21-31 August At the Perhentian Islands Back to Malaysia East Coast Cruise 2005
Around the southern bay, Perhentian Besar
We found the spring creek water at a small beach to the east of the BLUE #1 mooring. The coordinates are 05deg53.440minN, 102deg45.488minE. A long hose on the beach is used by the fishing boats which bring their own pump and fill the tanks on the boats while they sit on a mooring.
Rose was delighted to do a large load of laundry with unlimited fresh water.
A novel solution to rubbish in the bay are these floating rubbish rafts. The resorts deposit their trash here for later collection. It looks like the collection is a bit late ???
22 Aug 05 Move from Perhentian Besar to Perhentian Kecil, Long Beach
This 3.8 NM trip took an hour and we put the hook
down at 
The bottom is sand but the anchor did not want to set deeply ... perhaps it is thin sand over hard coral? So, in 20 feet of water we put out 200 feet of chain. We won't stray far from the boat until we've had a squall with some heavy winds to test the security.
Having said that we had a blow (20 knots) later that evening. The anchor didn't move a bit. The bay is very busy with water taxis and dive boats that go screaming by .. don't know how long we will put up with that here.
Terry's conclusion is that the boat drivers are either ignorant and unknowingly lack respect or they are arrogant and knowingly show their lack of respect. Go figure. Either way it is annoying.
Perhaps after our Internet fix and some fresh provisions from the fishing village down the channel we will find quieter surroundings.
30 Aug 05
We are still at the Perhentian Islands but will be leaving here before too long. Too much noise from the beach and too many wakes from the speedboats.
Finally got to do some snorkeling after Terry's toe healed enough to get in the water. He took a missed step on deck when a boat wake hit the first day here, creamed a stanchion base and laid open the small toe on his right foot. It was difficult keeping it dry and the sand out of it when we go ashore. The entire place is built on beach sand .. no improved paths of any kind between the jumble of restaurants, shops, and resorts. Kind of a 'California style' place with the same kind of people. Lots of young backpackers from around the world ... and quite a few topless female bathers on the beach. Very surprising in this Muslin country! The internet here is via satellite and is broadband but a bit expensive ($6 per hour). The book swap places are well stocked so the on board library has been updated. We haven't eaten our way through all of the restaurants but are working on it daily. We only have lunch ashore since the Sumatran storms seem to arrive in the evenings and wouldn't want to be caught off the boat when they hit.
The snorkeling is excellent. The largest collection of giant clams Terry
has seen since the Marshall Islands in Mirconesia. Turtles are on the reef,
around the boat
and on the sand under the boat. Heaps of clown fish (NEMOs) and tropicals
... a colorful scene.
Another past time is baking bread. Here's some oatmeal loaves fresh from
the oven.
CELL PHONE COVERAGE. We find that Diginet service is not available at either Pulau Tenggol nor at the Perhentian Islands. Celcom covers these islands so we have a Celcom number now (013-907-3953) which we will use at those locations.
31 Aug 05 Move from Perhentian Kecil, Long Beach to Perhentian Besar, Flora Bay
We moved back to what we learned is called 'Flora Bay' at Perhentian Besar for laundry and fresh water topping of the tanks.
The 3.85 NM trip took just over an hour ... almost the same as going there. Had a small problem with the windlass which turned out to be some corrosion on the switch contacts installed twelve years ago. Used the manual mode to finish weighing the anchor. Another job for the 'TO DO' list to remove all connections and clean them. The route we made from the previous move was 'spot on'.
The float for the mooring we used previously (#2) has disappeared but we found #1 easily and joined 12 fishing boats at the spring water beach.
A long southeasterly swell rolling into the bay under normal circumstances would be something to complain about but after the horde of speedboats at Long Beach we just consider it 'rock-a-bye-baby' now!
And the party until 0300 this morning (pre-Independence Day celebration) spurred us to get moving south regardless of the wind conditions!