Category: Uncategorized

Sunday 21st May – Tulai

A voice outside could be heard repeatedly calling ‘Sister Midnight’ as we sat eating breakfast late this morning. It turned out to be the lady from one of the neighbouring catamarans. She had swum over to invite us, along with the crew from two other boats in the area, to a get-together that evening on their boat Backchat. We were all to bring along some food and drinks, so I spent the afternoon preparing a rice salad and some roasted cashews and peanuts for our contribution. We had little else to offer, not having done any shopping for a while. Paul took the dinghy out to snorkel and film in an area a bit further off while I got on with that. At 6 o’clock we got ourselves and the food ready and rowed the short distance to Backchat. It made a change to sit and chat with other ‘yachties’ and swap experiences, and past and future destinations. I did zone out a little during the more technical conversations, but Paul picked up some useful tips for catching fish that he is keen to put into practice when we get out on the sea again. Four hours later, after ending the evening playing a complicated mathematical dice game that was way beyond my understanding :-), we dinghied back to our boat under an exquisitely black, starlit sky. One of the many pleasures of life at sea is the sight of a non light-polluted night sky.

Monday 22nd May Juara Bay

It was a lot cooler this morning, and time to move on again. Juara was to be our next port of call, on the eastern side of Tioman. It’s described as having just one long white beach and no coral reefs, and is also the destination reached at the end of the recommended jungle trek across the island (I was pleased to be reaching it via the water, though where it’s blissfully millipede-free). During this passage Paul tried out one of the surefire tips for catching fish, using a wooden lure shaped like an aeroplane. Still no takers, though – maybe because his plane has no wings on it (!). We arrived in the bay just after 1 o’clock and anchored in 8 metres of water – it was a doddle with no coral to worry about.

Crossing a rather choppy sea early in the evening, we beached the dinghy, collected some water for the tanks from a tap at the end of a pier and set off to check out the village. Lush green rainforest rose steeply on one side of us and on the lower slopes, raised, chalet-style accommodation lined the main pathway. There is a distinct ‘hippy’ vibe to the place, largely due no doubt to the fact that it is geared towards backpackers. The accommodation is interspersed with cafes offering western food and all day breakfasts. People were gathered, commune-like on the nearby beach smoking and chatting: it’s an ideal cheap resort to live the simple life for an extended period. No alcohol is served in the cafes but like many places in Malaysia there is no objection to bringing your own cans of beer or some wine as long as you ask first.

We ate in one of these beach cafés and made do with guava juice to accompany our meal (chicken wings and tofu burger with fries). While we ate, two female travellers from Sydney on the next table were getting to know, and swapping stories with, a guy on holiday from Kuala Lumpur.  He told them that Tioman, especially Juara, is a popular spot for rest and relaxation with stressed out workers from Malaysia’s capital city.

Tuesday 23rd May

The sea got decidedly choppier during the night and I woke up several times due to being jolted roughly from side to side in the V berth. Paul hadn’t fared too well in the cockpit either and we were both awake early – up in time, too to hear the dreadfully upsetting news about the bombing in Manchester. Much of my thoughts for the rest of the day were taken up with it. The time difference, climate and location felt so far removed from the awful event but were no less distressing, especially with family and friends caught up in it. It rained on and off all morning. We sat in the café from the previous night watching the showers while we had breakfast and then walked along the beach to have a look at the turtle hatchery, one of several projects set up by volunteers to help wildlife and nature on the island. The hatchery is a fenced structure where eggs laid on the beach by the turtles are placed and monitored, away from predators and poachers so that they can be released into the sea when hatched. It’s possible to book appointments to see this but we needed to get going. Hopefully there will be other opportunities because it’s something I’ve always wanted to see.

We were on our way again by 1 o’clock, heading back to Tekek on a blustery afternoon. I had another sailing lesson on the way which if nothing else, at least focused my mind on something constructive for a while instead of dwelling on the events in Manchester where I was helpless to do anything. The lesson took the form of steering into the wind and keeping the boat there while Paul gets the sails down. It’s the ‘keeping it there’ part that I struggle with but with perseverance and practise using techniques that aided my understanding, I managed to do it (I just need to keep doing it correctly now). On reaching Tekek we anchored in the same place as before. It was in a very sombre mode that we went ashore for provisions that evening, after learning more about the casualties in Manchester. Little Saffie, the youngest victim was the best friend of my granddaughters back in Leyland. Heartbreaking news to take in, and it’s tough being so far away from family at times like these.

Wednesday 24th May –Tekek

There was quite a fierce squall during the night. Paul had put the engine on in case we had to move apparently, but I was so exhausted I had slept through it all. We woke to a drizzly, cool morning that felt more like an English spring than a tropical Asian high season but it was a welcome respite from the intense heat. We had a lingering breakfast of toast and coffee while discussing where to go next. It looks like we’ll be visiting a group of islands called The Anambas on the northern tip of Indonesia. The internet was down all day so we couldn’t look up any further details about them, and since it was cooler, there was nothing else for it but to catch up on chores. Paul worked on attempting to get the watermaker to work and I did some cleaning…and some reading. We went for dinner at The Coral Reef in the evening where the internet is good and I was able to phone home to at least give some moral support. While we were waiting for our food there was an invasion of flying ants. It was quite an amazing sight, especially when hundreds of them fluttered in front of the lights hanging just outside the restaurant – like black snowflakes. One of the guys came and fixed up a sticky insect ‘catcher’ in the end because they were all over us and the table. The girl who served us told us it often happens after a rainy period. We were joined by some infinitely more welcome cats after the meal. One of them was keen to get closer to see if there was anything left for him :).

Thursday and Friday were lazy days on board with a few trips ashore to get essentials. There was quite a squall on Friday afternoon which had everyone on the boats out checking that their anchors were holding in the strong gusts. It didn’t rain, but the force of the wind threatened to carry our canopy off the top of the boat and we had a bit of a struggle to get it folded up and put away. While we were doing that, the dinghy started bashing against the side of the boat and the rope that was tethering it pulled a stanchion with such force, it broke at the bottom. We could see at least one boat getting assistance from the harbour master because of the problems they were having and it struck me that squalls can be just as troublesome and alarming at anchor as when out at sea.

