Next decision on the agenda was, pick up a mooring- supplied by the NP, or anchor?
Pros and cons for both. How good is the mooring line? When was it last checked/renewed?
As for the anchor, what was I likely to snag it on? There were several moorings supplied , so I guess they would prefer you to use the mooring rather than destroy the coral.
From the information I had, it appeared that all the moorings were in at least 5m of water, so I opted for a mooring...with anchor standby alternative. Always got to have a back up plan, or just be indecisive!
Lynne stationed up forward as we approached, suddenly started asking what the depth was.
"30m plus, 25m ,20m, 15m, 7m"
"Was I sure?"
"yep"
"Really sure, I can see the coral clearly, really, really clearly"
Depth sounder down to 1.5m and we retreated. The advantage of a sedate approach speed. I too looked over the side- goodness it was clear wasn't it? By now we were in 10m again. Decided to approach another mooring instead.
This one turned out to be in 24m- it was only about 60 m diagonally from the first one we had approached.
I assume that in fact all the moorings would be in adequate water, or they wouldn't waste their time laying them. I also think without any further investigation on the subject, that perhaps it was just our direct approach to the mooring that had had us passing over such a shallow depth, but that coral is crunch stuff, not to be trifled with , so retreat was the order of the day.
We settled on the mooring for the night.
Just before sunset we watched a boat with 5 Thais, wearing fatigues, going from boat to boat.Sure enough they approached us and in very broken English we figured the were telling us they were Marine Parks, and would like some money. I had read about the NP fees in the info I had ,but that info had said the fee was charged if you went ashore, where there was ranger hut. As we hadn't officially arrived in Thailand,(done the paperwork bit), we hadn't been ashore. So after explaining we haven't arrived yet, they said "ok and you pay next time when you come back". Still don't know if it was a shake down or if they were legit. The very small amount of baht I had already obtained was for any fees at immigration that might be imposed. Happy to go ashore when southbound, if we stop there again.
Next morning in the first clear water for months I thought I would check out the state of play beneath the water line.
What had appeared in the relative murk of Port Dickson and Pangkor to be fuzz, turned out to be a veritable pasture of growth, when I could actually see it!
Took me just on an hour to give the hull the best clean off it's had so far.
Tried with a light swipe of a scourer pad but decided that, that was actually wiping off too much of my ablative antifoul.
When I got her , K'Gari had had two different colour layers of antifoul. The top one being black, the second one being blue. That way you can tell how quickly the antifoul is wearing away. Not wanting to wipe off any that was still working well, I tried with a plastic scraper for the fuzz/pasture and the metal scraper on the more recalcitrant barnacles that didn't come off with the fuzz.
All the while that I was removing the verdent undergrowth,and perhaps the odd bit of Altex #5, I was keeping an eye on the increasing number and size of the fish, enjoying a free breakfast. They started out teeny weeny and by the time I had finished were definitley approaching plate size.Plate size is fine, just so long as nothing bigger than plate size was likely to arrive as well!
Managed to drop the metal scraper right towards the end of the job. I had 4 implements tied together with a loop around my wrist. Trusty knot came undone, and metal scraper decided not to float! Despite the water being crystal clear, and despite the fact that the scraper had a fluro bright orange bit on the handle. I couldn't see it on the bottom anywhere.Doubt I could make it down 24m on one breath anyway!
One thing I have found with my forays under the hull is, that either it's much saltier water than I'm used to ,or perhaps my posterior has become more bouyant as I age! I need 2kgs on a weight belt every time I'm in the water under the hull and even then it's no effort swimming, without fins, on the surface.
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