East is Least
29 May 2016 | En Route Terampah
Sunday 29 May 2016
After hunting and pecking our way around a bit when arriving yesterday found an excellent anchorage in a large plot of sand at 7 meters with great snorkeling over inshore coral in wonderfully clear water. Best visibility since Tuamotus. Visit in the evening by crew of Aussie "Anthem" (we'd kill him and burn his boat for counterfeiting us if Adrian weren't such a nice guy and the boat weren't made in Canada - he bought it with that name), who were on the other side of Anak Island, was a pleasant surprise, but we were otherwise alone.
This morning snorkeled a wonderful reef around nearby rock island then went to where Adrian and crew Carmen, a lovely girl from Ukraine, had seen several big green turtles making little green turtles. No tracks up the beach from mommies making nests, so don't know what happens now. Anyway, unable to enjoy a bit of perving as we didn't see a single act of fornication (is that a naughty word?) or indeed the first turtle. Otherwise good.
Figuring we might find another boat or two around the big island of Djemadja to the south where anchorages are actually charted, motored down there to again be solo. Expect everyone is in Terampah on the main Anambas island of Siapan, about 30 NM ENE, where will transpire tomorrow clearance into Indonesia, a dinner and possibly even some fun stuff.
Monday
Although Anambas and Natuna reside east of peninsular Malaysia, they are one hour earlier at UTC +7. The sun rises and sets waaaay earlier. Borneo takes us back to +8, but by then we're even farther east, so it doesn't help much. This is all very curious and if our body clocks were paying attention, which they aren't, we would be totally discombobulated (that's like confused for you folks in Pinellas Park).
Thought we had dumped everything and would need to find a compliant ATM (a problem during last sojourn in Indonesia) to get spending money, but a nooks and crannies search unearthed 1 million, 2 hundred 59 thousand, 900 hundred rupiah. We're millionaires! Regrettably, however, considering it takes around 14,000 of the things to make a dollar, the emotional impact is somewhat greater than any practical utility. Still, 185 bucks goes a long way here when a full meal at a local eatery is $3 and high cost adult beverage may be difficult to find, so should be able to soberly struggle along for a couple of weeks until Sarawak.
Jack