Year 2- 30th October 2025 - Port Dickson-Port Klang

We woke about 8.00am again and I went to the marina office to settle up and we slipped our mooring at about 09.20am. We were leaving Port Dickson to head North to Pangkor Island but to do it in two hops.

 Port Dickson is the English name for a beach resort town located in the state of Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. It is a popular tourist destination known for its beaches and is often referred to by the abbreviation "PD". The town was renamed after a British High Officer, Sir John Frederick Dickson, who developed it into a seaport. Port Dickson thrives primarily on tourism. Nevertheless, there are other sectors that contribute to its economic growth. Along with Seremban, Port Dickson is part of the Malaysia Vision Valley, a growth corridor jointly initiated by both the federal and state governments that aims to develop the western half of Negeri Sembilan to complement existing development in the neighbouring Klang Valley and the Greater Kuala Lumpur area as a whole.

Port Dickson has two refineries, which make significant contributions to the local economy. Shell Refining Company (SRC) has been operating since 1962, while Petron (formerly ExxonMobil Malaysia) has been operating a refinery since 1963.

 Once we were out of the marina we headed along the channel and then into deeper water. There were lots of tankers anchored, presumably waiting for the refineries to fill them up. We had to navigate through them on our course. It was a nice day and quite warm but there was little wind and what there was -was on the nose so it was motoring again. The TSS on our port side was busy with the green ships on the plotter like ants following each other. There were some fishing boats about and as we got closer to Port Klang more cargo ships.

We did two hours shifts as watches and we had rolls for lunch which I had bought the day before. We had to make some water so as we could not sail we switched off the engine and drifted while the generator and water maker went on. We made water for 2 hours and then we motored again.

There were a number of tugs towing barges some with containers and I thought probably as some of the larger ships may not be able to get into the port.

We had also seen a lot of dredgers which seemed to be sucking up sand from the bottom. I therefore looked this up and found that -dredging is actively occurring in the Port Klang area, primarily for a massive expansion project by China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), which involves extensive capital dredging and reclamation to create new land for the Westports expansion. Multiple large-scale trailing suction hopper dredgers like the "Xin Hai Feng" (which we saw)are involved, and this work aims to significantly increase the port's container handling capacity. The project, which is expected to be a multi-phase effort over many years, also includes environmental protection measures and has been supported by international collaboration.  

We saw a dredger operating and it was sucking up sand and using a conveyor belt was loading a large barge in front of it – see picture of the day.

We motored on and I looked up some anchorages in the Port Klang area which is where I thought we may end up by the end of the day.

Port Klang is the principal port of Malaysia on the Strait of Malacca. Known during colonial times as Port Swettenham, it was renamed Port Klang in July 1972 and has since become the largest port in the country. It is located about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) southwest of the town of Klang, and 38 kilometres (24 mi) southwest of Kuala Lumpur. Port Klang was also known as the "National Load Centre". Located in the District of Klang, it was the 14th busiest container port (2022) in the world. It was also the 12th busiest port in by volume (million TEU) in 2018 and as of July 2020 was the top location for aluminium stockholding for LME, the top metal exchange in the world. The port is part of the Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region of Trieste with its connections to Central and Eastern Europe.

Whilst motoring I noticed a boat on AIS called Free at Last and I thought I know that boat and thought it had been on the rally. However, the owner Bruce called me up and we had a chat on the radio. I had in fact met Bruce on Fraser Island I Australia and we had invited him over for a drink then.  It came back to me and he was thinking of going into the same anchorage I had planned. We therefore agreed to meet there.

As we came to Port Klang we navigated round a lot of ships at anchor and we could clearly see the docks and cranes etc of a major port. Due to the angle we were able to sail a bit and then we motored into the anchorage which was between two islands. It was quiet and still. Bruce on Free at Last followed us in and anchored.

Bruce came over on his paddle board bringing his own liquor that he makes and I recall him doing that when he came over before. He was his usual cheerful self. We got chatting and he was the one who hit the reef near Belitung and I had seen his bent rudder in Belitung. Luckily someone made him two new rudders in Belitung. He plans to go North to Thailand and to go into the Red Sea and to Europe and he wants to sail in Scotland, his father having been from Scotland. We had a good catch up which was nice. It is funny how you bump into people you meet going round the world.

We will move on up to Pangkor Island tomorrow.  

The picture of the day is one of dredgers operating.

 Need/Opportunity Year Three

In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK.  I am looking for crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town and from Cape Town to the UK. If of any interest do email me.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com