Still in Senibong

So I have decided to hop home for a couple of weeks, having found an incredibly competitive return fare ex Singapore with the flying Roo, whilst awaiting the arrival of my next scurvy crew.

Spent the day therefore, going through the spares- to make sure I have enough of things I might need. Boat spares , seem to be adequately accounted for, in the way of oil filters , o rings , and other bits and pieces, so from that respect not too much to cart back up with me when I return. It seems a pity to waste that 30kg luggage allowance!

A replacement for the D2 clutch which I destroyed with ineptitude of first class proportion, has been ordered- however I won't be fitting it unless I have to, as its going to mean dismantling deck heads I'm sure. However at least knowing the spare is on board and can (possibly/probably) be fitted , if push comes to shove , will make me feel better.

Chart card for Australia and NZ ordered. Both items I will pick up in Oz.

Whilst rifling through the spares I found the replacement drinking waterfilter, so  I  decide to change it. Better late than never. Although being a procrastinator (apparently), I definitely come from the school of – if its not broken don’t touch it, or words to that effect, as I  generally find that if/when I do touch things, it usually upsets the apple cart- to mix my metaphors totally!

Of course , the 5 min job took a bit longer than that. The replacement of the cartridge went swimmingly, but after it was all reassembled there was the predictable drip , which wasn't there when I started -apart from me of course! So after taking it apart three times and even checking some spare parts, to make sure I was actually assembling things correctly, it still dripped. Finally upon close inspection of my almost idjit proof plumbing parts, I noticed one 3 inch joining section of pipe (in the vicinity of the drip) was slightly scored. Replaced the section of pipe and voilà ,the water drip was no more. So another success chalked up.

I have obtained a usb GPS , through a mail order service here in Malaysia, which will allow me to operate my back up chart system on a windows 10 laptop, as the previous gps fails to fire on windows 10. Best thing was , amazingly, it was half the price of either Oz or Singapore , it arrived and it works!!!

View from above .Note the knitting design I have chosen for port side lines!

Took drone out of its cocoon and flew it to top of the mast for a quick remote inspection- works amazingly well, although my fine motor skills need improving when up close and personal with the mast.

up close and personal rigging inspection of the mast  from the deck- how cool is this?

Good morning, neighbours

I really need to think about which control I'm about to flick, so I don't fly it into the mast! Landed safe and sound on the tramp up forward.

Fridge man came to look at the cockpit fridge which has been troublesome since the beginning.It has been leaking refrigerant- sorry world atmosphere, not my fault, I didn't install it. It worked apparently ,sort of, when we left Vietnam, but not for long.Had it regassed in Phuket,again temp came down and it seemed to work until I left the boat in February. Since coming back it hasn't worked again, as apparently it was re-gassed but leak either wasn't found, or another one appeared.

Meticulous- James even brings his own carpet for his tool boxes!

James (fridge man ) is incredibly busy. He is a one man band ,and deals with fridges and air conditioners. There are a queue of customers, as there are three boats with fridge/freezer issues and two with air conditioner issues, and there only eight boats with people on board  the marina! He works incredibly long hours and is meticulous, so I hold great hope that this time the job has been done correctly. After a couple of  hours, cramped up in a small warm space, he turned it on and the temperature came down to a civilized 13 degrees on the lowest setting, and this morning I turned it up to max cool and with the outside air temperature hitting 31.8 degrees, the fridge had come down to 2.8degrees in three hours. The proof will be I how long it holds the pressure. James tells me he will check it until I go home on Sunday and then when I get back again, before I depart, we will be able to check again.

Today's two stunning victories

STOP THE PRESS. Today using the magic of Skype and the goodwill and expertise of Peter the amazing electrician, I have reconnected  the fan in the saloon. Ta dah!

The fans had originally been installed  by Pete when he was on board, in Singapore  last year, after the trip across from KK. In January this year, it appeared to be surging so disconnected and taken back to Oz, when I went home .Vendor ran it in his premises for several days and could find no fault with it, so its back on board. The reason I took it back to Oz was, that both these fans have been replaced already, as they started to smell like electrical burning , and Pete had then disconnected them way back in May last year. I had returned to the boat in November with the replacements. One replacement (touch wood) is and has been running fine, the one in question not so good. Steve had refitted them in December when we were at the Similans and then in January it surged.
Its been in situ, since I refitted it in position , but never wired it in, when I returned 5 weeks ago. I think my views on electricity and my total absence of skill in this department have been mentioned previously.
To reiterate- I don't like it, as I can't see it and have no idea what I'm doing!

Following  another raging success story this morning , when I singlehandedly refilled 125 litres of diesel , from jerry cans via the good old jiggle hose, without spilling a drop- yes I will take a bow, on that one, as I have never done it by myself before, it was time to do the fan.

Why was it time today? Simply because for something completely different , it was pouring with rain at lunch time and the cabin was beginning to get a bit stuffy , without the aircon being kicked off ?

That's me under the red bit, which the graphics reveal to be 60mm/hr. It was belting down.
So I  took the saloon seating to pieces to inspect the job.Immediately my discerning eye noticed a problem.Although I know it was fitted and removed from the very same position, the wiring is now about 6 inches too short . No idea how that happened, but good o , enough reason not to continue with "mission clearly impossible".
Further pondering on the missing six inches finally produced a positive thought, "Skype  Pete". So I did, not that he would be able to throw any light on the mystery of the missing bit , but he would be able to tell me how to solve the problem for sure. True to form , the first questions he asked me , were;
"Do you have a multimeter?"
 "Yes!"
"Do you know how to use it?" .
As Peter and I go back a long way , I wont  print my actual reply here, I'll just diplomatically, for the sake of anyone who may actually be reading this, say, "no, not really".

