9 September 2016 Nongsa Point Marina to Jason Bay, Malaysia
The alarm went off at 06:00 and we were on our way an hour later. Our first job was to cross the Singapore shipping lanes. I decided to cross directly north of Nongsa Point marina because the lanes are only 2½ miles wide at that point and become wider further east.
This was our third crossing and turned out to be the easiest. We set the autopilot course to north, set the engine at 2,000 rpm, giving us a speed of 6 knots and went for it. It felt a bit like playing Frogger, but we didn’t have to do anything apart from watch the huge ships glide in front of us.
Once across the shipping lane, we turned right and, with no wind, we motored east along the north edge of the shipping lanes. A few hours later, we were heading north up the east coast of Malaysia. The current was with us, so we were making good time and decided to head for Jason Bay, 55 miles from Nongsa Point Marina.
In the afternoon, two thunderstorms stretched out from the coast - one to the north of us and one to the south, bringing 30+ knot winds from the north west for a couple of hours. It was very tedious bashing into 3 foot waves and the strong winds, at times slowing our boat speed down to 3 knots as we were stopped by the large steep waves.
The wind abated, but it was grey, raining and miserable as we entered Jason Bay. This is a huge five-mile long bay, which like the rest of this coast shallows very slowly. There are dozens of fishing nets in the bay, which are strung between two buoys with matching coloured flags. I think that the nets are 5 metres high, held to the sea bed by lead weights and lifted up by small floats. This makes getting into the bay a bit of a challenge, trying to pair up the different coloured flags and not sailing over the nets.
We finally anchored at 01°51.85N 104°08.84E in six metres of water at least a mile from the shore. We could have got further in, but there seemed little point as the swell coming into the bay was fairly mild. Thankfully, the thunderstorms had cooled down the air, leaving us with a pleasant temperature for the evening.
10 September 2016 Jason Bay to Pulau Sibu, Malaysia
It was a surprisingly peaceful night with no rolling. We’re now in a different time zone (+8 GMT) and the clocks have gone forward one hour. This put dawn at 07:00 instead of 06:00, which I don’t like very much - by the time that the sunlight hits our portholes at 07:30, it’s time to get up with no lie in.
After threading our way through the maze of nets, we headed north and to my amazement, the wind picked up from the south-west enabling us to sail for four hours. The weather in this region is very unsettling with huge cumulus cloud systems building up over the land. By midday, we heard the ominous rumbling of thunder, but fortunately, the systems kept heading north along the coast and kept out of our way.
Just after lunch, we arrived at the north end of Pulau Sibu where we anchored in 11 metres of water at 02°14.03N 104°03.54E. It’s a pleasant bay with a small resort hidden in the trees ashore. It’s also very well protected from the prevailing south winds.
After untying the dinghy from the front deck, we went for a snorkel on the reef off the beach, but the visibility was terrible, so we soon gave up. I hope that the visibility is better in Tioman.
11 September 2016 Pulau Sibu to Tioman, Malaysia
We had a very peaceful night - the sign of a good anchorage. By eight o’clock, we were on our way again, motoring north for 35 miles to Tioman Island, with hardly any wind.
Tioman is a major holiday destination for Malaysians, but we had been unable to find much information about good anchorage spots in the main bay - only that it’s good to get into the small marina which is run by the Jabatan Laut (naval department). When we arrived at the big bay, there was only one yacht anchored and they were bouncing around in a place that looked very exposed to the wind and waves.
We headed for the marina, but an ominous black squall line approached from the south and the wind started to pick up, so we decided against going into the small, confined marina. Three minutes later, the wind was a howling 35 knot gale, so with nothing better to do, we motored into the wind and headed for a small island called Renggis a mile upwind.
There was a catamaran on an orange mooring tucked up behind the island and we had a chat to them on the VHF radio. They told us that we could anchor anywhere in the bay off the fringing reef and that there are some places where there are shallower patches of sand. They also thought that there might be some spaces in the marina.
After blowing for thirty minutes, the squall passed by and the wind dropped below 15 knots, so we wombled back to Tioman Marina. It’s pretty tight in the marina, with only about 30 berths, which are packed with yachts and local fishing boats. Some guys on a fishing boat shouted that there was a free berth where a small local boat was just leaving, so I circled around while Glenys put out the fenders.
We approached the berth, but then saw that there was a rope across it, effectively reserving it for someone else. Then we spotted a free berth on the end of a dock, so Glenys swapped the fenders over and we went alongside. A resident couple from “Magnetic” came over and said that this berth was reserved as well and that there was no room in the marina - there may be a couple of boats leaving in the next few days.
Apparently, the Port Captain can’t be bothered to take bookings for the marina, so it’s first come first served and if we want a space we have to be ready to get in there when someone leaves. We were also told that tomorrow (Monday) is a public holiday, so we won’t be able to clear in or buy a SIM card for our tablet, so no internet for a few days.
Despondent, we headed back out into the bay and had a look at a couple of places to anchor, both to the north and the south of the marina, but there were 2-3 foot high waves rolling in from the south west making it all look very uncomfortable and potentially a nasty lee shore. In desperation we motored back to Pulau Renggis, hoping to find a little shelter in the lee of the island.
