We are sure that you have all been waiting with baited breath for our next video instalment ...so here it is, enjoy!
Showing posts with label malaysia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label malaysia. Show all posts
Saturday, 13 December 2014
Monday, 24 November 2014
A flash back from our arrival in Johor Bahru - Malaysia, the second country as we sailed west through Asia, just over a year ago.
So many milestone events had occurred in the last week, we had crossed the equator for the first time in a sailing boat, visited our last Indonesian city and were now sailing away from Indonesia for the short 30nm crossing of the Singapore Strait to arrive in Malaysia, the second country on our adventure.
The Singapore Strait is a tricky piece of waterway, our maps identified lanes for direction of travel, eight lanes in all and a turning area just at the entry to the Johor Strait - our target. It was like a water freeway all chopped up with waves and intensely filled with enormous cargo boats and we had to make our way across it without getting in the way of these boats that travelled at such speed, they really meant business. The Singapore authorities said that we were only to cross using motor, though we sailed for some of the way until the typical midday windlessness set in. Dodging cargo boats that were steaming south at about 15kts, we were crossing to the west and trying to make the jump across lanes without getting run over by any ships, 'look left', 'look right' and all that trying to figure out how fast a moving boat was travelling.
The first thing we noticed was the smell, a not so subtle fragrance of diesel fumes that hung in the air and left a fine layer of black soot on any horizontal surface. The next was the sky; a grey haze filled the atmosphere, a combination of heat haze and pollution caught in the inversion layer. The lack of any discernible colour or differentiation from east to west or north to south was a big difference, we were definitely in the doldrums now - the place adjacent the equator, notorious for little wind and hot hot heat. And it was hot. We were melting as we slowly chugged our way west. The next noticeable thing was the plastics littering the surface of the water.
We marvelled at the sheer number and size of ships and the business that revolved around it. Imagining the days when the waterway was filled with sailing boats waiting for weather systems to change or to pick up supplies kept us entertained on the slow hot crossing.
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| Shipping infrastructure in the Johor Strait |
As we made our way up the Johor Strait the immense size of the cranes and other docking systems that supported the shipping was mind-boggling. We were skirting the edges of the Singapore island and far removed from the internal busyness of the goings on in the city. Next was what would become a common sight, huge barges and accompanying conveyor belts, sending thousands of tonnes of sand shooting into the water for land reclamation.
Our anticipation was mounting for our arrival to Malaysia, just across the 2nm wide waterway (the Johor Strait) from Singapore. We landed in Danga Bay marina and promptly made our way via the convenient local bus service into Johor Bahru town for the first of many local Indian food gorge-fests. Lights glimmered at us from tv sets booming Bollywood movies into the street from the Indian quarter and we were drawn in like moths to a flame. The food was very exciting, a big change from the standard rice or noodle dishes of Indonesia. Dozens of curries were on show in huge vats, no information on what was in the mix and I just pointed and tried to make some assessment of what would be a good dinner. I would try to ask the attendants if it was panas (hot) or not and find out if it would blow my head off. Unfortunately my understanding of what was 'hot' was not theirs. Time would show that my judgement on what looked hot or not was not always on song and on more than one occasion I would have smoke escape from my ears as I was overwhelmed with the amazingly hot dish. There seemed no limit to the level of mouth burning chilli that the locals desired.
The big change from Indonesia was stark, Johor Bahru (JB) was just a short bus ride from Singapore and it seemed that the city was looking up to its modern neighbour and had embraced the cosmopolitan feel and modern features of a land that they were at war with for so many centuries. Large, modern unit blocks filled the streetscape and new luxury condominium developments were sprouting up where there was water last week via the land reclamation work. Progress was happening and nothing was going to stand in the way of JB reaching for the same status that Singapore held. The proposed Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) line that would come through JB soon was bound to increase the value of Malaysian land for Singapore commuters that could not find housing there.
The arrival to a new country was most satisfying and lit the flame of excitement and intrigue just as we had felt a few months previously on our approach Indonesia.
24/11/2014
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| Land reclamation that happened day and night to get the sand dumped and manicured into shape, hopefully before the daily rain downpour |
Our anticipation was mounting for our arrival to Malaysia, just across the 2nm wide waterway (the Johor Strait) from Singapore. We landed in Danga Bay marina and promptly made our way via the convenient local bus service into Johor Bahru town for the first of many local Indian food gorge-fests. Lights glimmered at us from tv sets booming Bollywood movies into the street from the Indian quarter and we were drawn in like moths to a flame. The food was very exciting, a big change from the standard rice or noodle dishes of Indonesia. Dozens of curries were on show in huge vats, no information on what was in the mix and I just pointed and tried to make some assessment of what would be a good dinner. I would try to ask the attendants if it was panas (hot) or not and find out if it would blow my head off. Unfortunately my understanding of what was 'hot' was not theirs. Time would show that my judgement on what looked hot or not was not always on song and on more than one occasion I would have smoke escape from my ears as I was overwhelmed with the amazingly hot dish. There seemed no limit to the level of mouth burning chilli that the locals desired.
The big change from Indonesia was stark, Johor Bahru (JB) was just a short bus ride from Singapore and it seemed that the city was looking up to its modern neighbour and had embraced the cosmopolitan feel and modern features of a land that they were at war with for so many centuries. Large, modern unit blocks filled the streetscape and new luxury condominium developments were sprouting up where there was water last week via the land reclamation work. Progress was happening and nothing was going to stand in the way of JB reaching for the same status that Singapore held. The proposed Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) line that would come through JB soon was bound to increase the value of Malaysian land for Singapore commuters that could not find housing there.
The arrival to a new country was most satisfying and lit the flame of excitement and intrigue just as we had felt a few months previously on our approach Indonesia.