Yes I know what it is -and now I know a bit more about
 how to actually use a multimeter

 So refresher course in use of multimeter for idjits, a bit of Skype footage beaming several thousand kilometers away to Oz , to remind him of how he ran the wiring in the first place, and we were away.

I now have two functioning fans. Hopefully it will remain so, and the mystery problem of the surging fan will not resurface.

Note the useful array of handy tools, screwdrivers,stanely knife, cutters,and multimeter and loose wire on the leather seating!

Winners are grinners!  

Note the sunsafe "safety" hat being worn inside!
A girl can never be too safe when dealing with the mystery of electricity!

Crew departing ex Singapore,so let's go explore Singapore for a day or two.

Having satisfied all the stringent paperwork requirements we were free to roam.

Roam we did.

Straight to CIQ, which is easier to say than, Sultan Iskander CIQ Complex -Johor Bahru Checkpoint, to give it the full title, and I might add a completely separate Customs centre  to the one I had been traipsing to and from during the morning, so we could commence our adventure of getting across the Causeway into Singapore. It's a little more complicated now than it was in 1942, but only the first time I guess.

There are few (no) instructions on the Malaysian side, but quite often following the flow will suffice. Actually at one point a Singaporean resident gave us a few helpful hints and made sure we followed him.

You can of course drive across if you have a vehicle, but if not, its on foot through the checkpoints and then buses across the Causeway itself.

Through Imigresen and then a short bus ride takes you across the Causeway. For the princely sum of 2.50RM each, you can get a bus across the Causeway and right into the centre of Singapore- if you know which bus you are looking for, on the other side!

Through Immigration on the Singapore side, and then the mystery of the buses is revealed. Two buses 170 (the one we had tickets for) and the 170X (we guessed express, looking at the length of the comparative queues). We opted for the 170X.Correct assumption -it was not the one we had tickets for! So for $3.30 SG each, we were on the express bus, with a seat! It took about 40mins once we were on the bus, and possibly it was a 15min wait for the bus to turn up.

The buses drivers don't give change, so small denominations are helpful here.

Disembarked at Queen St bus depot, and made our way to the handily nearby Bugis St MRT. Bought 2 day unlimited travel on MRT and Singapore Transit buses and we were off to our hotel.

I love the transport systems in Hong Kong , Singapore ,London , Japan from memory and other essentially crowded places, that have wonderfully seamless travel systems.We have a lot to learn from them.

Found the hotel which we had booked down in Chinatown. The only glitch being, that although whilst booking on line I had clearly specified that we needed 3 single beds, that had been lost somewhere. Room changed and third bed/towel etc promised.

We went out and I introduced Chris (and Jo ) to Simlim Square- electronic heaven. Jo glazed over as quickly as I did and Chris had only almost finished one floor of six!

From there we ventured out towards Bugis St and eventually wound up in Little India, where we dined.

Back to the hotel to find the bed still hadn't materialized , but it appeared very quickly after a visit to the front desk!

                                                                            Next morning strolled down along the Boat Quay

Along Boat Quay there are a variety of bronze sculptures
this one depicting the kids who used to jump  into the river
until the river became a non commercial
 centrepiece for redevelopment

to Merlion Park, the War Memorial Park-dedicated to the civilians who lost their lives 42-45, Raffles Hotel , then decided it was time to hunt down some breakfast.

This is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel (and Casino)with the bizarre boat shape structure atop the buildings.
its down near Merlion Park . this was taken as we sailed past east bound but I forgot to put it in that blog! 

Back to Simlim Square with Chris , for the remaining 5 floors, whilst Jo went to explore Arab St.

We met again at the designated time,had some late lunch and back to the hotel, so I could grab my bag and head back to the boat. They then went to check out Chinatown and eventually made their way to the airport for their night flight back to Oz.

My return trip was trouble free. I used the travel pass to Kranji on the MRT, then a 5minute bus to the Causeway, reverse process through CIQ formalities, and the most confusing aspect was finding a bus once through the Singapore Immigration. The first one I tried indicated no, not for me, despite other people jumping on as it backed away. Second attempt also failed, but third bus seemed happy enough to take me. Crossed the Causeway, found my way out of  CIQ and Ubered myself back to the marina. The entire process taking about 2.5hrs from the time I left the others at the hotel

The cunning plan that went awry.

Successfully checked in with the Jabatan Laut , but that at point the plan went awry.

The all in one stop check in, houses the Jabatan Laut, first stop, Kastams, second stop, and also Imigresen, if required they would actually be the first stop. I didn’t need them as we were all already “in” Malaysia.

Having dealt with Jabatan Laut smoothly and efficiently, I then asked the uniformed officer that I next encountered if she was in fact Kastams or Imigresen – as the answer was “yes” I remained none the wiser,in fact a bit confused still.

Further confusing conversation, including my vouchsafing of the name of the marina I was heading for , some 25 miles further upstream and my last port clearance was checked by said uniformed individual ,who then told me that the check in was to be done at the marina.

This was at complete odds with the information from the marina, advising that the check in be done at Pengelih. I questioned the advise but was clearly told that I could and should do the rest of the check in at the marina.

Hmmm- you know already where this is going!

Twenty five miles and a few hours later, snug as a bug in the marina, it turns out, predictably, that the information received at Pengelih was in fact incorrect, patently wrong in fact.

Bugger!    

