Sunday 12th January
At dinner in
Penang (oh dear do I sound like a When-I??? When
I was in Penang…When I was cruising in the South China Sea…so
easy to become a big fat bore!) I sat next to Jon Eighteen*, from SV Footloose,
who regaled me with sailing stories.
When he and
Irina were sailing somewhere between Port Dickson and Pangkor they ran into a
great big long fishing net. This is so
hard to avoid – sometimes the nets are strung, almost invisible, over many
miles of water. Pete and I held our breath
many times as we JUST managed to skirt around them, or, sometimes, as we went
straight between the buoys, hardly visible above the surface, hoping against
hope that the nets were far enough beneath the surface not to get snagged on
the propellers.
John stopped
the boat immediately, dropped the sails, turned off the engines,
everything. Then he donned mask and
snorkel and hopped into the water, without examining it very closely at all…
The fisherman zoomed up in his little boat and started shouting and
gesticulating, doing some sort of vey graphic charade with both hands which Jon
immediately realised meant, Get out of
the water immediately – there are VERY big jellyfish here with long tentacles
and they will give you a very nasty rash indeed. Such is the power of sign language in an
emergency! He leapt out of the water
with a faint cry, and looked around to see there were many dozens of said
jellyfish all around the boat – he was very lucky!
In the meantime
what to do about the net? The fisherman
took out a big knife and told Jon to cut it.
Well no…Jon wasn’t going to do this; he thought he could very carefully
back away and get out of the tangle. The
fisherman insisted, and cut it himself.
Oh dear… Jon felt very sorry for the man; this is after all his
livelihood. He reached into his pocket
for 50 ringgits (approx. $20) and offered it over the side. NO,
shouted the fisherman. I want TWO! Well two ringgit isn’t very much, so Jon
haggled back and forth until the fisherman, exasperated, shouted, I want TWO HUNDRED!!!
Well that put a
different complexion on things. John
engaged he engines, full throttle, and zoomed off and away. These little Malaysian fishing boats, however,
have very powerful diesel engines and the fishing boat was very soon alongside,
with the fisherman, grim-faced, saying, Give
me fifty! Jon handed it over
silently and…all was well.
Yesterday in
beautiful Bicheno…
Brothers are cheery with much activity:
 |
| Angus and Hamish |
In the afternoon, a trip to the Douglas Apsely River, with its fabulous waterholes. Full of random people, merging with our gang
of 15.
A bit of
a Taroona High reunion as well as a swim.
 |
| Nicky, Anna, Frja |
A
fishing session, with a respectable number of squid.
One of the boats beyond
Leo had sailed into Waub's Bay the night before. We
talked to the skipper’s brother, who said that the boat had crossed Bass
Strait, from Eden, in very rough sea.
The hardy skipper was hit on the head by the boom, and was knocked out for
the count. He was fine, however, and
refused to go to the doctor to check for concussion. Tough SailorMan!
* And yes isn’t
Eighteen amongst the best of surnames?
As good as Musick, which the SV Watermusick family we met and spent time
with in… Oh dear I am going all When-I
again…suffice it to say Musick is a VERY good surname too
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