On Saturday, which marked the first day of Ramadan for Muslims, the humidity drove even me to have a swim when we took the dinghy to the beach opposite to us (I don’t like to swim in the deep water round the boat, especially after Paul’s painful jellyfish experience). It was fine in the water for a while but we could still feel our skin burning and we left it until late afternoon before going out again. Our intention was to have a walk before buying some provisions and going for dinner in one of the restaurants. The look of the beach much further along the coast had appealed to us when we’d first arrived but it had been too far to walk in the heat. In fact, it was still humid when we set out but the sun wasn’t far off setting so we strolled slowly up the steep road to start with. The area is where all the monkeys gather in the trees and foliage on either side of the road. They were everywhere when we looked up, staring back down at us defiantly (and possibly aggressively) from branches and power cables or grooming each other on the grass verges.

It was a pleasant walk once the sun had gone and we headed for a holiday resort we’d spotted on the beach to have a look around. We passed family groups enjoying the seafront in the cooler evening temperature, and then we came upon an actual beach bar. Not just any beach bar (it was empty, due to Ramadan probably), this bar served alcohol! It would have been rude not to stop and become its only customers after we’d sought out the sole staff member to ask if the bar was open. We sat at a table with a great view, watching the antics of the kids on the beach until the inevitable flying insects drove us on. We’d spotted a Chinese restaurant earlier so we stopped there for our dinner: seasoned vegetables and rice, with fish of the day for Paul.

The broken stanchion was repaired over the next couple of days. I helped when it needed to be held steady while Paul applied the sikaflex – in the sauna-like heat on deck! I went from reading a book set during a particularly cold winter where a woman resorts to warming her frozen hands on a hot kettle, to cooling my hands and body down using an icy cold bottle of water on the bow. On Monday evening, taking a short cut through one of the holiday resorts on Tekek, Paul noticed the fabulous sight of a fruit bat colony hanging from the branches of trees in a small clearing. Unlike the ones we’d seen in the Hongs in Thailand, these bats were silent but not any the less fascinating for that. I wondered what time of day they all set off for food and what it would look like when they did, and received an answer the following evening at sunset when we were travelling back to the boat in the dinghy. We saw hundreds of them overhead, all flying in the same direction – to where the food is presumably. It was an amazing sight, made all the more wonderful because a storm was brewing and the dark clouds and rising moon created an authentic gothic image in the eerie twilight. The ‘echoey’ mournful call to prayer provided an apt soundtrack to the scene. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera to hand to capture it all, but Paul took this great shot of them in the trees. The cat caught my eye because he looked to be in a bad way but just after I took the picture, he jumped up to run another cat at quite a pace :0)

Kathy

I hope this works out, the file is 1080p HD so should look good full screen. Difficult to test here with poor internet speeds.

These chappies lived under the boat while we were at anchor in the anambas islands for a couple of days.

Let me know if the are technical issues with the file.

Paul Collister

We upped anchor from Tarempa after an official reception dinner thrown by the authorities here. This was similar to one we had in Las Palmas and in St Lucia on the ARC. Lots of difficult speeches, and daft awards. It was for the participants of the ‘Sail Malaysia’ rally, but Raymond, who was running the rally was happy for us to attend. He was also happy for us to go to the dinner barbecue the next day on the beach resort island of Pidi, just a few hours away.

Dementors, feeding on our hull. (video to follow)

So we stocked up with some last minute fruit and Veg, I bought 4 big bottles of the local version of Coke, you don’t see much coke here, and I remembered back to the ‘stop the war’ march I attended in London some time back in protest against Blair’s Iraq war, and there was a strong anti coke lobby there, an Arabic version of coke was on sale everywhere. I wondered if Indonesia, which is a very strict muslim country in many areas actually frowned on coke, and probably most American, and UK goods. I have noticed when asked where I am from, when I say England, I don’t get an enthusiastic interested kind of response, as I did in Malaysia. I’d like to say Ireland, and see how that goes down, but that would be fraudulent. So I bought the local version, just like coke in colour and fizziness, but the aftertaste is identical to the mouthwash my dentist uses, hideous. I wanted to give it away to passing fishermen, who would probably love it in these baking conditions, but with it being Ramadan and they are fasting, it might be rude. Tarempa is a fascinating town, it’s mostly built on stilts except for a few buildings hacked into the cliff walls.

The market is an interesting place to visit and pick up fresh food

Twilight zone or Dr Who?

So off we set, down a channel between several large islands to the barbecue location.The route was strewn with dangerous coral. The first one was right in the middle of the channel and very shallow and very obvious. We had to motor towards it, then turn left to avoid it. It was ten minutes away when Kathy and I started our ‘heated debate’ about the best way to look for coral and to signal to each other what to do about it. We honed in on the difference between ‘having the sun behind you’ and ‘having your back to the sun’, which to me seemed identical, but to Kathy, one was quite clear, the other not. At some point during this debate, I remembered we needed to look out for the reef ahead, and sure enough, there it was just about to pass under our bowsprit. Crikey cor Blimey, I thought, full astern, hard to port, and we missed it, we probably had a good minute or two before disaster, but we both felt a bit stupid after that. I set the course for the correct way around the reef and all was fine. However, a couple of local guys in a small fishing boat must have been horrified to see us motoring at full speed to our demise, and had sped over to try and avert another shipwreck. On arriving they insisted we follow them, and for the next hour we weaved in and out of large patches of coral until we emerged on the other side of the island safely. We didn’t really need them, as the course they led us through, was almost identical to the one we had plotted, but it was ever so kind of them to help. The guy below didn’t pay attention eitherAnother sobering experience.

We anchored outside of the barbecue island in about 22 meters, this is getting normal now, what has become a major pain is the windless doesn’t like my rope, I have 50 meters of rope to haul in, in these conditions, and although the windlass grips it very well, it won’t let go, the rope is meant to fall off and drop into the chain locker below, there is a metal bar that forces it off the wheel if it didn’t fall off on its own, however the bar is sized for chain, and works well there, with rope, it often sneaks up the side of the bar and jams. Once this happens, it’s a major pain, one one end of the rope is 60 mtrs of chain, pulling hard on the windlass, and you can’t pull this up by hand at all, so I have been having to run a line back to the winch on the mast and haul the anchor rode up a bit to get some slack, tie this off then do the same for the other side of the rope. This can happen a few times when hauling up 50 mtrs of rope, and each time the rope gets a little mangled. As soon as I can, I need to replace this rope.

