It was just an idea. An idea that wouldn't go away. It started when my friend Claude de Crissey mentioned in passing that one of his boats, MV Mermaid 1, would be going back to Bali at the end of May after her annual refit at the boatyards in Phuket.
During the months of June to October, Mermaid 1 and her sister boat Mermaid 2 operate out of Bali as Liveaboard Dive boats taking diving enthusiasts to the Komodo Islands a few hundred kilometres east of Bali on week-long trips.
My idea? To travel with Mermaid 1 on her return voyage to Bali. To my delight, Claude agrees!
Tuesday, May 27: Rassada Port, Phuket
I'm picked up at Chalong Pier by Mermaid's onshore staff Khun Julie and Khun P., and taken to the boatyard at Rassada Port to embark.
The technicians are still dealing with a recalcitrant exhaust problem. While we wait I look around the estuary at Rassada and notice fishing boats from China and India moored alongside the Fish Market quay. Several white-headed sea eagles are gently cruising the sky looking along the water's edge for supper.
As dusk falls we see the local Thai fishing boats moving down the estuary heading for the open sea to start a night of fishing for squid. Their technique is very simple.
Firstly, a net attached to the outriggers is lowered into the water alongside the boat on both port and starboard sides and the long outriggers are extended on both sides of the boat. Powerful spotlights attached to the outriggers are turned on. This light attracts squid to the surface and when a large school is alongside the boat, the net is raised.
This exercise is carried out several times and the crew of 12 or more is kept busy until the boat returns to harbour in the early hours ready to sell the catch.
I unpack my case in the double cabin I've been allocated and load the freezer compartment of the fridge with food Claude suggested I take so as not to be wholly reliant on Thai food.
Mermaid 1 carries a crew of 10 with Captain Khun Pichet. He is an experienced seafarer, having done the trip to Bali and back at least eight times. I'm also introduced to Khun Gai the steward, Khun Mai, one of the senior crewmen and Khun Ginny, the only female member of the crew.
At 8.30pm the crew cast off the mooring lines. We head towards the open sea. It's an exciting moment for me. Although dark, I'm able to spot landmarks I know on the east coast of Phuket island as we sail a southerly course between the islands. We will be cruising at a steady 10 knots.
Wednesday, May 28: N 06 40 0/ E 98 30 0
I wake up to a grey, overcast morning with sporadic rainstorms. Khun Gai serves my breakfast of cereal, coffee and fresh pineapple. At 8.15am we pass the Bulong group of islands – still in Thai territory – on the starboard beam.
Low-lying rain clouds obscure the horizon as far as the eye can see, but the sea remains relatively calm.
A solitary dolphin swims alongside the boat for several minutes before disappearing into the ocean depths.
Today our immediate destination is Langkawi in Malaysia. Fuel, both gasoline and diesel, is significantly cheaper in Malaysia than it is in Thailand. So the choice of where to fill the tanks is obvious. We enter Langkawi Bay at about noon.
The tree-clad slopes of the island extend right down to the water's edge. There aren't any ugly scars of rampant property development. We moor alongside a floating Shell fuel station and after a quick confirmation call the transfer starts.
It takes an hour and a half to take on 23,100 litres of diesel fuel. (The transfer rate is 250 litres a minute.) We leave Langkawi on course towards the Malacca Straits in bright sunny weather with only a slight swell to disturb the boat.
We thread our way through a mass of small islands and as we reach the open sea we can still see the Malaysian mainland.
The night sky at 11pm, as I make my way to my cabin, is a glittering canopy of beautiful bright stars.
Thursday, May 29: N 03 58 0 / E 100 29 0
During the night, the weather has deteriorated and this morning sees low cloud and a grey overcast sky as we head south in the teeth of a strong southerly wind. Spray is breaking over the bow as we power through the ever-increasing swell.
After breakfast, I go forward to see Captain Pichet in the wheelhouse. Mermaid 1 is fully equipped with all the latest navigation systems and aids, and a satellite phone.
By 11am we are experiencing a really heavy rainstorm that lasts for more than two hours. Mermaid 1 is pitching by 30 to 40 degrees as we head into the swell and most of the crew stay in their quarters on the lower deck.
