1 July 2016 Nongsa Marina to Pulau Bawah, Anambas Islands (Day 1)
Our tiny fleet of boats was ready to leave by half past seven. We had a 10-15 knot wind, but it was on the nose and we couldn’t bear away because we were following the south edge of the shipping lanes - at least we had calm seas.
The wind started to back in the afternoon and by four o’clock we were sailing - yes, sailing! We had 10-15 knots at 60 degrees off the starboard bow and fairly calm seas. It’s lovely sailing up-wind in these conditions - better than sailing down wind and slopping about.
One of the reasons that the Anambas is avoided by the cruising community is that there have been multiple cases of piracy in the area over the past ten years. The east coast of Borneo, 800 miles to the east, has been plagued by Philipino Jihadists, who have kidnapped westerners and demanded huge ransoms. The troubles around the Anambas have been restricted to piracy of large merchant ships, but it is easy to see that the kidnapping of westerners could be an easy option.
As night fell, our little fleet of boats was only a mile or so apart and we agreed to only put on our low level navigation lights rather than the tricolour at the top of our mast which can be seen much further out. We kept transmitting our AIS signal, so that large commercial shipping could see us - we felt it unlikely that opportunistic pirates would have AIS.
Although I felt it unlikely that we would have any trouble, I still took a few precautions including getting out our 1 million candle-power searchlight (to shine at approaching boats); checking our flare gun and putting it somewhere handy (to fire at approaching boats); checking that my 3 million volt stun guns were charged and that our pepper spray guns where accessible.
2 July 2016 Nongsa Marina to Pulau Bawah, Anambas Islands (Day 2)
It was a beautiful night, full of stars and the wind stayed consistent. There was a surprising amount of commercial shipping about and we weren’t attacked by pirates.
At 10:30, we were making our approach into Pulau Bawah (02°30.77N 106°02.58E), which was perfect - the entrance is due east and straight into the rising sun, so we wanted to arrive when the sun was much higher. The entrance channel is only 15 metres wide and there are two white buoys marking the north and south sides of the passage - we passed between the buoys heading directly east. The channel is at 02°30.728N 106°02.410E and at roughly half-tide the minimum depth we saw was 4.4m. If the buoys are not present then two way-points for the channel are 02°30.727N 106°02.337E and 02°30.726N 106°02.500E.
There’s an up-market resort being built, which is due to be opened in 2017. They have put down nine moorings - four white moorings on 4 ton concrete blocks and five orange moorings on 1.5 ton blocks. The moorings are well constructed with chain shackled to the concrete block and substantial rope up to the mooring ball. In 2016, the moorings were in excellent condition, but had no mooring pennants so the ball had to be lassoed and mooring lines threaded through a loop under the mooring ball.
It’s a spectacular anchorage, two large islands and some smaller islands set in white sand and clear water. The colours are stunning and the lagoon is very calm. It’s close to paradise and what a difference to the west coast of Malaysia.
We had a nap before lunch then went for a snorkel outside the reef. We headed out of the entrance channel and turned south for ¼ mile, anchoring our dinghy in 6 metres of clear water amongst isolated coral heads. The coral is in good condition, but there are large areas of coral rubble especially as the reef slopes off to deeper water. It looks like the locals have been fishing with dynamite. The snorkelling was great, but it doesn’t look like a good scuba dive spot because of the blasted reef.
It was Indy’s 9th birthday, so we all gathered on the beach to eat his cake as the sun set over the anchorage - it’s great to be back cruising.
3 July 2016 Pulau Bawah, Anambas Islands
After breakfast, we wandered ashore and met Paul, the project manager for the new resort. Paul has been on the island for four years, supervising the construction and was very friendly. The moorings are free to use, but he asks that we don’t fish in the lagoon or take any shellfish.
The resort is taking shape with about 30 guest apartments on stilts over the water. The main buildings are completed and they are now fitting the air-conditioning and furniture. The first guests will be here early next year and will arrive by sea plane from Batam.
At Paul’s advice, we walked along the path heading west from the resort’s dock and just as a board walk starts, we continued along the beach (covered in plastic bottles and tar) to a small wood-store hut. We walked through the store hut and found a path leading upwards. The path is indistinct at times and has lots of fallen trees blocking the way, but climbs up the hillside.
After maybe 20 minutes, the path continues up steeply, but there is a large rock off to the right with a smaller path climbing up and around the rock. The path drops down slightly and ends up at a rocky patch overlooking the anchorage - it is stunning and well worth the walk up.
We had a sketch of some trails on the island produced by Warren Blake, so we tried to continue walking up towards the east side of the island. The trail became non-existent and we were just heading into bush, so not having a compass, we decided to turn around.
On our way down we came across another slight trail leading north off the main trail about five minutes from the beach. We walked along that path for half an hour and had some good spots giving us a nice view of the west side of the lagoon, but the trail started to descend so we gave up and turned around. It was a nice 2-3 hour walk in the bush.
In the afternoon, we went snorkelling on south west corner of the southern island on the outside of the reef at around 02°29.95N 106°02.76E. The water is deep enough to get over the reef from the large lagoon and the snorkelling was very good. Again the deeper water looked bombed out, so maybe not so good for diving.
On the way back to the boat, we stopped off at a reef on the western side of the large lagoon which was okay, but the water was murky.
We were knackered after all this activity and crashed out at eight o’clock.
4 July 2016 Pulau Bawah, Anambas Islands
Every morning, Paul takes a small boat around the edge of the island group looking for signs of turtles laying eggs on the beaches, so we were up at 05:00 to go with him. If he finds a nest, he places some wire mesh over the top of the sand to stop monitor lizards eating the eggs. He’s just started to do this process and hopes that he can even set up a nursery to allow the turtles to grow stronger before release.
We didn’t find any new nests, but we did see a monitor lizard close to one of Pauls’s protected nests - the lizard shot into the water and swam away when it spotted us. Apparently, it takes 40 days for the turtle eggs to hatch and one of the nests will be hatching on 28th July.
Paul also showed us several rocks where Black-naped Terns nest. These migratory birds come every year and lay their eggs in small depressions on the open rock - no nice comfy nests. We did a small survey of one rock, but found only one egg.
We were back on the boat at 07:30 and after breakfast, chilled out for the rest of the morning. After lunch, we went for snorkel on the northern tip of the island group just off a steep sided little island. It was rocky reef with some large fish, but not much coral about. Again there are signs of dynamite fishing, so it’s not a good spot for scuba diving - it’s a little disappointing.
The weather for the past four days has been fabulous - a steady 10-15 knot wind from the south-east, a light smattering of clouds with constant sunshine. I feel like we’ve been transported into a different continent - the west coast of Malaysia was miserable in comparison, with muddy water, no wind and the constant threat of thunderstorms. We like it here.
5 July 2016 Pulau Bawah, Anambas Islands
Sea Monkey left this morning heading for Jermaja to get some internet. Sarah works as a freelance cartoonist and has a contract where she needs to upload some work and needs internet access. We’ve decided to leave tomorrow and start heading towards Tarempa, where hopefully we’ll meet up with them again. “Amulet” doesn’t want to cruise alone in this area, so they’re going to tag along with us.
