E59 – PULAU PISANG TO PULAU BESAR
Departing Pulau Pisang
We left Pulau Pisang at about 4am as we had a long day ahead of us for the run all the way to Pulau Besar, a distance of about 75nm. Due to a light wind virtually on the nose again we were forced to motor.
We headed straight out to the shipping channel at 90 degrees due to the likelihood of encountering an unlit drift net as we had seen many set during the night from our anchorage. Once we were just in the channel, we skirted the edge north watching for the constant flow of large ships heading north and overtaking us. They didn’t really present a problem though at the edge of the channel.
As the day wore on, we found a swing in the breeze when some rain bands appeared and allowed us to turn the engine off and sail in flat water. The breeze held for the remainder of the sail giving us a nice close reach at speeds of up to 8kts against the tide.
The evening brought the threat of thunderstorms to our peaceful anchorage, but fortunately by the time they reached us, they had lost most of their punch and we dealt with only 25kts.