The dinner was fine, but very expensive, we paid about £20 / head for a bbq buffet affair, drinks were extra, 2 nights earlier, we had dined well in a Tarempa restaurant, both meals together with drinks came to £3. That’s my kind of restaurant 🙂

The next morning we motored around the coral in the dinghy, it was very shallow and just as I wondered if it was too shallow, and how lucky I had been so far with rocks etc, that we hit something. I couldn’t stop the engine, because the stop switch had been playing up, so I tried to put the engine in Neutral, but from the noise it was making, I knew I had broken something. So much of what I’m doing here is a learning curve for me, and I was just about to learn how shear pins work! Basically it’s a pin that connects the engine to the prop, if the prop should get jammed on something, the pins shears, the engine happily carries on and hopefully no other damage happens,  I remember we carry spares with the engine so they are handy, but I must have been thinking of Stardust, as there were no pins around, they are about the same size as a 1 inch nail, which in an emergency, might work. So it was fun rowing back, I need the exercise, but I was also aware that there was quite a current flowing, being a full moon, fortunately toward the boat, but I was keen not to overshoot it, as the next stop north might be China. By the way, we only get one tide a day here, which is odd.

The rest of our trip was uneventful, one tropical paradise after another, as we skipped around the islands and coves of the NE part of Anambas. The weather has been lovely, sometimes overcast, but that brings welcome relief from the sun. The local fishermen are very curious about our boat, one young man Tommy, rowed over, in a dugout canoe, to say hello. He clung to the side of our boat staring in, so I invited him onboard. He seemed very impressed, he gave me a fish and wouldn’t accept any money from me. He sat there for ages just smiling, it would have been awkward, but I had a lot of epoxy work to do, and I was creating shear pins, from spare rivets, having found nothing better onboard. after an hour or so, he left when I explained we had to leave. Everything is done by gesture, as it’s very rare to find an english speaker here.

The snorkeling is the best so far, the water the clearest, and a great variety of life below the water, some of the coral, that looks like rocks, has mouths, purple and jagged, but ready to eat anything that gets close. rather scary. 

Right now though, heres a picture of improvisation, when you can’t find the clamps, there’s always a way to hold things in place while the glue sets. (PS it only lasted a couple of days 🙁 )

The list of jobs on the boat is still growing, I rowed around the hull and cleaned off the tyre marks from the Dalac haulout, and polished the stainless rubbing strakes. I am a little disappointed that there is a noise coming from the cutless bearing/prop. I expect it’s the shaft rubbing on the bearing, it’s the same noise that caused me to haulout and replace the bearing. I didn’t have it before the fishing line wrap,  I think I had a similar noise once on the baba 30, yet before launch, I checked and the prop shaft turned easily and wasn’t stiff at all. I suspect an inferior rubber on the bearing, or possibly a bent shaft or misaligned engine. yet I haven’t put any unusual stress on the engine, as you might get when you wrap a rope around the prop and bang the engine to a sudden stop in gear.

An interesting aspect of sailing here is the fact that the charts are useless, if you follow them you will be in big trouble, see belowThis route, the straight lines, was plotted on Navionics to clear the land, but google earth shows the error. Fortunately we have a good set of google earth images for all the coastlines around here which we load up on our OpenCpN chartplotter. They are great for spotting coral/reefs and the gaps in between where you might anchor. On the subject of cartography, best not let the flat earth people see this pic. 

We have been away from a marina for some time now, and will get fuel delivered in tarempa this weekend, we just took a delivery of water.then next week, we head south to Bawah Island, at the bottom of the Arambas group, before heading east to Sarawak, which is part of Malaysia on the north part of the Island of Borneo.

Again, Internet is very scratchy out here, I suspect all the carriers/providers here share the same Radio link back to the mainland.

Paul Collister

Just a quick post to say we are off exploring the islands now for as long as we can last before food runs out, 2 weeks max, It’s going to be very sporadic when we can get internet access, so don’t expect much from us.

In 2 weeks time we will be back here in the capital, Tarampa, and checking out for Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia, a few days sail away where we hope to go to the Rainforest World Music Festival, like a big WOMAD.

Last night we gatecrashed the welcome party put on for the Sail Malaysia ‘going east’ rally, by the local government and Indonesian tourist board. There was a display of traditional dancing, lovely food, (well maybe not for Kathy), and quite a few speeches by the dignitaries. also we all got a nice goodie bag at the end.

Today my fellow countrymen will be voting, in quite an important election, I predicted the last two important votes badly wrong, i.e. who on earth would vote for Trump, and the Brits would never be so stupid to leave Europe, So todays prediction is ‘Corbin hasn’t got a chance’, hopefully that will do the job. This will be the first time I am out of communication range during a general election that I can remember, so it’s going to be odd hearing the news some time after the event.

 

Paul Collister

We left Tioman on Friday afternoon, leaving a bit late so that we would be crossing the main part of the route away from land at night. That way when we arrive at the Anambas islands we would be in daylight, there’s much more chance of running down a poorly lit little fishing boat near the coast than offshore. So I was happy to take on the big ships in the dark. Most of them have AIS and proper lights, we were going to be passing through some major shipping routes, as the ships hang a left from Singapore and head up towards Bangkok, Vietnam, China, hong Kong etc, they will be passing in front of us, and of course those returning on that route. The wind was from the SE and blowing a healthy 15 knots, so with all the sails up, and one reef in the main, we shot along, keeping the diesel for another day.
I put a quick post on the boat’s facebook page as we left to jokingly say that, unless we had pirate trouble, it should be a good journey. Just after we left Tioman, I checked the Navtex messages, this is like SMS for sailors, but sent from national governments, we have a special receiver, and it produces telex/teletype displays of brief messages, things like weather, or navigational warnings. I wasn’t to pleased to see the one that said their had just been a armed pirate attack, on our route, we would be passing over that spot about 2AM, the attack had happened a few nights earlier at 11PM, nice.
So we went into stealth mode, AIS Transmitter was turned off, so nobody could see us on that system, I also turned off the NAV lights when there was no shipping around. I kept in touch with SY Matilda and informed them of my new found knowledge, and they also turned off their AIS. I put the radar on so I could keep a good lookout. Matilda informed me that as they were motoring along, a tug, towing a barge, which was invisible, suddenly turned on their lights and AIS transmitter, they must have been in stealth mode too, as once Matilda had passed them, their AIS and lights went off. It’s just a bit worrying, that in a busy shipping lane, we are all turning off our lights and hiding from each other, this can only end badly. As it turned out, the sun rose, we put the AIS back on and sailed into a lovely cove in the western islands of Anambas, to rest for a night before proceeding to the main town of Tarampa on the central group of islands. I mentioned the pirate thing to Kathy then, as there didnt seem much point in worrying her en-route. It had been a great sail, and even though we were close hauled all the way, the boat had sliced through the waves with a very soothing motion, we were making between 6 and 7 knots over water, most of the time, sometimes more.
The cove we anchored in on the island of Jamandja, was just by a small island on the NE called Ayam, it was an idyllic spot, very well protected and we anchored inbetween reefs in 5m of sand.

