Category: Cruiser Guides

Cruising the Malacca Strait

The Malacca Strait is the body of water between the west coast of Malaysia and Indonesian Sumatra, and it connects the Pacific and Indian Oceans. A very busy waterway 560 miles long, it is one of Asia’s primary sea routes, with almost 100,000 vessels passing through each year. Read on for our experience cruising the Malacca Strait. Malacca is pronounced Muh-LAK-uh.

Post Puteri Harbour Anchorages

A few days after returning from Kuala Lumpur, we untied our lines and left the Puteri Harbour dock. We day sailed for the first two days, stopping at the small islands of Pesang and then Besar. I don’t remember much about either, so they must have been peaceful and boring, which is good.

Sunset on the Malacca Strait, Malaysia
Sunset at anchor at Palau Pisang, Malaysia
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Making Fast Tracks North

We liked Port Macquarie, don’t get me wrong. But after months in that winter wonderland of rain and floods, once Go was ready, so were we. With our visas on the verge of expiring and the cold weather continuing, we started making fast tracks north. Townsville, just under 1000 knots north, was our goal, and we made it in good time.

Making Fast Tracks North: Our Route

We planned our route beforehand, and made some slight modifications due to – what else? – wind and weather. Our route was straight to Coffs Harbour, then an overnight to Gold Coast, our first stop in Queensland! From there, it was going to be an easy sail inside the islands to K’Gari and up to meet our friends in Scarborough Marina, outside Brisbane.

After celebrating Brian’s birthday over two nights in Scarborough, we moved north to Mooloolaba for one memorable night. Then we jumped to Double Island Point, Hervey Bay, and spent two nights in the marina near Bundaberg.

making tracks north from Port to Townsville, map
All the stops on our 800nm sail from Port to Townsville

After Bundy, we sailed to Great Keppell to Island Head Creek to Curlew Island, then two nights in Mackay with a quick reprovisioning and off again to the Whitsundays.

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Cruising New South Wales

We, like many other sailors in Australia before us, aspire to spend our holidays in Sydney. To do that, we needed to get from Townsville in October to Sydney in December. And cruising New South Wales is quite different from cruising in Queensland. While the coast is beautiful and some of the anchorages are lovely, Queensland spoiled us, aside from the catastrophes.

Our Route Cruising New South Wales

We spent almost two and a half weeks cruising the 430 miles from Gold Coast to Sydney, where we’ll spend the holidays.

Sydney Harbor bridge and Opera House
It was exciting to sail into Sydney Harbor

From Gold Coast we sailed to Yamba, from Yamba to Coffs Harbor followed by Port Macquarie. From Port (as it’s called), we sailed to Broughton Islands for one night, before moving on to stop in Newcastle. Our friend Greg sailed straight from Newcastle to Sydney, but Brian and I wanted to explore some other ports, so we extended our trip.

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