The Epic Journey East - Sailing Video #3

A dreary day in Sydney is enough motivation to get all nostalgic. Here is the third instalment in our sailing movie series. This one gives you a 9 minute insight into what it is like to spend the best part of 1.5 months at sea while we crossed the Pacific Ocean eastbound in 2014. 

Starring the ever calm Captain Hugh, Faithful Seaman Abe and a myriad of other wonderful folks.

Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtERNPYLYW0

24/3/2015

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Dive Log - Palau

Below is a collection of dive logs from some of the dive sites that we visited during our time in Palau. To start off with, the area is a marine national park and the waterways, sea life and environment are protected here such that removal of any specimen or artefact is prohibited, as is damaging any of the reefs. The protection mantra is repeated at the tour companies and on your national park pass. Sailing boats are required to have a multitude of permits depending on where in Palau the yacht is and people must carry a national park pass if they are to partake in any water based activities. The money is reported to go to managing the park islands and picnic areas, moorings for dive boats and improving the infrastructure for aquatic activities. The sea life and its condition make for truly world class diving. Palau has been famous for aqua activities for decades and there are some local and very skilled companies offering unparalleled diving experiences.

Siaes Corner

Located 30nm southwest of Koror, the site provides a fabulous wall dive on the reef wall separating the fringing reef of the greater Palau archipelago to the east and the Philippine Sea plunging to depths of 2000m to the west. This dive was in brilliant conditions with visibility up to 30m, undertaken on slack tide before the tide started rising. The wall life was layered, showing soft corals, sea fans and hard corals flourishing in the rich waters. The sea life was abundant, we made our way through dense schools of barracuda and red snapper, while brilliantly coloured small reef angel and moorish idol fish flickered through the coral seascape. We also marvelled at the reef sharks and sea turtles that were effortlessly moving about. We dived to 22m and easily filled up our 50 minute dive with spectating.

Ulong Channel

Close to Siaes Corner we undertook a dive at Ulong Channel on the incoming tide and enjoyed relaxing at shark corner and watching the multitude of grey and white-tipped reef sharks cruising around and taking an interest in us. We used the Palauan invention of the 'reef hook' to hook into hard (and dead) coral so as to preserve energy while the sharks perused the corner and we spectated on the whole event. 

After a while we continued swimming around the corner to the channel  where the current had increased to about 2 knots and we zoomed through the lettuce coral garden, spotting even more sharks and rays as we slowly ascended from the 20m dive. Visibility was declining as the current increased with the incoming tide, though it was still excellent at up to 20m vis.

Blue Corner

Further south of the above two sites is blue corner, a wall dive again on the meeting point of the Philippine Sea and the Palauan archipelago. We took the wall dive to a depth of 30m and marvelled at the detailed wall, covered in micro species of fish and invertebrates while huge Napoleon wrasse, grey reef sharks, blue fin trevally and sea and green turtles ambled around in the blue expanses. The visibility was perfect, providing greater than 50m. The Napoleon wrasse fish were very tame and even accepted a pat off one of the divers. 

German Channel

This passage was blasted through the reef by the Germans during their 'ownership' of the island nation in the late 1800s, to enable easy access for their steamships that were transporting mined phosphate off the Angaur Island in southern Palau. We went at rising tide which is when Manta Rays frequent the location to go to the 'cleaning station', where Remora fish will tend to their grooming needs. Convenient for divers, this offers an opportunity to be a voyeur while they are cleaned and majestically swoop close to the channel floor to pick up any plankton that are funnelled into the channel. We were lucky enough to see a Manta Ray slowly pirouette in and make two swims past us on his way through the cleaning station. He had a wing span of 3m across with an open mouth for plankton while two remora's were cleaning its underside. 

We also spotted a feathertail stingray keeping an interested eye on us as we passed behind, while he was buried in the sand with only his eyes and the end of his tail visible. He must have decided that we were not worth ruining his hiding spot for, as he did not move (except for his eyes carefully monitoring our movements). The visibility on this dive was lower than the previous ones, at about 15m decreasing as the tide started to change and the current increased.

Jake's Seaplane

A downed Japanese sea plane from 1941 is resting upright on the harbour floor at 15m depth on the western side of the Koror township. The plane is in excellent condition, having only experienced damage to its right-side pontoon and tail. The plane has become an artificial reef and there is not a spot left on the plane body that has not been taken over by corals and sponges. The visibility was low at about 8m, but the site is well worth the visit for a mostly intact war artefact.