24/11/2014
Tuesday, 10 June 2014
Kudat, a strange yet very welcoming place. The former capital of the Borneo state of Sabah, now a town that seems to be lost in another time. Shop houses with timber second stories, footpaths that are used for walking on (not parking scooters or stacking shop wares) and cheery locals that grin at Hugh and shout "hello, hello mister, I love you" before giggling. The man that stopped us in the street to show us the large glass ball that he was holding is his mouth was strange indeed, but funny nonetheless. It seems that tourists from western countries do not visit here much and the locals are stoked to get a chance to practise their English skills.
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| Kudat main street, neat two-storey shop houses and landscaped median strip |
On our way out of town, we were busy looking for a fuel barge that we had heard was anchored in the strait between KK and Pulau Gaya. We were following the channel markers and thought we could spot it, but we were not sure so we were asking off the bow of the boat to locals coming past if it was...they just smiled and waved...lost on translation I think. As we were in a precariously shallow part of the channel, we saw it and just came up beside throwing ropes and fenders over the side to secure us in. It was located in a particularly highly trafficked area, but we just had to tie on the best we could and hold on when the wake came crashing through. Seeing the fuel attendant smoking a cigarette next to the 'no open flames' sign, ready to create a floating bomb was just par for the course. The fuel pump was set for super yachts and fishing boats that use hundreds of litres an hour, so Hugh had fun trying to slow the flow for our comparatively meagre tank without sloshing it all overboard, making for another fun refuelling adventure.
All fuelled up we anchored on the northern side of Pulau Gaya, with a picturesque view of the jungle covered hill. There was a small family development nearby who took their canoes out fishing with nets in the evening. We followed their lead, though we had no luck with our fishing attempts, so had to settle for veggie stir fry instead.
A few days of uneventful sailing and motoring and we arrived in Kudat. Possibly the hottest place we have been to yet, though the afternoon storms do something to quell the searing daytime heat, the subsequent mozzies that come after it are less fun. Diving off the boat for a quick dip while we were underway helped manage our overheating en route.
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| Abe taking a refreshing mid-sail swim |
Kudat has an interesting history, stories about it being abandoned as the capital of Sabah varied depending on the source with tourist brochures referring to the British relocation of the capital due to the inability to secure a fresh water source, others refer to the repeated sacking of the town by neighbouring Filipinos. The town was then forgotten by authorities and remained remote, with the first road being constructed connecting it to KK in the 1970s enabling the old town to retain its charm and constrained its development or role as a trading port. A brilliant fresh food market makes it a great provisioning port for us. We were treated to some amazing hospitality by the marina managers, who took us out for lunch to gorge on some local Chinese delights and also to the local chamber of commerce to get a 'permission' letter to buy extra fuel (ie, more than 20lts), which made our time here fun and always interesting.
Having seen the main attraction on our way past (the northern most point of Malaysia), we had little else to do here. Impatiently awaiting our package of rope for our furler posted from Australia (which may have been lost in the bowels of the Malaysian postal system) and watching our new 12v to 240v power inverter blow up were just other fun things that remind you why not everyone is out here sailing.
10/6/2014
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| Our hosts - local city Councillor Johnie and his son John |
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| Happy Captain, package success! |
Wednesday, 28 May 2014
We arrived on the island of Labuan after a comparatively short and pleasant 3 day and 3 night sail/motor 390nm north from Kuching, we had made it to the northern most state of Malaysia – Sabah. Labuan is famous as the location for the Japanese surrender of the island of Borneo at the end of WWII and is now popular due to its duty free port status. We seem to stumble across these in Malaysia, a tax-free haven where tourists travel here to go crazy buying beer, spirits and chocolate at prices 20% of the remainder of the country.
Previously owned by the Brunei Sultanate until being ceded to the British in 1846, Labuan is just a stones throw west of its historical owner, though we were not going to visit there this time. The Bruneians do come here to enjoy the free and cheap flowing alcohol and weekender boat trips escalate until quieting down ahead of Monday, as Bruneians make their way back to their oil rich state.
So while Hugh was neck deep in engine maintenance my focus shifted to the small tasks on the boat, planning our provisioning needs upon leaving Malaysia and visiting the beautiful parks and gardens of the island. The number of parks and their immaculate management was such a stark contrast to other parts of the country where nothing but a dust bowl or overgrown patch of land could be found when one was seeking some pubic space refuge. Well tended flower beds, manicured gardens, trees planted to create shady boulevards and colourful paving marked the open space strip which ran for a length of 3 kms through the east side of the town. The inclusion of a meticulously maintained botanical garden is also impressive.
The strangest part of it all is that the locals just shrug it off, because this is business as usual. To see the locals playing soccer or badminton at the end of the day loving their parks was a great thing to see, or during the day just sitting in their paved plazas’ having a chat, giving the town a vibrant feel.
A fabulous surprise to experience and an obvious distinction to towns and cities in Peninsula Malaysia. A large income source for Malaysia are drawn from its rich oil deposits mined from the South China Sea. Labuan houses oil refining for easy dispatch via boat, south to Singapore or north to China. The open spaces and parks on Labuan balance out the noxious refining processes that go on here, a dichotomy of land uses.
The strangest part of it all is that the locals just shrug it off, because this is business as usual. To see the locals playing soccer or badminton at the end of the day loving their parks was a great thing to see, or during the day just sitting in their paved plazas’ having a chat, giving the town a vibrant feel.
A fabulous surprise to experience and an obvious distinction to towns and cities in Peninsula Malaysia. A large income source for Malaysia are drawn from its rich oil deposits mined from the South China Sea. Labuan houses oil refining for easy dispatch via boat, south to Singapore or north to China. The open spaces and parks on Labuan balance out the noxious refining processes that go on here, a dichotomy of land uses.
