Thursday, October 24, 2019

Slinging Across the Singapore Straits

We left Nongsa Point Marina around 6:30 am to start our passage to Malaysia. This required crossing the Singapore Straits  The Straits (along with the connecting Malacca Strait) are the busiest shipping lanes in the world. About 2,000 ships per day transit the area carrying a quarter of the worlds traded goods. We timed our passage with the tidal current, spending hours going at 9-10kts with the extra push.
We decided to run along the shipping lanes on the Indonesian side until we could cross at an area where the East bound lanes are widely separated from the West (and north) bound lanes. You can see where we crossed in the pic above. We waited about 15-20 mins. before finding a hole we felt comfortable to cross the East bound lane. The ships are spread out at about a 12-15 mins spacing coming down the lane. That took us into the purple area on the chart that is a ship anchorage. At the top of this area we crossed the West bound lane. We started to cross as soon as we got there but turned around when a new ship showed up on our path. After again waiting about 15 mins for a hole we shot across.

It's not only commercial ships that cross the Straits.

 After we crossed the west bound lanes we started up the Johor Strait that separates Malaysia from Singapore. Pretty quickly we were hailed on the radio by Singapore Port Control and were reprimanded for not calling into Port Control on channel 22. A little while later this Singapore Police boat tracked us for over an hour heading up the Strait. The port side (left) is Malaysia and the starboard side (right) is Singapore as you head toward Johor.  There are a continuous group of yellow buoys on he Singapore side. Apparently if you cross over those the police boats come to board you. 




This travel lift for lifting big ships, and probably big catamarans, can handle 15,000 tons.











Once you go under the Second Link Bridge, connecting Singapore and Malaysia, you come on the Singapore Defense Force's live firing range.

 
There's no shortage of construction going on on the Malaysia side. Dense condo living in the background.


We ended up in Puteri Harbour (middle left of map).  We easily cleared into Malaysia and then had a nice visit with some old friends from Edmonds, Owen and Carrie, who arrived here with their kids on their sailboat Madrona about 5 years ago and now live here and teach at the local American School.

Cruisers Notes:
Clearing in is very simple, almost all handled by the marina office. We received a 90-day visa.
The marina is clean and has nice docks with easy, wide fairways. For those that don't want to go into the marina, you can anchor out in front of it and pay a nominal daily anchor/dinghy fee and get cleared in through he marina office. As I understand it, the customs and immigration officials, located nearby at the ferry dock, will not clear in walk in cruisers.

Paul

Monday, October 21, 2019

Crossed the Equator Again

We recrossed the equator Oct 19 at 10:55 (Singapore time). While I'm not one to be religious or believe too much on old tales, I figure you should always cover your bases when dealing with Neptune and his associates. You dress appropriately - in this case you'll see a nice silk Lombok shirt with a Fiji sarong, highlighted with a Bali Bintang hat along with the ever present sunglasses. We decided to offer up a shot from the Southern Ocean, a fine Tasmanian sassafras liquor, to Neptune since we're out of rum and are assuming that it's been a long time since anyone at the equator had something cold to drink.

After Neptune got his shot Chris and I took ours.

Here we are with our GPS telling us we are just crossing from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere. Technically we are 18 feet north of the equator in the picture.

This little swift came along to rest on our railing to see what the celebration was about. I wanted to offer her (or him) a shot too, but Chris insisted that she was too young.

Being in the equatorial zone it didn't take long for yet another rain squall to arrive. These squalls have a lot of rain, and some lightning, in them. The wind speeds so far have been fairly mild ranging from 18-29kts, and not for very long.

Due to some careful misplanning on my part, we were a little low on fuel before we got to the next stop. We had originally planned to leave Belitung and do an overnight to Bangka. Instead we opted for a three day passages and had a little sailing conditions. So when we anchored at Mesanak island Ali rowed up to us to say high and show off his half dozen English words. After a long, friendly conversation with neither side too sure what was said I asked Ali if he could get us some 'solar' (the word that Indonesians use for diesel, as the petrol company puts that label on the lowest grade of diesel). Ali smiled a lot and said he would. I dug out a 20 liter (5 gal) jerry jug and handed it to him. Then passed over two 100,000 rupiah notes. 200,000 rupiah seems like a lot, but it converts to about usd$14. After much further conversation we all agreed on pagi - meaning morning.
The next morning Ali rowed out to the boat with our jerry jug, came on board and helped fill the tank with it, as we continued our in depth conversations. This one primarily about the merits of metal anchors versus the wood anchor he had. He picked up our boat binoculars and peered through and was very impressed. This prompted us to dig up an old pair of binocs for him. He was over the top happy with that gift.