The sea remains angry until 2pm when we emerge into a smoother part of the ocean. We head south, and with little else to observe I spend most of the day reading and catching up on my notes.
Friday, May 30: N 01 41 07 / E 102 56 00
It's cloudy and overcast. Mainland Malaysia is still there off the port beam but too far away to see any details – even using my 10x50 binoculars.
More and more large ships come into view as we head further south into the Straits. A huge container ship passed heading north, maybe to Bangkok, India or the Middle East.
A Malaysian naval boat travelling at speed just off the coast is also heading north. Another container ship, King Brian, passes in the opposite direction as does a high-riding oil tanker, Front Leader, registered in Singapore.
At 1pm we pass small, uninhabited islands. Navigation in the Straits of Malacca is aided by a large number of light buoys and lighthouses and they are all clearly marked on the charts loaded into Captain Pichet's laptop.
By 3pm, I'm just able to see the high-rise buildings of Singapore and the white fuel storage tanks located west through my binoculars. In the late afternoon we change course to 70 degrees to pass through the Singapore Straits and immediately become part of a seemingly never-ending procession of ships, large and small, heading in each direction through this narrow waterway.
By 6.30pm Singapore is on our port beam and the red warning lights on top of the highrises are shining brightly. A calm sea and a clear sky.
Saturday, May 31: N 00 10 3 / E 105 26 8
I wake up to find we are truly at sea with no land visible in any direction. During the night we left the Singapore Straits and we're now in open water and heading south east.
The crew is hard at work painting rails and other parts of the boat. As we are now well away from the main shipping lanes, no big ships are in sight.
At approximately midday we cross the equator – we are now cruising in the Southern Hemisphere! I've crossed the equator before when touring in Kenya a few years ago and on a flight to Argentina from Paris, but this is
my first time at sea. For the crew of Mermaid this was a routine occurrence so celebration is muted.
The day passes uneventfully with occasional rainfall and good visibility.
Sunday, June 1: S 02 45 8/ E 107 07 8
An overcast morning, but visibility is still good. The sea is a murky grey and loppy and Mermaid 1 is rolling a bit for the first time as well as pitching.
Today the crew are busily painting decks and hanging the curtains in the main saloon. Mermaid 1 is becoming ship-shape as she heads towards Bali to pick up the first group of customers next Saturday for the cruise to the Komodo Islands.
As we approach some islands I notice a signal on my mobile phone and send an SMS message to Claude de Crissey asking him to contact my travel agents in Phuket town and change my return flight from Bali, via Kuala Lumpur, to Phuket from June 4 to June 5. Captain Pichet has told me we will only arrive in Bali on June 4 at 2pm – an hour after my flight to Kuala Lumpur was due to leave!
I brought with me a Bartholomews map of SE Asia (scale 1: 5.800 000) and have been plotting our route as we progress day by day using the coordinates from Mermaid's GPS. It is not a navigation chart but serves well.
Late afternoon one of the crew brings me a printout with a sobering message: the owner reports MT Blue Ocean 7 went missing en route from Sulawesi to Surabaya, Indonesia.
I have been reading a book by Douglas Reeman, an author specialising in Second World War naval stories and my thoughts reach out to the crew of Blue Ocean 7 and
I wonder what has become of them.
As I go to my cabin, the pitching of Mermaid 1 continues unabated, and sleep doesn't come easy.
Monday, June 2: S 04 47 0/ E 115 06 0
It's a bright sunny morning with a strong headwind coming from the east. Mermaid is pitching violently. Last night was uncomfortable with the boat pitching almost non-stop.
Again this morning there is nothing in sight as I sweep the horizon with my binoculars. Still no phone signal and I worry about whether Claude received my SMS. Still, there is no point worrying about something over which you have no control!
No sign of Khun Gai, the steward this morning – maybe he is under the weather – so I make my own breakfast. I have been reading wave formations from New Scientist. But knowing how waves are created
and how swell rises makes it no easier to cope with the pitching of the boat.
The rest of the day I spend reading and playing computer games until it is time to stagger to my cabin for another disturbed night's rest.
