Turning the South East corner of Malaysia

CHECKING THE GUIDEBOOK

The seas were flat and the wind was a light South Easter as we left the thousands of ships and anchor and followed the Malaysian coast northward. Motor sailing along the coast was hot and not very interesting. By late afternoon we anchored off Desaru a pretty beach with a few resorts. The resorts are not doing very well as the road linking them to Johore Bahru has not been completed yet and by road or track the journey is a bout 5 hours from Johore Bahru and it is quicker to fly to the Tioman islands.


While at anchor I discovered that the water inlet to the refrigerator cooling unit was blocked.


I dived overboard armed with the wire handle of a fly swat trying to clear the blockage.


No luck . Next morning I tried using a long handled screw driver. It worked I cleared what ever was there. I checked the line from inside the boat and to my horror I saw water squirting out of a small cut in a plastic pipe. I searched for the underwater epoxy stick that can be used under water. I worked the putty and then applied it to the leaking hose. While I could not see the hose as it was obscured bt the complex piping of the water maker I could feel water dripping from a rusty connecting pipe . I applied the epoxy putty to that as well but there was no change water was still coming in.


That evening I had to pump out the bilge every 2 hours. Next morning I went overboard and hammered a wooden conical plug into the hole.


Still water was coming in. there were a number of jellyfish with trailing stings of 2 meters. Annick stood watch with the boathook fending off the jelly fish while I went overboard again and pushed the epoxy putty into the hole and the wooden plug. That seemed to do the trick. Water stopped coming in. we can now relax.

TIOMAN ISLAND  ON A HAZY DAY

It is incredibly hot here at Tioman island. There is a cloud over the mountain but the sun is shinning brightly over us.


We took the dinghy ashore and had a beer at the Chinese restaurant on the beach. I ordered slices of fish with dried chilli and prawns for Annick. Absolutely delicious.

We walked down the main street in the sweltering heat. The road is concrete and the shops and houses look makeshift apart from a large duty free store and government marina and ferry terminal. The island is mountainous with a few large resorts most only accessible by sea.


The stores carry the basic necessities and you can find frozen meat and a limited array of vegetables.

THE CHINESE RESTAURANT ON THE BEACH

The marina with berths for 36 yachts was full and so we anchored in 8 meters of water just south of the marina. The government marinas in Malaysia are quite inexpensive at around A$ 10 per day and most yachts take advantage of the marinas to escape the swell and the wash from passing ferries. Tioman is a duty free island and attracts numerous Malaysian tourist as well as a number of international tourist seeking a diving adventure in the clear waters with abundant coral.

A LAID BACK SHOP KEEPER

we stayed a Tioman for a week.


Anchored off the beach in turquoise water in sand and coral was quite pleasant until the ferries from Mersing and the numerous tour boats passed and made the boat rock.

MALAYSIAN TOURISTS SWIMMING WITH THE FISH

The Chinese restaurant on the beach served ice cold beer and excellent food while the other restaurants were pretty basic. We spent time relaxing and scrubbing the slime off the bottom of the boat and drinking beer to cool off. The day before we left was cloudy and gusty with the occasional shower or two.



TYPICAL MALAYSIAN WORKMANSHIP



We decided to sail direct to Terenagganu some 165 miles away.By leaving at midnight we could reach Terenagganu in 30 hours.

THE CLEAR WATERS OF TIOMAN ISLAND

At midnight we raised the anchor and set off in the blackness passing several small islands and fishing boats under motor. A light breeze from the south sprung up and we hoisted the jib and motor sailed at six knots. Annick went down to sleep and I pored myself a Scotch and continued on and until dawn when Annick took over and I crashed into my bunk.

BY mid morning we were still plodding along at 6 knots on a flat sea passing the odd fishing boat at anchor with the crew asleep .We could see the coast and oil refineries and several supply boats heading offshore to oil rigs. The day passed pleasantly, we had our showers with a bucket of salt water rinsed of with a kettle of fresh water.


By mid afternoon a breeze from the east filled our sails and we switched off the engine and sailed along at 4 knots. We were ahead of our schedule so it did not matter if our speed dropped to 2 knots, which it did by late afternoon.


By sunrise the next day we were approaching Terengganu and our computer plotter was out of date so we just had to wing it. I watched a fishing boat enter, consulted some cruising notes where the recommended bearing to the marina was 265 degrees and just did it.


The depth was dropping from 11 meters down to 5.6 meters and the outgoing tide was up to 3knots as we slowly followed the marks to the marina. The staff were out reading to take our lines. Both of us were exhausted. We slept most of the day.

THE MARKET TERENGGANU