entered after she had finished her entry. Locating the ghost-writer should not prove difficult - I will have to monitor the entry of results in the future.

19 November, Approx. afternoon position 2 deg 01' N 102 deg 18' E - Kerry

We have skipped a lot of the past two days as they turned out to be to busy to write the log. I'll try and detail the highlights. Two nights ago, 17 Nov, we hit our first squall. Paul and I were on duty and it came on very fast. We were one day out of Singapore, the skies darkened, lights in the distance became foggy, and the rain came down. We closed the hatches, threw on our jackets, and prepared to sail threw the storm. Fortunately, we had the foresight to put the staysail up and it helped steady the boat as we made our way through the waves. Paul steered, I hung over the leeward side, trying to look for boats and buoys through waves of fresh and salt water. The only way to really sight anything was when the lightening hit, and it did often, illuminating the entire sky. We increased our speed from about 4 knots to over 9 in a matter of minutes. An exciting event and one which we handled well.

Yesterday, we encountered another squall mid-day which turned out to be a much more festive occasion. Though again, it took us somewhat by surprise and we almost had an accidental tack. Colleen let out the staysail, but unfortunately the sheets became entangled and were whipping around ferociously. I untangled them over a five minute period when I could safely grab hold of one or the other, and we were soon sailing again. As the winds died down and all four of us were on deck, we were soon able to run down below and grab soap and shampoo for long, much needed showers on deck (the water-maker is working once again, but we are trying to be conservative with our fresh water rations). Aaron maneuvered the boat so that when ready, he could give one of us a rinse under the mainsail with all the water that had collected there. Anyone looking on through binoculars would have had an afternoon full of entertainment. Paul made hot chocolate afterwards and it was a pleasant way to end a really hot day.

Paul and I had the 8:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. watch as we approached and passed through the Singapore Straits while Aaron stayed up and navigated. There were many tankers, fishing boats, both large and small, as well as floating buoys attached to netting below to look out for (Basil also helped sitting on the dodger and mewing when buoys passed close by). I was unnerved as we passed closely to some outlying islands and what I thought was a small fishing boat which started to follow us. Having been filled with so many piracy stories before beginning this trip, my mind started to race with different scenarios and how to handle them. However, it soon turned away. Most probably, we were a little to close to the islands, and had we crossed over into the waters nearer to Singapore, causing the boat monitoring the area to make sure we registered and visited customs.

The skies once again grew dark and we anticipated another squall. This time, we were very prepared, fully suited up in foul weather gear and the boat secured. Not surprisingly then, it never amounted to more than a light fall of rain. It still cooled things down, and it was more welcome than not.

Aaron and Colleen began their watch at 0200 and though it was challenging, it was surprising to Colleen how well it went. They swerved out of the way of many large ships, both underway and at anchor in the Singapore Straits, and brought us safely into the Straits of Malacca by morning.

Sunrise in the Straits of Malacca

Our watches today were filled with avoiding flotillas of small, local fishing boats, as well as several large tankers. Contrary to everything I had heard, all boats have been friendly, waving as we pass. We never encountered another storm as we thought we would, but it has been drizzling for the last few hours which has taken the bite out of the direct heat.

I finished with my last day of galley duty on this stretch. I attempted to make a potato curry. Somewhere between the chili peppers and ginger, I missed something. Colleen was generous, claiming it really was a nice curry. I tried to compensate with a hidden stash of cookies for dessert. I highly doubt it countered the disappointing main dish.

Other events today included Aaron's fixing of the "windless" - our anchor - so that we will be able to safely anchor when needed. Paul caught up on some much needed rest, and Colleen caught up on her reading - No Ordinary Time. I probably shouldn't have put that in print as our reading is supposed to consist mainly of sailing related themes. I have already gone through a scintillating selection of books, Troubles At Float, How to Handle A Spinnaker, Fastnet 10 (a re-counting of disasters at sea during the Fastnet race of 1979), First Time Crew - Colleen and I enjoyed the section in there about relationships at sea most. When no one is looking, I have been reading Thoreau's The Maine Woods - Aaron's affinity for Maine may put that one on the accepted reading list. Colleen may not be so lucky trying to apply the Roosevelts to sailing, or Maine.

