Danga Bay to Tioman

Once again we are on the move and seem to have had a variety of experiences since Debra left us in Singapore. After checking out we wended our way through the vast anchorage of huge tankers listening again in awe at the chatter on channel 16 where they continuously accuse each other of passing to close or anchoring too close—we had to laugh when one told another that they were passing to close only to be told that the accused boat was anchored and the accuser was the only boat moving. We made our way to Danga Bay on the east of Singapore across the Straits in Malaysia. This is where the rally will start. The marina which continues to silt and break down with no one willing to pay to fix it will not exist in a few years. It did serve our purpose as they charged us $33 for a week and gave us a food voucher for $17!! Perhaps they should charge a little more and improve the marina. As is often the case when marinas are run down and do not charge much they are a magnet for people to leave their poorly maintained boats which over the years become covered in dirt and grime. Our boat was starting to look pretty grimy with the silty river. We arranged for the refrigeration company that we had used before to repair our freezer which luckily was a quick fix but the more problematic issue was our blocked head (toilet) hoses. As anyone who has ever owned a boat knows this is an issue one has to deal with from time to time. We decided that as they are 14 years old we would take a quick day trip across the bridge to Singapore to purchase new hoses. Back on the boat we once again had functioning toilets and the freezer was working---yet one more time when there are no obvious boat issues. It was fun to reunite with more friends—there will be 24 boats on the rally and the majority had now arrived. As before the community put on a lovely gala dinner with dancing performances—I had a half page spread in the local newspaper of a photo of me dancing—we tend to get lots of news coverage as we go into each community. The following day we left to move around the south of Singapore and make our way to an anchorage on the west of the Singapore Straits in Malaysia before we would turn the corner and make our way north up the east coast of Malaysia. We anchored beside a Naval Base only to be told we could not anchor there—woops!! At this time our anchor windlass—the motor which hauls the anchor up and down decided to quit on us. After unsuccessfully trying to do a quick fix Ken was left having to hand wind up our heavy anchor and a huge amount of chain. We then moved to where we were allowed to anchor and dropped it down again. In anticipation of having to haul again by hand we cheated a bit on the amount of chain we dropped. We were with a number of boats with handy skills and Chris from Amulet agreed to come and work on it in the morning. Happy hour was spent on Peregrina where we celebrated finally being on our way to find some clear blue water—the East Coast of Malaysia has a great reputation. That night a huge squall came through with 35-40 knots of wind and Ken thought we may be dragging. I could see the boat we had anchored beside still in the same relative position as before but he had his running lights on. We realised we both were dragging. The winds were too strong for us to hand winch the anchor up so we spent the next while motoring into it so we would not drag any more. When I checked the depth we had 3 feet of water under our keel but over the next few hours the tide would drop 5 feet!! As the wind abated we along with the 3 other boats who had dragged managed to anchor soundly again. The next day we found that the bull gear on our windlass was stripped and as they do not make the same one any longer we would have to buy a new one—one more drop in our future lifestyle!! We wanted to get Lewmar as that was what our old one was and a “plug and play” replacement would be the most cost effective and quickest fix. We were nervous as we have been waiting for a new part for a winch for 2 months already and it seems that the Lewmar dealers in this part of the world are not fast movers. The thought of hanging out in this part of the world for months was not appealing. The one advancement in cruising is the access to internet and we were able to source out the local dealers and a dealer in NZ—where from previous experience is a reliable quick way to get anything. Sure enough the dealers in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand would all take 6 weeks but the NZ dealer had one in stock and would ship it right away, we should have it in 3 days. Next morning the local community organised a visit to a maritime museum, lunch at a “homestay” and then a visit to a fruit farm. The variety and quantities of fruit grown and served to us was incredible and we feasted on all familiar and unfamiliar tropical fruits. I was delighted as in season right now were wonderful mangos and huge passionfruit—doesn’t get much better than that!! Lots of mango/passionfruit smoothies in our future. The next morning the rest of the rally headed north and we went into a nearby marina to await the windlass. The marina at Sebana Cove was up a river and was quite amazing. In it’s heyday a government minister had managed to free up money to build an enormous resort. There was a hotel, marina, golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool and 5 restaurants. They had built 50 condominiums and 35 huge houses backing on the bay, many with docks. There had been a ferry to Singapore and customs and immigration were there. Many Singaporeans bought into the houses and condos but somewhere the government minister was turfed out—no doubt due to what was seen to be providing her and her friends a luxurious lifestyle and the whole development fell apart. It has now been bought by a consortium from Singapore but now with no ferry and no immigration there it will be a long way back up. While we were there we were the only customers in the one restaurant and only one or two houses appeared to be occupied with no one staying at the hotel. It is a shame as it the place was very extravagantly built in stone and is quite beautiful. We were contacted by Fed Ex to say our parcel would be there on Friday as scheduled if we paid the $250 duty. We are officially a “yacht in transit” which is what we classify ourselves as we travel the world and are often exempt from duty. Fed Ex informed us that they do not clear packages anywhere in the world as “yacht in transit” and our options were to find a broker to clear it or pay the money within 5 days or they would send it back. We were now in a remote small marina and had no option other than to pay so we reluctantly agreed we would. We now had to get a taxi into the nearest town and find an ATM as they will not accept visa. We now are warning all other cruisers to avoid Fed Ex and question whoever they are going to ship with if they will at least attempt to clear goods under this umbrella. Our windlass arrived and while Ken put it all back together I took some vim and scrubbed the oily Singapore grime from our hull. Cop Out had never looked so dirty and it took a lot of elbow grease to clean it. Once again we were underway and we managed to quickly get up the coast to Tioman which is an idyllic island looking a little like the Marquises with turquoise water and tall rainforest covered rugged hills. We anchored beside a lovely beach and would attend the reception the community would have for us. The next day was “games day”. This was put on by the locals who enjoy participating with us. They had three legged races, a race where a nail on a string is dropped into a bottle which you then have to pick up and run with it. One of the funniest was a pile of flour covering candies which you had to put your mouth in and get it in your teeth. The day finished with a “tug o war” where the male cruisers put on their heaviest and strongest. Most of the games were won equally between us and them and we all had a great day. There was also a “lolly scramble” for the children—I recalled those from picnics in my youth—do they still have them in the western world? The next day was steep 2 hour hike up into the rainforest to a waterfall. Luckily it was overcast—despite the 32C which we expect anyway it was nice not to have the sun beating down as we climbed the trail. Afterwards they picked us up in 4 wheel drive vehicles and took us on a tour of the one road which crosses the lovely island and we had Tom Yum soup for lunch for $3 overlooking the beautiful bay on the opposite side of the island to the anchorage. The island is a tourist destination but they are spread along the coast in small cabins and unlike Thailand you are not aware of the numbers. Each evening we had been gathering at a place which sells duty free alcohol and drinking the $1 30 cans of beer followed by dinner at one of the local restaurants which cost between $12 and $17 per couple, including beer. It seems odd that a community which is predominantly Muslim who do not drink that the island sells duty free liquor. We stocked up on beer as we had been paying over $1 a can since Lankawi—40cents there.. Here it was about 60 cents and we were able to get tonic and soda water so once again the boat groans along under the weight of the liquor on board. There always is an obscure surprise when we shop in these small villages—in Langkawi we had come across Alise which is a French passionfruit drink which we had been introduced to years ago at a wine show. Here it is vanilla “cruisin rum”—a Caribbean favourite. We went snorkelling several times which was lovely with good clarity and pretty coral. We spotted a cuttle fish which was the first we have ever seen. It was time to move on and I am writing this as we cross back to the mainland for our next rally stop in a few days.