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2:29'.44s 108:32'.20E
Nangka Island, near
Belitung
Friday 8th October 2010 Towards Kualadjalai
0500 We left at first very light to catch the entrance
at high water. The plan was to anchor here overnight so we could tackle the
shipping lanes in daylight the next day. Very shallow waters most of the day
between 5-15m. Anchored at dusk a bit rolly but acceptable as an overnight
stop.
Position
3:01.'41s 110:42'.97e
Days run 87 miles Average speed 7.01 knots
Saturday 9tn October 2010 Towards TG Nangka (small
island off Belitung)
0530 Woke up to the noise of literally a hundred
fishing boats swarming like flies out of the very shallow river, of course
they all wanted to pass us as close as possible to get a good look at us. I
don't think they see sailing boat anchored here very often.
You can
hardly see all the fishing boats, gathering in very close proximity to each
other in this photo, but literally there must have been 200 of them!
0800 up anchor and left in a glassy sea, we managed to
sail for an hour or so then back to the engine and a lot of the time motor-sailing
into a light head wind.
1600 had a very heavy rain squall with 30 knots under
it, luckily saw it in plenty of time to get the clear plastic sides up on the
bimini so at least we were able to stay dry. 10 minutes before this arrived I
noticed that the lashing securing the foot of the mainsail had chaffed
through, lucky I was able to secure that before the squall hit us.
2400: Sunday 10th October: flat calm furled all sails
0800 the pilot book proved to be somewhat wrong with the
approach details, it told us to approach from the north, when the best
passage is from the west! Thankfully the tide was high as we motored over the
top of coral with a 4.5 metre clearance! Anchored in 26m on a sandy bottom
close to the drop-off.
Position 2:29'.44s 108;32'.20e
Distance run 172 miles average speed 6.7 knots
As there were two other boats in the
anchorage, we called them up on the VHF to see if they could give us a better
way point, but the response was that the skipper was still in bed, sorry!
Never mind, we made it, and Valerie
managed to get four lots of washing done and dried, which had accummulated
since we had left Bali one week ago.
It was so nice to have clear water
again and go snorkelling. We even laid our crab pot we had purchased ini
Mooloolaba for the first time! Not having any experience, we noticed plenty
of crab holes in the sand around these mangroves, and thought it might be a
good place.
Next morning proved that only small
ones had entered, taken the oyster meat bait and left again!
The Spring Tide had caused all the
concreted slabs of flat coral to stand out of the water close to the beach
like the Giant’s Causeway
We just found room for the dinghy thank
goodness
Ollie found the way into the dense
junge undergrowth
And we found a man-made well, with
plenty of clear water in it for the fishermen to gather when they work or
fish on this otherwise uninhabited island.
Ollie very perceptively caught the sight
of some Makack monkeys up in the trees watching us, saw a squirrel, and the
traces of a large monitor lizard. Also it seems there were some large holse
dug on the beach seemingly by a very large turtle for egg laying.
Sunset a Nangka ilsland, very low tide
Kanaloa looks quite lonely out there,
the other two boats had left at lunchtime.
Sunrise next morning, another beautiful
day, we were due to leave at 11 am also, but first had fun investigating the
other sandy beachd island, and enjoyed some more snorkelling, over the coral
reef just behind our anchorage point. Excellent variety of fish, and some
almost luminescent soft corals we’d not seen before.
Ollie showed us that he was as good a
climber as the locals
But didn’t go too far up, in case
he couldn’t get down again!
This cat looked a bit sad in amongst
the plastic bottles which had drifted onto the beach, it was probably earnest
for some drinking water, as there was none on this beach. We assumed it had
been left to catch the rats, which would be decimating the coconuts on the
island. 
Sorry to leave this great place, we
hurried away to continue our non-stop two night trip North West towards
Singapore
 Thankfully, we had a wonderful calm first night, as
depicted in this sunset.
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