25 miles, a few hours, and the inbound flight path to Changi later!!

The next day consisted initially of , finding our way into Johor Bahru, the nearest town, about 20-25mins away- if your Uber car turns up! If it doesn't it's about an hour and fifteen minutes away, after the second Uber driver also got hopelessly lost trying to locate us, to pick us up. Problem being, the marina is in a residential estate with no actual street name.

I have never used Uber in my life but its the way to go here. Its half the price of the taxis, its airconditioned, and you can track it -now I know how to!

So eventually arrived at Kastams, who eventually decide they can't actually enter me as an arrived vessel, as it should have been done at Pengelih.

Problemo!

Resolved by the simple but time consuming 30RM round trip to the Johor Bahru Jabatan Laut, to check in with them. They were puzzled to say the least, but duly allowed me to “arrive” again, stamped the paperwork meticulously as always, and it was back in the cab to Kastams- thankfully before 1300hrs when they shut for lunch. Handed over the new paperwork , listened attentively whilst being told how important it is to get the paper work correct- ( so important they couldn't even find my paperwork when I came to check out of KK last year!) Yes certainly!

Hey ho- free to go.

By the way if ever in Singapore and you are for some bizarre reason stricken with desire to eat local oysters the following photos are for you....

oh look an empty blue plastic container farm 

entering the marina 

view from my saloon window-Sembawang ship yard

Think I for one, will manage to forego the oysters, having watched what has swilled around me for the last few days as the tide ebbs and flows.

Boggle Champion

With 30 miles at least, to cover to get back to a jumping off point for our arrival in Johor Bahru,and a SW'ly blowing off shore we were zipping along.

In fact we were going so well with two reefs in the main, that we were averaging 7kts and I was toying with the idea of knocking off the last 13 miles and anchoring off Tanjung Pengelih , where we had to check in again. The last 13 miles were going to take us parallel to the traffic separation scheme again, but we were making excellent time and would arrive at Pengelih by about 1700.

Naturally mother nature had other ideas. As we cleared the penultimate headland, the wind wound up to 22kts and the tide v wind , made even the reach we were on a tad bumpy, so living to fight another day we called an early halt to the day and anchored in 4.5m, tucked up in the lee of the very last headland Tanjung Sepang, before we would have had to have started motoring into a headwind .

As the afternoon progressed we could see from our snug position the effect that wind v tide really has. We would have been thumping our way west for no reason. The seas looked as though there were waves very close to a metre in height churning through and past the passage we had decided not to take.

Random selection of letters 

Instead we played the last rounds of Boggle- a game at which Christopher is so quick, that we had no chance. It's a sort of self contained "scrabble like", word game. 16 letters and two minutes to make as many words as possible. Sounds easy? Well let me tell you, it aint. The letters fall randomly and maybe upside down or even sideways , from the particular position you are viewing from. The word is made only by letters that are actually touching each other. When you have a 16 year old, writing words down rapidly, that you can't see for looking, its very frustrating. Scores are attained if at the end, you have a word that nobody else has.

So Christopher is the crowned champion Boggler for this trip. We came nowhere close to his scores.

The scrabble world domination series however, had ended in a perfectly contrived three way tie. All of us winning the same number of games....although I'm sure that one of MY scores, was probably the best!!!! Well it's my blog , so obviously it was the highest score!

Next morning we left just on first light- a judicious decision as it turned out.

During the night, once the wind had dropped,the local fishermen had laid a web of nets across the channel we were taking. Picking our way through the fishing net buoys, we again entered the Straits, albeit very close inshore. So close inshore in fact we were inside the numerous anchored dredges sitting idle.

sneaking along inside the anchored ships

As we progressed west wards I detected a vessel sitting off a new facility construction , with what appeared to be a floating pipeline leading from it, back towards the shore , so we deviated a little further out into the traffic,to give it,what I regarded as adequate clearance , when a security boat decided to accompany us until we were well clear of the dredge. Perhaps there is a notice to mariners out with a proscribed clearance distance, and I'm thinking my 0.2 nm may not be the correct distance, but our personal escort just shadowed us, sitting just off my starboard quarter until he deemed it safe to leave us again. He never tried to contact us by voice, hand signal or vhf , just shadowed us.

On time and on budget we arrived of Tanjung Pengelih at 0930. Lowered the dinghy and went ashore, appropriately clad, as always on these occasions, in long pants and shirt (other than t shirt ) covering shoulders, to satisfy the dress code of the country. Seems very odd to be in dinghy in long pants. However we weren’t wading ashore, merely tying up the the jetty.

Making our way back to the Peninsula...slowly and circuitously

We left Tioman and headed SW ish towards Pulau Sri Baut, aka Butterfly Island, as there are twin islands, joined by a drying reef and it looks kind of like a butterfly from above. This is a genuinely drying bit of green coloured chart! We anchored off a rock that wouldn’t be out of place in the Grand Canyon , or central Australia – Chambers Pillar, comes to mind, in 11m of water late in the afternoon. We saw some fisherman wading about waist deep on the reef just on dusk. During the night when I checked all was well- it being a very quiet anchorage, with no wind or thunderstorm to disturb us for a change, so naturally I was awake anyway, checking on the suspicious quietness, I could see 4 or 5 torch beams still active on the drying  reef. Next morning at 0500 the low water was 0.5m and when daylight dawned just after 6am, it appeared we were below the edge of the reef. We could no longer see across the expanse of reef  to the other side. Rather an odd experience really. As we could now see the entire expanse of reef dried, there was no point in going for a snorkel on the rising tide, so we departed for Pulau Rawa some 13miles to the south.

beautiful anchorage at  Pulau Sri Baut

What is going on with the MPS halyard ?

