After all the beautiful and most of the time sunny sail trips between Phuket and Langkawi we were ready for the next level. A 1.000 nautical mile (1.852km) voyage from Langkawi in the North of Malaysia all the way down to Singapore and back. In other words: sailing the Malacca Strait! 😎

The Malacca Strait is a narrow waterway between Malaysia and Sumatra connecting the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the Far East/ Pacific Ocean and hence it has been an important trading route for a long time. Early traders from Arabia, Africa and Persia used the strait to get to China using the monsoon winds and over the centuries more and more regions of the world met here. Different regional powers controlled the area up until the colonial times where in turns the Portuguese, The Dutch and British conquered and took control.

Nowadays it’s still one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. About 100.000 vessels pass through each year, accounting for a quarter of the world’s traded goods, and this year we passed through as well on Kay Sira, a 42-foot ketch sailing yacht. It’s us and a lot of big ships and really big ships, so we gave them some respect.

Tide was another focus area. The Malacca Strait is funnel shaped, with 65km at the narrowest point and 250km at the broadest followed by the ocean. Water is pushed through the funnel between high and low water resulting in interesting tidal changes. If you get it right, the tidal stream can be with you for 9+ hours, pushing you a few knots faster, which is good for the moral and feels like flying when 5 knots (~10km/h) is the normal speed. But. If you get it wrong the boat will drag her feet to about nothing and you may be better off dropping the anchor and get some sleep.

The cherry on the cake is the monsoon transition, which kicked in early this year, and so we could expect some heavy rain, wind shifts and thunderstorms. Lucky us!

It was an adventure. Not only cause we needed to deal with the ships, tide and weather, also we were crammed on a few square meter with 7 people. Surrounded by water, no airco, little sleep and hardly any privacy. I must say this few square meter is a beautiful strong boat with a story and we feel privileged we’ve sailed Kay Sira down the Malacca Strait.

The crew consisted of Jon. An Englishmen who loves Kay Sira’s mizzen (the second mast). Uliana, a Russian girl, who loves cats. Wouter, who loves annoying Jon by telling him that all world languages are originated from Dutch and me, who loves Neptune. Unfortunately, Neptune does not love me. The fifth crew member changed each week: Alex, who loves Uliana, transparent Brian, who loves the shade, and snooker Brian, who loves The Netherlands. We all love sailing and 100Plus (an isotonic sports drink).

Steve was our instructor for the first week and swopped with Barry and his wife, Lynette, who joined us for the remainder of the trip. They acted as passengers – or advisers as needed – this to allow us to take in turns responsibility for the boat, trip and crew. To learn. Barry and Lynette sailed Kay Sira all around the world, before they started the sailing school in Langkawi and this trip was the last one before their retirement in Spain. It’s inspiring to listen to their stories. All in all, we were an interesting bunch of people crammed together.

Close to our departure in Langkawi I realized I urgently needed to work on my relationship with Neptune. I was the skipper for the first leg. The boat was loaded with food, water and diesel and the crew was briefed while a threatening sky was coming closer. I decided to go, anyway. The moment we were ready to slip the lines it started to rain. By the time we left the marina it was pouring and by the time we were on course we were surrounded by a thunderstorm. Thanks Neptune. Love you too! Was it the right decision? For some yes, for some no. The crew all know how to sail and Steve did not stopped me… and so – in my view – it was an opportunity to gain experience in bad weather which we rather gained right there, at that moment in time than on your own by surprise.

I started the first watch with Steve. Visibility was poor, we were heaving up and down and were completely soaked, but other than that it was a doable job. Fun? No. Feeling alive? Yes. The weather cleared with the end of the watch and satisfied I fell asleep for a few hours.

On board we handle a watch system, 3-4 hours rest, 3 hours duty. It is tough at the start but once you get into the rhythm you can go on forever. Most legs were around 80-100 miles (16-20 hours) and along the way we took breaks in a marina. Or in some cases in an airco hotel room to pamper ourselves. Airco and showers are quickly becoming a precious good when living on a boat. Our longest leg took us 3 days, 3 nights. 3 days and 3 nights non-stop on board. Kay Sira was going and going. It’s impossible to tire her out. The only break she got was a two hour anchorage and only cause we were the ones in desperate need of a “shower” (=buckets of salt water and some fresh water out of a shower bag to rinse).

Wouter was the first skipper who had to deal with the funny tides. On a leg of 120 miles there will always be times the tide flows against you. The art is to have the tidal stream in your favor most of the time. He got it right and still, during the night, a two-hours advantage turned into three-hours behind schedule. It was the tide and two crew members sailing the wind but making no progress forward and instead making a lot of noise at 05:00 in the morning. Good morning, skipper! Keep smiling, keep calm and keep sailing.

We soon found a rhythm together, how to work together, how to annoy each other, how to count till ten, how to keep the moral up, how to act as a team and how to have fun. We made it happen. Safely.

And we’ve learned. A lot. We realized that we may not have years and years of experience. Not yet. But we do have the required skills somewhere inside us to respond to situations that are new to us. One night we experienced our first big wind shift. It came by surprise. Wouter and myself were on watch. We sailed down wind (the boom and all sails completely out) and were concentrated to avoid some big ships in front of us. All of a sudden the wind shifted 180 degrees. Kay Sira followed. The sails did partly as we rigged a so-called preventer to keep the boom safely in position. Nice. And now what?!? And where are those do-not-collide-with-these-big-ships ships?!! We managed the situation, got in control and proudly told Barry what happened when he sticked his head out on deck to check what was happening. He went back to bed.

We were again tested a few days later. This time Neptune felt the need one more time to show his love to me. Lightning was already around us all night long and obviously came a lot closer the moment I showed myself on deck to do a watch with Wouter. A lot closer. To be precise it was on top of our heads. Flash, Bang! We saw lightning strikes straight into the sea. Close-by. We felt the ion-charge and warmth on our bodies. “Uhm Barry, sorry to wake you up, but it’s on top of us, what shall we do?” Barry: “Keep your course” and turned around to continue sleep. He did checked-in with us ten minutes later, but the fact he let us do whatever we were doing made us feel confident. Focused, but confident. It’s not dangerous, just scary if you don’t know. If it hits, it flows from the mast into the water and electronics likely stops to work. Which is a pain, but we have learned to navigate without.

On a trip like this you gain experience and with that confidence. We went aground and sorted it out, we navigated through the shallows without any sight of land, buoys and use of electronics, we clipped a seasick skipper on a strong point while the waves were pumping, we slalomed between ships, tug and tows, fishing boats, nets, sticks, survived the hot sun, met with Neptune a couple more times and not to forget Jon and Wouter avoided a collision with a huge wooden log.

We’ve sailed the Malacca strait and we still love sailing. The challenge ahead: The Singapore Strait.