 

 

I had a snorkel in very clear water and on returning to the boat was slightly startled to meet this chappy feeding on the hull, he’s much bigger close up, maybe 3ft. Later Kathy amused herself feeding him potato peelings, which he (or she) seemed to love.When we left, we headed straight out, and without thinking it through very well, straight into one of the reefs we had carefully manoeuvred around on the way in. Fortunately we were going so slow, we were able to stop and reverse out before we did any damage. From there we had a brisk reach across to the capital, 30 miles, in about 5 hours, again stockpiling the diesel.

Terempa, or Tarampa, is the administrative town of the Anambas island group, a large part of it is built on stilts, it’s very Muslim, and it’s our first time in Indonesia, so we are keen to explore and see how things work here. Arriving in the afternoon on a Sunday, we decided to stay on board and go into town and do the formalities on Monday morning. We raised the Q (Quarantine) flag, which is a yellow flag, to let them know we are clean and waiting clearance. We motored around the harbour, which is very busy, some very large ships here, looking for somewhere to anchor.

Anchoring was fun, The island drops into the sea quickly, but there is a very shallow ledge of coral first, just a meter or two down, next to the shore, coming out some distance, after that it drops to between 10 and fifteen metres quickly, were the sea bed is strewn with rocks, then it goes to 25 mtrs and deeper very quickly. Our first attempt in what looked like sand, was on rocks, and we decided to move, the rocks tried to cling to my anchor, but I was able to motor forward and the anchor came free.

Next attempt was in the corner of the harbour, very close to the quay in 15m, but when we dropped back on the anchor we were close to another boat, so up came the anchor again, I was not to bothered, as that area is though to be ‘Foul’ or strewn with debris the anchor can get stuck in. So now after an hour of pratting around, with the sun keen to push on to the Atlantic area,  we headed back to the deep water. We dropped the hook outside the other anchored yachts in 25 metres of water and by the time the anchor dug in, and with me putting out 60m of chain and 10 m of rope, we had backed down onto a catamaran, just a couple of boat lengths away. Normal boat etiquette would require me to move, but the owner came up, and despite we were almost close enough to shake hands, he assured me that he was happy with the gap, and saw no problems. As long as our anchor stays put overnight, we won’t be joining him for breakfast!.

Monday morning, and we dinghied ashore, we copied the other boats, a bad move as I have found that’s what other boats do, and often there is mass cockups because of the first boats decision. Apparently there is a much better place to tie up to, we will check it out tomorrow, However this one was fun, it was on a wall, with a rickety matrix of sticks tied together to make a climbing frame, to get from the dinghy to a long narrow wall, vertigo inducing or what. At the end was a gangplank arrangement to get ashore. Hat’s off to Kathy for taking that in her stride.

We went straight to Immigration, then the Harbour master, then Customs and finally Quarantine, who weren’t in. Everything done, but we have to wait for customs to come to the boat in the morning and search us for anything dodgy, like Coldplay albums, or anything from the 80’s. 😉

First impressions of Indonesia are very good, the people here are the friendliest we have met so far in SE Asia, everybody wants to say hello, the authorities have gone out of there way to help me check in, despite the fact I was missing mandatory documents. I think I’m going to like it here

Checked in, we had a wander, this town is very water based, a network of canals make up the main area, running between all the stilted buildings.

We found a good range of small shops, some white bread, plenty of fruit and veg, lots of hardware stores, shame I don’t need any, although yesterday, the anchor foot switch got so faulty, I replaced it with two bared wires sticking out through the deck. Does anyone know how wires switching a 12v solenoid can give such a kick, I expect it’s back EMF from the coil of the solenoid, but that was a surprise 🙁 . I don’t expect they have much call for that sort of switch out here. I’m kicking myself for not buying a spare when I saw them on a shelf back in Phuket. I knew then the switch was dicky.
Tonight we will stay on the boat, we had a chunky squall blow through this afternoon, 20-25 knots pushing us towards the Catamaran, but we didn’t budge, my transits are solid, however it feels like we got too close. I have decided to buy 150m of anchor warp to add to my anchoring arsenal, and also investigate anchoring on rock, the locals do it all the time with their fishermen hook style anchors, often flimsy things made out of rebar.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) after getting customs clearance, we will pop ashore, buy up a load of food and head off to explore the islands here. Again wifi may be sparse, we picked up a local SIM that gives us 40gb for 60Days, for about £4, but it’s finding coverage that will be the challenge.  I got out 1.2 Million Rupiah from the ATM today, but with a bag of tomatoes costing 10,000 Rupiah (60p) it wont go far!

Paul Collister

 

 

 

 

 

Sat 13th May To Jason Bay

We were back out in the middle of one the world’s busiest shipping lanes (between Malaysia and Singapore) at 8 30 this morning. It was already hot, with very little breeze. We drew near to a huge oil platform not long after starting out, and the noise it was making sounded more ominous as it grew louder: a rhythmic sonorous drone of metal churning and drilling as it pumped up and down in the water.  At 11 30 Paul declared that we had crossed over from the Indian to The Pacific Ocean and I couldn’t help but wonder how the sea and oceanic borders came to be defined. I suspect books have been written that might enlighten me, or I could just ask Paul :).  The heat got a bit too much for me during the afternoon and I went below to sit by the fans – and then the rain began to fall.  It was refreshingly fine and cooling to begin with but by 2 o’clock we were in the middle of a full on squall. The waves increased in size surprisingly quickly and soon we were lurching from side to side; there was thunder, lightning, strong gusts of wind and very heavy rain which caused poor visibility. Paul was soaked within minutes, hand steering in the cockpit, but it wasn’t cold and we guessed he’d dry out quickly enough ;).

An hour later, when all was calm again it was a lot cooler and squalls at least do a good job of washing the decks. For the rest of the way we had to keep our eyes peeled for all the fishing buoys that were in the area so I went up to the bow to be sure of spotting them in time. By 6 pm we were anchored in Jason Bay – not the prettiest of bays but it was peaceful and sheltered and it had a perfect bottom for the anchor to grip. During the evening we were visited by lots of flying insects in the cabin (I’m pretty sure they were flying ants) but importantly, they weren’t mosquitoes so we ignored them and they were gone by morning. We had the vegetable soup I’d made the previous day for dinner, another favourite meal for short sea passages, and afterwards I read more about Tioman.  Named after the Malaysian for mynah bird (tiong bird), it boasts ‘idyllic beaches fringed by swaying coconut palm trees, coral reefs in a myriad of colours and is great for diving and snorkelling’. More fanciful is the belief that the island was created when a dragon froze into rock while waiting interminably for its mate!

