July 2016 - Anambas Islands - Page 3

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:

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.