Other fun features which we came across while wandering through town was the weightlifting ‘strong man’ competition on the weekend and the central market which closes the streets to cars and scooters and bursts to life with fresh cooked food, fresh produce and plants. The music booming from the loudspeakers made me giggle as the song ‘Gangnam Style’ was rewritten to be ‘Sabah Style’. Classy.
We wandered the 3kms east to the Commonwealth WWII War Memorial, which is one of the places where Australian, Indian and British soldiers or POWs who died during the war were buried. We left a flower at Hughs’ family relatives’ plaque, a POW captured with the fall of Malaya. Labuan seemed like an apt place to bury them, as this was the location for the Japanese surrender of this theatre of war. I was leant a book from a fellow cruiser here at the marina on the POW camp at Sandakan in northern Borneo, where 2,424 Australian and British soldiers were worked, starved and marched to death as part of a ‘leave no traces’ Japanese plan. Only 6 men (Australians) survived due to extraordinary escapes and help from local Malay people who were unsure who to trust – the new oppressive ruling Japanese, or the British who were bombing and strafing the land in an attempt to drive out the invaders. Such a tale of a grim 3 year existence of the POWs and their torturous deaths is still today a reminder of the tragic hopelessness of war.
The provisioning was another experience, but as usual I had fun at the market. Because Labuan has a mix of Islamic Malaysians, Hindu Indians and Buddhist Chinese, the full range of meats are available you just have to scout them out. Muslims hate pork, Chinese love pork and any meat really, while the Hindus wont touch beef and don’t seem to be that interested in pork. Hugh is feeling a great need for some pork, so as the quartermaster it was my job to solve that crisis. At the fresh market (the pasar) I had to hunt out the pork (babi) seller…I knew they would be hidden in a back ‘sin’ alley somewhere, out of sight and passage of the local Islamic population. So there I stumbled across the babi shack, a small building where the chinese proprietors sold chunks of pork as you order. I ordered with a point and showed how big a piece I wanted and that was that, dinner sorted! Then I wandered through the fresh vegetable market and as usual, the locals were friendly and saying welcome and asking me how I was. I responded with the usual morning greeting and answered their question posed in English with a Malay answer. They always get a kick out of that. It’s easy to get a grin out of the locals, usually by mispronouncing something in Malay or saying good morning instead of good afternoon.
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| Commonwealth WWII Memorial, Labuan |
So Labuan turned out to be another interesting point on our marathon journey through the Malaysian lands, a surprisingly green and recreationally focused town. Next stop, the busy tourist haven of Kota Kinabalu.
28/5/14
28/5/14
Tuesday, 20 May 2014
Borneo, the island known for jungles, Orangutans, Probiscus monkeys and some serious environmental degradation threats. But I am getting ahead of myself...we last left you at the Tioman Islands, lapping up the sunshine and gorgeous aqua water. Trade that for being becalmed in the South China Sea, drifting and hoping against hope that some wind would come around and give us a lift. It never happened. We experienced some squalls which had some very short lived blasts of wind, but nothing to transport us the 400nm east to Kuching, the capital of the southern Malaysian state of Sarawak - Borneo. We even spotted a water spout (in the distance, thankfully) before a 40kt squall blasted through.
One afternoon we were drifting, approximately two thirds the way to our destination and there was not a breath of wind. The water was so flat we could see our reflections in the glass. Such a strange experience to be in a sea, open to all the elements and there was not a wave nor a tremor on the face of the water. A pod of dolphins came by to say hi, it was one of those special moments and we got some neat snaps of our reflection in the water off the boat.
So 6 days and 5 long nights after we left Tioman we motored into the grubby Sarawak River and anchored next to the small town of Sajingkat. Excited as we were about getting to land and eating some food off the boat (we had failed to catch even one fish on our long journey), we had heard and read warnings about boat safety and we took a measured approach to leaving the boat on the first night and enjoyed a few coldies to celebrate arrival at a new and mysterious destination.
Kuching the Malay word for 'cat', is a busy town, dominated by port comings and goings, logging and oil shipping. The town was given its name by a British merchants' nephew, Charles Brooke the Raja here from 1868-1972, not entirely sure why but it has become a great reason to theme the town with cat related paraphernalia. Borneo is an intriguing island, divided north/south between Indonesian and Malaysian ownership, with Brunei having its own northwest segment and not a party to either of the other two nations. This eastern part of Malaysia has quite a checkered history of land ownership battles with Japan, federated Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. The intervention of British and Australian troops to maintain the Malaysian border during the Indonesian Konfrontasi in the late 1960s exemplifies the strong links that Malaysia maintained with its former Colonial ruler.
But onto today...Hugh went off to town to check-in with the Port Master and Customs, while I stayed and minded the boat. It was now 7 days since I had been off the boat and I was getting a bit tetchy. But it was all training for the longer legs that we would be doing as we made the big journey eastward. Turns out that Hugh had made a new 'friend' in Mr Wan, a guy with a car who was hanging around the jetty, who would drive him around to get 240lts of diesel to fill up our tanks, for a modest tip. Filling up the boat with fuel is always fun, as it involves obtaining enough containers and transporting them to the petrol station, back to the dingy, from the dingy to the boat and then filling up the tanks, one laborious jerry can at a time. This level of 'fun' is always enhanced by inclement weather which can have the dingy bouncing up and down against the side of the boat, making the lifting of the jerry cans onto the boat quite a challenge. Sometimes getting fuel can take a whole day...imagine if it took a day to get the fuel for your car every time you filled up!