Sun 14th May Pulau Tinggi

There was no hurry to depart this morning so we had a leisurely coffee, enjoying the sun in the cockpit before it got too hot. The sea was flat calm when we motored off at 9 30, but not long after that the wind was strong enough to put the mainsail up and the engine was turned off, which is always nice. Captain Mainwaring took over the steering and we made good speed. I love those conditions, it was very relaxing lying on the cockpit cushions, reading and feeling the fresh breeze on my face.  I kept watch while Paul had a break and it wasn’t until 3 o’clock that the peace was shattered by the approach of another squall. Paul quickly got the mainsail down and we headed for the other side of the island where it was likely to be less rocky for a night’s anchorage. The rain started as we were doing this so hatches were battened and windows shut tight. At 4pm, taking advantage of what we thought was a lull in the rain, we dropped anchor just as it began to pelt down again so we had to do the whole process in a torrential downpour.  This made it difficult to hear each other from stern to bow but we have some hand signals to use on these occasions (polite ones, naturally ;)).  It was a lovely calm spot and the view was great. Paul went for a snorkel to check we were secure and discovered that we were indeed secure – the chain was securely wrapped around beautiful living coral formations. This is a definite no-no so we had to disentangle the chain and move to somewhere further out – deeper water but safely anchored in sand this time.

Monday 15th May To Tioman

The headsail and the mainsail were up helping us, along with the engine on a hot, sunny and fairly windy morning. It was only a short passage to Tioman and inevitably, a squall appeared at 11 30, with the usual race to get the sails down before it hit. I’m getting better at guiding the boat into the wind when this happens – it’s a case of having to! We made use of the strong wind behind us post-squall, and turned the engine off using just a bit of headsail to propel us along. It’s interesting to listen to other crew chatting on the VHF during our journeys. Yesterday as we listened, Paul told me that ‘over and out’ is an incorrect term: it’s either over or out.  It’s useful to hear when others who are nearby spot an approaching squall or any other relevant information, although I think Paul was slightly envious when he heard that someone in the vicinity had just caught a huge tuna ;).  The aftermath of the squall left us with huge waves and a swell that made for a very rocky rest of the journey. Paul put the wind vane (also known as Uncle Arthur) up this afternoon to test it out in the windy conditions and we were pleased to see that it performed well, which will be a huge boon on longer Pacific passages.

Tioman came into clear view at 3pm as we steered towards its south side.  Even from a distance it was easy to see that it’s a holiday island. Chalet-style bungalows line the beaches, with larger accommodation in resorts nestling in the thick forest of casuarina trees behind them. We spotted the small (full) marina and a few boats at anchor once we were in the western bay, and Sister Midnight joined them, opposite the village of Tekek at 4 30. We decided to leave going ashore until he following day when the immigration building was more likely to be open. Paul launched the dinghy and went for a row in it just to check all was well.  The cabin seemed to have retained all the heat of the day so we stayed up above until long after sunset making the most of the cool evening breeze.

Tuesday 16th May Tekek, Tioman

We dinghied ashore late morning to check in with the harbour master. There is a place for small craft to tie up to not far from the marina so we left the dinghy there while we went to do all the official stuff.

In the baking midday sun it was tough going walking even a short distance, and the few people we saw on the dusty main street weren’t doing a lot. Most people were underneath the shelter of roadside huts and shops and cafes. Lots of motor bikes were going up and down the road, and as in Thailand there is no requirement for crash helmets. Tiny children are perched precariously on the saddle in front of the drivers (who are quite often to be seen texting or chatting on their phones). The guy who checked us in told us we should visit the waterfall nearby and that the jungle trek through the rain forest to the other side of the island is worth doing. I’m not so sure about that, after past experiences in jungle foliage!  We explored the main road area after checking in. The tiny airport is on one side and the ferry terminal on the other, so a large duty-free shop is a little way down the road as well as some mini-marts, smaller duty-free shops and souvenir shops. It was very hot to walk around but we wanted to look at the airstrip – the very short runway that the weekly plane uses. We found out that Friday is its scheduled arrival/departure day and resolved to watch it land and take off if we were still in the area.

Thinking a map might be useful we went to one of several stalls with ‘Information’ as a heading but it turns out that these headings would be more accurate if they advertised ‘Boat Tours’ since it was mainly about the times and prices of various boat tours around the island. Our request for a map was met with a gesture at the laminated one on the desk, which showed where the boat tours could take you. Back at the jetty we went inside to see if the customs desk had reopened. I was beginning to feel the sun burning my skin because I hadn’t thought to put any sun cream on when we left the boat. I’d also forgotten to bring water, so when Paul returned from seeing the customs guy we went to a little café on the riverside for a drink. Paul had a fresh coconut with a straw in and I downed a bottle of icy cold water in one almost. There were lots of flies and ants around the table on the grass and then Paul noticed a wriggly black creature on his leg. I was out of my chair and onto the bridge faster than roadrunner! The people in the café must have been most perplexed by my hasty departure, especially as I was slapping at my legs and arms as I ran!

Wednesday 17th May Tekek

Woke up to a much cooler morning which was a welcome relief. With cool air flowing through the cabin it was possible to get a few cleaning jobs done. The temperature tends to hover around 30 -35 degrees on average but any exertion causes you to break out in a sweat and we need to use the fans sparingly in order to save on battery power. As the day wore on, it got too hot to do very much at all so it was another lazy, languid day. We dinghied over to say Hi to Deb and Bruce on their boat, Matilda at 4 30 and then went on to the village. Clouds had been gathering and the sky was darkening but we managed to tie the dinghy and get into the street before the rain started. It didn’t last long and the cooler air was good to walk in. We walked further up the road leading away from the airport and found more shops and restaurants. We also saw some monkeys running on the road and swinging on telephone lines and in the trees. One side road led to the beach and a pier near to the marina so we walked there to have a look at it. It’s small compared to most marinas we’ve been in and it seemed to us that most of the boats were long-stay ones.  The construction of the marina had caused some controversy due to the fact that it smothered the coral reef off the shores of Tekek with sedimentation.  Plans to extend the airport runway were shelved due to opposition from nature lovers though, so protests are sometimes successful.

We went for dinner in The Coral Reef Café which is next to the beach with a beautiful view overlooking the sea. The guy who served us was lovely. He understood my request for no meat and fish and advised Paul on the catch of the day which was Marlin. Later, Paul was certain they’d gone out to catch one judging by the time we had to wait before our meals came, but it wasn’t a bad place to wait after all, and the food was lovely when it did arrive. I had a veggie version of a dish called Nasi Lemuk which came with coconut rice, a spicy sauce and peanuts instead of anchovies.

