Sailing up the Malacca Strait along the coastline of Malaysia.
Sailing up the Malacca Strait is not proving to be particularly exciting. And 'sailing' is a stretch. More like motor sailing at it's best and plain old motoring as the norm.
With the wind head on - dubbed a noserly - it is not easy keeping wind in the sails. Often it's not worth our time to put up the heavy mainsail so we are running on just the headsail. Or more accurately, the headsail is doing alot of flapping. And we are doing alot of tacking back and forth. 2 miles north, 2 miles south west to get 1 mile in the right direction. Makes for some really long days to get 30 miles up the strait. One of our fellow yachties sailed 37 miles back and forth to get only 17 miles up the strait. Tedious work, this sailing caper can be. So much for being in a Strait 🤔. I'm renaming it the Malacca Zigzag.
One of our overnight anchorages was an island called Pulau Besar. We decided on a 2 night stopover as this gorgeous looking island deserved to be explored. With its huge boulders scattered around the bay and lovely white beaches against a backdrop of lush jungle, it called to us.
the gorgeous Pulau Besar
It's predominantly a Indian Muslim island as there is a sacred burial tomb from the 1400s of a sultan who brought the Islam religion to the area.
There is a deserted resort and a huge golf course that was built in the 1990s. The resort is a massive Spanish style complex of buildings, villas, streets and paths. The golf course ranges over many hectares and is well maintained but never used.
The locals protested the resort, as the island is a sacred spiritual place for the Muslim community. Having a resort here meant alcohol, partying and probably bikini clad women. Not happening, they said. The resort had barely opened when they were forced to shut down. Rumours abound of hauntings, of guests going to sleep in their rooms and waking up on the beach. We had to check this out!
The barred gates had a sign that intermated that we would be held up at gun point, or shot, if we entered the area. We found an alternative beach entrance minus the sign 😉. It certainly had a spooky air about it as we wandered through the neglected resort buildings. The architecture was stunning, with juliette wrought iron balconies, barn style doors and chandeliers. The complex still very impressive even in its abandoned state.
intimidating much?
We trekked through the lonely fairways of the golf course, all whipper snipped and neatly mowed. The only ones playing on the course was a family of wild boar. Daddy boar stood his ground with several deep grunts at us before turning tail and disappearing into the jungle. Beautiful timber chalets lined the edge of the golf course beside the beach. All fully furnished and slowly rotting.
well maintained fairways for no-one
beautiful timber chalets left to rot
We stopped in at the Muslim community area where the sacred tomb was and asked the locals where we might find some lunch. They immediately invited us to join them in a communal meal of rice and curry. What a treat for us and a delicious curry too. Fresh killed goat and an Indian influence in the flavours. No utencils, fingers only. I haven't mastered the art of picking up rice, dipping in curry then getting it into my mouth without dropping it straight down my front. I'm sure I'm the butt of the chuckles as I try to eat my fill. Most entertaining. As luck and a thorough search would have it, on this occasion I found a plastic teaspoon. Bon apetit.
In 2015 the government brought electricity to the island. Quite the sight to see. Power lines spanning from mainland Malaysia across 15 miles of sea to Pulau Bsear. Yep, no under ocean power lines here. Just many low hanging lines waiting to catch an unsuspecting yacht or two.
Having explored the island, it was time to head out, the long way round to avoid those power lines of course, and tack back and forth in the noserly wind to reach the old town of Melaka.
Until next time, Watusi Woman - finger foodie, out.
