The trip
from Langkawi to Danga Bay in Johor Bahru was just peachy. The weather gods were kind to us. Not much sailing wind, but that’s what you
get here close to the Equator.
Ten stops,
mostly deserted anchorages: Pulau Tuba, Monkey
Beach and Pulau Rimau (Penang), Sungei Dinding (Lumut) , Pulau Angsa, Che Mat Sin
(Port Klang), Admiral Marina (Port Dickson), Pulau Besar, Tanjung Tohor, Pulau Pisang,
Danga Bay.
We spent
the first night at Pulau Tuba is just around the corner from Langkawi so we
could get a head start on the 50 plus mile leg to Monkey Beach at the north of
Penang the next day. One of the rolliest
anchorages I’ve slept in.
Happy hour
Pulau Rimau anchorage
Then we
started meeting the Fishing Nets. At our
second Penang anchorage off Pulau Rimau on the south western tip, the first
net, drifting with the tide and current, wrapped around our bows. We were enjoying the happy hour view of the
islands and the bridge and all of a sudden the local fisherman had caught Yana
de Lys in their 200 meter long net. They
scowled at us when they cut it off. We
weren’t expecting it and it happened so quickly there wasn't time for us stop the
capture ourselves.
One of the many many fishing boats
Like nearly all our anchorages, we were the only people at Pulau Talang
The next
day we avoided 87 fishing nets. It was easy enough to figure out how to avoid these as they were dragged between two fishing
boats. At our deserted, idyllic
anchorage we listened to the call to prayer on the radio and to the West Coast
Eagles lose. Again.
Lumut International Club. Home to seven boats.
Tempting venue in Lumut for tonight's dinner?
Five star public toilets
Our course
to Lumut was infested with fishing net flags. In shallow water. The trick is to
work out which flags go together and if you can’t avoid going over the net in
between head for the middle, take the engine out of gear with enough boat speed
to propel you forward and hope the net doesn’t end up around the
propeller. We succeeded but it was a
slow 15 miles.
The next
anchorage was in front of the Lumut International Yacht Club. Lovely architecture but not exactly what we
expect of a yacht club. They didn’t
serve food or drink or anything. The
call to prayer sounded like a gentle romantic love song. The Lumut boardwalk infrastructure along the
river is really pretty, with the most salubrious public toilet I have ever
met. The blokes toilet is actually a
large aviary.
Pulau Angsa
Sungei Bernam burbs
The next
stops at Pulau Angsa, Che Mat Sin and Sungei Bernam, where we sort of blended in with
other residents of the stilt burbs, were gloriously uneventful. We were getting the hang of this cruising business.
Marina inmates get full resort privileges at Admiral Marina
Then the
Admiral Marina at Port Dickson for a few days.
All very civilised, resort style.
It was our first marina stay in about three years and when I woke up the
first morning with another boat’s mast looming largely right there in my
porthole I had a nanosecond of Anchor Angst.
Until I remembered where I was and that our anchor hadn’t dragged but we
had deliberately parked this close to another boat.
Live cooking show. It took three staff to keep him stocked with chopped ingredients to fuel his frenzy.
In Port
Dickson we stopped for a beer at an unassuming café and ended up staying and
eating and staying even longer absolutely spellbound by the chef constantly
cooking a minimum of three high speed wok dishes at once. Like a highly entertaining live cooking show.
We stayed out of the way of the big boys
On the move
again the cargo ship traffic in the Malacca Strait was beginning to build up. We poodled along in the slow lane with a
constant stream of varied commercial vessels parading past in the fast
lane. Flying fish and dolphins kept
speed with us.
When we had
just settled in to a very peaceful anchorage at Pulau Pisang some fishermen
came up to us and politely asked us to move.
“Boss you move boat boss” indicating the nets they intended to lay
out. So, reluctant at first, we moved
and were safe for the night.
It was
different the next night when we were camped in the middle of nowhere out of
the way of the freeway. We were woken by
a loud clunking near the bows to find Yana well and truly caught in a drifting
net with increasing burden on the anchor.
With no fishing boats to be seen we had no choice but to hack it
off. It came free with a super loud
twang. The pressure release was
scary. We apologized to the invisible
fishermen.
The next
night we made it to Danga Bay. I’ll tell
you all about it in my next installment.