We were joined by several cats during the meal and one of them jumped onto a vacant chair for a better look at what we had. As we left, the owner/waiter had just arrived back from somewhere with a huge bag of cat food under his arm. He told us he feeds them – I was very impressed.  Our dinghy ride back was hampered slightly by vision problems. Paul had broken his glasses and the torch didn’t work so I kept my eyes peeled more closely during the short journey back to the boat.

Thursday and Friday – more laziness

We spent the next two days anchored at Tekek, enjoying the relaxation and the chance to catch up on a few things. Paul fitted a useful piece of elastic in the galley to prevent bottles sliding and crashing into the sink in rough sea states. I defrosted and cleaned the fridge, and washed the walls on the port side.  Deb and Bruce invited us to join them for dinner at a place that had been recommended to them which served good pizza, so at 6 that evening, the four of us headed across the bay in their dinghy for pizza on the beach. It was a pretty spot and the pizzas were great: cooked to order so I was able to have a roasted vegetable one without cheese. The only drawback to the day was that we had no internet and it’s frustrating being out of touch with people, and not having information to hand when you need it.  We intended to leave on Friday but the weather looked a bit threatening when we woke up and without the internet we hadn’t had access to a reliable forecast so we decided to stay another day.  This meant that we could watch for the plane in the morning. Unfortunately we missed its landing, mistaking the sound of the approaching plane for that of a boat’s engine. We did see the take-off though, and the little plane looked like a huge moth emerging from behind the trees – it was mostly empty, too from what I could see as it glided over the boat.

Did a lot of reading today and the internet came back in the afternoon so there was all that to catch up on too. We went ashore at 6 30, just a quick trip to get water and bread. It was time to move on in the morning.

Saturday 20th May Monkey Bay and Beyond

We didn’t move very far to start with – just around the corner to have a look at Monkey Bay which is one of the places advertised on the boat tour.  It didn’t take long to see that it was a sandy beach populated with day-trippers and monkeys. We had intended to stop and maybe have lunch and a swim,  and to go ashore and snorkel but there was a lot of coral on the sea bed which makes it tricky to anchor, and we guessed there would probably be more monkey beaches to see as we travel around.

I took a few pictures and we motored on towards Tulai Island, a short distance further on. It looked delightful as we drew closer, enhanced as it was by the early afternoon light. The sun was fiercely hot and as soon as we picked up a mooring buoy and were securely tied, we retreated below for some lunch under the cool of the fans.  Two scuba diving school boats were next to us having their first lesson by the look of it. They were having great fun egging each other on to flop backwards into the water but the equipment they have to strap to their bodies looks so restricting and cumbersome – it’s not something I would fancy trying. We did think the water looked cool and inviting, however so we got in the dinghy to check out the beach opposite to us. Paul taught me how to row and I actually managed to get the hang of that! The beach was fabulous, the water was clear and there were no big waves – ideal conditions for me to swim in. We stayed for an hour until we felt our skin beginning to burn, then rowed back to the boat to slap on some factor 30 before getting back into the dinghy to cruise around the bay a bit to photograph the coral and marine life in the clear shallow water.  Some pics below of a great afternoon on the beach.

 

Well I was offered a few days of programming work last week and it’s going to pay for the new batteries and solar panels, so I decided we could put up with a few more days looking out onto tropical rainforests and cooling down with dips in the sea. However the internet has been a pain and I ended up struggling to deliver and test the work. I’m mostly writing Database code using a language known as SQL, it’s very powerful, but very complicated and ‘does your head in’ sometimes on the complicated multi joined table queries. Still that’s complete so we can look at moving on. But first the repairs must be done.

One of the stanchions snapped off a few days ago, that’s repaired now, the stanchion was fine, it was the bolts holding it to the deck which had bad crevice corrosion and had all snapped off at deck level. We had been chilling on the boat when a ferocious squall blew in, it really went from idyllic sunny calm, to storm in about 2 minutes. I felt the boat lurch, then the wind was howling. I learnt a lot then. Firstly the canopy was trying to escape, and the wind was so strong the knots I tied it down with couldn’t be undone easily and I had to take a knife to some of them, as the rope was so taut, the clove hitches on the guardrail couldn’t be loosened. The dinghy, which was suspended by a halyard so it was out of the water and level with the cap rail was trying to flip over, it also still had the outboard on it so I was worried about that.I lowered the dinghy into the sea, which by now, just a few minutes after the squall started, was quite choppy. I temporarily tied the dinghy painter to a stanchion while I freed up another rope that was attached to it. A big wave hit the dinghy and it lurched, Kathy then spotted the stanchion had been ripped out of the deck. In a way I’m glad, nobody was hurt, but it could have been different if the stanchion had failed while we were making passage and I was working on the foredeck. The reason it failed was lack of sealant under the stanchion base, allowing water to get into the bolt thread  and being trapped there without any oxygen. In these conditions, crevice corrosion is guaranteed and will attack the best  stainless steel.  I suspect it was clamped down too tightly when fitting, it’s good now I have repaired it and I would hope for ten years at least, however, there’s another 15 stanchion bases, all need checking, and probably re-bedding, what fun! During this excitement our anchor was dragging, it moved about 80ft towards the shore, I suspect it stopped when we reached the edge of the coral reef, as it was quite difficult to haul out a few days later when we moved to a free mooring buoy that had just been laid by the harbour master. Also we were being called on the emergency channel 16 on VHF by a neighbour who had gone to rescue a boat that was dragging badly and heading for the shore. It had just arrived and the owners had gone ashore to checkin with the harbour master. He was great and had his motor launch out running around the yachts making sure everyone was ok. He helped get the dragging yacht onto a fixed mooring.

I rigged up the spinnaker pole just before the squall to try to work out how I could use it on a rolling foredeck, given its size and weight. I rigged up a halyard as an up-haul and proceeded to haul it up horizontal, I could get the headsail sheet into the hook at the end ok, and lowered the up-haul, then I tried to haul it up again and there was a mighty cracking sound followed by a spinnaker pole flying around trying to knock me over the side. It would appear that the bracket on the mast it was attached to wasn’t a good match and somehow the pole’s hook must have lodged itself under the hoop on the bracket and when I hauled up the pole to horizontal, it was acting like a giant lever on the bracket, which shattered. They’re not cheap either. So I’m trying to fabricate something I can use in the meantime.

A few nights ago we braved the monkeys on the main (only) road here to walk to the next village, we had a drink in a lovely beach bar, that was deserted, just amazing how quiet these places are considering how stunning the views are.Tonight we came across a few hundred bats hanging around in a tree.

