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.