I did some jobs in the morning including starting to splice 50 metres of rope onto the end of our 60 metres of chain. This will give us enough scope to anchor in 40 metres at a pinch. Some of the anchorages that we’re going to explore may not be any good and we might be forced to anchor in deep water.
I decided to use a long rope that I’d bought from another cruiser in New Zealand and found that it is 6 strand plaid rope not the usual 8 plaid rope, so I had to do a bit of thinking to work out how to splice it. To add to the complication, the strands of the rope were very soft and unwound easily, so it was a struggle and took me four hours in total.
We went for a snorkel in the afternoon in a couple of places in the big lagoon, but it wasn’t that good. The best place was just off the end of the jetty in the big lagoon. It’s murky water, but there are some big fish next to the drop-off. In all the snorkelling that we’ve done here, I’ve not seen a single nudibranch or small critter, so my macro lens hasn’t been used at all - I’m mildly disappointed…
We invited “Amulet” and Paul and Jason from the resort over for a few beers. It was interesting to find out a bit more about the resort. They will be able to have up to 70 guests in 35 rooms. Each room will cost $700US per night and the main market is wealthy people from Singapore.
6 July 2016 Pulau Bawah to Pulau Airabu South, Anambas
We left at 0700, with “Amulet” close behind us. After rounding the northern tip of Bawah, we had a lovely sail in 15 knot south winds, on the beam, to a small island called Pulau Ritan. Using Google Earth, I’d spotted a lagoon on the island at 02°36.94N 106°16.57E, but it has a fringing reef, which I was unsure whether we would be able to cross.
We made an approach towards a point on the reef that looked darker (and hopefully deeper) at 02°37.02N 106°16.540E. There was a small white buoy near this point, obviously left by the local fishermen. The sky was overcast and the light wasn’t particularly good, so I lowered our dinghy and went to have a look, while Alba and “Amulet” hovered around outside.
The white buoy (a plastic container) seemed to be marking a shallow coral head while to the south-west the reef was fairly consistent in depth with a few isolated coral heads. I measured the depth with our portable depth sounder which indicated 3.4-3.7 metres depth. One of the frustrations of this area is the lack of tidal information, but I think that we were around high tide of 1.5 metres.
The fringing reef is only 15-25 metres wide and then the sea bed drops off into a 15-20 metre deep lagoon, which I assume will be sand. The lagoon appears to be around 200 metres diameter.
After a little bit of discussion, we decided to move on, mostly because the light was very flat and it would be difficult to see the coral heads and to read the depth of water. The island itself looks very pretty and there would be lots to explore. We’ll try again when we come back down this way.
We motored over to the nearby small island to the north east of Pulau Ritan, where on Google Earth, there looked to be a sandy patch next to a large rock. Unfortunately, the only area suitable for anchoring was a long way from the island and rather exposed. There was a fishing camp on the beach with several small fishing boats anchored off the beach.
We headed north to the southern end of Airabu and went through a channel just to the north of a small island called Lintang. The channel was mostly deep with a few shallow reefs and we passed close to a small island, which looked interesting, but the only anchorage is on the south side and exposed in the current winds. (Our waypoints were 02°43.315N 106°17.031E; 02°43.703N 106°16.466E; 02°43.810N 106°15.996E; 02°44.167N 106°15.576E. There are shallow reefs at 02°43.641N 106°16.695E; 02°43.659N 106°16.358E)
Once through the channel, we headed for a bay on the main island of Airabu (we’ve called it Pulau Airabu South) and anchored in 8 metres of water on good holding sand at 02°44.249N 106°14.765E. The sea bed slowly slopes up from 15 metres and it would be possible to anchor in 6-15 metres depth, although there are reefs as the water gets shallower. It’s a lovely sheltered anchorage and we chilled out for the afternoon.
7 July 2016 Pulau Airabu South, Anambas
A thunderstorm passed by last night, but it only gave us a short shower and a few gusts of wind. Other than that we had a very peaceful night.
Together with “Amulet”, we set off at 09:00 with the intention of investigating the anchorages on the east coast of Airabu and planned to spend the night in a big bay on the west side of the island. As we headed north up the coast, it became apparent that last night’s anchorage was the most protected on the east coast. There are some small islands on the south east corner of Airabu, which last night gave us some protection from the prevailing south-east waves. As we headed north, we lost that protection and the anchorages were more exposed to the swell.
Although the anchorages are pretty, they weren’t suitable in the current wind conditions, so we decided to head around to the big bay on the west coast at 02°46.28N 106°12.76E. At the north end of the bay, there’s a small village with a mosque and a huge telecom aerial, but unfortunately no internet.
The bay looked very good on Google Earth and the charts showed the depth slowly shelving to the head of the bay, which has mangroves. This normally means a nice sand/mud bay and good anchoring. But, not this bay. It was over 25 metres deep and then shelved quickly to a fringing reef at 4-5 metres deep, about ¼ mile from the shore.
We crossed the reef hoping to find a sandy lagoon behind, but when I dropped the anchor in 12 metres of murky water, we heard an ominous rumbling on the chain - coral… “Amulet” tried further towards the shore, but dragged in very soft mud and couldn’t find anywhere better. Meanwhile our anchor chain was wrapped around coral and I couldn’t budge it. I jumped into the water and snorkelled down 12 metres to try to free the chain and found a mass of coral heads on the sea bed.
Fortunately, as Alba drifted around, the chain freed itself, so while I was standing by in the water, Glenys pulled the chain up and then started the engine as I scrambled aboard. Licking our wounds, we crossed back over the fringing reef and headed to the south side of the bay, hoping to find a deep sandy anchorage.
Both “Amulet” and we tried to anchor in 20+ metres, but it was still coral on the sea bed. By this time it was one o’clock and we needed to find a home, so we gave up and headed back to the previous night’s anchorage. Instead of retracing our route, we went down the west coast - straight into the prevailing 15 knot winds and confused seas.
It wasn’t very pleasant, but at least it was short lived - 45 minutes later, we were in calm water, motoring through a pass north of Lintang (02°43.41N 106°15.28E) and we were soon safely anchored in Pulau Airabu South.
After this “quality” day, we’ve decided to stay here a couple of nights to recover. The pass that we came through is very pretty, so tomorrow we’re planning to check out the snorkelling on the reefs in the pass.
8 July 2016 Pulau Airabu South, Anambas
We spent the morning doing a few chores, running the watermaker and washing some smalls. We’ve been here in the Anambas for nearly a week already, so I did some scheduling to work out which islands we want to concentrate on to maximise our stay here. I also started writing some Cruising Notes for the Anambas Islands, so that hopefully more cruisers will visit this place.
We were planning to go snorkelling in the passage that we came through yesterday, but clouds started to roll in at midday and the afternoon was dismal, with squalls passing through giving occasional gusty winds and heavy rain. We stayed on board and I spent a few hours splicing some Dynema loops around six Antel Low Friction Rings and rigging up some new preventers.
For the past five years, we’ve had our preventer rope tied to the end of the boom with the front end tied to a bow cleat. This is okay, but every time that we need to adjust the main sheet, I have to go up front to adjust the preventer, which is a hassle especially at night and in strong winds. Also gybing has meant re-rigging the preventer.