Incident free, the fuel was procured and the boat was now full. Hugh also managed to check us in in one day, which is not always the case as it can sometimes take 3 days to check in and run around town to all the different officials who can be 'at lunch', 'on a walk' or just 'finished'. So now we were free to get on the internet (excited face!), check out the town and buy some vegetables. We didn't want to leave the boat for too long, so we were not going to go to any of the number of National Parks to do any trekking, this time. So we made our way out to the main road and it looked like the last bus had been here sometime in the 1990s, and Hugh had found out the day before that taxis are a bit expensive, so we tried the old fashioned 'thumb out' trick and managed to strike gold with a lovely lady called Lily, a Chinese Malaysian, who turned into our tour guide for the day. She took us to the cat statue, a restaurant for Chinese breakfast and the fruit and vegetable shop. We were not your average tourists!
Cat Bizarre. The next stop was the Kuching Cat Museum which was, well, quite kitsch, in a quality Malaysian way! The displays containing family photos of pet cats, the cat food section and the birthday cards with cat images left me in stitches. Next was the taxidermy cat section with sad disjointed cats looking mournful with their crooked glass eyes. It was all too much and time to go back to the boat. With a teary wave, we said goodbye to Lily and got back to the boat ready to depart for our next Borneo stop - Labuan. On the way out we could hear the commercial shipping captains' calling the Kuching pilot, calling on the radio with "meow pilot, meow pilot, meow pilot" followed by their call sign. Good to see that the locals enjoy the humour of the town's name as much as we did.
The 370nm northward trip to Labuan was comparatively quick, taking 4 days and we were even able to sail most of it. The coast was busy with fishing boats, merchant ships carrying lumber and oil and the enormous oil/ natural gas drilling rigs which we were weaving in and out of. Some of the structures were in 50m of water, such incredible infrastructure connected on the sea bed by a pipeline which delivered the crude oil or natural gas to the mainland for shipping or refining.
We arrived at Labuan and are now in the marina, another Government constructed and owned facility. There are about 7 of these dotted around the Malaysian coast, all brand new and yet in a state of disrepair. It looks like one bloke drew up the plans for the marina on the back of a napkin while on a 3am caffeine high then had his brother and cousin build it before the weekend was out. The designs are always quite strange, usually with little consideration of the local weather effects and only a few of them include sea walls, such that they are suffering badly from swell impacts or wake from passing water traffic. This marina has the visiting yachts tied up on the farthest arms, and you walk along a 200m long 2-foot wide concrete 'gangway' with no rails to exit the marina. Here's hoping that I don't slip and take a dip in the nasty marina water after having a couple of G and T's!
20/5/2014
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| Water spout and accompanying squall in the South China Sea |
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| Reflections in the glass like Sea |
Kuching the Malay word for 'cat', is a busy town, dominated by port comings and goings, logging and oil shipping. The town was given its name by a British merchants' nephew, Charles Brooke the Raja here from 1868-1972, not entirely sure why but it has become a great reason to theme the town with cat related paraphernalia. Borneo is an intriguing island, divided north/south between Indonesian and Malaysian ownership, with Brunei having its own northwest segment and not a party to either of the other two nations. This eastern part of Malaysia has quite a checkered history of land ownership battles with Japan, federated Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. The intervention of British and Australian troops to maintain the Malaysian border during the Indonesian Konfrontasi in the late 1960s exemplifies the strong links that Malaysia maintained with its former Colonial ruler.
But onto today...Hugh went off to town to check-in with the Port Master and Customs, while I stayed and minded the boat. It was now 7 days since I had been off the boat and I was getting a bit tetchy. But it was all training for the longer legs that we would be doing as we made the big journey eastward. Turns out that Hugh had made a new 'friend' in Mr Wan, a guy with a car who was hanging around the jetty, who would drive him around to get 240lts of diesel to fill up our tanks, for a modest tip. Filling up the boat with fuel is always fun, as it involves obtaining enough containers and transporting them to the petrol station, back to the dingy, from the dingy to the boat and then filling up the tanks, one laborious jerry can at a time. This level of 'fun' is always enhanced by inclement weather which can have the dingy bouncing up and down against the side of the boat, making the lifting of the jerry cans onto the boat quite a challenge. Sometimes getting fuel can take a whole day...imagine if it took a day to get the fuel for your car every time you filled up!
Incident free, the fuel was procured and the boat was now full. Hugh also managed to check us in in one day, which is not always the case as it can sometimes take 3 days to check in and run around town to all the different officials who can be 'at lunch', 'on a walk' or just 'finished'. So now we were free to get on the internet (excited face!), check out the town and buy some vegetables. We didn't want to leave the boat for too long, so we were not going to go to any of the number of National Parks to do any trekking, this time. So we made our way out to the main road and it looked like the last bus had been here sometime in the 1990s, and Hugh had found out the day before that taxis are a bit expensive, so we tried the old fashioned 'thumb out' trick and managed to strike gold with a lovely lady called Lily, a Chinese Malaysian, who turned into our tour guide for the day. She took us to the cat statue, a restaurant for Chinese breakfast and the fruit and vegetable shop. We were not your average tourists!
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| Kuching sight-seeing with our new friend Lily |
The 370nm northward trip to Labuan was comparatively quick, taking 4 days and we were even able to sail most of it. The coast was busy with fishing boats, merchant ships carrying lumber and oil and the enormous oil/ natural gas drilling rigs which we were weaving in and out of. Some of the structures were in 50m of water, such incredible infrastructure connected on the sea bed by a pipeline which delivered the crude oil or natural gas to the mainland for shipping or refining.
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| One of the dozens of drilling rigs we sailed through on the west coat of Sarawak |
20/5/2014
Wednesday, 14 May 2014
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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| The Cabana Bar, our friend Dale off Freeform’s pick for the best banana bread, our pick for a nice shady spot for lunch |
Friday, 7 March 2014
After reading Alain De Botton's The Art of Travel, I was motivated to contemplate and emotionally explore the depth of some of the more mundane things that we were experiencing. I was thinking about writing a word sketch about the incredible heat and suffocating humidity that pounded down upon us every day from 10am-5:30pm, the melancholy that overwhelmed us during the slow sailing legs, the thick smoky air that we woke up breathing because of the continual burning* that goes on here, or the exceedingly uncomfortable anchorages that we were spending night after night in. But I re-thought that idea and have instead decided to go on to write about the wonders that were hiding beyond the murky waterway of the Malacca Straits and the new times that abound for the historical Straits settlements.
