5 June Pulau Tulai and Pulau Kapas

Moving on from Tioman we moved a short 5nm to Pulau Tulai where we'd enjoyed diving when we were here two years ago.  This time we found a new spot, a group of rocks on the SE corner with plenty of coral, sadly bleaching is starting to happen here too, the same large pore varieties as we saw in Sibu and turning white as the animals cook in water too warm for them.  Happily plenty of other communities are surviving as are the fan corals and the fish are plentiful.  This is a fun dive, relatively shallow swim throughs between massive boulders.

squid hunting

Our first night in Tulai's main anchorage wasn't comfortable.  A major storm rolled over us from the NW leaving us exposed to the full force of wind over water waves.  Fortunately we were the only boat there so our only concern was the anchor holding as it was a nasty lee shore.  Poor Jackster had her bow lifted, her stern dunked and a big strain put on anchor and chain. Our faithful Rocna held well though nothing could make the swell comfortable for two hours and on to dawn although once the storm had passed and the sea calmed somewhat we did go back to bed and slept in late next morning.
From Tulai it took three days, one long trip and two shorter days to reach Kapas island and a lovely anchorage on the north of the island; protection from southerlies and some SW,  5m on sand and a few resorts and restaurants on the beach to the south of us.  The water is clear too; clear enough to see the bottom and lots of squid hanging around us.  It would be rude not to fish so David brought out the squid jigger, cast it over the side and started bringing up squid. If the animal is of a certain size and not happy at being caught he'll shoot his ink at the boat and at you. They have quite a range too, sufficient to hit cover David's legs while he's standing on the bow.  The trick is to keep two buckets to hand, one without water to collect the squid (without water they are unable to replenish their ink sacks) and a second full of water to wash down angler and decks.

kayaking with Polly

Here David has a bucket holding half a dozen animals, his legs splattered with the anger of the largest one, and Polly waiting patiently to be fed.  In the end it was Cat 1 - Crew 5.
We lazed in this lovely anchorage for five days waiting for tracking updates on the windlass motor on its way from Germany and gear box shock absorbers from UK.  When we received news their delivery to Terengganu was imminent we weighed anchor and continued on.