I’ve now set up two preventers, one on each side of the boat. Each preventer rope runs from the end of the boom, through a Low Friction Ring on the front cleat to a low friction ring on the aft cleat and ends up tied to a Samson post at the back of the cockpit. This allows us to adjust the preventer from the cockpit even if we gybe.
9 July 2016 Pulau Airabu South to Pulau Telaga, Anambas
We were up early and left before seven o’clock, heading towards Pulau Telaga, 30 miles away - after yesterday’s rain, the weather was nice with 15-20 knot south winds. On the way, we stopped at a group of islands and spent a couple of hours exploring possible anchorages.
There’s a small island called Pulau Mengkait, which is being promoted by the tourist office as a place to visit where it’s possible to lodge in a “Home Stay”. It’s a very small island with quite a large village and scores of small fishing boats on moorings at the north east side. Interestingly, the island has a Christian church and most of the ladies that we could see through our binoculars weren’t wearing hijabs. The water around the island is over 30 metres deep, so we didn’t attempt to anchor.
It was a similar story at the other islands with the sea bed over 30 metres deep and then steeply rising to a shallow fringing reef - very frustrating. We found a spectacular little bay on the west side of Lubang Tamban (02°57.98N 106°09.52E) with four lagoons/pools, but they are all protected by reefs. After crossing the first reef with a depth of 5 metres, we found a lagoon that was 12 metres deep, but it was only 50 metres in diameter and too tight for us to anchor. A great shame because the colours were stunning.
Just before noon, we managed to find an anchorage in 6 metres over sand on a reef to the north of a small island called Dikar (03°00.16N 106°08.17E). It was a lovely lunch-time stop - we snorkelled for an hour and then had lunch before continuing onto Pulau Telaga, where we anchored next to “Amulet”.
We anchored at Pulau Telaga North (03°05.545N 105°58.011E) in a depth of 17 metres. It’s a little close to the shallow fringing reef, but I was relieved to see that our anchor was well buried in sand. We went for a snorkel and found that the reef has been extensively bombed in the past, but there is lots of new growth of coral which is encouraging.
There’s a large fishing village ¾ mile away and we soon had a boat load of young men come over to look at us. They were very friendly, so we dropped the fenders down and they came alongside. No-one spoke English and we only spoke a little Indonesian, so it was challenging. They had a big bag of squid and a Wahoo, which they offered to us.
We took the Wahoo and they said that they didn’t want anything in return. I nipped down below, grabbed a spare diving mask and gave it to them - one guy snatched it and they all seemed happy with the deal. I know we were.
Ten minutes later, we had a visit from three young men in a dugout canoe. They said that the village has 100 people and that they were home from University because it’s Idil Fitri - the holiday at the end of Ramadan. When our conversation ground to a halt, it was hard to get rid of them - they just kept asking for beer (“bir” in Indonesian), which of course we don’t have….
10 July 2016 Pulau Telaga, Anambas
Apart from the steady “Thump, Thump, Thump” from the fishing boats and generator in the village, we had a very peaceful night.
In the middle of the morning, “Amulet” and we went across to the village to say hello. Within ten minutes we had a small entourage of adults and children, who insisted on showing us around. Chris had a bag of balloons, which he shared out between the kids. We were led along a very good concrete path past the houses built on stilts. It was interesting that although there was a small mosque, we only saw a couple of women wearing hijabs.
Everyone one was pleased to see us and even more pleased when we said “Salamat Pagi” which means “Good Morning”. At the end of the village, next to the junior school, then path turned right and went through the islands gardens consisting of coconuts, bananas, breadfruit and no doubt cassava and other root vegetables.
The kids took us to a beach on the west side of the island, where we chilled out for fifteen minutes while the kids went to find shells for us - only little ones, unfortunately. On the way back, they showed us the island’s two fresh water wells. They have a diesel pump which pumps the water into a holding tank over the village and the villagers have gravity-fed water on tap - it’s much more organised than I first thought.
A young couple called Harris and Anna had walked around with us and when we arrived back at the village, they invited us into their small house for a drink and some snacks. It’s Idul Fitri, so they had half a dozen small containers with biscuits, Bombay Mix and Wasabi Peas. We had a nice chat (mostly in sign language) looking at their wedding pictures and we showed them some pictures of our family on our tablet. It was a pleasant two hour visit to this friendly village.
In the afternoon, we went snorkelling around the rocky headland to the north of the anchorage. It was clear water but a rocky sea bed with hard corals - not very interesting. We then had a walk on the lovely, white sand beach next to the anchorage and picked up a few small shells.
11 July 2016 Pulau Telaga to Tarempa, Anambas
It was another lovely morning. We’ve been here in the Anambas for over a week now and have had only one afternoon where it has been squally and rained. The weather has been mostly blue skies with fluffy clouds, with the occasional overcast day and there has been constant 10-15 knot south to south-east winds.
We sailed ten miles to Genting Unjut, to check out an anchorage at 03°09.24N 106°05.36E, suggested by our friends on “Anthem”. It’s a sandy shelf between 6 to 10 metres and then slopes off quickly down to 18 metres. The sandy shelf is not very large, maybe 70 metres in diameter and is okay for one boat. It would be good in settled conditions for overnight and makes a great lunchtime stop between Tarempa and Jemaja. If we were staying overnight, we’d probably anchor in 18 metres, but we’re raving cowards…
It was only another 10 miles to the main town of Tarempa. “Amulet” were already anchored in the south-east corner of the harbour, close to a long causeway built over the water on concrete pilings. We tried to anchor behind them, but dragged our anchor on what appeared to be a big pile of building rubble.
On our second attempt, we closely monitored the depth sounder and could see that the sea bed was mostly at 22 metres, but the area where we’d dragged was 12-15 metres deep. We dropped the anchor at 03°13.148N 106°13.151E in 22 metres of water right next to a Karaoke Bar - it seems to be good holding.
After lunch, we wandered around town with Chris and Nancy from “Amulet”, getting a feel for the place. It’s a bustling little town with narrow streets packed full of small shops selling a huge variety of items from clothing to motorbike parts and dried fish to plastic bowls. This is the largest commercial centre in the Anambas Islands and all the outlying villagers buy things from here.
The overriding thing that indicates that we’re in Indonesia is the huge number of motorbikes. They are parked everywhere and weave their way through the streets, even though the very narrow passageways in the markets. We found a place that will hire a couple of bikes for 50,000 Rupiah (£2.50) per day (per bike of course) - we’ve booked two for tomorrow.
We tried to find the Port Captain to clear in to the Anambas, but the office was deserted - we’ll try again tomorrow. We bought a few provisions and found a Chinese shop selling beer for 13,000 Rupiah (£0.65) per can, which is not a bad price for a predominantly Muslim community in a very remote island. It’s Heineken, but beggars can’t be choosers.
In the evening, we could hear the various Mosques broadcasting the Call To Prayer on their loudspeakers. We’ve not heard that for a while, but at least it was very melodic, although I probably won’t think so tomorrow morning when they start up before dawn.
12 July 2016 Tarempa, Anambas
We received an email (via the dreadfully slow internet), which tells us that our new main sail is unlikely to be ready until the beginning of September. We were hoping to collect the sail in Nongsa Point Marina, but our Indonesian visas will expire on the 27th August, so we need to think about alternative plans. Perhaps we get the sail delivered to Singapore or maybe try to get our Indonesian visas extended.