We are now in Nongsa Pointe Maina, very first world, still in Indonesia but directly across the narrow Spingapore Straits from Singapore and Malaysia. We will clear out of Indonesia today with a little luck and one more day left on our visa. Then in the morning we will motor the 50 miles across to Puteri Harbour in Johor, Mayalasia-- very close to Singapore. This requires crossing the busiest shipping channel in the world. With a little luck we won't end up a bug on the windshield of some giant freighter.


Cruisers notes:
We left Bangka NE anchorage about 3 am local time. Motored past the few FAD platforms in the bay that were all lit up as they were being worked. Arrived at the south end of Lingga Island just at sunset. We past a few fish boats about 25 miles out and few close in, but really very empty. The Scott guide anchorage, A, seemed way too shallow, so we anchored further south of it in 10 feet of water. We didn't have time to poke around to see if we could find the deeper depths in the guide as it was getting dark. S00*18.337, E104*58.775, mud.

Next stop was Masanak island. A little roll got in but it wasn't bad.
N00*25.935,E104*31.416, sand.

Passage to Nongsa Pointe Marina. If possible, plan this with the tidal current. we had 1-2kts with us all day. As you get further north the shipping channel becomes busy with tugs with tows and high speed ferries (23kts) crossing at odd angles. Not really fun in the low visibility squalls. Entrance directions for the marina are on the website.

Paul


Thursday, October 17, 2019

Bangka Island, NE

It was time to leave Belitung as we only have ill Oct 23rd on our Indonesian visas. Before we left we had an attempted stow away by this very tired swimming lizard.
The next main stop after Belitung is an anchorage on the NE corner of Bangka Island. This is about 125 miles, so would take an overnight passage if done direct. Because night travel in Indonesia is so taxing, and potentially dangerous with the number of fishing boats, creative lighting and Fish Attraction Devices(FADs), we decided instead to make it a 3 day hop.
Not far out of Belitung we thought we were coming way too close to a fishing boat then we decided it must be a FAD. Looking a little closer it looks like someone lost their 4 foot long toy sailing ship. A perfect replica of the local fishing boats.








We spent a rolly night in Gelasa Island and then headed the next day to Ketawi Island. On the way to Ketawi we encountered yet another style of FAD. These are platforms that fixed to the sea bottom via long bamboo poles. Apparently unlit.
This chart picture with the Radar overlay shows how many of these FAD platforms were out there at one point in our passage. The red boat at center screen is our current location (at photo time). Each of the red dashes on the screen is a FAD. Why we don't want to make night passages around here..

The next day in a little deeper water we started to see platform style FADs that were floating instead of fixed on bamboo poles.

Next day we arrived at the top of Bangka island. This enabled us to take a walk and stalk shells on the long beach. Its pretty overcast with a mix of cloud and pretty bad smog from land clearing fires. They'e suffering record level air pollution in Indonesia and Malaysia right now. We are off at o'dark thirty in the morning for a long day passage to Lingga continuing the long trek out of Indo.

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Cruisers Notes:
Route to Gelasa Island was straight forward. As you get near the island you cross a busy N-S shipping lane. We anchored at
02*24.387,107*04.243 in 57ft. The area is flat with sand over coral ruble. Many fishing boats use the bay in the day time, waiting to fish at night. Most are much further in than you'd go. It was very rolly for about 3 hours in the middle of the night. I suspect if this anchorage was in the Scott Indo guide he would say very protected with the possibility of a little roll (optimistically:). No cell coverage.

Route to Ketawi was straight forward till you start to get closer to the island. Then there are a hundred of these fixed on bamboo pole Fad like high platforms, They are large and very easy to see visually and on radar. So not a problem. We went through them, but I saw a ferry and a tug go south of them. There are a few black flags as you approach the island, but they don't appear to have anything attached to them that is close to the surface.
Anchor at 02*15.982, 106*19.321 in 35ft good holding clay like sand. Very smooth and flat anchorage. Fish boats on the beach.

Leaving Ketawi you go west toward Bangka Island. There is a ship channel that runs N-S and feeds the shipping port to the north. At the port you work your way east and NE in the channel. There are large, easy to see and deal with Fads all the way north. They are up to about 6 miles offshore. Bangka NE anchorage 01*30.563,105*52.691 in 15ft. Flat calm, with a nice beach. 

Paul

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Belitung Island

Before we move onto the next Indonesian island I wanted to post one more picture from our Borneo river trip. This is Chris and me heading up river --- or more accurately it is Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn playing us in the 1951 movie version The African Queen. It's kind of what it felt like.