Ulong - Sandbar

Cruising at a depth of 25m this was a spectacular micro dive. We spent time inspecting coral formations to spot the scorpion leaf fish, small shrimp hiding in tiny crevices, flatworms and clams snapping shut at your close visitation. Large sea turtles cruise the area, while sharks are just keeping the peace. A relaxed dive, we took our time looking for the shy of the aquatic kingdom for the best part of an hour.

Siaes Tunnel and Wall

Descending down the wall to 30m we enjoyed the lavish coral fans and wall formations before entering the tunnel. The tunnel is about 20m wide and 20m deep providing a natural cutting through the wall corner. As we made our way through the tunnel the lack of sunlight penetration made the dive dark, though looking back past the entry all you could see behind lit up by the sunlight above was the deepest of blue of the Philippine Sea beyond into nothingness. The visibility was so good providing up to 50m, and the further into the tunnel we travelled, the more depth the blue behind developed. As we exited the tunnel we traversed along the exterior of the wall and inspected the microscopic sea life, including some female damsel fish laying eggs on a coral stem awaiting germination by the male. The damsel fish were close by to ensure that we would not damage their precious eggs they had just laid. We also had trouble moving around for fear of touching a sea turtle, there we just so many. Another spectacular dive.

Above the Waterline

Not to miss a mention are the brilliant surface intervals that you are treated to. From relaxing on the white silica sand beaches of Ulong Island to paddling in the reef encircled sand bars near the rock islands, the surface intervals are as perfect a break as you could ever want. Crystal clear waters expose shallow reefs where you can watch the reef fish zipping about from the deck of the boat. 

Ulong Beach

Best Time and Tour Company

The diving is challenging off your own boat as the dive moorings are not permitted to be used by yachts and the anchoring is deep and in some location untenable. You could try and dive off your dingy, however many dive sites would be long distances from your anchorage. You will still be required to have a national park pass and a guide (as required here in Palau). We used a commercial company to go diving (see below).

Because we were intending to spend up to 3 weeks in Palau, we were able to pick the best weather for diving, days where there was little or no wind. We were also there over the full moon which is the best time for pelagic fish as they are busy getting out and about around that time. Our dive guides were fantastic and selected the sites on the day based on the conditions and the tides to best capture the features of each location. There are no shortage of dive operators to go with as you are required to go with a dive guide to any site, but we went on our diving trips with Sam's Tours. A company that has been operating in Palau for over 25 years and offers an excellent experience with well trained guides adhering to the rules set out for protection of the special aquatic environment of Palau. Don't miss the opportunity to revel in a world class diving experience, come to Palau!


Thanks to Alessia for use of her underwater shots.

24/8/2014

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Palau, Perfection Protected

A place of mixed origins set in an isolated island group many days sail from any other inhabited land. It has postcard sand islands with palm trees atop, ringed by lush reef networks that step between microscopic fluro aquatic fish, seascapes of coral beds and give way to deep seas abundant with shark, rays and turtle populations.

One tree island

The native people on the land originated from Indonesia, Yap and other nearby Micronesian islands and the Philippines. Then came the Spanish in 1710 from the Philippines, though they showed little interest in colonising the land and only became heavy handed regarding their 'ownership' of the islands after English merchants ended up trading with the locals when they were shipwrecked off Palau, and expelled the British in 1885. Though it was barely 15 years before the land was handed to Germany in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War (when Spain also lost the Philippines to the USA). Another handover less than 20 years later saw Japan holding the islands and undertaking mining, fishing and other ventures, it also saw the population of 4,000 Palauans versus the Japanese population of 30,000 inhabiting the islands. WWII brought bombings to the population centres, and a fierce and bloody battle on the southern island of Peleliu and its airfield which American General MacArthur hoped to win control of to use strategically for his triumphant return the Philippines in 1944. Despite the 1,500 US troop deaths, Peleliu was never used in the invasion of the Philippines.

