Yesterday was actually a pretty decent day. We had enough wind to keep the mainsail up for a good part of it and, although we were sailing a little off course, the VMG was good enough that it made sense to leave it up. It's nice when the engine gets a bit of a rest for a change. Plus there was less than 10 fishing boats over the whole 24 hrs!
As usual though, the wind started giving up just before sunset. We dropped the main, furled the headsail, and pointed the bow where we actually wanted to go and carried on under engine.
The plan was to get into Nongsa on Friday so we can start the checkout process before heading up the Malcca Strait to Phuket. I've been emailing the marina over the last day or so, and they sent me the list of documents they needed. It was one of those moments where you wonder if they're checking a yacht in or applying for a mortgage. By the time I'd replied there were fifteen attachments on the email. Hopefully someone enjoys reading PDFs.
Just as I thought everything was sorted, they also mentioned that arrivals after 5:30 pm aren't allowed. That was news to me, and not particularly welcome news either. Nothing like finding out your carefully planned arrival now has a deadline attached to it. So it looks as though arrival will be Saturday and of course the paperwork isn't going to be done as quickly.
Once we're tied up there are a couple of maintenance jobs I need to get done before we head off again. Then it's the final run up the Malacca Strait. Compared with the Java Sea, it'll be a different kind of busy—but busy all the same.