*the continual haze that sits over the land and waterway is due to a number of factors including the burning of jungle for palm plantations, burning rubbish including plastics and burning natural waste such as leaves. The smoke haze is compounded by the heat haze and other pollutants such as driving cars and industrial emissions.
We have been fortunate enough to venture inland, first to the cool climes of the Cameron Highlands where we were refreshed by the chill of the night air and our eyes filled with the lush greens of the tea plantations; next, to the town of Malacca, to have our senses filled with the historic port town and its nueveau scene.
Cameron Highlands
The Cameron Highlands was historically a place for horticulture and colonial holiday getaways. Located 200km north of Kuala Lumpur and centrally located in the Peninsula, it is a long way from the busy centres and indeed high, with its peak Guning Brinchang at 2031m above sea level.
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| Hugh pondering his future as a tea-picker |
We ventured up to the Highlands via a 5-hour bus ride from Penang. The long distance bus system here is cheap, comfortable and the way most people get around, connecting the thousands of towns and cities that intensively cover the Peninsula. We were struck by the sheer density of the palm oil plantations that covered the land next to the highway heading south and inland from Penang, which gave way to granite mining (by blasting) as we passed Ipoh and then the greenhouse structures that dominated the hillsides for the horticulture the closer we came to Tanah Rata (the central town in the Highlands).
We made our way off the bus at about 7pm and indulged in western-style chinese for dinner. After marvelling at the chilly night air and covering the town in about 10 minutes we decided to go and enjoy sleeping in a hotel for the night. We awoke early and day 1 had us scaling (including some clambering) the highest peak - Guning Brinchang, thankfully with the forethought to start early to beat the 30C heat of the day paid off. While it was nice and cool in the evening, the day still brought some stinging heat. After admiring the view of the jungle covered rolling hills of the Highlands that disappeared off into the distance and the haze we walked the 7km down the mountain and popped into a strawberry farm. Tasting their produce and enjoying the sweet delights, we hadn't eaten Strawberries since September, when we were in Bali and these were fabulous! As we continued on our walk, we found ourselves in the middle of a tea plantation, up to our waists in the lush green tea shrubs. The array of the green of the tea leaves was amazing, with deep emerald colours through to the new bright and light green shoots. The tea fields were rebalancing our colour senses, after becoming accustomed to so much blue. We stopped in at the 'Boh' Tea plantation and sampled their Cameronian Gold, a lovely black tea, not too unlike english breakfast and walked away with our 100 pack for future consumption.
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| Fresh Strawberries! Yum! |
Day 2 had us again out and about early, this time jungle bashing and slipping our way down the steep hill to the waterfall and dam that forms part of the busy irrigation network and hydro-electricity supply for the Tanah Rata area. The thick silt in the water made the waterfall unappealing for a swim and we would just have to keep on walking. Once at the dam, Hugh marvelled at the power of the turbines, while I thought unexcitedly about the climb that we had ahead of us back to the town. An afternoon trip to the incredibly dull bee farm where we wandered amongst timber hives and the somewhat depressing trip to the butterfly farm where we watched the attendant pull live butterflies out of a box to refresh the supply (sifting through hundreds of butterflies that had not survived the trip) wrapped up our stay in the Highlands.
While the landscape of the tea plantations was a truly spectacular sight and the mountain hiking that we did was superb, the commercialisation of the area and dense agricultural development was taking its toll on the beauty and sustainability of the area. Cars, roads and buildings were covered in the white dust from the granite mining 40km down the hill which have no dust suppression requirements, silting and pollution of the waterway from unrestricted horticulture and a desperate tourism sector will negatively impact the areas capacity for future development and continue to detract from its natural beauty.
Malacca (Melaka) Town
We had heard wonderful things about Malacca Town from Hugh's parents and other cruiser friends who had been there ahead of us and we were looking forward to another break from the boat. The town was built on the western side of the Malacca River in the 15th C as the main trading port on the Straits for boats coming west from China and Indonesia and boats coming east from India and Europe. It provided safe harbour while traders waited for the monsoon system to change as they could continue their sail. The dominance of this port was fiercely fought over by the Portuguese, Dutch and English, before finally diminishing in dominance by the mid 1800s.
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| Malacca River by Night |
Today the old town has been protected and the UNESCO heritage town is a bustling delight, with the old shop houses repurposed as guest houses, art galleries, cafes, boutique clothing stores and hip bars. Thankfully we arrived on a Sunday, where the main street is closed to traffic and transformed into a meandering market with the roadway covered in stalls selling all kinds of souvenirs, food, drinks and nick-nackery. It was a 3 hour trip to Malacca from Port Dickson, made somewhat more challenging by the 81st anniversary of the Malay Defence Force as they celebrated the day with a big show and parade right next to the marina. The three-bus journey to Malacca was quite easy and once again, we were impressed with the bus system here, even though it took quite a long time to go the 100km to Malacca. But the travel was worth it, as this town looked like it had had a transformation to become a centre of art culture inspiring and fuelling new artists.
We walked around town, indulged in some street fare and enjoyed the active streets. Off Jalan Hang Jebat (the main street) were Hindu, Taoist and Buddhist temples and Islamic mosques. At its height, Malacca was said to have over 80 languages spoken, due to the sheer number of travellers and traders that wandered the town. We delighted in some German pork knuckle, hamburgers and Nyonya (traditional Malay-Chinese) cuisine and some Malacca favourites - chicken rice balls. Malacca was a diverse and contemporary town in an old town's body. While the buildings gave the town its visual character, the lack of footpaths and hectic traffic made getting around a slightly risky project. A boardwalk had been built running along both sides of the river providing a 5km winding path away from the traffic where you could imagine the sounds, sights and smells of the trading port 300 years ago.