Our first stop was at the customs, where we informed them that we’d arrived in the Anambas. They seemed very relaxed and friendly and simply took a copy of our port clearances. They took us to the Immigration office, where we were told that it would be possible to extend our visas for 30 days, which is an attractive option.
After collecting our motorcycles, “Amulet” and we rode to see the Chinese Temple, which was small, but had a good view of the harbour. The streets to get there were interesting being very narrow and weaving between huge rocks amongst the buildings.
It took us a while to find our way out of town, but eventually we were heading out on a road that we thought would take us to the “Air Terjun Temburun” waterfall, but got a bit lost and ended up in a village on the east coast of the island, where the road petered out. This is a lovely lush island with coconut and banana trees interwoven with the sub-tropical forest - the colours of the sea from the hills are stunning.
After turning around, we eventually, with the help from some local girls, found the water falls which (errrr..) were a trickle - not surprising after the driest season in living memory. On our way back to town, we stopped off for lunch at a Warung (like a restaurant, but with plastic tables and cracked concrete floors). The food was basic, but very tasty.
We occupied ourselves for a couple more hours by driving along the causeway next to the anchorage, exploring a fishing village and visiting the Anambas Lodge, which is ok, but a long way from town.
Back on the boat, Bryan from AmazingAnambas.com came to visit. I’ve had email conversations with him over the past few months and he’s been giving me information on the Anambas Islands. He’s from Singapore and has set up a web site extolling the virtues of the Anambas, trying to help the local tourist trade to get started, but is frustrated by the overwhelming lethargy.
In the evening, we went out for a meal with Bryan and we’re going to take him out to a fishing village called Air Suk tomorrow.
13 July 2016 Tarempa, Anambas
At 09:30, I zipped over to the dinghy dock and picked up Bryan and his friend Axel (who runs the Sakura Inn). We were soon on our way motoring towards Air Suk, where Bryan has promised to take some aerial video of the secondary school with his drone.
On the way, we poked our heads into the anchorage just off the Anambas Lodge, which is at 03°13.64N 106°14.38E in 22 metres of water.
There are plenty of shallow reefs between the Tarempa and Air Auk. The local shallow-draft boats take a route through the reefs, which is marked by navigation buoys, but the light wasn’t very good and we were heading into the sun, so we took the long way around the reef in a deep channel. Air Asuk (03°14.68N 106°17.46E) and anchored off the village in 10 metres of water - it seemed to be sand and good holding. We went ashore and walked to the school where Bryan did his aerial photo-shoot. There doesn’t seem to be much happening in Air Asuk and a big black thunder cloud was lurking about, so we didn’t stay long.
On the way back, we spotted a local boat that was drifting with someone waving for us to come over. We rolled away our sails and motored over to find that they had a problem with their engine mount and didn’t have the spanners to sort the problem out. We tied them alongside Alba and I handed tools over to them. Twenty minutes later, we were on our way with an invite to a wedding party in a few days’ time at their village, which we politely declined.
We anchored in the same spot in Tarempa, but had to have three attempts. On the first attempt, we picked up a huge piece of polythene sheeting with our anchor and dragged backwards at an alarming rate. On our second attempt we were too keen and dragged through the soft mud. The third time we dropped the anchor and left it to settle into the mud before successfully backing it in an hour later.
“Sea Monkey” arrived today, so we invited them over for sun-downers and exchanged stories. They had a good time at Jermaja, so we’re looking forward to going there.
14 July 2016 Tarempa, Anambas
I met Axel at the dinghy dock and he took me to the elusive Tourist Office (“Pariwisata”) on his motor bike. They aren’t really geared up for tourists and it took a while for them to find some old brochures hidden away in a filing cabinet.
I had a chat with a couple of the tourist personnel and then most informative was a lady called Mayang. We had a good discussion about the reasons why more cruising yachts don’t come to the Anambas - security concerns and the problems with clearing in and out. They were very surprised and a little shocked to hear the rumours about pirates and robbery, admitting that there was some piracy of big ships ten years ago, but nothing now.
The good news is that they have an official letter stating that Tarempa will be turned into clearance port - they hope that it will be next year. Mayang said that we should report into the Customs, Immigration, Port Captain and Quarantine (CIPQ). Apparently the Port Captain has already telephoned her to ask why the three yachts have not cleared in, so I promised to call in today.
The Indonesian Independence Day is on the 17th August and there should be some festivities in Tarempa, but at the moment, nobody knows what events are taking place. We’ll try to get her for that day. Other than that there are no other events planned in the near future.
After a quick trip back to the boat to collect Glenys, we went into town and took our clearance papers to the Port Captain. He simply stamped the back of the Port clearance document and signed it - apparently we are now okay to travel around the Anambas and go back to Nongsa Point Marina. Quarantine is a tough place to find - across the road from the hospital. They wanted a new crew list which they stamped and gave back to us. They didn’t keep a copy or make any record of our details. They also said that we don’t have to go back to see them.
On the way back along the high street, we heard some loud music coming out of a conference hall, so we poked our heads in to have a look what was going on. There had been an event called Halal Bi Halal which was something to do with the end of Idil Fitri, perhaps the government thanking the people of Tarempa? We were invited into the hall and given a plate of very tasty food and then had the obligatory photographs taken with people all dressed in their finery.
We had a walk around the market buying some vegetables and a couple of cases for beer, then retired back to the boat for a quiet afternoon. I popped out in the late afternoon to buy 10 litres of petrol from a little shop near the floating dock. They supplied it in seven 1½ litre water bottles, but at least he had a piece of muslin cloth in his funnel to filter out the larger bits.
15 July 2016 Tarempa to Pulau Mandariau, Anambas
It rained last night and the morning was overcast, but it soon brightened up. We left at 10:00 with “Amulet” following us - “Sea Monkey” are staying another day.
There was very little wind, so we spent most of the day motoring. We were aiming for one of the islands to the east of the Anambas group and had to negotiate our way through the reef to Air Asuk again. This time we took the more direct route across the reef, which was a little more challenging, but the shallowest patch we saw was still 6 metres deep. It’s fairly straight-forward following some navigation markers, but we had to keep a sharp lookout for shallow coral patches.
When we were past Air Asuk, we headed east down a narrow channel, which was mostly 10 metres deep. A huge thunder storm had built up behind us and we could see torrential rain hammering down on Tarempa town. At first we thought that it was going to catch us up, but it veered north and we spent most of the passage in sunshine.
Once free of the reef system, it was plain sailing across to Pulua Mandariau (03°18.348N 106°24.216E), which is fabulous. We checked out a couple of possible anchorages on the north east corner, which looked good, then carried on into a nice bay at the northern end of the island. There’s a big patch of white sand, which is 10 metres deep between shallower reefs, with enough room for four or five boats.
It didn’t take us long to jump in the water and go snorkelling. The reefs around the anchorage are lovely with healthy coral. There aren’t many fish, but I was very happy when Glenys spotted a nudibranch - our first in the Anambas. It was only a tiny, 10mm long Racing Stripe Flatworm, but it’s given me a boost of enthusiasm with my underwater photography.
