We got in and the very first thing I saw was a black tip reef shark!
Can anyone out there tell us what these are? Everywhere we've been have been reefs...
Supplies are getting a bit low in terms of fresh food... They're known also as
shark fish because they live with sharks... My only concern is that I think I only
have two slabs of beer left, so that's a bit of a worry...
Oh, of course! we've seen turtles!
Just look at this bay, isn't it pretty? We have just come in over some rocks and
found a sandy patch. Dumped the anchor in about 15 meters, and backed into about 10
meters .So we've got a good 50 meters of chain out plus the snubber, which will
add another five or so meters. And we're pretty much protected from the southeast,
which is sort of coming over there. And it's a gorgeous bay. We do know it's very
shallow. Plenty of room to swing though, hopefully. And supposedly one of the
prettiest bays in the Anambas. And we can see if you look on Google Earth you can
see how clear the water is surrounded by reefs.This is actually an island here.
There's a cut through there, which yachts can't get through because it's all
reefed up. But it looks like a really good fun place to explore, so looking
forward to this.
So we've just re-anchored. We've put Esper now right in the middle of the bay. Then some
clouds came over so we decided this would be a good opportunity to jump in the
dinghy and come ashore. And when I say ashore, it's not particularly big. You can
see behind me it's not very long beach but we have been told there are lots of
shells here, and in particular cowrie shells. So, as usual,
Liz is scouring the shore. This is a clam shell and this is one of, I mean, hundreds
I've seen since we've been in the Anambas. Washed up on every beach, enormous clam
shells. So if you're looking for a nice big ashtray here's the place. Beautiful.
I think this is quite a new one because he's still joined, look. So you'd have the two pieces.
So I thought they were pebbles but they were obviously some kind of creature at some point.
So can anyone out there tell us what these are? You can see, about the size of my palm.
And they have an almost fossil-like pattern of a shell... inside.
What are they?
Went for my second snorkel of the day. Both times went down for about about an hour.
each time I think, wasn't it? And there's a lot to see because this whole bay is
surrounded by reef.
Meanwhile, what are you doing? I finally resurrected the fishing rod
because the last time I used it was on the west coast of Thailand and there
were so many fish traps that I lost about four lures! Didn't catch anything,
and I just got fed up with it. And the final time it ripped the whole thing
apart! So I've spent the day doing the the line, putting the line back on. The
rod is all now ready to go, and I've got three lures all set up... and then there's
this one which was made by a Thai fisherman from wire, and it has three
nasty-looking hooks in it. I just put a skirt over the top... no idea what it's
gonna do, but we're gonna give it a go!
So when I was fishing for Millie a few
days ago, and the first couple of times I put the line down something huge came
out from under the boat and grabbed it. And it's a Remora and we've had it now
for three days. We're now at the third anchorage since we've discovered the
Remora, Charlie we've called him. And I just made an omelet, scrunched up the eggshells,
threw them over the side because I was wondering if he was still here and he
is still here. And this is to let everybody know that remoras like egg-shells.
So if you have one, feed them and egg!
Liz has cast her rod at the front of the boat, so my job is to make sure
Charlie is distracted. I'm feeding him Millie's food...he loves cat food!
OK, Liz, I just thought I'd take a little break from editing, and talk a bit more
about Charlie. I know that you've done a bit of research on remoras, can
you tell us a bit more about him please? I looked him up in the only fish book
we've got, which is this, a Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia, and I did manage
to get online and have a little bit of a Google... Anyway remora family, there are
eight different fish in the remora family. We've
identified Charlie as a slender sucker fish, that grow up to about a metre maximum.
So Charlie or Charliette, not really sure, is certainly full-grown because he's big/
she's big. It's a big fish. They're known also as shark fish because they live
with sharks, and they swim with the sharks, the larger sharks, and they attach
themselves to the animal with a modified dorsal fin, which is where the "sucker" comes
from, because it's flattened. And they push the top of their bodies up onto
the hosts skin and they stay there. The reason they do this is because they are
chancers, scavengers, they'll take little bits and morsels from their hosts.
Anything that happens to be around. They're also known for eating parasites
and so forth. Sharks apparently don't seem to mind having them there, maybe
they tickle a bit? But they certainly help by clearing up all the nasty
stuff. They also swim with whales, other large fish, rays and so forth. Nobody
knows much about the reproduction of the sucker fish so it's quite an interesting animal.
That has still got to have a lot of research done.
The other thing that was quite interesting when I looked them up on
Google (you could probably find this yourself)...
is that they have been known to attach themselves to divers and sometimes this
can be in a rather embarrassing place!