The lengths that Digi deprived customers will go to to try to get a signal.
There is a phone in that bag. Surrounded by phone towers and no bloody signal to hotspot off

Passed a beautiful looking island on the way so decided to stop and have a squizz. Apparently from the signage it belonged to the Sultan of Johor and in a similar vein to  the sign next to Piglet's house, apparently “Trespassers W” was the gist of the message..... Jo and Chris had a snorkel but it was pretty dead ,so we moved on.

Another stop made at an island about 2 miles from Rawa. Jo took off in the dinghy to check it out whilst I floated around, again decided not to stay, and on to Rawa.

Here we anchored off the resort in about 8m on sand just outside a line of mooring buoys, the largest of which had a very official crest on it.

Once ashore we checked if we were a) welcome , b) able to use the mooring buoys.

Yes to both. The biggest buoy with the crests on it , is for the Sultans boat, the other 5 are for his escort of police etc etc. We were welcome to use them as the Sultan was not due.

The resort on Rawa is owned by the Sultan's nephew, and I have to say it is the most tasteful, apparently well built and finished and maintained resort we have seen. The individual suites are extremely tastefully located , each built in a slightly different style. Some reminded me of stonewalls in the UK ,with the external walls being constructed in the dry stone fashion. Some were in the “rainforest", some were over the water. The restaurant was welcoming to yachties and they had icecreams. We checked out the diving but decided against it as the visibility wasn’t going to be worth it. A Singaporean dive company offers the dives , so it's priced in Singapore dollars which is on par with the Aussie dollar.

We did a drift snorkel from the north end of the island back to the resort but the visibility was truly poor, however the water was nice.

Back at the main jetty which we anchored off, there are two water slides. One for resort guests only, the other private, so must be for the Sultan's family I guess. Both Chris and Jo availed themselves of the resort slide!

We went ashore for dinner and Wi-Fi, having been sorely deprived for days.

Decided to go ashore for breakfast and more wifi the next morning, only to find the cunning plan thwarted by the low tide which had exposed the coral. The wifi was just the other side of the coral!

We got there eventually, although interestingly Mr Techo was still asleep when we went to “bury our heads in technology again”. However they hadn't yet switched it on. Jo asked and they switched it on..

Decided to spend the whole day at Rawa as it was very pleasant.

Just after 1400 another thunderstorm moved through ,once again turning the millpond into a maelstrom , so we did a runner and took off to the protection of the east side of the nearest big island, Pulau Babi Besar, where we spent a very comfortable night , but at the cost of missing out on another meal at Rawa.

Shifted to P Babi in the morning all of 1.6nm away, and had a great snorkel over what is apparently referred to as the North Reef . Thought we would stop off at the resort located on the island for brekky and went ashore to ask if that was ok. No it wasn’t , it was a private island , so we pushed off back to the boat, after the English chap who was telling us it was private, explained what they were doing with the turtle egg enclosure we were standing near. Usual stuff , trying to ensure that there is actually some marine life left somewhere in the region.

So brekky not being an option we shifted another couple of miles southwards and anchored off the Aseania Beach resort and had lunch instead!

Stop the press :Finally back in phone range !!!!

Again about 1430 wind set in from the SW , so we set off to find some protection for the night. Had a fabulous sail. Worked our way to windward and covered the 15miles in 2.75 hrs which was pretty good going. Beautiful peaceful night off a very discreet Rimba Resort, in a bay on the northern end of P Sibu. Didn’t go ashore as again the fringing coral precluded easy access.

Sailed to P Tinggi the next morning and had a good drift snorkel .

The distinctive P Tinggi (ex volcano) from the anchorage at Northern end of P Sibu

Even saw a dugong on the way to the snorkel. Heaps of fish here, and decent plate size ones at that. The coral here for the first time , is very similar to the coral that most Aussies would be used to. Perhaps the “plate size fish' in this location is why the Sultan has his Kelong just a couple of miles further west?

Usual afternoon breeze kicked in and we had one more spot we wanted to snorkel before heading back to the mainland Pulau Sibu Kukus- the incredibly photogenic spot we had apparently bypassed in the rain and thunder storm when going north. Set off in an increasing SEly wind with full sail and ended up with two reefs in the main and a reefed down jib as the wind hit a nice 25 kts. That made the location untenable so we back tracked to the previous nights anchorage- thus circumnavigating P Sibu- also included a minor back track for Digi reception for weather check, before we lost the signal again. We saw probably a dozen dugong on the way back to the anchorage and a turtle surfaced as well. considering we were sailing in water that was only 3m deep at times I'm guessing from the number of dugong, that the shallow water allows the seagrass to flourish  on the western side of P Sibu.

Which reminds me- I have finally managed to crack the mystery of the pactor modem , which we had zero success with since leaving Vietnam. I let the membership to sail mail lapse as the transmitters at Brunei had been hit with lightning and never worked for the first year of my boating existence. However having spoken to a chap in Phuket back in January, who told me it was in fact working again, I decide to rejoin. So I have now successfully sent two emails via the hf radio and received a weather GRIB file after requesting one. Another milestone event, as it actually convinces me that the hf really does work!

Next day we went  back down to Pulau Sibu Kukus,  anchored in 3m on sand and went for a snorkel.