16 July 2016 Pulau Mandariau, Anambas
After a leisurely breakfast, we jumped in the dinghy and went exploring. We stopped first at the north-west tip of Menjali, a small island a mile or so to the west of the anchorage.
The sea bed was a huge expanse of rock with boulders near the shore and patchy coral in the deeper water. It’s not as pretty as a coral reef, but we like to check out different environments and spent a happy 30 minutes there. Glenys found about ten large Tiger Cowries hidden in cracks in the flat rock surfaces and I spotted a Nudibranch called a Pimpled Phyllidiella.
We tried in several places along the north shore of Menjali, but it was very rocky until we entered a small bay further south, which had reasonable coral. We landed at the beach at the south east end of the island, which is lovely soft white sand, but there weren’t any shells worthy of collecting. It would be nice to anchor off this beach in 12 metres on sand away from the fringing reef.
After lunch, we had a look at the bay to the east of the anchorage, but the sea bed turned to rock again, so we returned to the reef about ¼ mile north of the anchorage, which was a beautiful spot - the best that we’ve come across in the Anambas so far. I spotted two Nudibranches - a Sky Blue Phyllidia and a Ringed Phyllidiella. The edge of the reef looks good enough to scuba dive, so we plan to come back tomorrow with tanks.
“Amulet” invited “Sea Monkey” and us over for sundowners.
17 July 2016 Pulau Mandariau, Anambas
We had a hectic morning, getting the dive gear ready and running the dive compressor to fill two tanks. In the middle of the morning, “Amulet” and we anchored our dinghies on a large coral head at 03°18.570’N 106°24.257’E (It’s about 70 metres south of a rock that is awash near the shore). We descended to 8 metres and then headed west, descending a coral slope to 22 metres. Following the edge of the reef and the sandy sea bed, we headed north until we had used half of our air and then ascended to 12 metres, returning to the dinghy.
It was a nice dive in clear water. There aren’t many large fish, but enough to look at. We saw another Ringed Phyllidiella, but not much else of interest, although there are some very pretty coral patches. Some areas of the coral slope have been extensively bombed, but there are signs of recovery. There is a small cave at 12 metres directly west of where we anchored in the dinghy.
We spent the afternoon pottering about and hiding from the sun. It’s been a fabulous sunny day, but there was no wind and I think that it was the hottest day that we’ve had so far.
18 July 2016 Pulau Mandariau to Pulau Penjalin, Anambas
We waited for the sun to get higher in the sky and left at half past ten. During the morning, thunder clouds had built up around us, threatening rain, but fortunately they stayed away and we had a sunny interval while we were going through the narrow channel between two islands called Penjalin Besar and Penjalin Cecil. The channel was good with a minimum depth of 10 metres.
We anchored in Pulau Mandariau at 03°23.54N 106°26.84E in 14 metres on sand. There are many reefs surrounding the anchorage, but most seem to be 10 metres deep. Our anchor slammed into the soft sand, so we felt happy with only 45 metres of chain out giving us a minimal 3:1 scope.
After lunch, a thunderstorm passed over giving heavy rain and 30 knot gusts for a while, but thankfully, no lightning.
The sun peeked it’s head out at about four o’clock, so we just had time to go for a quick snorkel, which was interesting poking amongst boulders on the north east side of Setuju Island, north of the anchorage. We saw a Napoleon Wrasse, which are very rare here because the locals have over-fished them. I believe that they farmed these fish, but it wasn’t very eco-friendly because instead of hatching the fish from eggs, they caught wild fish on the reefs and grew them in pens.
There was a stunning sunset, highlighting the storm clouds on the horizon.
19 July 2016 Pulau Penjalin, Anambas
It rained heavily last night and there was some thunder, but the sky was clear when we woke up. After breakfast, we hopped into the dinghy and went exploring. There’s a sandy patch at 03°23.60N 106°26.60E, which is 10 metres deep with access over the reef from the north. It would be possible to anchor there, but it’s very tight with only 50 metres between the reefs and it doesn’t give any better protection than the place where we are anchored.
We did some snorkelling to the west of this sandy patch, but we weren’t particularly impressed, so we went back to the spot we’d snorkelled at yesterday and played there for a while. Glenys spotted a Sky Blue Phyllidia and I had a big Longface Emperor swimming around me for a while.
In the afternoon, we took the dinghy out of the pass and around the east side of Penjalin Cecil looking for better snorkelling or potential dive sites. We didn’t have much luck. The reef here is all heavily damaged and slopes off very gradually, so holds little interest for scuba diving - a steep slope is much better. The deeper reef doesn’t look any better than the shallows, so there’s not much point in getting out the scuba gear.
Thunderstorms built up in the late afternoon, but they all skirted around us. We invited “Anthem” and “Sea Monkey” over for a few drinks. “Sea Monkey” leave tomorrow heading back to Tarempa and then back to Nongsa Point in a few days.
20 July 2016 Pulau Penjalin, Anambas
It was a very dull day, with strong 20 knot south-west winds and low grey clouds scudding overhead, so we just pottered about all day doing a few jobs.
I did some planning. There's so many islands in the Anambas that our a 60-day visa isn't long enough and we're going to have to rush around to see everything. So, we’re going to go back to Tarempa next Monday and apply for 30 day extensions to our visas. We’re expecting to get back to Nongsa a couple of weeks later than originally planned, which will give us a bit of slack in case there’s any problems with our new main sail.
While I was in planning mode, I worked out a schedule for the next six months. We have to start sailing across the Indian Ocean in January 2017, so that only gives us 24 weeks. It’s going to be tight, but we’re planning the following:
Aug | Cruise the Anambas Islands |
Sep | Cruise the Tioman Islands |
Oct | Cruise the Perhentian Islands; Singapore |
Nov | Admiral Marina; Visit Mallaca; 1 week travel in Cambodia; 2 weeks dental work in Georgetown (it’s really cheap there). |
Dec | Langkawi; Phuket; 1 week travel in Thailand; Christmas |
Jan | Sail to the Andaman Islands |
I wrote several emails, booking marinas and booking the dentist appointments. There’s no Internet here, but the emails are ready to send next Monday.
In the late afternoon, I noticed that our batteries were down to 12.4 volts, which was strange because it had been windy all day and our wind generator should have been charging the batteries. A little bit of investigation revealed that the wind generator is not producing any amps, so that’s a job on the list for another day.
Thinking back over the last couple of weeks, the wind generator has been running very fast and we’ve turned it off a few times when it’s been windy. This is probably because it’s not been under load and hasn't been charging for a while. When it’s sunny, our solar panels produce up to 20 amps of charge per hour and, with the good weather that we’ve had, our solar energy has been keeping the batteries topped up. It’s only today’s cloudy sky that has highlighted the problem.
21 July 2016 Pulau Penjalin, Anambas
A massive thunderstorm passed about four miles to the east of us giving ominous rumblings of thunder. “Amulet” said that they saw a water spout starting to descend from the clouds, but fortunately, it dissipated. We watched and waited a while, but cracked up at 08:00 and left. It was only 8 miles to the next anchorage, so we motored with an eye on the various squalls around us. Fortunately, we only had a little rain and then it cleared up nicely.
