Surin Islands

SURIN ISLANDS.

We left the anchorage at 0735 and after a bit of a slow start waiting for the wind to fill in, arrived 30 miles later at our first stop at the Surin Islands at 1220.

https://youtu.be/p1dOmqbTRHM

The sailing was magnificent once the wind kicked in, hitting 9 knots under the main and jib on a beautiful reach from the NE'ly which had arrived as predicted.
40 minutes from our destination and the wind was just hitting the first reef limit, when a metallic thump,hitting the deck  from above indicated something had come adrift.

yee ha  8kts in 16.4 of wind -just enough to send something to the deck from aloft.

Well it couldn't be the radar reflector because that had perished during my absence, when the boat was in Port Dickson. Recovering the fallen part, which looked vaguely antenna-ish, it was, with the help of photos later on, identified  as the top spike of the windex , (wind indicator) which appeared to have this time perished, due I’m assuming,  to 18 months exposure to the harsh rays of Sol. No idea what purpose it served- hopefully it was just a bird deterrent.  Guess its another mystery- the purpose of it being revealed, perhaps, once we get back into internet range and I can Google the product.

The Surin Islands upon first impression are truly magnificent.

The water is CRYSTAL clear. The clearest I have ever seen. Jo still thinks that Vanuatu is clearer, but I have never dived there so as yet can't comment .

on the NP mooring in 17m

We picked up a mooring provided by the National Parks. The Islands are all NP.  We were sitting in 17m of water, the bottom visible, just. Slightly astern of us it shelved up rapidly to 10m and less and it was like being in wonderland. According to the Pilot book I'm using, the fish life is not as abundant here as in the Similans, in which case it must be wall to wall fish in the Similans!

We hit the water.
This is what I have been waiting for, an entire anchorage to ourselves , with crystal clear water
and abundant fish life- does it get any better???

longtail arriving at sunset

We emerged for a very late lunch , at the same time a couple of day trip boats did one of their speedy snorkelling stops before heading back to the mainland. Half an hour later we were alone again.
Right on sunset a couple of the local sea gypsies who inhabit the southern of the two main islands,  arrived to make use of the moorings for the night, in their longtails.

We shifted to another bay, less than three miles  away the next morning and it was a different world, above sea level. Half a dozen of the fast speed boats, buzzing around them local longtails, taking the tourist to other snorkelling locations and off to visit the village on the southern island.
We launched the dinghy  to access the western side of the island, to check  out some alternative moorings, crossing some very  shallow patches  in the process. It really is a sand bar which dries ,which connects the two land masses making up the major islands.
Once we returned to the boat he snorkelling was great again. We thought we had found some seahorses but upon our return  on board and using the fish identification tome that we now have on board, courtesy of Peter, it turned out although they had the sea horse head, they were actually Waites pipe fish. That would explain why they looked like stretched seahorses.

 A couple of stunning royal blue or violet crown of thorn starfish- beautiful to look at, but I'm sure just as devastating to the reef as the boring old plain coloured ones we have at home. The drop off into the deeper water was more prolifically populated than at our initial snorkelling spot.
The 'traffic' was too much for us antisocial K'Gari dwellers. We returned to our original mooring, peace and quiet reigned supreme again.