A 250 million year old granite rock playground.

When I talk about us spending the whole day going from government office to office, this is the form we are in search of. Show up in a new country without port clearance (widely known as a zarpe), and you will almost certainly be turned away.

We sailed out of Belitung headed for Puteri Harbor, Malaysia (just a stone’s throw across the water from Singapore). This passage is a mere 360 miles and should take 3-4 days max, but currents along this northbound passage are strong and virtually always running southbound. In addition, there is virtually no wind through here, and the little that was forecast would be on the nose.

The first 120 miles took us two days of motoring, which is twice as long as normal, and I was already starting to sweat our diesel situation. Our motoring range is normally ~600 miles, so if we were only getting half of normal we were not going to make it to Malaysia. There was only one island with diesel available along the rest of the trip, and if I were to go ashore there to get it I’d technically be breaking the law, as we were already cleared out of the country. There was a lot of math being done and charts being pored over.

Not only is this a terrible stretch of sailing, but it’s also an area that is covered in fishing. The entire trip would be spent in water under 100 feet deep, so you run into everything from fishing boats, to floating nets, to giant floating structures, all of which you do not want to run into. At night the horizon—all 360 degrees—lights up as bright as day, but in between those far off bright lights are countless small flashing green, red, and blue lights, and it is virtually impossible to determine if those lights are 50 meters or 5,000 meters away. Sometimes you find yourself staring at a light for hours, other times you poke your head up and realize that light is floating past you ten feet off to the side. And who knows what’s being run over in the dark. It’s a crapshoot.

Most, but not all, of the time the small fishermen will be attached to a floating flag buoy at some point, and they generally don’t want you to run in between them. Of course, that flag might be close to them like in this picture, or it may be half a mile away, with a series of small white floats between the two of them. They keep you on your toes.

Then there are these sticks. You almost never see these until you are right up next to them.

Another hundred miles in the books. After four nights we had covered just 240 miles. With about 120 miles to go I decided we might make it without getting more diesel, so we passed our last chance at fuel and crossed our fingers. We were approaching a narrow pass between a couple of larger islands, and the current was ripping. It would ease and then flip northbound early the next morning so we dropped anchor a mile offshore for the night in what felt like a rushing river.

I rejoiced in the morning when, for the first time in days, we caught a favorable current. We were zooming along at 8 knots for an hour or two when the storm clouds began to gather on the horizon.

We watched the small boat fishermen as they headed for some protection behind the island. In about one minute we wouldn’t be able to see ten feet in front of us. It would blow through in about thirty minutes, though, and we’d motor out the other side with a clean boat.

It’s so hard to believe that there are any fish left in the sea.

Ahh, finally approaching the Strait of Malacca. Let the filth begin.

Obviously, this is one of the busiest stretches of water in the world. While all the big ships are running east-west or west-east, we’re headed straight north through the middle of them. It’s a game of Frogger, but one where you want to leap from one patch of open water to the next. The trick is that while we’re moving along at about 5 knots, these green triangles are mostly cruising along between about 8 and 18.

As if dodging ships wasn’t challenging enough.

You’d think the presence of all these ships might stop the small fishermen from dropping nets everywhere. You’d be wrong.

And… we’re across.

A hotel built out on the water. Behind this you can see what is called Forest City. It’s actually a ghost town. Chinese investors built tens of thousands of apartments in the middle of nowhere, and nobody moved in. Surprise. We’d soon get to visit our own ghost town, called Puteri Harbour, about ten miles further on.

Occupancy of Forest City is estimated at 1%.

While Puteri Harbour may be a similar ghost town, it’s a perfect place to land aboard your own boat. The marina is dirt cheap, and for just a couple of dollars they handle all of the customs/immigration clearance for you. With ten minutes of effort, we were cleared into the country and free to do whatever we wanted. There are a few mediocre restaurants lining the marina, and a grocery store nearby with a surprising selection of western goodies. But the real reason we cruisers come here is so we can leave the boat while we go visit Singapore which is just across the water.

Day one at a marina is always the same. Wash, wash, wash. We hadn’t spent a night in a marina since leaving Fiji, so it was good to get in there and give it a proper scrubbing under the armpits and all.

Walking the docks of Puteri Harbour at night.

Notice the number of lights on in the buildings.

After a six-day passage to cover just 360 miles, we were more than happy to be tied up in Malaysia.