Tuesday, June 3: S 06 28 2/ E 113 00 00
It's a bright sunny day. Thankfully the wind has dropped and the sea is relatively calmer. We are in the Java Sea for the third consecutive day with nothing in sight.
This morning the crew is hosing down the decks and superstructure of Mermaid 1 to clean off the salt deposits left from the spray during the night.
Too late for breakfast today, but brunch arrives at midday thanks to Cook Sombit's efforts in the galley on the lower deck.I catch a glimpse of a large tanker about 16 km east of us. I can tell the distance as the tall aft superstructure of the tanker is in view but the hull is below the horizon. Not too far away is a fishing boat that looks like a Chinese junk under sail. At 2pm we sight land on the starboard beam through the haze.
A quick reference to my map shows it is the island of Madera lying off the coast of Java and shielding the port of Surabaya from the Java Sea. I am relieved to get an SMS from Claude that he has been in touch with my travel agents!
Wednesday, June 4: S 08 14 6/ E 115 36 2
Bali is on the starboard beam – not long now! We are cruising parallel to the coastline about two kilometres off shore. It is a bright sunny morning although the sea is still slightly choppy.
I have breakfast gazing at a very tall extinct volcano close to the water's edge. (The east-west spread of the Indonesian islands has always been an area of past volcanic activity.)
This north-eastern part of Bali is rugged with steep slopes going all the way to the sea. The occasional ravine heading inland breaks up the coastline but the whole area seems only sparsely populated with a few scattered houses on the hills and more along the coastline. The hills are too steep for cultivation so the local population relies on fishing for its livelihood.
One feature is the enormous number of little fishing boats lined up on the beaches as far as the eye can see. Judging by the hundreds of these boats lining the beaches on this part of the island each local man and his dog must own one – or even two!
Our viewing is interrupted for a few moments to make contact with Khun Kay Golding, the Australian lady in charge of Mermaid Liveaboard operations in Bali. We confirm our ETA as 2pm and in response to her question Khun Oh, our engineer, says he doesn't need the services of
a technician when we arrive.
By now we have reached the eastern-most point of Bali and are heading almost due south along the east coast. Onshore terrain remains the same and we pass the highest point of the island, the old volcano, Mount Agong, with its 3,000-metre summit partially obscured by low clouds. The weather is warm and the sea is calm – ideal cruising conditions – as if to offer us a true Bali welcome.
Gradually the rugged high ground gives way to a coastal plain and we can see several holiday resorts lining the beaches. I am surprised to see many fires as vegetation is being burned off. Several years ago there was a severe smokescreen across the Malay peninsula and the cause was determined to be Indonesian farmers' 'slash and burn' practice.
Such was the international outcry at this wholesale pollution that I had thought the Indonesian government had banned the practice – not so in Bali, I find.
Mermaid 1 enters the narrow approaches to Bali port 55 minutes ahead of Khun Pichet's ETA – we have arrived! As we manoeuvre alongside the jetty in Benoa Harbour a party of schoolchildren on a field experience class pause to watch and wave a welcome.
A team from immigration and customs come onboard 25 minutes later to carry out the formalities. Khun Kay Golding also arrives and takes charge of things.
Until our passports are returned by immigration we are unable to go ashore. In the evening I do, for a brief shopping excursion, and find Bali is a very neat and orderly place. It is good to see even the motorcycle pillion passengers wear helmets!
Thursday, June 5: Benoa Harbour
My transport arrives in the morning to take me to Denpasar International Airport. I say farewell to Captain Pichet and other members of the crew. I will take happy memories of my voyage on MV Mermaid 1 with me. She will remain here in Bali for the next five months running diving trips to the Komodo Islands before returning to Phuket for the winter cruise programme in the Andaman Sea and Similan Islands.
Although my visit to Bali has been a brief one I have been impressed with what I have seen. My flight takes off later in the afternoon and I am on my way back to Phuket via Sepang airport in Kuala Lumpur. For the next few days, back on dry land, my newly found sea legs will serve as a reminder of my voyage to Bali.
For more information about Mermaid Liveaboards go to:
http://www.mermaid-liveaboards.com
Jum Ali Khan is a freelance writer based in Thailand
