After a successful trip up to Batam Island we pulled into Nongsa Point Marina on the north western tip to enjoy once again being tied up to a dock. This time however instead of the docks falling apart it was a first class resort with a beautiful marina and most importantly a huge swimming pool. We had little time to enjoy it though as we were there to get fuel, water and groceries and then check out of Indonesia. It was sad to be leaving a country we've enjoyed so much but we were also excited to be going somewhere completely new. The formalities went extremely smoothly, very different from our check-in in Kupang, and everyone seemed honestly sad to see us go!
At 8:30 yesterday morning after the final clearance from customs was given we headed out of Batam and into the crazy Singapore Straights! This is one of the busiest shipping areas in the world and we had to sail from South to North across the main shipping lanes running from East to West. Imagine playing the game frogger but instead of logs they were giant tankers and instead of a frog it was Blue Moon. We had to pick a time with the biggest gap between ships and just push as hard as we could to the other side without getting run down. It would be impossible for the ships to stop as they all run at 12 minute intervals and if one slows down there would be some major accidents. So we pushed our way across without any hiccups and were very happy to slow the engine down and just enjoy the sights and sounds of the Singapore skyline. There was one small incident, however, when we decided to take a short cut through some islands on the Singapore side and were approached by the coast guard who asked us to move as quickly as possible out of the live firing range and did we check our charts you stupid people because we could very easily have be hit!...better navigation next time!!
Our final destination was Tanjung Puteri on the Malaysian side of Western Singapore, there's a relatively narrow channel that runs between Malaysia and Singapore which is joined at the top by a Causeway and we headed up the western side to anchor off a newly developed marina which was supposed to be finished by next month. On arrival we realized that the project was way behind schedule and so we had to anchor for the night in a muddy work site! This obviously wasn't the place to be so this morning we picked up anchor and carried on up the channel to where we are now in Danga Bay. This is a much nicer anchorage in a wide bay with good holding and forest on one side and the town of Jahor Baru on the other. We were met this morning by the supervisor of the unfinished marina who took us to complete our clearance into Malaysia and even gave us a free tour of the area. So now we are now officially checked into Malaysia for no cost at all and a great start to a new country!
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