The picture below was taken over in Juara on the east side, this is where a river meets the beach.

And here is the jetty in Juara where we found a tap at the end to fill our water bottles.

I need to fix the spinnaker pole tomorrow, then we can get some provisions and leave. Probably Thursday, as our new antipodean friends in the yacht Matilda are leaving then, having checked out the weather forecast.

There may be little or no internet in the Anambas islands, so we may not be posting a lot while we are there. but I hope that after a couple of weeks we will be back in Malaysia, albeit on the island of Borneo, in Sarawak, where I’m sure we will get good wifi again.

 

Paul Collister

Wednesday 10th May – A day in Johor Bahru

Late in the morning we booked an Uber taxi to take us into Johor’s capital: Johor Bahru. Our stay in the boatyard was to be slightly longer than expected due to a public holiday and an emergency job taking precedence over others. To break up the monotony of being on the boat we thought it would be good to visit the town, since we needed to get a few things anyway.  I had read the section on it in our guide book the night before and picked out some places worth seeing. One of these was The Grand Palace. It used to be the residence of a Sultan (a word that still has fairy tale connotations for me), and has hosted such illustrious names as Queen Victoria’s son, Prince Alfred, Franz Ferdinand and King Edward VIII. The palace was opened to the public in 1991 and turned into a museum to celebrate Johor’s golden age. It is, says the guide book, reminiscent of rural England’s aristocratic homes and ‘there is no other museum in Southeast Asia quite like it’. Well, that description was too alluring to ignore so that was where we asked the driver to take us.

I thought the driver seemed a bit unsure of the destination but Paul showed him a picture on his phone and gave him the location to put into his satnav. Foolproof, I thought and sat back to relax. On the way Paul asked him what the public holiday was in honour of, but all we could make out from his mumbled reply was something about India. The street he dropped us off in looked promising. We found ourselves by a large impressive-looking mosque and walked around a bit expecting to see signs for the palace. Plenty of cars were parked on the roadside and families were walking towards the nearby petting zoo which we could see through the trees on the other side of the road. No palace here, however. Paul asked a lady with a clipboard who was addressing a small group of people if she knew where it was and she led us to the driver of a parked car who was sleepily reclining in his seat, and with a few words, unceremoniously passed us on to him. Probably feeling indignant at her for foisting confused Brits on him during his afternoon break, he pointed vaguely in a direction straight ahead when we repeated our query. I was beginning to think a museum to celebrate Johor’s golden age hadn’t been received, or indeed, advertised very well judging from the blank looks and lack of interest we experienced enquiring about it.

We were near the water by now and tried finding the elusive palace by looking at the picture on Paul’s phone. When this failed and we’d pretty much checked out the whole area we decided to hail a taxi and try again. The driver nodded enthusiastically when we told him where we wanted to go and then proceeded to ask us questions about where we were from and about our boat and what we thought of Malaysia as we drove along. Things got confusing when he asked where we wanted to be dropped off. Out came the phone again with the picture of the palace, and I repeated the name of the sultan (Abu Bakar) and the street name. He then told us that that was where he had picked us up from and assumed we wanted to go into town. He turned the car around and drove us right up to the palace gates (a bit further back from where we’d been looking). The ornate palace gates were firmly padlocked and the grounds were deserted. It was closed due to the public holiday! We gave up on the idea of sightseeing after that and got him to drive us to the mall at the ferry terminal, thinking we’d take advantage of the resort comprising ‘integrated hotel, duty-free shops, dining, bars and cafes’ that were promised in the guide book. Admittedly, this was recommended at night when Singaporeans flood there, attracted by ‘cheap drinks, a liberal atmosphere and a lively nightlife’. I didn’t expect it to be quite so deserted during the day, however. Only a handful of people were in the building, the shops on the top floor were all boarded up, and the small duty free shop had four people in it – all of them staff. The goods on offer were bars and packets of chocolate that were more expensive than the supermarket.  Clubs and bars were visible outside in the courtyard but were obviously closed. It was hard to imagine that the place would turn into a lively hub of fun and action later.  All that was needed to complete the picture of sheer desolation in the afternoon were some tumbleweeds.

We entered the hotel next to the mall, the spacious reception area was empty apart from two Japanese girls in the lobby and two staff on duty behind a desk.  They were only too pleased to help us when we asked where we could find a large shopping mall with a supermarket, and provided the names and locations of two. So, into another Uber taxi (lucky they are so cheap) and the driver took us to one a couple of miles away. This one had a bookshop, coffee bars and quirky shops that sold products like ‘armpit masker’ instead of common old deodorant…and of course, it had a huge supermarket. I was happy to amble around for an hour while Paul got yet another taxi back to Puteri to collect a parcel. When he returned we had a late lunch of veggie burgers in a fast food veggie outlet I had discovered (Paul wasn’t overly impressed but I loved it). The menu is below. I couldn’t quite bring myself to trust that food described as goose/lamb/chicken free are actually meatless but I may be wrong. Fortified, it was time for the Tesco shop for wine (very expensive free of duty-free) and a few other (less important) items before heading back to the boatyard – in a taxi.

Thursday 11th May –

Holiday over, the marine guys arrived promptly at 9 am to continue working on the propeller shaft. We didn’t have to get off the boat, and Paul took advantage of the haul out to do other tasks, as well as being on hand to help the guys.  They are all lovely – very friendly and cheerful, they all get on well and you get a sense of community in a workforce that lives on site as they do. It was a hive of activity all morning in the cockpit, with the lads clambering around in the lockers and up and down the steps, banging and sawing. The worst thing here is the prevalence of flies and crawling insects. It’s to be expected in a hot, dusty tropical environment where puddles and rubbish accumulate but at least there haven’t been too many mosquitoes to bother us. The work was finished just after lunch and it had all gone to plan. We were ready to set off the following morning.