So in the video, I think at the time that we
recorded it, you'd said that he was with us for a few days. But when I was editing
one of the earlier episodes I had put the camera underwater at the back of the
boat and I noticed in some of the footage he was already attached to the
hull of the boat! By that point he had already been with us for three weeks I think.
And as we edit the video now a little
bit after our time in the Anambus he was still with us. In fact they are pelagic, so
they tend to be with the large pelagic animals, but the slender sucker fish are known to come into coastal
waters with their hosts and go right into lagoons and go into very
shallow areas. So that does make sense.
We just had a beautiful morning snorkel. First of all we had to get out of here,
and we decided to go right round the island of Semut. So first of all we had
to get through this very difficult very shallow reef... So we're taking a very
gentle and careful path through the coral. It's very, very shallow here, but
there does seem to be a little pathway. What we understand, according to
Navionics, is that this area is navigable but I think you can see quite clearly
that you wouldn't want to bring your yacht here. At the moment we're on neaps
so it doesn't get too shallow and it doesn't get very deep, so we're OK.
The tide is receding at the moment, so we thought we'd better get out here. It's
about 8:00 in the morning. I think probably when we're on Springs and it's
a low tide I should think some of this is showing, and in fact some friends of
ours went through on their kayaks the other day and they couldn't even get
through on their kayaks. It just shows you just how incredibly shallow it is
here. But it's very beautiful. Coral and rocks all around us. You can just make
out this path which Jaime is very carefully steering us down. We've seen a
couple of turtles in the last day or so so we're hoping that we might see some
more today. I don't know let's see what's out there... And we picked her way through,
that was OK. Everywhere we've been have been reefs, everywhere. The whole of
this area is straddled by reefs and there are bombies as well on the other
side. And as we went round the island we crossed loads and loads of reefs, but we
went to one particular bay that some friends of ours had been to and they
said it was the best snorkeling they'd ever had. So we went there we found one
little spot we were able to drop the anchor in the sand and we got in and the
very first thing I saw was a black tip reef shark. And I nearly got straight
back in the dinghy because I'm a bit nervous when I'm snorkeling. But I
stuck it out, and I stayed down, and had the best snorkel I've ever had, I think!
The whole reef was alive with fish, there were motorways of fish going
past, streams and streams of them. We saw Napoleon fish everywhere, there were
these strange sort of cross between and butterfly and an angelfish. We're gonna
have to work out what they were at some point, they were very very pretty.
Bommies just full of coral, all kinds of coral all looking really good. A little
bit of dead coral here and there, but I should think 80/90 percent of it is all
beautiful coral. And what else did we see? I saw a leopard fish which Jamie had
told me about. We've called it a leopard fish, it's big this size, and it's
covered in what looked like leopard spots. It was a little bit shy, went under
a rock... What else did we see? Oh! Of course! We've seen turtles! We didn't
actually manage to snorkel with them, but we've seen two or three turtles now so
this is a good area for turtles, and I understand that on the beaches they do
lay their eggs there. So it's been brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
Just went down below and said to Liz I fancy a beer. So, opened up the fridge, helped
myself to a beer, turned around, looked at the clock and realized it's 11:30 in the
morning! Very, very naughty. Just broken... one of my sort of unwritten rules is I
tend not to have a beer before five o'clock. But part of the reason is
because we're on a different time scale now, so it gets light about 5:30. We tend
to wake up between 5:30 and 6:30 now, and this morning of course with the diving
and the snorkeling we've done, and going around in the dinghy - around this big
island - I don't know how many nautical miles we've done in the dinghy -
we've already done more in one morning than we sometimes do in a few days!
So it felt well deserved. It's been about two weeks now that we've been here although
I've actually lost count it feels like an eternity. And this is the nice thing,
it's just being able to relax like this, and being under no pressure to do
anything at all. As you know we spend a lot of time on
social media and Facebook, Instagram and of course YouTube. Well we haven't done
any of that at all. I think Liz has answered a couple of emails when we had
connection. I downloaded emails and didn't even bother to read them. It's
just nice to have that complete break from that. And to relax and to do our own
thing. Been doing loads of reading. Supplies are getting a bit low in terms
of fresh food, I think we're down to two eggs and two tomatoes, so for the
next couple of weeks I think we're going to be getting a bit creative in the
galley now. Liz is attempting to make some flatbread for lunch. My only
concern is that I think I only have two slabs of beer left. So that's a bit of a
worry. But aside from that, it's just nice to...
...just detach ourselves from our normal life, and of course this is what this
kind of cruising is all about. This is what being in the Anambas is all about.
It's every morning going for a snorkel and feeling energized. Then relaxing
in the afternoon... reading... and it's really what it is all about.