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After the river trip we headed down river and anchored for the night near the river entrance. We left early while it was still dark for a 200 mile overnight passage to Nangka Island. It was a good, fast passage with plenty of wind and not many fishing boats. We only anchored overnight at Nangka and took off the next morning as it was overcast and didn't look inviting in that weather. We motored most of the day to get to Belitung. Belitung is a decent sized island off the east coast of Sumatra with about a quarter million inhabitants. The island was British for awhile till it was traded to the Dutch in 1824. It exports pepper and tin. The large Dutch mining company Billiton was named after the island and founded to mine tin here in 1851 (it has now merged with the Australian company BHP, Broken Hill Proprietary).





There's an interesting, cruiser friendly resort on the beach near the anchorage, The Rock and Wreck Dive Resort https://rockandwreckresort.com/. It is constructed out of old wrecked boats, along with old, abandoned houses that were on the island. They were dismantled and rebuilt onsite as cottages for the guests.


Belitung is known for its granite boulders and rock islets, some of them looking a bit like the boulders in Virgin Gorda, in the British Virgin Islands.


There's a well maintained, Dutch colonial lighthouse that was built in 1842. Nice views from the top.


A view from the top of he lighthouse looking down.

Many of the tourists that come to Belitung are from Java. While Indonesia is a majority Islamic country, it is generally practiced at a fairly liberal level, with some areas being much more conservative in dress and practices, as you can see the dress of these two tourists.


Walking along the beaches in Indonesia is often a bit distressing with the amount of plastic trash you see. Chris is always hunting shells-- also a tough thing to find here as most are broken open so the critter can be eaten by the locals. And I'm always looking for Gold Doubloons. Over the years Chris has a found a lot more good shells than I have found doubloons -- but I'm not giving up yet. Sometimes you do run into some good castaway junk. Not too confident on what this bamboo and hammer are -- a drum, a mortar and pestle, a ???? Either way its now in my keepsake locker.



There are hundreds of fishing boats in the area along with many re-purposed to tourist boats. In the picture you can see a palm log tied securely under the bow of this boat. There is another one at the stern. It is used to hold the boat upright when it is dragged up the beach a ways and awaiting low tide. At low tide they put palm leaves under the boat and light them. This burning and smoking kills the worms that get into the keel wood. The keels are made from a single, long piece of wood that is nominally called mahogany. It is one of the many tropical hardwoods on the local islands.

The snorkeling hasn't been much here, as the reefs are fished out by the locals and the water hasn't been that clear. It's still nice to jump into the warm water for a look around in the morning while the winds are still low and its not doing an afternoon rain.
I got my eyes on you!
A sea urchin in the diadematids family. These are the only sea urchins that have eyes. 

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Cruisers notes:
Leaving the Kumai River there is a good anchorage near the peninsula just off the river mouth. It seems a lot nicer than the one mentioned in the Scott guide that is pretty close to the busy channel. We headed in along the beach at low tide over a section with minimum depth of 9.8 feet. There were two boats anchored there. We continued on toward the pier. Before getting there, there is a 20 foot deep 'hole' area that we anchored in. Don't need much scope as its sand and up hill in all directions. It is well away from the channel and the tugs with tows making their sharp turns.
02*54.274S 111*42.273E
Passage to Nangka. This is about a 200 mile run, so we left at o'dark thirty and worked our way up the channel and out the bay in the dark. Had a great sail the rest of the way. Downwind 15-23kts. Only saw a few fishing boats. A fair amount of commercial traffic. Two of the tugs with tows called us up on the VHF to confirm passing.
Nangka: the reef sticks out further than you think as you approach. There are two small moorings on the inside that can have 3 or 4 fishing boats on them in the daytime, as they wait to night fish. Everywhere behind the reef is deep. We anchored in 80 feet at 02*29.473S 108*32.121E The bottom was a surprising good holding mix of sand/mud/shells.
To Belitung: No wind, a day motor. We went in and anchored in the B anchorage from the Scott guide. The winds pick up more easterly in the afternoon and make the A,B and C anchorages not very friendly. The E anchorage is better, but it can still get windy enough to have a wet dinghy ride. Good and safe dinghy landing at Ringos restaurant (ask someone in the anchorage to point it out). He can deliver fuel and arrange a driver and car to town, which is 45 minutes away. Good fresh veggie market in town and that's where you do any Immigration or Customs business.
02*33.153S 107*39.723E in 18feet sand.

Monday, October 7, 2019

The Forest People

We took a 3 day, 2 night river boat cruise into the Tanjung Puting National Park in Kalimantan. This is an area on Borneo that is a reserve for orangutans that was established in 1971 with the help of Dr. Birute Galdikas, who was one of Lewis Leakey's primate students (which also included Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall)  In Bahasa Indonesian, 'orang' means person or people and 'utan' means forest, so orangutan means people of the forest. This female above is walking off with some corn and her baby.