After some evening drinks at the Geographer Cafe listening to a cover band, we settled into the room in the Wayfarer Guesthouse (our stay a generous gift from Hugh's parents) which backed onto the Malacca River and relaxed listening the low hum of live music emanating from the local bars.
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| Malacca Town, still adorned with Chinese New Year Lanterns |
The next day we visited the Maritime & Naval Museum, housed inside a replica Portguese Caravel (timber cargo boat). The novelty of seeing the Captains quarters and the cargo hold was worth the trip (even if some of the faux-tifacts were a bit cheesy) and some interesting history was detailed about the delivery of the message of Islam to the area and the fighting that took place for ownership of the port town over the centuries. On our walk back to town, Hugh was excited to visit the Customs Museum, which detailed the history of the Port Customs over the centuries. While filling the walls with photos of the customs 'group' shots from over the years wasn't particularly interesting, the seized items such as some guitar playing frogs frozen in taxidermy and sexually explicit wooden carvings made it an entertaining visit. Hugh was quite chuffed with that museum visit, I was keen to get lunch.
Our land visits had been fun and made our southward journey along the Malacca Straits an enjoyable trip, I just had to peek beyond the toe rails and into the lively streets of the townships to see that the waterbourne history of the Straits is very different to the current drivers of culture and future development. While De Botton has some interesting points to make on travel and truly seeing a place, he does tend to focus on the negative. My mental shift from the Malacca malaise showed me that I just need to keep looking to find the other side of the story.
7/3/2014
7/3/2014
Tuesday, 18 February 2014
A week of aural sensory overload: sound, colour, taste and smell made for a
fabulous welcome to a new bustling and cosmopolitan Malaysian city.
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| Colour and crowds for Chinese New Year celebrations |
Gong Xi Fa Chai (Happy Chinese New Year) from Penang! We
were part of the island-wide party ringing in the lunar new year of the horse.
Festivities included the china town shutdown for the parade, arrival of
government dignitaries, dances, martial art demonstrations, Chinese family tree
history-tracing booths, art & craft stalls and the lane of food stalls. The
island city ground to a halt, with businesses closing for up to two weeks. This
is the one well celebrated holiday where people visit their family in distant locations
or go on holiday. From what we experienced in Langkawi, many Chinese work 7
days a week, but come Chinese new year everything changes while the Chinese
take their well-earned break.
Being here you could be mistaken for being in a southern
province of China, with 41.5% of the 1.6 million inhabitants being Chinese
(almost double the proportion of Malaysia), the languages being spoken, food
being eaten and the signage is a dead giveaway that Penang is a very different
piece of Malaysia.
Walking to China town, we had to pass through little India,
where Bollywood music and movies blare from tv screens lining the streets.
Glittering sari’s and sweet shops adorn the shopping strip as we make our way
to the Chinese section of the old town dodging cars and motorbikes that weaved
their way through the pedestrian masses. Upon arrival in China town, we became
part of the thousands of people forming the crowds watching the performances.
While there was a schedule of events, this is Malaysia and time is ephemeral
really.
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| Lion prowling amongst the crowd |
We saw not one, but three lion dances over the festival
period. The Lion dance is a traditional dance where two young men don a lion
suit with one guy being the head and operating the eyelids, ears and mouth,
while the other wags the lions rear along with the percussion beat being played
by a three person drum and symbol troupe. The dance is performed to rid evil
spirits and give blessings for the year ahead. The most impressive dance we saw
was performed on stilts, where the lion was jumping between platforms elevated
2m above the ground. The whole dance is very athletic with lots of jumping onto
precarious tables or balancing on a high wire.
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| Hugh snubbed by street art |
We continued on our journey through China town and ate at
the myriad of food stalls with Chinese, Malay and modern fusion dishes being
the orders of the day, while squeezing through crowds of people in the packed
streets to watch the performances.
Penang has an interesting history, also considered to be of
strategic importance to the trading that dominated the Malacca Strait, in 1771
the Sultan of Kedah signed an agreement with the British East India Company for
military protection from Siam (Thailand) in exchange for trading rights.
Captain Francis Light of the British East India Company took possession of the
island in 1786 and established Georgetown, a town which today is largely intact
and protected as a UNESCO world heritage site. Georgetown features narrow
streets with two-storey shop houses, impressive colonial architecture and
footpaths under covered walkways. The town was promoted as a duty-free port and
people from China, India and Malaysia flocked here to start their new lives.
The protected area is a relief from the new development as pedestrians can walk
on the footpath (not the road as in other sections), there is a cycle path and
public art adorning walls.
 |
| Luxury high density apartments on the northern side of Penang, seemingly under construction 24/7 |
Elsewhere there is rapid development, with high density
luxury apartment and shopping developments underway throughout the city. Areas
along the northern and eastern shores of the island are covered in construction
sites or impending developments. The demand for housing here has pushed the
cost of development up, such that it is 1.2m RM ($400,000 AUD) for the most
basic of units in a high density development one hour commute from the city
centre. But Penang is the place to be ranking highly in the GDP earnings of the
country, fast becoming the place for cashed up expat retirees and the Malaysian
elite. Units on the northern shore of the island are often owned as holiday
getaways for Malaysians living in other cities.
