Tanjung Piai

Hi everyone,
We are now anchored at Tanjung Piai, at the southernmost tip of the Malay Peninsula. We are at 01 16.14N, 103 21.51E, in 5m of water. - only about 75nm to the equator! We arrived at 1710 and half an hour later had a light rain shower to wash down the decks for us. Good timing.  Our track is shown in green below...

Zen Again Track

The passage was pretty good compared to Zen Again's other passages in this area. We motored for about 55% of the time, and of that 2/3 was motor-sailing. So we sailed with the motor OFF for 45% of the passage which was great. The wind barely got above 12 knots true but was almost always ahead of the beam which helps in light winds. We logged 144nm (for an average of 4.7 knots) but covered 14nm less over the ground, so overall had the tide against us.

Many big cargo ships passed us as we proceeded SE just outside the shipping lane. We encountered about 8 tug/barge combos, but only a handful of fishing vessels. We saw very few fishing nets - far fewer than during Sail Malaysia in November 2012. Robert is rapidly getting his head around the lights shown by the various vessels, including the somewhat random lights shown by fishing vessels.

Motorsailing

The defining feature of the passage was the haze.  Visibility was reduced to less than 5nm for most of the passage.  In the small hours of the morning we could smell the smoke and the loom of the masthead tricolour light showed smoke streaming past the masthead.  There were securite broadcasts on the VHF warning all vessels of reduced visibility and most of the big ships did seem to be moving slower than usual.

The boat went very well, despite still having a lot of barnacles awaiting removal. She reaches very well under full main and #2 headsail once the wind get to 10 knots or so.

Tomorrow we will head towards Nongsa Point Marina on the Indonesian island of Batam. We plan to spend a couple of days there. Hopefully our papers are in order for clearing in to Indonesia.