LANGKAWI, MALAYSIA TO PORT BLAIR,
ANDAMAN IS.
FEBRUARY 23-28, 2016
We departed
the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club berth at 1230 hrs on February 23rd: distance 536nm. The forecast from Predict Wind indicated
light winds from the NE switching to W’ly in the afternoon. Initially, we set a jib for going out of Kuah
and ghosted along at 2.5 kts. At 1500
hrs we set a full mainsail w/full jib.
The wind, as predicted, backed into the W at 10-12 kts. This continued throughout the night with the
wind slowly veering to the NW. By the
morning of February 24th, it was back into the NE and
increasing. At 1000 hrs I put a double
reef into the mainsail as the wind was increasing to 15-18 kts with higher
gusts. This is a normal Wx pattern for
Thai and north Malaysian waters: wind
starts to blow in the evening and continues into the morning and then starts to
die out in the afternoon. At this
time of year –NE Moonsoon – Wx systems
affecting the eastern Gulf of Siam blow across the mainland and produce strong winds
on the western side. In the forecast, I
could see that this was due to happen in a few days. At 1600 hrs we were becalmed about six nm to
the west of the Thai island of Ko Racha Noi in position 07-24.2’N;
98-13.9’E: dropped all sail and waited
for wind. The wind started to blow from
the E at 1936 hrs at 15 kts. Our course
to Port Blair was 309 degrees; with the wind in the E, I decided to sail under
reefed jib until the wind settled in direction one way or another. This proved to be a good choice: by 2200 hrs the wind was blowing 20 kts gusting 25 and the seas started to pick
up to 6’. This was pretty much the Wx
pattern over the next couple of days:
short choppy seas and wind in the NE or E at 20 kts dropping down to 15
kts, at times, and then back up again.
At 0600 hrs
on the morning of February 25th, we ran into a small patch of
“overfalls” in position 07-50.7’N; 97-27.1’E.
This is a kind of Tide Rip where the seas heap up and break in all
different directions. It like being in a
Witches’ Cauldron that’s being steered in a seething mass of boiling water. Some of the waves are standing straight up and
collapsing; everywhere white water is
breaking. This is an unnerving
experience and even more pronounced when seas are enhancing the effects. Fortunately, we were on the southern end of
the overfalls and went through them in about ten minutes. As I looked to the North, I could see that
they extended for several miles with white water breaking everywhere. Most times, “Overfalls” are indicated on the
Maritime Charts: Many happen during
Spring Tides at the full Moon. Indeed,
those are the conditions we were experiencing but they were not charted.
At 0200 hrs
on February 26, Phyllis pointed out that the sky to the SE was getting very
dark. I turned on the radar and saw that
there was a very heavy black band of showers.
These things are unpredictable as they approach: possibly strong winds and wind changes direction
unexpectedly. With this in mind, I
dropped the double reefed mainsail and furled the jib. We lay ahull (helm over and secured drifting
with wind and seas) until they passed. By 0500 hrs the showers had moved off and
conditions improved so we got U/W once again on reefed jib: wind was in the E at 10-20 kts. We have had a favorable current running with
us since we left Langakawi: 1-3kts. Even being becalmed and lying ahull, we have
averaged out a little over 104 nm from noon to noon on February 24th
and again on February 25th. On
February 26th, we managed to make 111 nm from noon to noon. On February 27th, we averaged 133
nm at 5.5 kts. At 0330 hrs, Phyllis, ran
into another patch of overfalls that scared the shit out of her. I was off watch and sleeping when she called
me to “come quickly”: I ran up naked and
confused. During the rest of February 27th,
the Wx continued to improve with the wind holding in the NE at 10-15 kts and
seas at 3-5’. This makes for enjoyable
sailing. Our ETA for Port Blair was
going to be 0400 hrs on February 28th so there was no need to put up
the mainsail; we were making 5.5 kts under reefed jib. That favorable current was magic!
We made
landfall at Port Blair and dropped anchor at 0918 hrs on Sunday February 28th
in position: 11-41.255N; 92-42.560 on muddy bottom with
33’ water depth. Port Blair is a wide
generous bay with all kinds of anchoring
possibilities. Our final tally
for the voyage was: 536 nm in 106.8 hrs
@5.0 kts. That’s very good speed given
that most of it was done under reefed jib.
It took us
2-1/2 days to clear Customs, Immigration and Coast Guard. We did not get off the boat until Wednesday
morning. That’s unusual and we don’t
really understand what happened. As a
result of the delay, we decided not to visit some of the more beautiful
places: Havelock and Neil Island. Additionally, we have found that the internet
is the slowest anywhere in the world that we have visited. I made the mistake of not getting the Online
Visa for Sri Lanka in Langkawi and have spent the last three days trying to do
it. In the end, I had to contact a
shipping agent in Sri Lanka to have it done as a “third party” action. We may sail from here not knowing if we have
a visa or not.
The plan is
to sail from Port Blair on Tuesday morning March 8th for
Trincommalle, Sri Lanka: 825 nm.
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