English is more proliferate here and spoken well by many
locals and it is often the language that unites the many different races. This
means that we are able to be let in on some really thoughtful discussion about
Malaysia, where it is headed and what role Penang plays in that future. Penang
is host to the country’s up-and-coming IT centre with high level manufacturing
for electrical and electronic goods and a number of multinational IT companies
locating their offices here, both fuelling the other big business – silicon
chip manufacture. There is also debate about whether Malaysia will make the
self-made target of becoming a developed nation by 2020.
 |
| Indian feast |
We didn’t waste any time in taking the opportunity to feast
on excellent quality Indian food. We started to call a number of eateries our
‘local’, indulging in rice, curry, raita, dahl and my personal favourite the
freshly cooked roti’s. My order rarely comprised less than 2 roti’s and I was
at risk of girth expansion due to these culinary experiences.
We needed to get out and do some exercise, so we visited the
Penang War Museum. It was located on the southern point of the island atop the
hill at a former British fort that was built in anticipation of the Japanese War.
Unfortunately for Malaysia it was promptly taken over by the Japanese for use
as a POW camp with the surrender of Malaysia early in the campaign. Barracks,
ammunition store rooms and an underground tactical centre located in concrete
bunkers were fascinating. Also interesting to experience was the escape tunnels
and ladders from the gun stores with a concrete tunnel 50cm high and 5m long
that you crawled through to scale a vertical ladder up 9m to ground level, all
creating a challenging route in event of an emergency.
We also took the physical challenge of scaling Penang Hill,
a gruelling 5km uphill push in 33C to the 830m peak providing uninterrupted panoramic
views of Penang Island. After the hot walk, we grabbed an ice tea with milk (my
other addiction) and caught the historic 1923 built funicular back down the hill.
Apparently you are supposed to catch the funicular up the hill and walk down,
but we didn’t get the memo.
Penang was a fabulous island city to visit teeming with
culture, history and things to do. It made for a great break from the boat
ahead of commencing our slow trip back down the Malacca Strait.
18/2/2014
18/2/2014
Friday, 15 November 2013
It was a slow day, mainly motoring after a short-lived sail down the Johor Strait from Johor Bahru, the northerly turn up the muddy Malacca Strait was proving to be less enjoyable as the wind was on the nose, if existent at all. After weaving through dozens of anchored cargo vessels and dodging some fish traps and fish nets, we decided to drop anchor at 11pm after the current had changed, and was turning the boat around taking distance off us that was so hard fought. A lightning and thunder storm above us encouraged us to take a quick 5 hour rest before the tide turned again.
We headed off at 4:30am, making for Muar Town the lesser known of the Malacca cities, this one featured two elaborate mosques and importantly our new 15hp outboard motor. Hugh had tirelessly searched for the right 2-stroke outboard in Singapore and Malaysia and had found one at the right price and after speaking with the shop, we were set to pick it up on our way through. Our friends aboard the sailing vessel Atea were kind enough to gift us their hypalon dingy which they did not want anymore as they were upgrading. The dingy was going to be perfect for our needs with a removable hard floor, however the extra weight that it brought also meant that we needed a more gutsy motor than our existing 3.3hp. Our PVC dingy was not surviving the challenges thrown up by the tropical climate and was slowly melting in the sun, losing its glue and generally being less than suitable for our needs (it had been nicknamed by the kids off our friends boat as 'the pool'). So dingy no. 3 (also known as Max - he came pre-named) required a repair job and would enter our lives as our new runabout!
We arrived outside Muar town at 1pm and made the long 3nm dingy ride up the river (impassable by our boat due to the shallow depth at its entry) taking what seemed like an eternity - 45 minutes. We rang the shop that had our outboard and they had a guy in town who would drive us to the store. This was very helpful, as the shop was a 15 minute drive away and there were no taxi's. The town was very tidy and the houses were large and very well presented. It turned out that this was no ordinary place, being the Sultan of Johor's home town and he loved the colour blue - very distinctly painted on most buildings!
The car pulled up at the marine shop and we were shown the outboard by the shop owner - Mrs Sani. It was enormous and we were wondering how we were going to get it back to EJ in our new dingy that still needed its repair job. After much talking, biscuits and water, the deal was made. Hugh was asking Mrs Sani for the name of a nice restaurant in town where we could have dinner. Before we knew it, we were in the car with her and she was taking us to a warung that sold "the best Bakso in Muar" (meatball soup with noodles). We unpacked the motor into the dingy and were escorted to dinner by Mrs Sani and her 10 year old son. It was a great dinner and just what we needed before the long dingy ride back to the boat. Mrs Sani was so kind, after driving us around and then taking us for dinner, what a nice way to buy an outboard! The dingy trip back to EJ was long, but thankfully the wind had died down, so we made it there dry and hoisted the 40kg of motor up onto the boat without too much trouble.
We decided to wait for the favourable tide and slept the night. Expecting to leave at 1am, the tide had not yet turned and the lightning storm was enough encouragement to stay in bed. There was no wind at 4am, so we decided to wait for the northbound tide that afternoon instead. A relaxing morning on the boat and some scones and we were off, sailing this time!
It was 8pm as we sailed past the city of Malacca, meticulously weaving through cargo ships that were coming into port, at anchor and those out in the designated shipping lanes. The wind was still on our nose, but it was blowing up to 15kts which made it quicker going. As the tide turned the wind died out, so we dropped anchor north of Malacca as the lightning lit up the sky overhead.
The alarm boomed at 3am and with wind we were off sailing again. As the morning wore on, the wind picked up pushed by a squall, bringing lightning, thunder and wind. This passed through and we were left with no wind and an opposing tide. The Malacca Strait was turning out to be a tedious affair and we still had 250nm to go to our destination - the Malaysian island of Langkawi.
