Last night we experienced some hairy moments while anchored in Ardasier reef. Once we had explored the situation we found that the reef had an easily accessible lagoon and we dropped the hook late in the afternoon. Just on time to make a dive on the outside of the lagoon.
There is also a small Royal Malaysian Navy base and we thought we were safe and went to bed early... But at 1:00 we were rudely awoken by violent weather. We were caught in the middle of a heavy thunderstorm! The chain was being pulled out from the chain locker every time the bow of 'ALK' rose to the waves but to do something about it in the blinding rain....In the pitch dark all we could do is turn on the navigation equipment to see if the anchor was holding. The GPS showed that we had moved but the wind direction had changed 180 degrees so we probably did not drag the anchor or just a little bit. We monitored the situation until things became a bit more quiet and went back to our berths. Two hours later it was the same story all over again, except this time the wind was even stronger. We rigged a snubber line on the chain to keep it from slipping out further and took down our awning that was flapping like crazy. We still held on to our position but I did set up an anchor alarm on the GPS just in case. The idea to be caught in weather like this in a lagoon we had not explored properly was not a comfortable feeling, but we had no choice. After half an hour the wind weakened a bit and we went back for some 'vigilant sleep'. At 8:00 o'clock in the morning things were calm again but what a night!
The day before when we left Layang we had excitement of another kind...
We tried to call the Navy to let them know that we were heading for Ardasier reef but the cell phone network was down. Strange...as cell phones are the main means of communication on Layang. On the VHF we did not get any response either when we called Station Lima.
Once out of the lagoon we saw a large Malaysian Navy vessel that had been patrolling Layang for some days so I decided to ask them to relay my message to Station Lima. We received a short confirmation but heard nothing further. Then it became clear what was going on.... On the horizon the contours of another big naval vessel appeared and on the VHF we heard the Malay Navy calling 'Chinese warship'. A fairly large Chinese frigate was approaching Layang at good speed. The Malay warned the Chinese that they were within Malaysia's 200M EEZ and asked the Chinese repeatedly to state their intentions and course. However the Chinese warship did not respond and continued to proceed towards Layang. The Malay vessel positioned herself between the Chinese warship and Layang. We did not want to get caught in the 'crossfire' and made a big detour to stay out of their way. Meanwhile a Malaysian aircraft appeared on the scene as well. They also called the Chinese who finally gave a short answer, one time, that 'they were collecting sea data'. Finally they changed course away from Layang very slowly while the Malay vessel continued to shadow them. That signalled the drawn out end of the confrontation.
China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia have argued for a long time about the boundaries of their 200M EEZ in the South China Sea but so far never settled the issue. An important obstacle is that China refuses to take the case to the International Court in The Hague and they wage their mighty power. So these small confrontations take place from time to time and as long as nobody gets trigger happy, or starts drilling for oil in disputed territory, the status quo continues.
Kevin, being Chinese, was quite embarrassed about what happened and after our arrival in Ardasier felt uncomfortable when the local Malay commander came by to check our papers. He thought he would be treated unfriendly but the Malay took the whole incident lightly. They came to check our papers but after we got chatting never asked about them and later 'kidnapped' Rachel for a fast ride on their big Zodiac back to the base to pick up their mobile phone cameras. They wanted to be on the picture with the yacht from 'Amsterdam', the first sailing boat they had ever seen in Ardasier!
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