We anchored at the south-east corner of Pulau Semut at 03°23.12N 106°17.39E in 12 metres on good holding sand. As with the previous two anchorages, there's not much swinging room between the surrounding reefs, so we only put out 40 metres of chain. This is a lovely spot, with two beaches with bordered by coconut trees and a very shallow pass between the islands, giving beautiful blue colours.
When we were settled, I had a look at the wind generator and found that the 30A fuse was shattered. I replaced it with a 25A fuse and that seems to have sorted it out, but why had the fuse blown up?
Although the skies remained gloomy, we went snorkelling in the afternoon. There’s a reef alongside the anchorage, which has some interesting coral heads at a depth of 4-8 metres, but the water is full of sediment, I guess because we’re in a channel. We had a look on the north-east side of Semut Island, where the water was much clearer, but we were back to rocky reef again at depths between 6-12 metres.
22 July 2016 Pulau Semut, Anambas
I ran the dive compressor and filled two scuba tanks so that we could go for a dive. We anchored our dinghies in 6 metres of water at the south side of the anchorage (approximately 03°23.070N 106°17.428E). We headed north down the reef until we met the sand at about 17 metres. Turning east, we followed the edge of the reef until we had used half of our air and then ascended to 10 metres returning to the dinghies.
The visibility was very poor (5 metres) where we anchored the dinghies, but improved dramatically as we headed east out of the channel. When we turned around the visibility was 20 metres. The coral is in good condition although everything is covered by a fine layer of silt. It was a reasonable dive considering the conditions and I spotted my first Tomato Anemonefish, which are localised to this region.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon, so we hid from the sun and just pottered about on the boat.
23 July 2016 Pulau Semut to Pulau Mubur NE, Anambas
It was a lovely morning, clear and sunny, so we hung around until about 10:00 before pulling up the anchor to go five miles around the corner to the bay at the north of Pulau Mubur. Unfortunately, by the time we got there some horrible looking black clouds had built up from the south and the reduced light made it difficult to see the reefs.
We had a look at a possible anchorage at 03°22.90N 106°13.37E, but the depth was 15 metres close to the reef. “Amulet” snagged their anchor on coral near 03°23.07N 106°13.48E and another possible anchorage at 03°23.13N 106°13.58E was again 15 metres deep and, without being able to see the surrounding reefs, we felt it wasn’t safe.
By this time, the black clouds had covered the sky and the wind had picked up to south 25 knots. “Amulet” decided to give up and headed for Tarempa. We thought that the system might pass over quickly, so we anchored at the south side of Pulau Tenggiling at 03°22.69N 106°13.98E in 5.5 metres. This is a lovely spot, where “Sea Monkey” had spent a couple of nights, but it’s completely exposed to the south.
After waiting for fifteen minutes, the wind showed no signs of abating, it began to rain and two foot waves were starting to build up. With shallow reef only 20 metres behind our stern, we felt a little uncomfortable, so we pulled up the anchor and headed south for a couple of miles to a likely looking bay, which we have called Pulau Mubur NE.
The water gradually went from 35 metres to 15 metres and then more quickly down to 5 metres. We dropped the anchor in 7 metres depth at 03°20.73N 106°13.59E in between two edges of the reef. We settled back to a depth of ten metres. The anchor chain rumbled a little, but then held well, so I guess that we’re in sand with a few coral patches. The wind dropped, but the rain kept going for three hours - it was a grey day.
I snorkelled down to look at the anchor and found that it was well buried in the sand. However, we seemed to be close to reefs at either side of us, but I decided that we were okay. At about five o’clock, I started to get nervous that we were too close to the reef to the east, so we pulled up the anchor and tried to re-anchor a little further out. We dragged at 10 metres and 12 metres, but then managed to get the anchor fully set at 8 metres - probably a boat length further out than we were before. We’re still a bit close to the reefs, but I think we’ll be okay.
24 July 2016 Pulau Mubur NE to Pulau Tenggiling, Anambas
Well, we didn’t crash into the reef last night - it was a beautiful calm night. It was a lovely morning as well, so after breakfast we did a little survey of the anchorage and found that the water shelves more slowly at around 18 metres going deeper. The next time that we come here, we’ll anchor in 20 metres depth around 03°20.80N 106°13.58E. The two fringing reefs are 70-80 metres away from this point and will give ample swinging room. I suspect that the sea bed will be soft mud, so we’ll let the anchor settle for a while before backing it in.
After our little survey, we went back to Pulau Tenggiling and what a difference a day makes. Yesterday we had 2 foot wind waves caused by a 25 knot south wind pushing us onto a lee shore and today was beautifully calm and sunny. The water colours are fabulous.
We went for a snorkel on the north east side of Palau Wi (the small island to the south of the anchorage). It was pretty good. There’s a lot of damaged coral, but there are interesting coral heads and some large fish dotted about.
This weather is really changeable because by 11:00, the wind had picked up to 20 knots from the south and big black squalls were approaching again. We upped anchor and headed off towards Tarempa and on the way we had strong 20-25 knot winds against us with lashing rain. We arrived in Tarempa at around 14:00 and (again) it took two attempts to anchor. I think on the first attempt we were a little too close to the causeway and in coral/rubble.
“Amulet” invited us for drinks in the evening.
25 July 2016 Tarempa, Anambas
Last night we had a big squall come through with strong gusts, so I had to get out of bed to check whether we were dragging our anchor. Normally, I’m not too concerned by 30 knots winds, but the holding in this anchorage is dubious and we only have 60 metres of chain out in a depth of 22 metres - that’s only 2.7:1 scope… However, our Rocna anchor is doing its job and we’re fine.
We went into town with “Amulet” and visited the Immigration office to try to get our visas extended by 30 days. Initially, there was some confusion about what we wanted because of language difficulties, but eventually we managed to get them to understand that we wanted an extension. They then said that we had to return a week before our visas expire because they could only give us 30 days from when they issue the new visa.
I showed them my passport stamps from last year where we had a 60 day visa extended to 90 days only 25 days after our arrival. They went into a huddle and finally agreed that they could do the same and give us a 30 day extension now. The first step was for us to write a letter to them requesting an extension to our visa. They then told us to come back a couple of hours later.
The senior immigration officer came out and had a chat to us, introduced his wife who just happened to arrive in the office and we all had our photographs taken together.
We went for a walk to the tourist office where we wanted to know about the events planned for Independence Day. They said that they hadn’t been told yet, but something would be happening and perhaps we should be back in Tarempa a couple of days before the 17th in case something exciting was happening.
Glenys produced a brochure, which they had given me week ago and pointed to a picture showing wood carvings that were being produced in Air Asuk. Unfortunately, it turns out that the picture is three years old and the person (single) who was doing this carving has died. There don’t seem to be any other handicrafts going on, but one guy suddenly appeared out of the back office with a couple of Hand Carved Boats which they gave us as a gift.
We stayed chatting in the tourist office for an hour and, by the end, we had a crowd of twenty tourist personnel all looking at our photographs and having a great time. Of course, there was the obligatory group photo at the end.
After doing some provisioning and lunch back at the boat, we ventured out in the pouring rain to the Immigration office, where we were told that we each had to fill in a visa application form. With this complete, we were given a bill for 300,000 Rupiah (£15) each and I took the bill to the bank to pay.