We made the decision to get more fuel. It was never simple getting fuel and we might not have had enough to get us to Langkawi, and that all depended on the wind. Feeling that there may not be much wind (based on the four previous days) we opted to stop at the Royal Selangor Yacht Club. The club was located down the river past Port Klang - a huge shipping terminal with cargo ships lining the channel. The Club was located in a shallow part of the river which used to be quite remote, though over the last 15 years or so a lot of shipping industry had moved in and the river banks were loaded with warehousing, logistics and fishing trawler boats. The water was filthy, a perpetual tide of rubbish (plastic bags, bottles, styrofoam, wooden pallets and wooden logs) clogged the river, ready to be sucked into the engine water intake or damage the fibreglass if propelled fast enough by the current. We stayed the night to fill with fuel and leave the following day. Thankfully they had a fuel bowser here, the first one we had used since leaving Darwin, as we usually get between 10-20 x 20Lt jerry cans filled with diesel to tediously pour one by one in to the tanks.
48 hours later we made it to the entry channel to the marina where we would be for about a week. The water had cleared up and the brilliant green of the island vegetation contrasted with the aqua water, hopefully a sign of things to come for the picture perfect beaches and water further north. The Malacca Strait is 450nm of challenge, not for the impatient and we were both exhausted after keeping such a vigilant watch out for shipping, fishing obstacles and lightning storms. It was nice to be out of the Strait!
15/11/2013
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We headed off at 4:30am, making for Muar Town the lesser known of the Malacca cities, this one featured two elaborate mosques and importantly our new 15hp outboard motor. Hugh had tirelessly searched for the right 2-stroke outboard in Singapore and Malaysia and had found one at the right price and after speaking with the shop, we were set to pick it up on our way through. Our friends aboard the sailing vessel Atea were kind enough to gift us their hypalon dingy which they did not want anymore as they were upgrading. The dingy was going to be perfect for our needs with a removable hard floor, however the extra weight that it brought also meant that we needed a more gutsy motor than our existing 3.3hp. Our PVC dingy was not surviving the challenges thrown up by the tropical climate and was slowly melting in the sun, losing its glue and generally being less than suitable for our needs (it had been nicknamed by the kids off our friends boat as 'the pool'). So dingy no. 3 (also known as Max - he came pre-named) required a repair job and would enter our lives as our new runabout!
We arrived outside Muar town at 1pm and made the long 3nm dingy ride up the river (impassable by our boat due to the shallow depth at its entry) taking what seemed like an eternity - 45 minutes. We rang the shop that had our outboard and they had a guy in town who would drive us to the store. This was very helpful, as the shop was a 15 minute drive away and there were no taxi's. The town was very tidy and the houses were large and very well presented. It turned out that this was no ordinary place, being the Sultan of Johor's home town and he loved the colour blue - very distinctly painted on most buildings!
The car pulled up at the marine shop and we were shown the outboard by the shop owner - Mrs Sani. It was enormous and we were wondering how we were going to get it back to EJ in our new dingy that still needed its repair job. After much talking, biscuits and water, the deal was made. Hugh was asking Mrs Sani for the name of a nice restaurant in town where we could have dinner. Before we knew it, we were in the car with her and she was taking us to a warung that sold "the best Bakso in Muar" (meatball soup with noodles). We unpacked the motor into the dingy and were escorted to dinner by Mrs Sani and her 10 year old son. It was a great dinner and just what we needed before the long dingy ride back to the boat. Mrs Sani was so kind, after driving us around and then taking us for dinner, what a nice way to buy an outboard! The dingy trip back to EJ was long, but thankfully the wind had died down, so we made it there dry and hoisted the 40kg of motor up onto the boat without too much trouble.
We decided to wait for the favourable tide and slept the night. Expecting to leave at 1am, the tide had not yet turned and the lightning storm was enough encouragement to stay in bed. There was no wind at 4am, so we decided to wait for the northbound tide that afternoon instead. A relaxing morning on the boat and some scones and we were off, sailing this time!
It was 8pm as we sailed past the city of Malacca, meticulously weaving through cargo ships that were coming into port, at anchor and those out in the designated shipping lanes. The wind was still on our nose, but it was blowing up to 15kts which made it quicker going. As the tide turned the wind died out, so we dropped anchor north of Malacca as the lightning lit up the sky overhead.
The alarm boomed at 3am and with wind we were off sailing again. As the morning wore on, the wind picked up pushed by a squall, bringing lightning, thunder and wind. This passed through and we were left with no wind and an opposing tide. The Malacca Strait was turning out to be a tedious affair and we still had 250nm to go to our destination - the Malaysian island of Langkawi.
We made the decision to get more fuel. It was never simple getting fuel and we might not have had enough to get us to Langkawi, and that all depended on the wind. Feeling that there may not be much wind (based on the four previous days) we opted to stop at the Royal Selangor Yacht Club. The club was located down the river past Port Klang - a huge shipping terminal with cargo ships lining the channel. The Club was located in a shallow part of the river which used to be quite remote, though over the last 15 years or so a lot of shipping industry had moved in and the river banks were loaded with warehousing, logistics and fishing trawler boats. The water was filthy, a perpetual tide of rubbish (plastic bags, bottles, styrofoam, wooden pallets and wooden logs) clogged the river, ready to be sucked into the engine water intake or damage the fibreglass if propelled fast enough by the current. We stayed the night to fill with fuel and leave the following day. Thankfully they had a fuel bowser here, the first one we had used since leaving Darwin, as we usually get between 10-20 x 20Lt jerry cans filled with diesel to tediously pour one by one in to the tanks.
48 hours later we made it to the entry channel to the marina where we would be for about a week. The water had cleared up and the brilliant green of the island vegetation contrasted with the aqua water, hopefully a sign of things to come for the picture perfect beaches and water further north. The Malacca Strait is 450nm of challenge, not for the impatient and we were both exhausted after keeping such a vigilant watch out for shipping, fishing obstacles and lightning storms. It was nice to be out of the Strait!
15/11/2013
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