Pulau Bidan to Kra Banks (25nm S of Penang)
Monday, 24 March 2008 04:24
Bidan was a nice anchorage. The water had a bit of a fishy smell to it . And as Tabitha pointed out correctly, fish do live in it. Clare was the only one that could hail her own body weight to get out of the water, so I needed the dingy lowered so we could drop the ladder. Need to do some chin up or just drown if I fall overboard. We were all pretty shattered from our first day at sea and being so hot was just exhausting. So early dinner and a movie "The Darjeeling Limited" (not bad a little quirky) and to bed with a nice cool breeze blowing in hatches. We had a bit of a sloppy night when the tide changed, which our water tanks like to keep reminding us by sloshing for awhile afterwards. We have just realised we have a stowaway on board. He appeared in the middle of our movie so we will name him Darjeeling the Gecko ( DG for short). Haven't seen him this morning, we will see if he comes out for the movie tonight.

We had a bit of a lie in this morning as we were waiting for current to change in our favour and then sails up , YES, I did say sails up. Can't remember the last time we sailed ( no engines). We managed about an hour before the wind died off. Donks on again and we headed for the main channel into Penang. Monday must be a busy day as we had cruise liners and cargo ships coming up our rear. We motored in just off the main channel so not too much drama. Penang waters were not too dirty with rubbish so we had pleasant trip down and under the bridge. We have decided to keep going past our original stop for tonight of Pulau Rimau and plan to anchor in some shallow water in the middle of the straits. This will make our trip tomorrow a lot shorter. Sail has been up again this afternoon. Just slowed down as a fishing boa as pulled alongside to tell us we are heading into shallow water. Mike has given up trying to hand gesture that we only drawn 1 metre so we follow them so we don't run up their backside. Very nice of them to show concern for us. They obviously think we navigate with a piece of string like them . Oh God here comes another one, we think with chart plotter, depth sounder and GPS we should be OK, we just hope they don't know something we don't.

 
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