P  Sibu  Kukus

I saw more anemones than I have ever seen in one place, but not that many were occupied by Nemo or his relatives. When I say more than I have seen before , there were meters and meters of beds of anemones. So why they weren't classified as 'des res' for Nemos' I have no idea. This was the only snorkel all trip that we took GoPro. Jo took it and despite instructions at hand over- this time, no we didn't have 64 shots of a mermaid who looked suspiciously familiar, as had occurred at the Similans, instead we had nothing at all, as she had merely been scrolling through the various functions by pressing the slightly awkwardly located button on the front of the Go Pro instead of the more logically located top right hand side button which activates the camera!!!! Ah well, the only shot that would have been priceless was of some teeny weeny Nemos hanging around outside a still closed anemone. Honestly, it could have easily translated to kids hanging around a milkbar , or I suppose these days, a gaming centre or fast food joint, just shuffling around waiting for it to open.

Relocated a mile to P Tengah, to see if they had lunch on offer- no , resort not open.

So with no more locations to snorkel, we headed for the coast .

Brilliant sail and we arrived at Jason's Bay for the night. Snuggled up in the SE corner of the bay ,out of the swell in 5m.

Pulau Tioman , the end of Ramadan and Hari Raya.

Chris' photobomb of my pano shot

We arrived at the southern end of Tioman at a tiny place called Mutuk. Anchored off in what seemed the best position in about 18m  with 50m of chain + 10m for the bridle,just off the fringing reef.
As it was Friday , the last one of Ramadan, I could see no point in racing round to check in at the main town on the west coast, as it was after lunch and unlikely that it would happen anyway. Went ashore and literally as we stepped ashore the phone rang , so we knew that despite the Digi (telco service I'm using) 'E' sign, we at least had communication by phone, even if no internet.

Asses Ears from Mutuk jetty

Had a look through the kampung and decided that if we were going to take the 10 minute walk to the waterfall at Asah, apparently used in filming for South Pacific and King Kong, that the early morning would be a better idea. Returned to the boat, having located somewhere that we could obtain a meal about 6pm, and went for a quick snorkel, before going ashore  again to eat. I had been watching an impending front for a while , and I guess the poor people in the restaurant must now think that Ozzies eat a million miles an hour, as we basically ate ,paid and left , so I could be back on board when the front came through. Poor Chris, had to take his dinner in a takeaway container, as time was of the essence. Our location at the southern end of the island meant we would be on a lee shore, if there was much in the front.
Come through it did. The calm flat sea turned into a malestrom. It always seems so much worse in the dark anyway, when clear  visual clues are removed. I had checked out the surrounding swing distance , after we had anchored and it appeared fine.

The charts here aren't entirely correct, and in no time we appeared , according to the chart, to be over a bit of fringing reef which is coloured green.

The track from the night before- over the dry bit allegedly, but we floated ok!

Months ago I stopped worrying about 'green bits' on charts  actually meaning they  dry, but of course by now in the dark it all seems a little more ominous. Had I sufficiently checked it out, what if we actually dragged a bit, had I taken that into account? Then there was the first grumbling rumble of the chain dragging across not sand but coral, or coral rubble. Then the depth decreased rapidly to 6m  as we sheared of in another direction.
So I was awake until about 0100, just checking that we weren't moving anywhere. I woke Jo and went to sleep myself, waking again about 0300 when I decided we weren't going to drag anywhere. The low water for the spring tides is occurring at night at the moment and we were now once again on a rising tide.

Next morning we decided against the wander to the waterfall, doubting that it would be as good as some of the ones we had seen elsewhere in the world. We cruised past the jetty, in the vain hope that , the internet might jump into life , as it was on the jetty that the phone calls had been made. Alas no!

Asses Ears as we departed having done a sweep past the jetty to try for reception

What is peculiar is that Digi E (emergency) is the only thing my phone indicates, yet intermittently Chris' phone, tethered to mine has allowed him to receive messages from his mates. A couple of random emails have arrived for me , but Jo has received nothing.
This state of affairs as it turned out would prevail for our entire time around Tioman. Jo eventually got her emails in the middle of the day a couple of days later, I clearly managed to get some messages out and Chris was happily communicating on a message app with his mates, pretty regularly, with  the phone indicating no service, yet every kampung, has whacking great towers with dishes on them and the kids are looking at phones???? An alternative telcom , hotlink, has its signs everywhere, so maybe hotlink owns the towers as far as data is concerned.

After our night at Mutuk we shifted around to Teluk Juara,  a beautiful sandy beached bay, with a couple of resorts at opposite ends of the crescent of beach. In between a few restaurants and cafes, mostly closed for Ramadan, but the weekend, in fact Saturday night was the last night of Ramadan, duly announced by the ever present call to prayers and then as the darkness descended the fireworks ascended, intermittently on and off for hours. Not just skyrockets but bungers, apparently being let off in bins, judging by the reverberations.
The snorkelling at the northern end of the bay was great. We did a drift snorkel from the outer point, inwards towards the beach. A couple of hours, of magnificent corals, plate and staghorns, brain coral, tiny fish, not too many seem to survive to adult hood around here, although we did see a decent size trevally and a medium barracuda, plus the ubiquitous tusk fish. No starfish or sea urchins.

Following the end of Ramadan is Hari Raya- more public holidays, three it would seem, but maybe one was to make up for Hari Raya falling on a Sunday. How did this affect us, well just a bit of an issue finding somewhere to eat. Where we had lunch the previous day was open, but only for family members, as were the next two places. Eventually we found somewhere doing a buffet, rice ,chicken ,veggies, something unidentifiable,possibly fried tofu and catering to mainly Chinese tourists.
Further intermittent bungers on and off all day. The kids were having a great time especially those at the end of the pier, with a rather large can, who appeared to be practising depth sounding techniques. The thunderous echoes really reverberated around the bay.
A tremendous few bolts of lightning , relatively close, certainly within the bay we were in occurred about 10pm, with rumbling thunder and accompanying wind, but it passed through within about 20minutes, and peace returned, with the bunger addicts obviously astutely calling quits as well!