Aaron believes we should arrive in Port Klang by sunrise, ready for life on land again, and food not derived from the remains of our provisioning despite the amazing creations we have enjoyed of lemons, tomatoes, and carrots.

Midnight to Midnight run: 185 nm

20 November, Port Klang, Malaysia, 2 deg 50' N 101 deg 15' E - Aaron

Midnight to 0600 run: 20 nm

0500 - Thanks to a favorable current, we have made unbelievable time through the Singapore and are now drifting under staysail and main towards the entry to Port Klang at 2-3 knots. I figured it made sense to turn off the "donk" as Paul calls it giving it and the crew a rest as well as helping us to time our landfall for first light. If we had motored all the way up the straits, we could have been at the entry to the port at around 0200 indicating that the 1,600 plus mile trip would have been completed in less than ten days. It took us 11 days to make the 1,450 mile trip from Singapore to Hong Kong in April. As it is, we will make it in ten days flat which is as fast as could have reasonably been hoped. It seems strange that we have completed almost 10% of the entire distance of our planned 18 month trip with this first leg.

The trip must be considered a huge success. We made great time, no one got hurt, and we were challenged just enough that we all learned a lot / sharpened our sailing and engineering skills. It was really a shakedown cruise so of course not everything worked perfectly. The leaking in the aft cabin continues and is my biggest concern. Also the roller furler, which was "reconditioned" at great expense in HK, is not working and must be overhauled when we get into port (pls note: the "reconditioner" [who in fact did a good job] asks me to point you towards the next section). The fridge, watermaker, and shaft lock are the other primary casualties. Lastly, the oil pressure gauge all of a sudden started giving much lower readings this morning with the needle vibrating wildly. There are no visible oil leaks and no excess oil in the bilge. The oil level was also normal. I added 5 quarts of oil just to be safe, but still the pressure is reading much lower than it was before. However, as the engine temperature remained normal and there were no "funny" noises or smells, I am guessing that it is the "new" gauge that is acting up. We must check this out in Klang however as if there is a pressure problem, the engine is at serious risk of sustaining damage.

The next two days will be crazily busy as we get ourselves and the boat ready for the Raja Muda Regatta and trip up the Malaysian coast to Thailand. Our three new crew, Penny, Joanna, and Laura, will be joining us tomorrow. Paul will be leaving to go back to HK the day after. We were very fortunate that he was able to come with us. He did a huge amount of the preparation work and made many improvements to the boat while underway. Most importantly, his seamanship skills were of huge benefit to us all. Without him, the trip would have probably been more of a stressful than enjoyable experience. We hope he can join us again in the future.

Arrival in Port Klang

Kerry - At approximately 9:30 this morning, we arrived in Port Klang in style as can be seen in the photo above. Aaron gave a commanding appearance as we pulled into our first port draped in a towel with a stylish sail-tie to accentuate his waist. In an attempt to look as though we were together after our first leg of the trip, we pulled all the sails in as we motored in to the Royal Selangor Yacht Club. As Aaron gave the orders and demanded that we find another sail-tie, we realized coincidentally, he happened to be sporting one of the only remaining sail-ties. We were led to a mooring, and soon after took the launch to the club with all of our laundry and garbage accumulated from the 10 days.

After getting our bearings, Paul, Colleen and I had our first appetizing meal in days at the club. Aaron departed for customs and immigration, and eventually Kuala Lumpur to retrieve a box from B&G at the airport (full story to follow from Aaron). Paul almost had to follow soon after to pick up his plane ticket from KL to Singapore to catch his flight home, but Colleen and I found him along the road and re-routed him through town to get his ticket instead. The travel agent told him he had to make the trip (at least several hours) to KL to purchase the ticket - fortunately, the local travel agent was able to provide the same services.

Later, we enjoyed a dinner together to the music of Yellow Jackets, a Malaysian cover band. The expanse of their repertoire was impressive. My personal favorite was the ten minute James Brown medley. The lead singer announced that though he may not look like James Brown in his physical appearance, he did in another way. The dancing began and all eyes were upon him. From there, we heard the Beatles, Santana, Kenny Rogers, and more. We have one day to prepare the boat for the beginning of the race and we still await the arrival of our three crew Laura, Joanna, and Penny.

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