Not all those who wander are lost
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AKAMA REPORT 1
8 May 2002
Hello,
Greetings from the South China Sea! We are
currently circumnavigating Pulau Tioman (Malaysia), just to see what's
here. P. Tioman, according to the blurb, is one of the world's ten most
beautiful Islands, and it is the island called Bali Hai, in the 1949
movie South Pacific. Here is our first report, to keep you all up to
date. If you prefer not to receive these, please let us know.
Friday,
26-04-2002: M/Y AKAMA left Raffles Marina in Singapore, accompanied by
S/Y SARI TIMUR (our friends Mark and Pauline), and checked into Malaysia
at Sebana Cove, an easy 6-hour trip about 3/5 of the way around
Singapore from the Southwest corner to the Northeast corner, and then
across a small strait into Malaysian waters. The trip wasn't without
incident, as the generator set broke down; this means no 240-volt AC
supply to charge the batteries, run the air-con and so on. AKAMA is
more like a little ship than she is a big boat; so a generator set is
much needed and it is run for many hours each day.
Saturday,
27-04-2002: We tanked up AKAMA nearly to her capacity of nearly 4000
litres of diesel and headed out towards Pulau Aur (an island in the
South China Sea, off the East Coast of Malaysia). This was an all-night
trip, our first. An hour or two out, the hydraulic stabilizers packed
in, which means that the boat rolled a lot for the rest of the trip. We
intended to go through Lima Channel (just at the south east tip of
Malaysia) and started in that direction, but changed our minds at the
last minute and went around it. Going around usually takes an extra
hour, but is much safer, as the channel is narrow and there are lots of
rocks in it. However, we took several extra hours, as we got caught in
reef-infested water several times and had to pick our way out.
Sunday,
28-04-2002: Early in the morning, south of P. Aur, we saw emergency
flares and were about to deviate course to lend help; Mark had already
altered course and had called on the VHF radio to see if anyone needed
help. There was no reply, so we kept moving towards Aur, but with a
sharp eye open to any distress situation. We had noticed a lot of
military ships in the area that night, and were not terribly surprised
when the Malaysian Navy started following us in a PT boat. Eventually,
however, they flashed flood lights at us (that really screws up one's
night vision). We hailed them on the emergency channel and asked their
intentions, but they did not reply. Then they started firing flares
towards us! Eventually, they came close enough to shout between the two
bridges, and hollered at us to "clear the area or they would take
action on us" {gulp}! The only thing is, we did not know what "the
area" was, and when we asked which way they wanted us to sail they did
not reply. Then they went after SARI TIMUR in a similar manner. We
also heard them accosting OLIVIA, a sail boat that was travelling east
of us, and a coastal freighter. The situation was at times tense.
Finally, a British warship came on the radio and explained that they
were about to conduct live firing exercises. We explained where we were
headed (anchorage at P. Aur) and all was well. LA missed the whole
thing, as she was off watch. We arrived at P. Aur just at sunrise,
rendezvousing with our friends Graham and Watti on M/Y SATULAGI (Malay
for "another one"). We drank beer, went snorkelling and regaled our
friends with tales of the encounter with the Navy. P. Aur has the
clearest azure water we had ever seen, and we saw lots of fish, coral
and so on.
Monday, 29-04-2002: We climbed the escarpment on P.
Dayang (a small island north of P. Aur), with Mark from SARI TIMUR.
Both LA and I were beat by the time we reached the top. But it was
worth it. The view of the anchorage and the strait between the two
islands was spectacular. We spent the next day cooling our heels, both
in the water and at the bar. We hosted cocktails and dinner on our boat
for SARI TIMUR and OLIVIA (Albert).
Tuesday, 30-04-2002: We
left P. Aur for Pulau Tioman in the late morning; SATULAGI had already
departed for Singapore early in the morning and SARI TIMUR left for
Tioman about a half hour earlier. The mooring buoy was so fouled in the
mooring line that MKN had to jump in the water to get things
straightened out. That proved difficult, as there was at least a two
knot current against which he had to swim to get to the buoy and then he
had one chance to grab AKAMA as he drifted past her stern. The trip to
P. Tioman was uneventful, the Navy did not fire on us and nothing
broke.
Wednesday 1-5-2002 to Tuesday, 7-5-2002: SARI TIMUR
returned to Singapore after only a few days at P. Tioman. We spent a
week on the west side of P. Tioman doing many things by ourselves.
First in line was fixing the broken bits. Both problems (the generator
and the stabilizers) were due to broken V-belts, both recently new and
improperly installed by the mechanics. We snorkelled (lots of coral,
fish and a sea turtle), swam and nearly drowned when we got caught in a
strong current whilst getting back to the dinghy, which was moored to a
buoy a considerable distance from the reef. LA got about 1/3 the way
back and ran out of steam. So she drifted with the current while MKN
ploughed ahead. With my last breath I made it. This was very scary!
While we could have drifted back to the reef and found shelter on a rock
or been picked up by a local dive boat; but if we had missed those, we
might have not had the strength left to swim to shore and could have
been swept out to sea. The weather turned lousy by Friday, with rain
and rolly seas. So, we did lots of household chores and maintenance.
MKN found a bunch of bad solder joints on the VHF and HF radios and
fixed them.
A high point was meeting Warren Blake of FOUR
FRIENDS; FOUR FRIENDS is a traditional-looking schooner. He has been
exploring the seas and taking 7th grade children out on week-long
excursions for about 20-years and has tons of tales to tell. We also
met the crew of an associate ship, RISING TIDE, and we all had dinner
ashore at a Malay restaurant.
Which takes us back to today. We
slept in until past 9 AM, when the Marine Police came by to tell us that
we had to leave, as we were anchored in a "submarine area". Strange,
as we were well within a National Marine Park boundary and had been
anchored there with FOUR FRIENDS AND RISING TIDE for two days. What is
it with the authorities here? |
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