Shifted to the western side of the island to an anchorage in Monkey Bay. The recommended anchorage position, now with a mooring buoy, which looked sturdy enough ,but a tad to close to fringing reef, with the predicted 0.4m low water which was due at 0500.
A lovely bay, quiet and relatively secluded until the afternoon when a couple of local boats appeared for a short time full of passengers, and then it became apparent why when we had snorkelled earlier in the day we had been mobbed by the tiny fish. We suspect it was a fish feeding stop for the the beautiful multi coloured we fish. So tame were they, that Jo literally closed her hand on one of them. The difference being we were in the water ,whereas the tourists (Chinese and Indian) mainly stayed in the boats looking down. Another boat came in for the night, an Australian registered vessel being delivered from Pattaya to Fremantle, with half a dozen nice young Aussie gentlemen on board, who dropped by for a chat.
That night the wind hit 26kts about 0130, but we sat as snug as a bug on our 60m of chain in 15m of water. One huge grinding rumble of anchor chain on the bottom, as the wind hit and that was it, we sat tight as spider on its web. At the low tide at 0500, the sound of surf- literally, awoke me again. Astern of us where yesterdays beautifully inviting, picturesque, clear sandy bottom had been a good 3m underwater , was now as dry as could be . We were still in 13m of water but  200m astern of us was dry as a desert.

safe in our very own "waggon train" camp

After the sleepless night at Mutuk, I have now devised the perfect system for making sure that I know if we drag or not , when using charts that aren't quite accurate. It's  a bit like the waggon train circle concept.I place waypoints around my anchor let go position, equivalent to how much chain I have put out, plus a margin and then anybody on board can simply check to see if we are within, or outside, the safety of the "waggon train " of virtual buoys I have laid out.

Decided that Tuesday morning was the day to check in and out of Tioman, but it was in fact the third of the public holidays for Hari Raya. The Jabatan Laut was open, although seemed a bit concerned that we were checking in and out on the same day, he didn’t seem to understand that we had been working our way around the island anticlockwise for a few days. Next was Kastams, although part of Malaysia, Tioman is a duty free island and has its own slightly different rules, which apparently meant that we in fact needed Imigresin as well – still not sure why exactly, but I have a meticulously stamped piece of paper now- seven  perfectly executed stamps and  appropriate signatures, which states that upon arrival in my next Malaysian port , I do not have to fly the Q flag, as long as I haven't exited Malaysian waters in the process of arriving in my next Malaysian port! Knowing what this piece of paper would have cost in Oz on a public holiday, I'm thankful that despite the fact that Kastams had to phone Imigresin and drag him in from home, there was in fact no charge!

However the somewhat drawn out process of checking in/out, made me completely forget to stop by the df shop on the way back to the boat! Fail!!!! Instead we were focused on seeing what the general store had- answer not much after 3 days of public holidays and two days before the next delivery. So we settled for a loaf of bread, two lemons, two packets of minced chicken, 5 apples, and four packets of pringles for the outrageous sum of 50RM.

We had just cleared the tiny marina, in the dinghy, when we ran out of juice! Luckily it was not far to row/paddle back to K'Gari. This trip both Chris and Jo have been driving the dinghy, not just me, so lesson learnt ,whoever starts it up, needs to check the juice.

That was Tioman. The water clarity was excellent on the south and east sides but no so good on the west side. All in all a very reasonable place.

Heading for the Tioman Group

After transiting the Straits, I hadn't really considered where we would  anchor for the night as that was dependent on how long the transit actually took.
Having cleared the no anchoring section by 1542, I started to look for somewhere for the night. There are some small islands just off the SE tip of Malaysia, about which I could find very little information. Understandably I would suggest, as once we got there, there appeared nowhere to feasibly anchor. There was a good knot and a half of current gurgling south and the islands were uninviting lumps of rock above the water , so I had no idea what would be below, and the water was murky, so they were discounted as a place to spend the night.
We dropped anchor on mud  about 1830, having done 79miles for the day, at the southern end of  Teluk Punggai (Punggai Bay).

Next day we sailed to Pulau Sibu a nice 54nm run, eventually with  a breeze which allowed the MPS to set. We had done a practise set earlier in the morning but the wind then, had not been quite enough, so we stowed it away until the wind became more obliging.
 Arrived off the position I was making for, once again in no visibility, as it was the afternoon /evening  deluge. Looking at the guide book afterwards we obviously passed a very photogenic ( on a nice day) potential anchorage , which just hadn't looked quite so inviting on the radar!

Sultan of Johor's kelong

Next day made our way out to and past Pulau Tinggi, maybe a potential stop on the way back south.
The most notable thing we saw here is the Kiwi equivalent of a “fishing batch”. Here they are called
Kelongs. The one we passed off Tinggi just happens to be the most upmarket one in the region , being well over a thousand square meters and on concrete poles instead of the usual 'thin trunk tree pilings bound together with polypropylene lines'. Belonging the the Sultan of Johor , explains the magnificence of the one we passed.


Crossed over to Pulau Aur, passing through the channel between it and Pulau Dayang , just as a another squall came through. We had in fact just dropped the sails in anticipation of anchoring here, when the wind blew in with such ferocity, that we decided to pass through and found a bay just around the corner on the east side.

