21 - 24 August 2010

Sat 21 August 2010


This morning we again had breakfast at Puteri Marina and checked out of the Harbour at 09:00. We arranged to take on some fuel and motored around to where the fuel pump was located. Initially we found there was nowhere to moore near the pump as no jetty's been built yet, but a firefighting barge soon appeared towing a small pontoon which was promptly lashed to the dock wall to allow us to fill up with diesel.

We made our way out through Singapore harbour, negotiating the shipping lanes filled with both anchored and moving tankers and freighters. This passage wasn't too daunting in daylight and clear weather but it did require a constant lookout, and some concentration.

Just before leaving Singapore's harbour limits, we caused a stir by crossing a poorly marked section of restricted water at Changi Naval Base. Within minutes we had a black high speed rubber dinghy bearing down on us with 3 young Singapore soldiers on board, armed with machine guns yelling instructions as they circled our boat. We cut engines and they pulled alongside informing us we were in a restricted space and would need to produce passports. These were promptly handed to them by means of a fishing net on a long stick extended on to our boat, after which the soldiers spent the next 10 mins on their radio, presumably checking us out. After telling them, truthfully, that we hadn't known it was a restricted area (as we had de-cluttered our Raymarine maps - turning off all the detail displayed to make them more legible - and hadn't seen the warnings noted), we were told they would now return our passports and then "shadow" us out of the area. They sat alongside for a mile or so and when I produced my camera and indicated that I would like take a photo of them, the answer was clearly no, but we did get a laugh out of them.

Afterwards it was back to dodging tankers for a while until just on nightfall we reached 1'19.913N 104'08.220E where we anchored out of the channel near a mass of lit up oil rigs and drilling platforms.

Sun 22 August 2010

We raised anchor once again at daybreak and continued for another hour along the shipping channel before rounding the headland and bearing North towards Pu Tingi. Just before lunchtime a small fishing boat pulled along side and traded a bowl of large prawns in return for some cold drinks. I gave the kid on board a small toy kangaroo I had brought over from Australia which he seemed quite excited about. The prawns were cooked up for lunch an hour later, seafood just doesn't get any fresher than that.

We arrived at Pu Tingi just on sunset. A very quiet anchorage aside from the occasional sounds of Koran verses being played on the island at prayer time throughout the early evening. After a swim we sat back and enjoyed a sunset and plenty of lightning on the horizon. The storm moved away however and we had a very peaceful night.

Mon 23 August 2010

Leaving once again at daybreak we headed north around the Singapore headland and arrived midday at Tioman. On approach there was a large amount of rain surrounding Tioman but it cleared as we arrived at the marina where we docked on the ferry terminal while we arranged port clearance, 200l of diesel, water and provisions for the next week. Tioman has a lovely reef and an interesting airstrip that runs parallel between the main road and mountain range. There is a sheer cliff face at one end of the airstrip and I imagine that both take-offs and landings would be an adrenaline rush, nevertheless quite a number of planes arrived and departed during our stay, predominantly Tiger airlines.

After finding lunch ashore and checking emails, (both businesses offering wifi hotspots were closed but a shopkeeper let us use his own connection) we returned to the boat and moored out from the marina. As we put in the dinghy and prepared to go for a swim a freak storm blew up and we started dragging anchor, at the same time flipping our dinghy. We moved in closer to shore above the reef and waited for the squall to pass, eventually picking up a mooring on the reef. After half an hour of drying the spark plugs, emptying the carby of water and spraying the whole previously submerged outboard with WD-40, we kicked it back into life, no real harm done aside from a lost dinghy anchor and the outboard motor cover. A dive the next morning failed to turn up either as we backtracked our course.

The water on the reef is crystal clear and a great place for diving and snorkeling however where the reef drops off visibility is reduced to only a few feet on the sand bottom.

In the evening we returned to the island for dinner and a walk along the length of the main road, that takes you past a number of food stalls, restaurants, souvenir and convenience stores and a massive and surprisingly modern duty free shop.

Tue 24 August 2010

Departing from Tioman at around 10:00 for the longest nonstop leg of this voyage, crossing the South China Sea.