Sebana Cove, Malaysia

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...here we are, the lovely Sebana Cove Resort ....after a somewhat harrowing trip to say the least. We are now in a lovely marina attached to a resort that lets us use ALL the facilities for free, and even better its only NZD$65 PER WEEK!!!! (and its only 40mins by ferry to Singapore). Brendan is rapt as it has a golf course, I am rapt as I can have a REAL shower, the kids are rapt as it has a POOL and not only that nearly all the kid boats are here! Sebana Cove has turned into a bit of an oasis for us all, the trip through Indonesia was somewhat rushed and you really need 6 months to cruise through, not three. Most of the boats that arrived here were only going to stay a few days, then a week, now nearly all of us are staying a month or so - we never realised how exhausted we all were!

We ended up being towed across the Singapore Strait which was amazing! Yes, Sunburn did her best to get us here on a multi-repaired gearbox, but she just couldnt do it. The wonderful Maurice and Louise-Ann from Motor Vessel Akama came back and got us, and spent three days towing us to Sebana Cove - they were day hops of only 20-25miles each due to the ferocious currents so we timed it as best we could.

Approaching the Singapore Strait (one of the busiest - if not busiest) shipping channels in the world, Maurice called up the VTIS who control all the ships, and they were incredible, as we got close they called ALL SHIPS and told them our exact position, speed, course (they obviously have an amazing radar) and told them all to keep clear of us!!!!! The result of this was some ships sped up to cross in front of us, the others all slowed down to the point we thought several of them were anchored! Icy Red and Meridian were about an hour behind us and couldnt believe their eyes... in front of them was little old Sunburn being towed by Akama and this huge gap just appeared to open up between all the ships - like a parting of the seas. We have now all decided the only way to cross the Singapore Strait is to TOW SOMEONE! (for more photos click here)