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 |
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| What is going on with the MPS halyard ? |
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| 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 |
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.
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 .
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?
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| The distinctive P Tinggi (ex volcano) from the anchorage at Northern end of P Sibu |
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.
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.
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| P Sibu Kukus |
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.
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