Sat here for the next  day. The snorkelling was good, water clear, but a noticeable dearth of fish life.
A small beach at the head of the bay was completely littered with every piece of plastic detritus mankind manages to manufacture. The beach and bay would be totally exposed to the NE monsoon, hence the accumulation of garbage. Sad to see, and hard to comprehend until you have actually seen it.
All the islands around the Tioman group are national parks. Apparently this means its open slather for the locals to fish. In the afternoon just as we were about to go ashore to check out the beach, a small local dinghy appeared ,with three on board. They went to the head of the beach and one of the guys hopped over the side. The boat then moved across the head of the bay and stopped. As we tried to approach the beach ourselves , we realised what they were doing. They had completely strung a net across the entire beach. A couple of hours later they hauled it in and disappeared with the collection of, I imagine, minnows.

Next morning we went for a snorkel and in the afternoon I used the opportunity to clean off the last of the fuzz from the 4 months in Port Dickson Marina in the beautifully clear water. Everything looking pretty good underneath. The anodes look fine and I knocked off the few barnacles that I had missed in the gloom of the water in Port Dickson.

Next day we awoke to find an oil slick heading our way on the current. It looked suspiciously like a tank cleaning exercise had taken place some where offshore.
K'Gari now has a particularly unattractive slick mark on the hulls. So we upped and offed , headed to  Pulau Tioman

The Straits

We made good time over the next two days.

A 42 mile hop to the Water Islands on the first day, mainly under sail, with only an hour or two of motor sailing.

We didn’t get away quite as early as anticipated as there were still a few “last minute” things to do. Top up the water, bend on the jib- (stay tuned on that point), pay the marina, dump the rubbish, disconnect the power- one of the pins in my plug was seized and a tad corroded after 4 months and is now looking the worse for wear**, buggered in fact, comes to mind, despite being wrapped up in plastic bags etc initially, run through the engine checks, again and then we were off. Departure time noted as 0945.

That night a tremendous thunder storm and lightning bolt display reached us at 0200, having been visible for hours as it approached. Torrential downpour which lasted for hours, not the usual short sharp torrent. Then the tide changed at 0400 and that made the anchorage less than delightful, so we were up and under away a little before first light, as it was a long day planned.

I was hoping to making it all the way to the SW tip of the peninsula just under 90miles and anchor for the night at Kukup and then run with the current through the Straits.

The wind, or lack of it, with the current against us, precluded this and in the end we were anchored some 20miles short, at Palau Pisang, which I think was the better choice, when the next morning I identified the anchorage I had been aiming for. We anchored , predictably it would seem, in the middle of yet another glorious display by mother nature, lightning, thunder and heavy rain, but most importantly it was a lovely quiet night at anchor allowing a good sleep before the awaiting Straits adventure.

Leaving just before daylight again, we sailed towards the Straits. Identifying the mass of vessels at anchor just west of Tanjung Piai, my planned contra flow courses looked ok.

The Straits have a traffic system. The West bound traffic passes closest to Singapore, the Eastbound traffic passes closer to Indonesia. There are various sections along the way for traffic to cross at 90 degree angles to access the ports and pilot boarding grounds as required.

I wanted to stay on the Singapore side, as at the Eastern end of the scheme I then would not have to cross both lanes of traffic, to be able to duck into an anchorage for the night. So I had laid off my intended courses, so that I would proceed from west to east , just to the north of the west bound traffic lane, (hence my contra flow term) but definitely outside the Port Limits of Singapore, ( after my stunning arrival in Singapore waters last time, I wanted no repeat of that!). There is a gap of up to about a half mile between the West bound lane and the Singapore Port limit. Using these courses I would only need to be on the alert for the obvious oncoming traffic and anything crossing at the traffic crossing sectors.

The excitement begins- first of the obstacles

Arriving at my first waypoint of the 42miles of excitement that was to fill most of the rest of the day, everything was looking fine , we were about an hour later than I had planned so by now we were motor sailing.

Then the first of the sandwich manoeuvres as Jo called them began to unfold. An anchored vessel, had just heaved up and was making its way to somewhere, that I hadn't registered whilst listening to the vhf ,so we took the option to pass it down the leeward side, which with the wind, meant her port side. Yes folks you read that correctly, we were PASSING it, as it had only just got under way. So, target one, under control. Wind increasing a bit and we were hitting about 7.5 kts speed. Wind increasing more, within minutes, oddly, and for no obvious reason, no rain coming, no visible squall. The wind went from a gentle and manageable 10kts to 22-24kts and I was under full sail manoeuvring through a fairly packed anchorage.

Thinking now about putting a reef in the mainsail and so identifying the next anchored ship, I was planning to pass around its stern , into its lee and drop a really quick reef into K'Gari's mainsail.

Possible question might be raised in your minds by now, why was I even under sail?

Answer , the wind was in the right direction, we were a bit behind my schedule and I was trying to carry the maximum effect of the current as long and as far as possible before the notorious tides changed, and finally, it makes me far more visible, with sails up, than with bare poles.

So we ducked into the lee of the obligingly anchored ship and dropped two reefs into the main. Bore away, and started on our way again. At which moment Chris, who was tightening the jib , announced “oh oh Lizzie look”. The clutch housing for the jib sheet was looking extremely ordinary! In fact not healthy at all. The back edge of it had busted completely at the point where the sheet left the clutch housing. The clutch itself mercifully was still working and holding the jib sheet.

