15 August 2016 Tarempa, Anambas
Day 2 of the “Festival Lestari Anambas” got off to a slow start. A cooking competition was supposed to start at 09:30 with a demonstration of cooking fish by a professional chef from Batam, but he didn’t get started until about 10:30. When he finally got going, he produced a big pan of stock with coconut milk and chilies and then just dropped in big chunks of raw Snapper. The fish stew was boiled for 5-10 minutes, which is enough to cook the fish and it was delicious.
Eight teams of ladies from different regions of the Anambas, then competed - all producing fish dishes. We hung about for an hour chatting to people and were rewarded by being able to eat some of the food for lunch. Our favourite was a kind of fish curry called Ikan Masak Pauh, which was very spicy with coconut milk. We took a photo of the recipe and I hope that it will be added into Glenys’s cook book.
There was nothing else going on, so we picked up our laundry and spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out on the boat.
16 August 2016 Tarempa, Anambas
It was another slow day - we’re starting to get cabin fever. We want to stay in Tarempa in case something interesting happens, but unfortunately, nothing much is going on. In desperation, we went for a walk along the streets heading east out of town past the Big Mosque. It’s a narrow road, busy with motorbikes and weaves its way along the shoreline.
To seaward there are hundreds of houses and buildings built on stilts over the water. The land consists of a strip of level ground, which soon climbs steeply with huge boulders and rocky outcrops. Many of the houses are built between and on top of these boulders, making it a building regulation nightmare, but interesting to look at.
We walked past the Chinese Temple and turned left heading up the hill, but the concrete path petered out just after a long set of steps leading up to some graves. On our return, we walked back along the long concrete causeway that serves as the main road for the section of town built over the sea.
In the evening, we went out to the Sakura Inn to have dinner and meet up with Axel and Bryan from Amazing Anambas. I had Ikan Asam Pedas (Fish in Hot Sauce). I asked them to make it with less chilli, but when it came it was so hot that my throat threatened to seize up.
We met up with some scuba divers that have just returned from a 3 day dive trip - they had invited us along a week ago, but the timing was not good. They had come out on a trip from Jakarta to see if the region was a good dive destination.
They were able to dive in more remote places than we have attempted, including Durai, Pahat, Tokong Berlayar and Penjalin. They said that the diving was okay with pretty, hard corals, but not many fish. That’s similar what we have found in the places that we have dived, so we’re not missing out on anything.
17 August 2016 Tarempa, Anambas
Today was Indonesia’s Independence Day, so we went ashore at 08:00 to see what was going on. At the football pitch, we found a huge crowd of people gathering for the ceremony to raise the flag. Gazebos and comfy chairs were set out for the dignitaries along one side of the field, while big groups of people were lined up along the opposite side, including the Navy, Police, Coast Guard and other government workers.
We sat behind the school band, who were milling about waiting for everything to start. The event took two hours and involved lots of speeches and sergeant majors shouting instructions to the various squads of people. The school band was dressed in heavy uniforms and we felt sorry for them as they stood in the beating sun for the whole event - one girl fainted and two others had to go to sit in the shade.
Eventually, with a long drawn out ceremony, the flag was raised and everyone rushed into the shade. We spent the afternoon resting and tidying up ready to leave tomorrow.
18 August 2016 Tarempa to Moonrock Lagoon, Sagudampar
I woke up at four o’clock with a very bad case of diarrhoea, so the rest of my day was a misery, constantly running to the toilet.
Glenys left me suffering on the boat, while she went to the market and stocked up on fresh provisions. By eight o’clock, we had pulled up the anchor and were on our way around to the Anambas Lodge, where we went alongside their rough wooden dock. We put down our little fenders, but they weren’t particularly effective, so we relied on their huge tyres to prevent damage to our top sides. (We had lots of big black rubber streaks to clean off later.)
I’d previously been in touch with the owners of the Lodge by email and they had 200 litres of diesel ready for us in 35 litre containers. Two guys lugged the containers onto our boat and then poured it into our tank via my filter funnel. They were very careful, but by the time that they’d poured the six containers, we still had a large area of our lovely teak deck covered in diesel.
They charged us 7,500 Rupiah (£0.40) per litre. It looked a little darker than I’m used to but hopefully it’s clean enough to not block my filters.