It wasn’t much better, but at least we had a mile to drag before we ended up ashore. We anchored at 02°48.68N 104°08.29E in 22 metres of water. It felt like sand when the anchor went in and it held well, but I still put out all of our 60 metres of chain and 15 metres of rope. It was horrible. The wind was blowing at 20 knots from the south west and we were getting steep 3 foot waves crashing into our bow making us pitch violently.
We cracked open a beer and sulked all evening.
12 September 2016 Tioman to Pulau Seri Buat, Malaysia
It calmed down a little before we went to bed, but the tide turned at 03:00, putting us side onto the waves, so we didn’t sleep much after that with waves slapping against our hull for the rest of the night. Our karma wasn’t helped by the shrieking katabatic gusts periodically coming down from the steep sided island.
We were up just after dawn to find the wind was starting to pick up again. Being a public holiday, we couldn’t do anything ashore, so we decided to run away to a better protected anchorage. Unfortunately, there were only two choices - an anchorage 15 miles away on the east coast, which might have the same problem with waves from the south; or Pulau Seri Buat, 15 miles to the south-west, which was directly upwind. We decided to head south-west to Pulau Seri Buat.
It was an ugly three hours, motoring directly into 20 knots of wind and steep waves, but we got there before lunchtime. We anchored in Seri Buat North in 11 metres on sand at 02°41.83N 103°53.90E and it’s a lovely sheltered anchorage. The wind continued to blow at 20 knots all afternoon, but we were comfortable, protected by the two islands and the shallow reef between them.
We relaxed in the afternoon - catching up on sleep and reading our books. Glenys felt motivated enough to bake some bread, mostly because we were unable to buy any breakfast cereal in Indonesia and have now run out, so it’s toast for breakfast tomorrow.
13 September 2016 Pulau Seri Buat, Malaysia
It was a lovely peaceful night. The islands in the Tioman group are in a marine park with no fishing allowed, so we weren’t disturbed by local fishermen coming into the anchorage - unlike in Indonesia where the loud pom-pom of single cylinder diesel engines woke us up every morning. This is such a nice anchorage that we decided to stay for another day and go back to Tioman to clear in tomorrow.
I’d spotted a small hill at the edge of the anchorage, so I went to climb it while Glenys declined and stayed on board. It was a bit of a struggle up through bush and lots of ferns, so I kept a wary eye out for snakes… The view from the top was worth the effort.
Back at the boat, we went for a snorkel and picked up a small mooring around 02°41.98N 103°53.31E. The visibility wasn’t very good with lots of particles in the water, but I managed to find a Swollen Phyllidia nudibranch, which allowed me to practise my macro photography.
We had a quiet afternoon, enjoying the steady breeze and calm waters, bracing ourselves for returning to the horrible roadstead anchorage at Tioman tomorrow.
14 September 2016 Pulau Seri Buat, Malaysia
The alarm went off at half past six, but when I popped my head into the cockpit, the weather was looking grim with grey skies and a thunderstorm to the east near Tioman. We decided to stay in Seri Buat for the day - there’s no rush apart from clearing into Malaysia and at worst, I’ll get my wrists slapped by the Port Captain for taking a week to get to Tioman.
We pottered about for a few hours, then the weather cleared and, with a pleasant 10 knot south wind, we changed our minds and headed to Tioman. Of course the wind didn’t play ball and we ended up motoring for two hours out of three, but that’s par for the course around here. We arrived mid-afternoon and anchored to the south of the Marina in 10 metres on what I think is a patch of sand at 02°48.681N 104°08.295E.
A few minutes later, we hopped in the dinghy and zipped ashore to the marina. We were hoping that there would be space in the marina, but it didn’t look good. A yacht is leaving tomorrow, but “El Misti” is taking their place and no one knew of anyone else leaving. We wandered off to try to clear in. There’s a Port Captain’s office in the marina, but it was all closed up, so we walked into town to have a look around.
The town is called Telok Tekek and is a scruffy looking place spread out along a single road that follows the shore line. We found another Port Captain office at the ferry terminal where we managed to clear in. They directed us to the customs office, where they took away our Indonesian clearance documents and didn’t give us anything in return. I managed to persuade them to let me photograph them, so I had at least some record of the documentation.
Our next stop was at the Immigration office where there was some delay because the officer couldn’t log-in to the computer system. We ambled off for 30 minutes found the ATM machine and bought a SIM card for our tablet while he sorted it all out. Back at immigration, we were soon fingerprinted and he gave us 90 day visas into Malaysia. Not bad - we were all cleared in within two hours of anchoring.
We went exploring the town. There’s nothing to the north of the ferry terminal apart from a few very small mini marts and some beachfront hostels for tourists. South of the ferry terminal, there are a few more stores, a big duty free shop next to the marina and further north there are some more small shops and then hotels. It’s not the most attractive place that we’ve been.
Tioman is a duty free island (like Langkawi), so at least we were able to buy alcohol at reasonable prices. It’s not as cheap as Langkawi, but better than the prices in the rest of Malaysia. We bought a bottle of gin for £9, a bottle of wine for £5 and a case of beer for £12 - we’ll be stocking up before we leave here.
Back at the marina, we met a guy on a powerboat who is leaving his berth tomorrow to be hauled out somewhere, so we arranged to take his berth for a week. He’s going to text us when he knows the time that he’ll be leaving.