Upon my return with the receipt, they apologised and said that they had a problem with the internet connection to their on-line system and we should return in three days.
We told them that we wanted to sail to Jemaja on Wednesday 27th, so could they sort it out more quickly? They apologised and said that they would try to sort it out tomorrow and then confessed that they’d never done a visa extension before, so didn’t quite know what else they’d have to do. It doesn’t bode well, but we’re not too bothered because this weather is appalling and we might be stuck here for a few days anyway.
This afternoon, I turned to the Dark Side. After five years of bemoaning that many cruisers adorn their boats with (non-regulation) coloured strobes when at anchor, I’ve succumbed and finally bought a couple of Flashing Lights. When we were anchored in Pulau Semut, we were in a channel used by the local fishermen and they are very much used to seeing flashing lights close to the water.
Our normal (regulation) fixed white light is on our mast head, 65 feet above the water and the worry is that the fishermen travelling at night may not look up and could crash into us. Both “Amulet” and “Sea Monkey” have strobe lights and I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that it’s a good idea in remote places where there are fishing boats moving around at night, so I’ve splashed out 100,000 rupiah (£5.00) on two battery operated, flashing lights (one green and one red), which I will use sparingly.
It rained all afternoon with no wind and no sun, so our batteries were low by the end of the day. We had to run the generator for a couple of hours to top up the batteries and used the opportunity to make some water, which is a bit strange considering the amount of rain water that we could have directed into our water tanks today.
In a moment of madness this morning, I convinced Glenys to buy a kilogram of squid. We keep being offered squid (Indonesian “Cumi”) by fishermen, but always say no because we don’t know how to clean them. So I spent over an hour stood in the galley cleaning the squid, which is not difficult, but is very time-consuming and messy. We now have a lot of squid to eat - Glenys made a Nasi Goreng with Cumi for dinner.
26 July 2016 Tarempa, Anambas
At 02:00 last night, we were woken by banging on the hull. I staggered out of bed dragging on some shorts and found a Navy boat alongside us. After a little bit of confusion, a young officer called Mr Tigor asked if he could come aboard to ask us some questions. Sure, what else do I have to do in the middle of the night?
He was very polite and just asked questions about where we had come from and where we were going. I showed him a copy of our clearance papers (thank goodness that I’d had the foresight to photocopy them because Immigration still have the originals). We had a pleasant chat about our life aboard Alba for fifteen minutes and, after a photo session, they disappeared off into the night. I’m guessing that Mr Tigor was just curious about what we are doing here, but it would have been more sociable to come visiting in daylight hours.
I’d just about fallen into a deep sleep when the Call To Prayer came booming over the loudspeakers at 04:30. I slammed the hatch shut and tried to get back to sleep. I fitfully dozed as the sun rose; finally giving up at 06:30 and wearily climbing out of bed.
After breakfast, we went into town, first calling at the Immigration Office who had managed to get a good enough internet connection yesterday evening. They took our photographs, fingerprints and our signature, which was a long drawn out process taking over an hour. We then had to pay an extra 55,000 rupiah (£3) each for the biometric processing, but by 11:00 we had our visa extensions all stamped up in our passports. We are able to stay in Indonesia until the 24 September - what a great result.
The weather is still a little unsettled, with squalls around, but there’s nothing particularly nasty on the GRIB files, so we're going to leave Tarempa tomorrow. With that in mind, we did some more shopping, buying last minute vegetables and drinks and then retired back to the boat for the afternoon.
The sea water pump on our engine has had a small leak for the past couple of months, so I removed the Speedseal cover plate and cleaned it up. The Speedseal is supposed to seal just with an o-ring, but the plate is worn causing the leak, so when I replaced it I squeezed on some silicone gasket compound to back up the o-ring. I need to order a new SpeedSeal plate.
I'd only just got the engine re-assembled, when a huge squall came through that gave us a few gusts of 45 knots and our minimal anchor chain scope of 2.7:1 wasn’t enough to stop us dragging in the soft mud. We dragged about 40 metres and stopped over a 8 metre deep reef, so we waited until the squall calmed down a little bit, started the engine and re-anchored, which took three attempts until we were happy. We’re again anchored in 20 metres, but couldn’t find anything shallower. Perhaps it’s time to buy more chain.
It was our 36th wedding anniversary, so we went out for a meal at the Sakura Inn with “Amulet” and Rick & Marietta from “Going Easy Too”, who arrived this afternoon.
27 July 2016 Tarempa to Pulau Ayam, Anambas
The alarm woke us up at 06:00, so that we’d have plenty of time to sail 35 miles today to Jemaja. I knew that we’ll not have internet again for a couple of weeks, so I did a little bit of email admin before we left.
Yesterday while we were re-anchoring, I thought that the windlass seemed to be struggling and I’m worried that the electric motor is now underpowered. I suspect that the carbon brushes in the motor are worn and if the motor fails then we’ll have hell of a job getting the anchor up. I’m a bit annoyed at myself for not carrying some spare brushes - they probably only cost a few pounds, but it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to get any out here in the Anambas. I sent emails off to Lofrans support and a dealer in the UK to see if they can supply me with some spare brushes.
We started to pull the anchor up, but found that the chain was caught on something on the seabed (probably coral). It took us ten minutes of motoring about to get the chain free with the poor old windlass taking another beating, but we were soon on our way.
There were only light winds at the beginning of the passage, but after a couple of hours, the wind picked up enough for us to sail albeit 20 degrees further north than the rhumb line. We had a cracking sail - hard on the wind, but in fairly calm seas and the wind backed by almost 40 degrees as we approached our destination, which was very handy. The sail was so enjoyable that we actually did two tacks and sailed into the anchorage - I don’t think that we’ve done that this year…
As we passed the north of Pulau Telaga, there was some excitement when the fishing reel started to whizz out. It was a big strong fish - maybe a big Tuna? Then it leapt out of the water, its silvery body flashing in the sun - even better, it might be a Wahoo. I fought the fish to the side of the boat with the gaff ready and then saw that it was a big Barracuda - I was gutted. Barracuda are notorious for carrying Ciguatera and we never eat large specimens. The hook was firmly buried in its top jaw, so I waited until the fish was very tired and cut the trace close to the hook to release the fish.
We dropped the anchor in Pulau Ayam at 02°59.53N 105°48.43E in 9 metres of water on soft sand. The anchorage is lovely with a huge sandy patch in front of a beach - there’s enough room for a dozen boats in depths between 8 and 15 metres. There’s a shallow reef next to the anchorage, north of 02°59.57N.
Even though it was overcast and dull, we went for a quick snorkel at the eastern side of Pulau Ayam, which was okay with some pretty coral.
28 July 2016 Pulau Ayam, Anambas
It was a lovely day today, with blue skies and 10-15 knot winds, so we had a snorkelling day. We tried several spots around the anchorage including the reef in the middle of the bay and the shallow reef in the pass heading west, but both were uninspiring. The shore of the mainland to the east of the anchorage was even worse being just rock.
After lunch, we went to the north-east side of Pulau Ayam and anchored our dinghy in the second bay at around 03°00.28N 105°48.79E. There’s a rock awash at the east side of the bay which is an impressive pinnacle dropping down to 12 metres. The snorkelling was the best that we found in the area, but mostly rocky reef.