The river boats take 2 to 6 guests up the river on 1 to 4 day tours. The price includes an English speaking guide, Anjit, along with a captain, a mate and a cook.  We opted for the vegetarian meals and they were excellent. We used Satria Majid Tours, aka Liesa and Majid. (best contact is probably WhatsApp +62 852 4859 0487). If you are a cruiser, Majid will most likely meet you in his dinghy as you arrive in town and tell you were to anchor. He has a government friend who works near the river mouth who calls him when a cruiser is heading upstream.
We slept on a decent double mattress on the upper deck under mosquito nets, although it was very clean the en-suite left a little to be desired.

There are three orangutan feeding stations along the river. As you slide down the river you get glimpses of the orangutans, but the best sightings are around the feeding stations where the rangers chum the waters with fruit. We were there just at the very start of the wet season. As the rains are more common the orangutans go deeper into the forest and enjoy the local fruits. During the drier season they rely on the afternoon clockwork delivery of fruit treats.


They have incredibly powerful arms and climb 50 feet up a tree in seconds. Not bad for animals that weigh in around 80 lbs for females and 165 lbs for males.

While you see a good turn out at the feeding stations, the orangutans live a solitary lifestyle and there isn't too much interaction or socializing at the feeding stations. The primary bonding is between mother and child, the little one stays with mom for at least the first 5 years of life. We saw one mother with a baby and a young adolescent in tow. You can see the child hanging on tightly here as mom takes a leap carrying a mouthful of tangerines. Sometimes the young ones stay up in the trees as mom goes down to get food. If she doesn't come back soon, you hear the toddlers start up a whine that would make a human toddler proud.

 A fairly young orangutan keeping an eye on mom from above.
Their arms are a far stronger, and longer, than their legs.


A few portrait shots

 Now its not all orangutans in the rain forest. We took two night hikes with a park ranger.  

There were,of course, giant spiders.

 And not to be outdone, tarantulas.

With all these bugs around  you need some trusty frogs.

Chris' least favorite nighttime meeting, a black scorpion doing battle with a stick being held by the ranger. 


And nothing like a carnivorous pitcher plant to compete with the frogs for bugs.

An early morning river view.



There are hoards of very social long-tails proboscis monkeys-- can you see the nose? They cruise through the upper canopy by simply leaping off a branch, confident that they will catch something before hitting the ground. They break the silence of the jungle with screeching arguments among each other. 
 The proboscis monkeys and macaques climb high trees on one side of the river and leap off into the river with a belly flop style splash and then swim like crazy to avoid the crocs. You can see a couple swimming here. Why did the monkey cross the river?

Here you can just see one in mid-air center picture and one that has just hit the water on the left. 
Here is are a few getting ready to leap into the river. Let's see, no crocs - check, no speed boats - check, Go!


The bird life was pretty fascinating. Here's a hornbill watching the river.


We were tied to a wood pier after we went on a hike. On the center of the table on the boat was a bunch of small bananas left over from our desert. All of us were on the same deck, near the bow. One of these macaques leaps on the boat, takes a half-a-second look at us, grabs the bunch and leaps off the boat. Score!

I have no idea what this bird is. It was sleeping on this branch as we walked past in the night. The best I could understand form the ranger was that it was a red bird.

This wood-pecker is buried in its hole, safely sleeping the night away.

Didn't catch the name of this gal also sleeping on a branch.

I was up early sipping my morning tea and reading on my Kindle. I looked over to the side and saw a pair of eyes looking back. An Indonesian owl.

A very colorful stork-billed kingfisher. These beauties were zipping up and down the river in the morning. They're a good size, at least 6 inches tall and with a cry like a Cookaburra.


A large monitor lizard. When we first saw him or her we thought it was a croc. There are both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles on the river, but we didn't see any.


Its kind of a tough life living on the river.




We made it 40 km (24 miles) upstream to Camp Leakey, the research station. This is our river boat mates and cruising friends from Sweden, Katherina and Anders off s/y Carpe Mare.


The ranger telling us about the trees in their nursery that they use to replant after the forest fires. This section was burnt by deer hunters, clearing the area to make it easier to kill deer and is mostly re-forested. The current issue on Borneo is the clearing of land by fire to plant more palm-oil palms.
One of the tress planted by the Georgia crew.

The ship's horticulturalist.


There has to be at least one really destructive group in the forest, this is the Indonesian bearded pig.


This is Terry, one of the three large male orangutans in this area. You can see the cheek jowls that distinguish the males. It is suggested on the park signs that you not get between a male orangutan and a female-- noted!



And few more gratuitous people of the forest pictures.


Paul