July 28 – Aug 4,
Hi All,
Our idyllic days continued at the next 2 islands…..you know……wake up, coffee, emails, coffee, read, breakfast, read, go exploring or snorkeling or diving, beer, lunch, read, nap, read, cocktails, dinner, movie…..LIG:))))) I say idyllic except for the wind and heat. The wind continues in the 15-20G25kt+ range from the south and it is very hot…..no rain now for 2 weeks. Not as hot as the Phuket area but the winds feel like right out of a humid oven. The air temp is 85-90*F and the heat index in the 95-100*F…….the inside cabin temp is staying also 85-90*F…..we only really seem to get cooled off when we go snorkeling or diving!!!! We do not have internet to get a good weather forecast except for local gribs, but we think there is a cyclone north of Philippines and heading to southern Japan that is creating all this wind….ugh!!! Needless to say we are spending a lot of time on the flybridge when we can handle the wind and of course, still running the AC some at night to cool the stateroom down!!! The anchorages we have chosen are well protected except we get gusts coming off the hills……katabatic effect….ugh!!!!
Sagudampar: Also known as Moonrock Lagoon……I’m really not sure why someone named it that……it does have a rather large boulder in the middle of the hill and the moonlight does reflect off it at night so maybe that is where it came from. We spent 4 nights here and loved it. The first night we were all by ourselves…..only 1 fish platform for entertainment:))) But, the next day it got busy……first 2 catamarans we know came from Tarempah……Indian Summer and Mzunga……so let the games begin……we had a good time with both boats with several happy hours and one night had a bonfire on the beach!!! The next day a charter boat came in….Four Friends……captained by Captain Blake……cousin of Peter Blake who was killed in the Amazon by pirates…..it was a big story and we both remember the incident!! He had 7 students from the University of Singapore and they did a lot of rappelling on Moonrock……they called it abseiling……it was fun to sit on Mystic and watch the young kids……they offered for us to go but we both declined the arduous hike to get to the top……I’m getting better but didn’t want to chance it and Kathy’s back is bothering her from all the finning we do snorkeling/diving…….ugh!!!!
There were many beaches to explore and the walking did us both some good. We also got in 2 days of diving…..excellent…..maybe 7 out of ten…….again, colorful hard coral in good health and a large variety of reef fish……some new to us……not a great quantity and nothing large……and that keeps it from being a 9 or 10……but nevertheless some excellent dives which we very much enjoyed……and the visibility was maybe 50-75’…..again, some of the best yet!!!
Penjendang: Another lovely spot……..and the most fish/squid platforms since the 2nd island……maybe 10-12 at night less than 2 miles away……not much star gazing as the lights are very bright…..then 6-8 come into the anchorage to wait out the day.
Some of the guys came over but no English…..they were looking for cigarettes…..no, sorry….then through some more sign language maybe something to eat….we gave them some sodas and cookies……..very nice young men….the next morning very early….still on my 1st cup of coffee they come back with a big bag of squid……hmmm, neither of us know how to clean…oh well, through more sign language plus a cutting block and a knife, they show me how to clean….well, that looks easy……so Kathy gave them more sodas and a bigger bag of cookies…….I cleaned the squid for the next 45 min……darn, forgot to take a picture……maybe a 8+ the size of my hand but if you add in the tentacles as large as my forearm…….big and meaty….only broke the black ink sack once……but, fortunately the ink came right off. Kathy fried them up for dinner…..delicious…..wow, fresh calamari……outstanding……of course, she wants to tell Bad Bob she did a number on her galley with all the grease!!!!
We did a few days of snorkeling/beach combing here but no diving as it was just too stirred up from all the wind and we could not find a decent spot to dive……but we did find a few treasures on the beach and had some good snorkeling!!!!!
And now we know: We have now observed two different times boats with 4-6 divers on snuba air lines using nets on the reefs…..maybe 4-6 nets at a time…….we saw them taking 100’s of fish in these nets in just a few hours of time……this will not be sustainable if more boats go with this very efficient but deadly method of fishing…..if it continues, looks like fish farms are in their future…..arghhhhhh!!!!
The Plan: time to keep moving…..we have about 2 weeks left on our 30 day Visa. Given these strong South winds we are revising our plans…..may need to skip the most southern islands……no desire to bash for 20-30nm (3-5 hours) into 3-5′ seas……so today we are moving another whopping 5nm to Bajau north……it looks well protected as these strong winds are forecasted to last another 2-3 days…..ugh!!!!
Hope all is well!
John
Mystic Moon
Anambas Indonesia