Ninety minutes later, we were threading our way through the reefs heading west to Air Asuk then onto the Eastern Islands. Just after midday, we entered the stunning anchorage called Moonrock Lagoon on the island of Sagudampar. The entrance was a little nerve-wracking, because we had to weave our way between reefs, but the anchorage soon opens out and we dropped our anchor at 03°14.90N 106°26.713E in 13 metres of water over sand.
The anchorage is lovely, surrounded on three sides by islands with white sand beaches and coconut palms. The main island has a very impressive rock slab overlooking the anchorage which gives the Lagoon its name. It's totally deserted apart from a couple of small fishing boats.
I was still dying, so after lunch, I went to bed for most of the afternoon, while Glenys did a few chores. There was no sign of my illness abating and a second dose of Immodium had no effect, so I took some Lacteol Fort tablets, which contain Lactobascillus bacteria. These are “good” bacteria and are supposed to displace the “bad” bacteria that are causing my tummy upset - we’ll see… I had an early night.
19 August 2016 Moonrock Lagoon, Sagudampar
My trips to the toilet reduced during the night and by the morning, I was feeling a bit more chipper. I took some more Lacteol Fort tablets and hopefully the “good” bacteria are doing their job.
Glenys put the dinghy in the water and started to clean the tyre marks from the hull. Within minutes, two fishermen had come over in dugout canoes and hung around for an hour, staring at the boat and watching what we were doing. We’ve seen these guys paddling about over the reefs with diving masks on looking for fish. When they find fish, they use a simple line and hook to attempt to catch them.
The weather has been very settled for the past four days, but just after lunch a huge thunderstorm passed over giving us strong winds and heavy rain. We spent the afternoon on-board.
20 August 2016 Moonrock Lagoon, Sagudampar
My tummy’s now feeling back to normal, but I’ve had some tenderness in my left ear for the past week, which seems to be getting worse. I guess that my body’s immune system has been weak while I’ve been down with the stomach bug because I think that I have an infection in my outer-ear canal. I should really be using Antibiotic eardrops to sort it out, but we don’t have any, so I’ve started a 7 day course of Amoxicillin antibiotic tablets.
Chris on “Amulet” told me that he’s prone to ear infections, so he always uses an equal mixture of vinegar and alcohol after he has been swimming to clear his ears. I also read in one of our medical manuals about using an equal mixture of boiled water and vinegar to clear outer-ear infections, so I gave it a go and put 3-5 drops of vinegar and alcohol into both ears. It stings like hell in the infected ear, but doesn’t hurt the other ear. I later tried vinegar and water and it doesn’t sting as much, so I’m going to use that 3 times a day.
After breakfast, we went ashore to climb to the top of Moonrock Bluff. We landed the dinghy on a tiny little patch of sand directly underneath the bluff; then headed east for 25 metres and then up a rocky gully. There isn’t really a path, so we climbed more or less straight up the hill, chopping down small branches with my machete and skirting around the numerous fallen trees. We reached the bottom of the bluff and followed the eastern edge of it until we came to the top after 25 minutes.
What a view. You can see for miles - the anchorage looks stunning and the colours are gorgeous. It’s well worth the strenuous climb. We stared and stared for half an hour then worked our way back down to the dinghy.
In the afternoon, we went for a snorkel and I was pleased to discover that I can still clear my ears while diving down. I suppose that I shouldn’t be swimming with an infected ear, but how can I not snorkel in paradise? We checked out a spot which looks like a good place to do a scuba dive and we’ll give it a go tomorrow as long as the wind is light and my ear’s okay.
21 August 2016 Moonrock Lagoon, Sagudampar
I’m beginning to sound like an old-age pensioner, always talking about my ailments, but my ear was badly swollen when I woke up, so we abandoned the idea of going for a scuba dive. A squall came through before nine o’clock, so that put paid to our plan B of going exploring other anchorages. Plan C was to hunker down and make bread.
We pottered around for the morning, while grey clouds scudded overhead and rain showers came through, with thunder rumbling in the distance. After lunch, I went for a nap and, when I woke at 15:30, I found that my ear was throbbing badly and very painful to touch. We’re 20 miles from Tarempa, so there was no way that we could get through the tricky channels before dark, so I’m unable to consult a doctor.
I’m not sure if the vinegar and water solution is helping or hindering, so I’m going to stop using it and I washed my ear out with boiled water. I then took some Ibuprofen to try to reduce the swelling and ease the throbbing pain. All I can do is hope that the antibiotic tablets will do their job and see how it goes for the next few days. To make matters worse, I can’t drink alcohol while I’m taking the antibiotics, so I’m a miserable bear.