January 25 & 26th: This is a stunning small island, white sandy beaches, crystal clear water, coral reefs etc etc, wish we would have spent Xmas here, it is very beautiful. A bit touristy – lots of longboats continually taking tourists out for diving and snorkelling and they seem to like to come close to us. For the last two days since we arrived we have been cleaning the bottom and underwater line of the boat. The last time we did it was late November in Indonesia, while being in Malaysia we have not been game as the water has not been clear enough.
Poor girl had a lot of barnacles and things growing on her bottom! She needed an all over Brazilian! So armed with a scourer, a scraper, a toothbrush, scrubbing brush, flippers and snorkel and mask in I jumped. I am good for the waterline and a few feet below this. Robbie, on the other hand has made himself a Hooker system. He brought special tubing and fittings to attach to his air tanks so he can leave the air tank and BCF on the boat and free dive to the bottom of the boat, with only a mask and mouthpiece attached to the 25 metre hose, attached to the air tank. He says it works a treat and is much easier than trying to clean the bottom with an air tank and BCF attached to him. He cleans right under to the very bottom.
Yesterday we took the duck into the beach and walked 5 minutes from the beach down a little alley where we were able to purchase sim cards for our phones and draw out cash from an ATM. We had a Pad Thai at a little restaurant for lunch that was lovely. We didn’t stay long as we were pretty tired.
Steve and Claire from Almacantar are arriving today and we will probably hang round here for a few days before we both head up to Phuket.