My first thoughts were bugger, bugger, bugger , don’t tell me the sun was so fierce in this part of the world that the housing had perished? Never mind it was holding and we would deal with it later. My greater concern right now, was another vessel heading right at me.

sandwich manouvre 1. Apologies for poor photo.
The red vessel is Snow. At 338m long and 60m wide (5times wider ,than I am long)
she wins in the might s right stakes!

With a few things going on all at once, it had became clear that a tanker (Snow) had also just got under way and was in fact departing the anchorage , right ahead of us. She had done a slow round turn to port and was heading for the same bit of water I wished to occupy.

To my starboard side and upwind of me and now overtaking me, was the original vessel that had got under way. Ahead of me and slightly off my port bow and now sounding two blasts , (altering course to port, and thus closer to me ) was the rather larger than me, tanker Snow. I think my crew were getting agitated about now, but knowing that he couldn’t get us as he was hardly going to alter course into the ship beside me who was now a guardian shield really, I told them it was ok, he couldn’t really get us, it was just going to look a little close. 

Once the traffic sorted out, it was time to do something about the jib sheet. Obvious immediate solution was to re rig it through the currently unused clutch which is for the MPS , when we have it up.

Oh dear! The initial excitement and the busted clutch seem to have revealed a somewhat nervous disposition!!!!

Easier said than done, the clutches are designed for 8-10mm sheets. The sheet in question was a10mm one. To feed it through the clutch mechanism is a bit tight, fiddly in fact, if the end is not perfect. Guess what, the end wasn't perfect. Jo tried , I described where the paraphernalia that has been devised for re rigging the sheet was located. Steve had made a small wire hook,which we use to grab a tail made of sail twine or stronger which has been sewn through the end of the sheet . This is guided through the clutch and then “simply” pulled on and the sheet passes through..if it has a perfect end that doesn’t catch on anything....

whats wrong in this photo???

Having broken the sail twine twice, the next best option was to create the “perfect end”. So now Jo had to locate the hot knife, the cutting board , the welders glove and we created the perfect end. Hot knifing it, cuts away the damaged part and seals the rope so that it should no longer fray. The welders glove, I use for rounding and smoothing the molten end into the best shape possible. All of this whilst , keeping an efficient lookout,dodging the traffic and bouncing along in the 20kts plus breeze. Instead of sail twine I sewed an end of fishing line through the rope, as it was going to be more substantial to heave on, in case the end still wasn’t “perfect” . That worked. So we now had a fully functioning jib sheet clutch, and we could re set the jib. That along with two reefs in the main , gave us far better control and we were still on our way.

Later we encountered the Gaslog Salem wanting to alter her course to starboard at Raffles Lighthouse, at almost the right time for us to alter to port.

 A couple more minutes would have been perfect, but as it was, I took the option of taking a round turn, as soon a she indicated her intentions, as had I altered early, I would have crossed in to the Singapore Port limit. Then a second round turn for the Pink Diamond, did in fact, I see in the photo, have us crossing ''the line”. Never mind it was only briefly. 

The only other bit of passing excitement for us was off Eastern Pilot boarding ground Alpha , when the MSC Susannah was clearly trying to get there for her pilot boarding, so I actually entered the West bound traffic lane to let her clearly see that I was aware of what she was trying to do and where she was trying to get to.

Split the difference! MSC Susannah on left, LNG v/l on right and we are are going 'contra flow' IN the west bound lane

All the way through we were listening to the Singapore VTS operators clearly directing the shipping, identifying the transgressors, stopping them from entering the port limits without their pilot on board, clearly instructing vessels not to approach their pilot boarding ground early and where they should wait to kill the extra time that their early arrival meant they now had to waste.

We witnessed only one vessel the Kelud who got himself into the wrong scheme, he was advised of this and told to re-enter the west bound traffic lane, which he immediately tried to do to the obvious annoyance of the also west bound vessel who spent the next 10 mins sounding his whistle at very regular intervals as he could see the Kelud merge was not going to work. Eventually the Kelud increased to 18kts to jump ahead, at which point I lost interest in them.

Right at the beginning of this post I said stay tuned on the bending on the jib.

Upon mature reflection as the day wore on and as we had re rigged the sheet through the spare clutch it had become apparent to me why the clutch had apparently failed. It was my own fault, I had rigged the sheet incorrectly the first time when putting everything back prior to departure. I guess the relief at finally getting the sheet through the clutch and the fiddling about that had taken, I then had totally failed to run it further down the deck to the sheave it needed to pass through before going to the winch. Simple mechanical advantage , and I had failed to notice the mistake. The incorrect angle of the lead from the exit of the clutch to the winch, was what had destroyed the clutch housing. Young Mr Strong Man had complied completely when I said , give it a bit more, he did, and kasnaffu went the clutch housing!

I’m not having a lot of luck with that starboard side, so far I have mangled a winch fitting and now a clutch , through my own ineptitude.However nothing makes a better lesson in how to do it properly than breaking it and having to replace it. That now wont be happening again with either the winch or the clutches, I might be slow, but I do remember!!

Even my highly refined electrical skills tell me something looks odd!

** Days later when I actually got around to looking at the plug again, I suspect that the pin is loose as it has melted its surrounds for some reason. There seems to be a definite hole that looks like melted plastic to me ( in my official electricians role). Lightning? Power surge? I dont know, but it's still not looking healthy. I have a spare and reckon if I ask nicely at the next marina perhaps they will have someone handy who can re wire it for me. Electricity scares me ,as you can't see it and I dont want to destroy either myself or the boat with dodgy wiring.