WEEK 7: Teluk Tekek, Tioman Island to Kapas Island

Saturday 28 May – Juara Village
Another rest day. A storm threatened in the afternoon but it missed us though we had very strong winds and thunder and lightning. Two yachts had a bit of a dance together but didn’t actually touch. Ate on board again.

Sunday 29 May – Juara Village – Happy Birthday Bill
So calm and peaceful and the water amazingly clear – you could see absolutely everything on the bottom – shame there’s no fish. Some mornings there is smoke lingering around from people cooking or burning their rubbish. Wavesweeper left for the other side of the island. A breeze came up shortly after and has been blowing since but conditions are good in here. We ventured ashore around 6 and went to the restaurant for dinner – stayed away from everyone as didn’t want to pass this cold on. Skipper feeling poorly.

Monday 30 May – Juara Village to Teluk Tekek
Found out that Teluk means Bay in Malay. We left at 8am and headed south to complete our circumnavigation of the island. Just as we left and a stiff breeze was blowing and we were close to the island with no sails up – the skipper decides that the tacko is not working so turns the engine off to get it to start – what happens if the engine doesn’t start again!!! It did but still! The scenery was stunning and there were a few villages that we think we may have been able to anchor off though it would be a little exposed. The island is absolutely beautiful but maybe unless you are viewing it from the sea you may not see the beauty from the land though of course it is still lovely. We continued to Tekek hoping that we may get back to those little villages some time. We anchored in 10m and went back to 12m at 11am then checked in with the Harbour Master and Customs, had a chat to Cilantro and did some shopping. We weren’t well enough to attend the pot luck dinner in the marina so had a quiet meal at the Chinese. Debbie, Dad is quite taken with the claypot beancurd which is delicious! Later in the evening we watched Cilantro come out of the marina in the dark to anchor. Another boat was coming into their berth at midnight so they had to move. Braveheart has gone on ahead as they have to make a trip to Langkawi.

Tuesday 31 May – Teluk Tekek
We went into the Harbour Master and Customs to check out and bought a couple of cartons of beer. Not as cheap as Langkawi but still cheaper than mainland Malaysia. Tioman is a duty free island but they don’t have the selection that Langkawi has. The crew finished reading The Great War and the skipper finished two books in a few days. He has really got this cold now as has Judy off Braveheart. Seems to be making its way through the fleet. We went ashore for the seafood barbeque and were joined by Cilantro. The barbequed fish, squid and prawns were delicious but the vege dish wasn’t very nice.

Wednesday 1 June – Teluk Tekek to Rompin (mainland Malaysia)
02°48.691N / 103°30.555E – a calm night
We upanchored at 7.30 after putting Bob on the deck. We find it easier to winch Bob on rather than manhandle him like we did with Zed. It was a very still morning and after a while we spied a pod of dolphins. One leapt out of the water in front of us. One had a white tip on its fin. A couple swam at the front of the boat but only for a short few seconds and one was the biggest dolphin we have seen – magic. Totally missed them on the camera though! A couple of hours later we had a larger pod of dolphins visit us and they played and frolicked around the boat for a while – it was wonderful. Saw two big fish swim past but nothing on the line!! As we neared Rompin and could see all the yachts at anchor we had our eye on a huge cumulus cloud – lovely and white and fluffy at the top bit, dark at the bottom. It was rumbling and we could see the odd lightning bolt up in the cloud. We put the revs on when the wind picked up but when we anchored in 4m it was all ok and it passed to the south of us. Cilantro picked us up in their dinghy and we went ashore for a barbeque. Sasli (Sail Malaysia) met us there and we had a wonderful feed of barbequed chicken, fish and prawns and we all had a wonderful night. We then braved the waves to get back to our boats.
Miles: 39 TTT: 704

Thursday 2 June – Rompin to Pulua Ular – Happy Birthday Judy
04°03.540N / 103°24.265 – beautiful calm night
Having an early morning cuppa in the dark the skipper went to step down on the back transom and baulked a bit and said there’s a snake – it was a skinny one but by the time we got the torch he had realised he had been spied and vacated the premises so we really don’t know exactly what he was. We left in the dark at 6.15am but it soon lightened up and we headed north hoping to get some good miles under our belts. The fleet all looked good with their sails up despite the fact that we were all motoring as there was no wind! We were quite a long way from shore but we could see a very marked change in the colour of the water – it was quite amazing that it was like a line drawn in the ocean where one part (coming from a river) was a dirty brown and the sea was a deep blue colour and the current line with logs etc was the demarcation line (see the photo). We were thinking of heading towards shore to anchor somewhere when the wind sprang up and Cilantro wanted to sail so we decided to keep going for a while longer. Cilantro had chosen two places further up but we didn’t think we would make them but with this great wind we were hoiking along! The first anchorage wasn’t suitable so continued on for another 3 – 4 miles and the sun sank in the west and we came around a small island with lots of rocks and managed to get on the inside of it between the island and the shore and drop the anchor in 6.8m just on dark at 7.30! It was a very long day so we decided to pretend we had dinner and fell into bed.
Miles: 82 TTT: 786

Friday 3 June – Pulau Ular to Kapas Island
03°13.679N / 103°15.698E
Well what a lovely peaceful night we had tucked in behind our little island and rocks. We left at 6.15am again hoping to get to Kapas Island ~ 75nm away. We motored and then got enough wind to motor sail. We had a slap up breakfast to make up for the non dinner last night. Have been dodging pots. These are marked with things like small fenders sticking up – not the drink bottles or foam such as in Thailand and Indonesia. Later in the afternoon there were also flags on floats and some floats without their flags. We went past a couple of ports and bulk crude oil terminals and gas terminals. Also there are lots of quarries. The beaches are long and look quite good and there are some quite fancy mosques along the way. We have made a huge effort to do this coast in two days as if the weather came up it would be quite miserable out here as there are really no bolt holes or islands to hide behind. We arrived at Kapas Island which is 6.5km from the mainland at 6.15. Had a shower a sundowner and then remembered we had some instant meals so the skipper cooked up some rice and dropped the packet in the boiling water and voila chicken curry which was very nice. Full Flight, Whisper HR , and Chatalaine came in after dark. Kapas is supposed to be beautiful but we will report on that next week.
Miles: 78 TTT: 864


Cannot believe how quickly this week has slipped by. You may have noticed on the blog there is a link to “where we really are”. We are trying to update this every night as it shows a map of where we are and also where we have been – though we can only update this with internet access. The site is at www.skipr.net Meanwhile hope you are all well. Happy to report that we have both recovered.

Take care, miss you

Love

Dell and Peter