Will We Ever Get Out of Here?

The day of departure arrives and the little marina is absolutely jam-packed. We are sandwiched in with two charter catamarans rafted up behind us with two large ferries rafted the other side of them!! Maybe they will all wake up soon and leave. Tweed's grey hull can just be glimpsed behind the left hand catamaran.

D-Day Minus 1

Tomorrow we depart Tioman Island off the east coast of Malaysia for Santubong in Sarawak. Below is a chart of our proposed route across the South China Sea, passing close by the Indonesian islands of the Anambas. The passage is about 400 NM and should take 3 days, possibly 4. Three days will put us outside the Santubong River to await the high tide in the morning when we will be able to enter the muddy waters to anchor off the small village of Santubong.

Arrival Tioman Island

Tuesday morning and similar conditions to Monday with a couple of hours of sailing as we approached the Pahang River. We anchored just north of the river where a lot of earthworks, dredging and building of a seawall is going on. Several tugs with barges were anchored off and the work continued until about 10:00 p.m. It seems another engineered river entrance is underway, creating another safe harbour for boats.

Just as we were about to drop our anchor, a swiftlet flew into the cockpit, landed on a cushion and promptly closed its eyes. We were only about half a mile offshore but maybe it had come from further out and was just too exhausted to continue. We moved it to a more protective environment and about three hours later it flew off and headed for shore. We have had birds join us before on occasion but usually further out. We once had a tern roost on our pulput on the bow and stay there all night. It didn't fly away until the sun was well and truly up.

Wednesday was our last leg to Tioman and the day we had the most wind. It was frustrating day, however, as it was just a bit tight on for our heavy boat to make the most of it. Along the way we noticed what at first we thought were just some black flags marking some fishing floats and bobbing about in the small waves. Then, they appeared to be moving. As they passed about three metres alongside us we realised it was a school of sailfish busily feeding on smaller fish!! Then we noticed there were at least six groups scattered in the vicinity all with a flock of terns circling and diving for the scraps. This was a first as we had never seen this occurrence before.

We are now in the marina at Tioman Island for a few days to replenish the ships stores and prepare for heading across the South China Sea to Sarawak. The island is duty free so we are able to top up our wine and beer. The other big draw to Tioman was to catch up with David and Kris from Taipan who have recently returned from five months in Australia where we helped celebrate their wedding in April.

Where Did That Month Go?

We arrived back on Tweed on Tuesday 5th May after a wonderful trip back to Perth in Western Australia. Although we have a Queensland address we were both born in WA and so that is where our extended families and a lot of our friends live. One of the reasons for us making the trip which was the first since leaving Darwin in July, 2006, was to attend the wedding of Kris and David from the good ship Taipan. The wedding was held at Narrikup, just north of Albany, on a farm in very primitive surroundings. Those guests who didn't live close by all arrived either in camper vans or equipped with camping gear. We chose to camp and thanks to family managed to put together a tent with a swag to sleep in and were very comfortable. We arrived on the Thursday with the wedding on the Saturday and by that time the venue had been well and truly prepared for the celebrations. The wedding went off without a hitch and the partying went on into the night. It was great fun to celebrate an event we had been waiting for ever since our meeting with Kris and David in 2006!

Travelling to Perth and back from the Tioman Islands was a saga in itself. We had a two-hour ferry trip to Mersing on the mainland. Mersing has a shallow bar so our arrival was delayed waiting for the tide to come up but we made it in time to catch the bus for the six-hour ride to Kuala Lumpur. We decided we would leave a day earlier just in case these connections went awry and stayed overnight in a hotel in Chinatown. We then had to fill in time the next day as our flight didn't leave until after midnight. That meant shopping which really wasn't that arduous but we were glad to finally be on the bus for the one and a half hour bus ride to the airport and then more waiting around. We finally took off on the five-hour flight to Perth only to find we couldn't lay back our seats for some sleep. We arrived in Perth at 5.30 a.m. and after clearing through Immigrations and Customs were picked up by Pam's sister Nola and brother-in-law John in the cold dawn. Over the next month we were able to catch up with most of our friends and rellies and really enjoyed the cooler, dryer weather.

It has been very busy in the marina since we arrived back. Last weekend saw the Sultan Ahmad Shah Eco Challenge, with runners doing a half marathon course through jungle trails on Sunday. In the lead up the marina has been crowded with customs boats, police boats, Maritim Malaysia (coast guard) boats, as well as various other visiting boats. Sunday night was the presentation night with everyone invited to attend the festivities in the marina carpark with the Sultan as the guest of honour. It was a very relaxed affair with no obvious security surrounding the Sultan. Food was typically Malaysian curried chicken, curried fish, curried beef and vegetables with rice. Unfortunately the rice ran out before the curries!! Traditional dancing and several singers entertained us and the finale was a fireworks display right on the marina.

All was well on Tweed on our arrival back at Tioman apart from the fridge which seems to have lost gas. Once it has been re-gassed our plans are to move north along the east coast of the Malaysian peninsula as far as Terengganu before coming south again and then crossing the South China Sea to Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo.

A Good Mix of Work and Play

Since our arrival into the marina at Tekek, Tioman Island, we have been pretty busy. To spend a month away from Tweed there were a few jobs we wanted to get done first so that we can come back ready to go cruising north. This has included polishing the topsides with Polyglow which sounds easy but the previous application had deteriorated rather badly after having been neglected while other work was being done. Jon finished this job which was started by Pam and he did an excellent job.

He also completed a PADI Open Water dive course with Daun from More Magic. Pam is still making up her mind about doing the same.

Daun and Jon doing their homework

We have done a couple of snorkels and the water here is so clear it is just amazing. When snorkelling at Pulau Ringgi we have seen three Black-tipped reef sharks, each time we have been there. Jon has seen turtles while doing his PADI course as well.

Chris and Daun were flying to Perth on 1 April, so before they left we decided to do the walk through the jungle to the village of Juara, about 7 kilometres away on the eastern side of the island. It doesn't sound very far, but it is a narrow jungle track with concrete steps in places, and follows the power line over the hill. We took about three hours to complete the walk, the hardest section being the last part over a concrete road but the downhill slope played havoc with our knees! Otherwise, it was a wonderful walk, in amongst the tall trees of the rainforest listening to all the birds calling. We only saw one squirrel in the way of wildlife but along the last section we saw a few monitor lizards which seem to be quite numerous.

Holiday Time!

Arrived in the lovely marina at Pulau Tioman on Tuesday 17 March. After a very calm, sleep-inducing anchorage at Pulau Sibu, we set sail for the 40NM last leg of our journey to Tioman Island about 90 NM north of the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula. As we progressed further north the water became distinctly clearer than that on the western side and we are looking forward to enjoying some time snorkelling and swimming before our intended visit to Perth in early April.