After Pewter's outfitting in Penang, we sailed down the Straits of Malacca in November 2008. It was a trip that I rather forget. We encountered a sudden Sumatra storm when the winds in 5 minutes rose from zero to 38 knots. As we has all our sails out, we ripped the main and the stay sails before we could react to the storm and drop the sails. The next night Pewter was hit by an unlit barge. We're luck that the barge only clipped the bowspit, otherwise we would have sunk.
We ended up in Port Dickson for the next few months to have the bowspit repaired. We now have an expensive all stainless steel bowspit. hooray,no more having to fix the rusty bowspit.
Cruised up the east coast of Malaya in May. Pulaus Sibu, Tinggi,Tioman, Tenggol, Kapas, Redang and Perhentian. Still a very beautiful part of Malaya. The waters are clear with visibility to 1o metres, rich coral growth and lots of coral fishes. Sadly the big fishes have all been caught. The fishing boats are very ruthless and indiscriminating. They use nets with tiny mesh size that catch every thing that swim past, so much so that there are now very few edible fish in the sea. Resorts line all the beautiful beaches and the nesting sites for the turtles are disappearing. The turtle eggs are still harvested and sold in the markets. Thank goodness for groups that have formed to buy the eggs from the collectors and hatch the babies in sanctuary. We visited one in Juara Bay, Tioman. We're also very lucky to see a turtle on the beach early one morning in Juara Bay. She has just finished lying her eggs and was laboriously covering the hole . It was heart rending to see how difficult it was for her to flip sand over the huge hole. The journey back to the sea was just as tiring. You can just about hear her sigh of relief once she hit the water. Little did she know that all her eggs have been removed by the local villager and she was covering an empty hole. The sanctuary had to buy that batch of eggs at RM 2.50 per egg.
Sailing down the east coast was very difficult as we had head winds through the whole journey down. I think the best time to sail down the coast is after the end of the SW monsoon season, wait for the NE monsoon to develop in November. Bashing the boat against the wind, tide and swells was very wearing on the spirit, not to say on the boat too.