The winning of Peleliu and the eventual end to WWII in the Pacific was not insignificant for the island nation. Not to mention the loss of 30 years of Japanese language, food and culture imposed on the Palauan people. At the end of the war, Micronesia, Palau and many other western Pacific nations became part of the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands administered by the US. That meant the use of English language in schooling, business and in communication. The result is that the population here speak perfect fluent English, use the US dollar as their currency and drive on the right hand side of the road (however due to the importation of Japanese and other asian vehicles, the cars are right hand drive...it all makes for a very strange driving experience). With the population around the 20,000 mark, in 1994 Palau voted to successfully become self governing after 10 years of messy political assassinations, and to a state of 'free association' with the US. The US grants millions of dollars in aid money to the remote island nation every year and in exchange has the right to build a military installation on the land (which they have not taken up yet, not while Guam is still going well for the US). Such is the role of the US in the economy that aid money forms a significant portion of the national GDP and many Palauan youth are sent to the US for high school or college education and do not return. This leaves a generation gap in the workers here, now filled predominantly by Filipinos. 

In terms of our trip, the vibrancy of the aquatic environment here is not paralleled by any other, except by some places in Indonesia, but the protectionist policies and fee and fine structure here are so layered and ingrained in the cultured that the uniqueness could be protected for many centuries to come. Fishing is restricted or prohibited and the entire archipelago is encircled by a national park status attempting to ensure that any illegal fishing is harshly punished. Tourism taking the form of dive, snorkel and kayak tours are the dominant industries. The reef encircled nation rises out of a 2000m depth from the Philippine Sea and gives way to limestone rock formations reaching 200m in height and covered in dense layered jungles housing monkeys, a rich array of bird life, lizards, snakes and all manner of insect life. The volcanic forces of centuries gone by lifted the land that created the reefs and the rich nutrients pushed up by those events enables the reefs to grow, being covered by so many different types of coral it is overstimulating.   

Limestone cliffs encircling countless bays and inlets

We were lucky enough to do some diving here. Hugh's dreams came true when we were visited by a manta ray that majestically swooped us as he enjoyed being cleaned by a remora fish. Other highlights were the abundant reef and white tip reef sharks, swimming and trying not to trip over turtles there were so many around and seeing juvenile spotted eagle rays.  

Cruising reef sharks

Importation of all food in the shops comes predominantly from California, such that 'fresh' food is 40 days old before it even hits the shelves here. But it sure was going to be an experience to walk into a 'supermarket' for food, after going to markets and haggling with the sellers for the most fresh produce and being limited by circumstances (such as typhoons which stop the boat delivering produce from other islands). Also to buy meat in packages after practically picking the chicken I wanted as they marched it off to slaughter.

I walked into the supermarket to get some food for dinner and could barely walk from tripping over my jaw which was on the ground at the sheer amount of options of food. There were fridges brimming with US beef, steaks, mince, ribs, shanks...the options seemed limitless.I picked up a packet of bagels and cream cheese and I had to leave, I could not cope with so much choice of food that looked just fabulous. It had been 9 months since we had last had steak that we bought in Phuket (imported from France). Hugh was starting to waste away having not had a red meat injection in a while and it was something that was hard for Aussies like us to be away from meat for so long and having eaten vegetarian on the boat for the best part of the last year.

Being in little America was a serious culture shock from South Eat Asia, though the conveniences were easy to get used to. We were certainly going to lap up being in a little paradise for a few weeks.

16/8/2014 

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Tioman Island – Picture Perfect

The day that we left Johor and the Johor Strait was a fabulous day. The sun was shining, there was not a breath of wind but we were leaving and that was all that mattered. North and east to the Tioman Island group was our plan, though we had to go out and around Singapore waters to get there. Hugh had just painstakingly installed our new AIS transponder (radar type device that identifies and locates boats) a gift care of our very generous cruiser friends on Tahina, so we could see and count this time just how many boats were transiting through the Singapore Strait and it was a LOT! 

AIS screen shot of the waterway around Singapore, the yellow and green arrows represent the shipping
vessels = LOTS of boats (the purple arrows indicate the lanes for travelling)

The day was long and uneventful and we decided to anchor not far from Changi airport on the eastern side of Singapore and were surprised and excited to see some porpoises swimming around looking for dinner near EJ. We awoke at 5am the following morning to get going and we had a monster of a squall come through, thunder, lightning and a torrent of rain to boot as we motored our way east. Thankfully the electrical storm stayed some distance off and we just hoped for the best. The rest of the sail was uneventful and particularly dull. With no wind about and therefore no sails to tend to, I sat in the cockpit being numbed by the sound of the engine. We dropped anchor at 7pm at Pulau Sibu, the first of the Tioman Island group. 