After I helped Paul put all the stuff from the cockpit locker away we got ready to head out into town to find an ATM because Paul had to pay for the work in cash, so Uber was called upon again to take us there. We’d spotted an Aeon supermarket fairly close by and intended to go there.  While we were waiting near the main road, a motley pack of dogs we’d encountered there a couple of times began their usual barking chorus, sounding a lot fiercer than they actually are. Any attempt to approach them saw them backing hurriedly away. In the taxi, we told the driver that we wanted to go to Aeon, but it turned out there are two to choose from, so there followed another convoluted interaction involving pictures on mobile phones, both of us saying ‘nearest and closest’ a lot before we realised that he’d already entered the destination of the one he expected to take us to and he wasn’t going to change that. He barked a curt ‘NO’ at our requests, and we watched our chosen supermarket fade into the distance behind us as we sped along at an alarmingly fast rate. The roads here aren’t as bad as Thai roads but still have a fair few potholes and each time we went over one we almost literally hit the roof! It was a long journey in more ways than one.  Screeching to halt 30 minutes later, we saw a huge complex of shops in front of us and I was thankful to get out and bid the driver farewell. Inside, it was amazing – a very well put together mall, with one section dedicated to Japanese products. It was a shame that all we needed was cash but we had a good look around anyway.  It was a relief to get a more chilled out driver for the return journey 🙂

Friday 12th May – Launch, Dalac Marine Boatyard

Paul was up very early this morning to see the sunrise and took a walk around the yard. I was very envious when he told me he’d seen sea otters frolicking around in the shallow water. He also took a fabulous picture of the yard cats waiting for scraps from an early morning fisherman – they remind me of the cats on the 70s cartoon series Top Cat.

The lads arrived at 10 30 to begin the process of getting us back in the water.  We were allowed to stay on board throughout the whole operation, which would never have been permitted in Britain.  It was a thrilling and fascinating process. Away went the chocks once the hull was secure in the sling and slowly and surely we were driven towards the water, while looking down from the cockpit. Hovering over the travel lift dock, we were lowered gently and slowly down until the hull was sitting safely on the water.

There were a few things to do before we could set off, like filling up the fuel tanks and refitting the backstay. The guys were only too willing to help with everything and when we left they all stood on the side to wave us off and wish us well. I wanted to take a picture but I had to have my eyes glued to the depth readings as we went through the shallow channel.  So at midday we were off, back on the water and making our way to our first stop en route to Pulau Tioman. I’d read that this island (one of the most beautiful in Southeast Asia according to our guide book) was the location for Bali Hai in the film South Pacific: yet another place in a favourite film that I never expected to see, but I later discovered that this is sadly not at all true. Four uneventful hours later we arrived at Kuala Lebam and were safely anchored by 3 pm, just opposite Singapore.

Kathy

We have just arrived at the small village called Juara on the East coast of Tioman. this is after spending a very relaxing few days over in a lovely cove on Pula Tulai, just a few miles NW of Tioman.

You can see we went round to the NW of the island and snook into a small cove where we found a few other boats and a free mooring, usually used by dive boats, the mooring was a mass of ropes heading down 20 metres to coral rocks we couldn’t quite see. We tied up to this and chilled for a few days, it’s very safe there as long as the wind doesn’t blow from the NW, where it can get dangerous. Internet was very flakey there, in fact most of the time there wasn’t even a mobile signal. The signal isn’t much better now we have moved over to the main island of Tioman. So I can’t upload too many pictures, but I did take some great shots, and the underwater footage around the fringing reefs in the bay are great.

Telok Juara, where we are now anchored in sand in 8 metres looks lovely. We will dinghy ashore later to see if we can find any shops and somewhere to eat tonight, failing on that, it’s back to the boat for cheese butties (again).

Below is a local fishing boat that came in Tekek just before we left on Friday, it arrived with a lot of other fishing boats, just as the wind started to pipe up from the north. The wind is normally from the south here, so I wondered if they had knowledge of a storm coming in from the north. I postponed leaving for a bit to see what the wind did, however after lunch, the fishermen were all washing themselves down before donning their Sunday best, or in this case, Friday best, then a dinghy came and took them all ashore. I’m sure this was for Friday prayers, as they all arrived back in a few hours, changed into t-shirts and shorts and headed out back to sea.

Some coral from our anchorage in Tekek

Below, our anchorage in Pulau Tulai, The mooring you can see was just behind us, and three dive boats arrived and all rafted up on this mooring.

The boat nearest to me comprised of about 20 young Chinese women learning scuba dive,

 

Kathy seemed to like it here and came swimming on the lovely calm beach

Technically I am struggling with the boat, we don’t have enough power and we are reaching the end of the day with our batteries getting quite low on voltage. Consequently we have had to run the engine in the morning to get some power back. Especially if the day has a few overcast hours. I don’t know the history of the batteries, and as they are sealed I can’t test their electrolyte state, I think they were bought in Malaysia a few years ago, so will be of suspect quality. Then the Solar panels are very old, and one has a cracked glass panel and only produces 50% of its rated output, the solar regulator is quite old too, not the modern MPCC type. On top of that the LINK battery monitor, that tells me the state of charge, current in and out , and voltage, is flakey. It might be better when calibrated, but I thought I did that. Also I fitted the new blade to the wind turbine and it was way out of balance, not sure why, but I really should have bought two, so I could balance it better. So now I’m running with 4 blades, not six, and the wind gen doesn’t have a regulator as it was designed to, so I don’t really know what it’s contributing. Finally, the most I can get from the engine alternator is 20A, given that the invoice the PO had for the engine included a 60A alternator upgrade, I’m a bit confused. I think that may not have been fitted and has since grown legs.
Basically I need to review whole power system, replace the solar panels, controller, and maybe the batteries. I will also see about getting an alternator upgrade.
We are also getting low on water, and the only way to get any out here is to lug it in jerry cans, which we only have one of. We are currently going to a tap on the town and filling 5ltr bottles.

We will have a couple of nights here, then back to Tekek to check out of Malaysia and sail over to the Anambas Islands in Indonesia. We will be there for a few weeks I expect, and probably have very poor internet, so don’t be surprised if you don’t here from us for several days on end.

Paul Collister

 

 

 

Had a lazy day today, I did a few basic chores around the boat, and tomorrow will be the same. The outboard is very sluggish now, feels like the petrol is stale, but it’s only 3-4 months old? I’m all tooled up to give it a service, so hopefully we can be back to razzing around shortly.

The anchor is still holding, but it wasn’t tested much today, and tonight it is so calm, I keep forgetting we are even at sea. Last night a big tug boat came in and tied to the jetty we are anchored off. It looked disused, so I didn’t expect any visitors, he stayed for 24 hours and popped off again.

Once the sun died down a bit we went ashore for dinner and a wander.

I snapped this picture of the Sister on our way in, the ominous looking clouds behind never amounted to much, but they do make the hull look whiter than she actually is.

It’s usual to find concrete roads here, Tarmac wouldn’t last as well and would cost more in upkeep.

Above is genuine tropical rainforest , below is genuine tropical monkey

Tropical Kathy, on the beach with a lot of electrical cable, entangled with fishing nets. I expect there is a story there.

Dinner, with a very nice view. And a cat wondering if we left any for him/her.

 

Paul Collister