29 July 2016 Pulau Ayam to Padang Melang, Anambas
It was a beautiful calm, sunny morning, so we chilled out waiting for the sun to get higher. “Amulet” decided that they would go through a shallow passage between Pulau Ayam and the mainland, but I’ve woken up with a cold (a.k.a. Man-Flu) and I wasn’t feeling particularly dynamic this morning, so we took the long way around the island.
On the north-west corner of Pulau Island, we spotted a traditional Indonesia boat at anchor, with racks of dive tanks on the deck. Glenys hovered around while I jumped into the dinghy to go and have a chat. It was difficult with the language barrier, but I sussed out that they are doing a government survey of the state of the reefs in the Anambas. They gave me a few pointers for good dive sites in the area, but they may be too exposed for us.
Surprisingly, in the 50 minutes from when we upped anchor, huge black clouds had formed and we narrowly avoided heavy rain. We briefly looked at a large bay, which the locals tell us is called Tukan Bay. It looks to be a lovely anchorage in a well-protected bay with a white sand beach fringed by coconut palms. The sea bed gradually slopes from 15 metres to 7 metres and it looks like sand. We may come back here if we have time.
We looked at another anchorage at the south-east side of Telok Mampo Bay at 02°58.60N 105°45.20E. The sea bed is gently shelving sand and the anchorage would be a good place in strong south-east winds, but there’s two large stone piers being used to unload barges. It’s not very pretty.
With the sun once again shining and a pleasant 15 knot wind, we crossed the three mile wide Telok Mampo Bay, avoiding a couple of shallow spots in the middle including a large, shallow reef. We anchored in the western corner of the bay off a small village called Padang Melang at 02°59.63N 105 43.76E. This is a fabulous anchorage in 5 metres of water over firm white sand, which is a blessing in the Anambas Islands . There is enough room for more than 50 yachts to anchor here.
Ashore, the village is neat and tidy and is appears to be geared up for tourists with Palapas dotted along the edge of the 3 mile long beach and there are even showers on stands. However, there were no tourists in sight and the few small Warangs (restaurants) were closed. As usual in the Anambas, the locals were very friendly and helpful. A nurse called Yanti stopped to chat to us and she’s going to arrange for us to have two motorbikes tomorrow to explore the island.
We strolled off to find the hospital where we’ll meet Yanti tomorrow and then returned to the beach, where we had a chat to a group of half a dozen young men. In many parts of the world, one would be intimidated by such a group, but the Indonesians are so nice and polite. They were shy at first and we started the conversation, but we were all soon lined up for a photo shoot.
30 July 2016 Padang Melang, Anambas
My Man-Flu isn’t too bad at the moment and I managed to get a reasonable night’s sleep. At about 08:30, together with “Amulet”, we went ashore and walked to the hospital where Yanti lent us two motor bikes. She wasn’t going to charge us, but we insisted on giving her 50,000 Rupiah for each bike, which is what we paid in Tarempa.
After filling up with petrol at the local store (from water bottles of course), we headed off into Letung, which is the major town of Jemaja. On the way, there’s a new road heading south and a roundabout - yes! - a roundabout. Having ignored the roundabout and just carried straight on, we came into Letung, which is a long and thin town with buildings on stilts on one side of the road and houses built on land at the other side.
There’s a small town square next to a volley ball court and we found the local market, which unfortunately had finished by the time that we arrived. The locals told us that you have to be there well before 09:00. The town is small and cute, but has a good collection of small shops selling a wide range of good including hardware and food of course.
We came across a lovely little shop which sold watches and perfume. The back wall was covered with shelves upon which stood dozens of 1 litre aluminium bottles filled with perfume. The counter in front of the shelves displayed a collection of small coloured perfume bottles and a list of dozens of famous brand perfumes such as Chanel, Paris Hilton and Armani. Customers can buy any of the (counterfeit) perfumes or can mix their own. Glenys spent a happy ten minutes in there until she settled for a bottle of David Of for 35,000 Rupiah (£1.75) - it might not smell nice, but it wasn’t expensive.
After a drink in a bar overlooking the sea, we hopped back onto our bikes and turned south at the roundabout heading for the Air Terjun Neraja waterfall. The new black tarmac road soon turned into an old concrete road and we had a pleasant, if occasionally bumpy ride into the interior of the island. We passed through areas of farmland where rice was being grown and other places where cattle were being raised, but most of the island is sub-tropical forest interspersed with small vegetable and banana gardens.
After an hour, we arrived in a small village, which had a dis-proportionally large road sign at a cross roads pointing left to Air Terjun Neraja. That road gradually petered out and stopped at a dirt path, which after 200 metres led to the waterfall. It was a pleasant little place and at least there was some water cascading down here. On the way back, we stopped at the crossroads and had a basic, but very tasty Mee Goreng for lunch in a tiny Warung.
Back at the village, Yanti invited us into her house, where we met her husband Mohammed. We stayed for half an hour chatting and then arrange to meet them in a nearby restaurant tomorrow afternoon. We were back on the boat by 14:30, where I crashed out because I felt very weary with a relapse of my Man-Flu.
31 July 2016 Padang Melang, Anambas
I had a particularly unpleasant night with a tickly cough, a runny nose and heartburn, so we had a very quiet morning. “Going Easy Too” arrived in the middle of the day.
Together with “Amulet” and “Going Easy Too”, we met Yanti and her friends in a small restaurant - there was her sister Ika, a male nurse called Fadli and two doctors. It’s a very basic Warung, but the food was good. They ordered Gong Gong for us, which a shellfish caught locally. The 30mm long shells are boiled in very salty water and the creature can easily be pulled out of its shell by a kind of claw. They served it with a very hot chili sauce - it was very tasty.
After our appetiser of Gong Gong, we had a choice of Bakso (Fish ball soup with vermicelli) or Soto (Chicken soup with vermicelli). The food was good and we had a good chat. Yanti and her friends were born in different parts of Indonesia and have come here under government contracts to work at the hospital. This meant that they couldn’t answer some of our questions about the local traditions, but they asked some other ladies in the Warung who were brought up on Jemaja.
We asked about the local traditional dance called Gobang, which is partly a play, with the dancers enacting stories. The tradition still exists, but the dances are only performed at weddings and other special events. There is a local troupe of dancers, but they charge 2,000,000 rupiah (£100) for a performance.
The islands 5 miles to the north west of here are rumoured to be a base for pirates who allegedly operate in the area. Chris and Nancy from “Amulet” are very worried about being boarded and are refusing to go to these islands. They say that an oil ship was high-jacked by some Indonesians somewhere off these islands a couple of years ago and they are convinced that these islands are still dangerous.
Again, I asked the local people about pirates in the area and everyone said that there is no problem - there may have been a long time ago, but not now. Once again, people are surprised by the questions. This doesn’t convince “Amulet” and their negative waves are starting to affect Glenys, so she’s now worried about going to these islands - fear is very insidious, even if it’s unfounded, and “Amulet’s” anxiety is starting to wear me down.
After our meal, we took Yanti and her friends out to our yachts to show them around. It was a short visit, because it was going dark and a huge thunderstorm was approaching, but they loved being on board and took lots of pictures. The thunderstorm was a cracker with very strong winds and bolts of lightning as it passed over.