The anchorage was quite rolly so early the next morning we decided to go and anchor across the bay at Pulau Tinggi which was visible for miles with its jungle covered dormant volcanic peak rising out from the water. But one glance at the water and we knew we had arrived, just 140nm from Johor Bahru. The water was a clear aqua colour and there were gleaming reefs visible ringing the islands. A dive into the water and we were quickly refreshed and loving being in some nice water again, it had been January when we were in Thailand, the last time we had gleefully jumped in the water for a swim. It is a kind of torture being on a boat and unable to enjoy the water that you sit on, some of the water that we have been through I wouldn’t dare touch for fear of what might be lurking below or how thick the oil slick on the top is, blurgh.  

Port Klang, Selangor...nice water yes?

We ventured ashore keen to grab an iced tea or some nasi goreng. To say that it was a sleepy place is an understatement, you might have to put your ear up to the locals face to hear if they are breathing there was that little going on. No iced tea for me. I love visiting these remote islands that are so small and have such difficult terrain that there are no cars, just bicycles and motor bikes. The ‘town’ was two streets deep and it was obvious that they relied on regular ferry or boat deliveries as there were no shops or cafes about. While it was a nice place, we decided to move on 30nm north to the most famous island in the group – Tioman Island. 

Once again with the motor loudly humming away, we made the 6 hour journey to Tioman. It was a sight to behold visible for miles off, mountainous peaks covered in dense jungle that you would have to slash with a machete to get through, ringed by golden sand and crystal clear water, atop lively reefs. Tioman Island was indeed picture perfect. Apparently voted in the top 10 islands in the world in the 1970s, I wouldn’t be surprised if the buildings here hadn’t changed since then. A fabulous place to visit with a chilled vibe and small timber cottages were as commercialised as the accommodation got. We could get used to this. We planned to stay a day and wait for some wind that was supposed to come the day after next…10 days later we were still erring about when we would leave.

Tioman Island

We anchored outside the marina and got to enjoy the 5 knot breeze that came at 3pm and left promptly at 3:15pm. While it was truly beautiful it was no less hot than Johor, but the relentless sun beating down gave us good reason to seek shelter under the water. It was time to go diving! We went on a commercial trip with one of the local company’s and spotting moray eels, clown fish, rays and going through some rock formation swim through’s was great. But we could one-up that by taking EJ, some dive gear and Jo & Jason from Labyrinth, two Aussie Cruisers who were now ‘locals’ after getting lost here almost a year ago, we went off diving at Pulau Tulai. Spotting a huge green backed turtle, sea snake and some fabulous coral fan formations topped off the trip. We enjoyed a mezze platter of flat bread, boat made tzatziki and hommous and a bean and rice mix to pass the surface interval. We even managed the 5nm sail back to the anchorage before dark.

One final set of sundowners at the Cabana Bar with our new friends was rudely interrupted by a storm system that sent all its might onto the Island. Hugh was last seen running along the beach to take the dingy back to EJ to check that she was still holding tight. The westerly wind turned our lovely anchorage into a lee-shore and that made seconds of reaction time if the anchor did not hold to the boat being washed up on the beach. Thankfully all was fine aboard except for our sail shade which got a bit of a beating from the 40kt gusts that were ripping through. We had a tense night on anchor, but the wind let up about 1am and we were able to get some rest.

While the island geared up for a busy weekend with the Sultan coming to visit for the Sultan Ahmad Shah (SAS) ‘eco challenge’ the 8hr mountain endurance race that was being held on the weekend, we did our last fresh food supply run, scoffed down some more roti canai and grabbed a few more cheeky bottles of duty free wine.  Some quick goodbyes to our new friends and we were ready for the big 400nm South China Sea crossing to Kuching Borneo, we could only hope that the wind would come along for the journey with us!

The Cabana Bar, our friend Dale off Freeform’s pick for the best banana bread,
 our pick for a nice shady spot for lunch

14/5/2014

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2013 In Review

We thought that we would bring our 2013 stories to life for our diligent readership. So here is a short movie showing our trip north from Sydney to Darwin admiring the fabulous wildlife and rugged landscapes, through Indonesia where we were treated to an insight into the rituals and religious routines - not to mention the spectacular natural wonders of the country and jungles, busy urban Malaysia and the breathtaking Thai west coast. Just two Aussies having a go! We hope you like it.

9/4/2014

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