Virtual Marina, Pangkor.
Fleck
Mon 11 Oct 2010 10:01
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Monday, 11th October
Pangkor Marina. 4:12.68N100:36.069E
All a bit sureal, this one. Yesterday had me
plugging into a 10 knot northwesterly towards the Island of Pangkor, and
begining to run short on fuel. I had done my research, and knew of a brand new
marina on some recently reclaimed land in the channel between the Island and the
mainland. A night arrival was necessary, as I had not been able to cast off
from the pontoon in the Klang River until slack water permitted a risk free and
dignified exit strategy. I emailed ahead to see if a night entry was possible,
and was pleasantly surprised, it being Sunday, to get a positive reply. The
instructions were to ignore the rocks and shoals shown on the charts, and to
follow the GPS waypoints: everything had been dredged and cleared, I was
assured. The night shift had been particularly exhausting, at 18.00 hours I had
the sea to myself, an hour later I was surrounded by 27 trawlers, nets set,
moving at my speed, all of us going in the same direction. I spent the remaining
30 mins of half light trying to locate myself in a place of relative safety.
After dark, and one by one, the boats lifted their trawls and peeled
away either back to port, or perhaps to the back of the fleet. They seemed to
delight in buzzing me as they did so, passing in front, rather than behind, and
really very close. Perhaps I was just paranoid, but certainly I must have been a
nuisance to them: they clearly had a well rehearsed plan, and I wasn't
part of it! By midnight we were close the Semblian islands: to which I gave a
wide berth for fear of the 'strong and unpredictable tides'. On the final run
into Pangkor I saw a towing tug's characterisic lights, but no sign of a tow. No
sign that is until I saw the big black barge looming out of the dark moonless
night at about 100 yards range, and fully 400 yards behind the tug. Plenty
of time in fact to avoid it, but all rather unsettling. There are many many tugs
and sand barges: it is how they are increasing the size of SE Asia, and
seriously pushing up the price of sand into the bargain (buy
silica!).
So finally I switched to auto, and let the
waypoints guide the ship in. I was really watching the depth guage, reassuringly
registering 5 metres as we sailed over some charted drying rocks, and then the
alarm bell sounded to indicate that we had arrived. But where? Yes, we were
very close to land, yes there were some piles in the seabed, and a couple of
cranes. but this was a building site. And then, at 03.00 hours here were some
builders, in their little hard hats, with a torch, waving at me. And in
fact there was a segment of pontoon: gleaming aluminium, teak and stainless
steel, to which I was directed and fixed. I thanked Bob and his mate, and
through sign language all agreed that sleep was in order. Bulldozers woke me at
dawn. Yes, I was not deceived. This was a building site. Builders came to the
boat: even more out of place here than in the middle of the trawler fleet. One
of them passed me a mobile phone: it was the helpful Marina Manager who had
responded to my call for information the previous day. He was at a Superyacht
Conference in Singapore: I rather got the impression that he hadn't been on site
for some weeks. 'This is a building site' says I. 'Still?' he asks,
incredulously. And then 'but a sheltered one, no?' We agree to 10 RM per
day (£2): the cheapest building site mooring fee on the planet, provided his
staff can get some diesel. Off they went several hours ago, with my precious
jerrycans and a bit of tubing to syphon the fuel. It looked as though they were
headed for the bulldozer's fuel tank, but now nothing and no one. Just like a
British building site! As it is now evening it looks like the promised ferry
trip over to the Island is now off the menu, at least for today.
Moral of the tale: don't believe everything you see
on the internet, beware of computer generated images, but at the end of the day,
a pig in a poke is better off than a pig all at sea.
I usually reread the previous blog, before sending
the lastest, so as to avoid either gaps or repitition. On this occasion I see
that in addition to the usual spelling mistakes and typos (there is no spell
check), I had promised a little homespun on the subject of atheism. Now you will
never know whether my deleted criticism had been aimed and the message
or the messenger! But those of you who know me
well....
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