Day 88- Swimming Race around Perhentian Besar

Saturday morning I was up at 5am and made myself a coffee, shortly after I woke up my volunteers. They weren’t very happy about being woken up, a couple of them had breakfast before we went to community house at 5:30 am. We all headed down to the Jetty, there was 9 of us in total we would be the feeders to swimmers that would be competing in the 16km Swim around the Big Island. This meant handing them food and water when they ask for it or at certain times. We got on a boat to Coral View jetty, here we were assigned boat man and swimmer. There were two events going on a 4.5km swim with a trek back to coral view and a 16.5km swim around Perhentian Besar.. Most of the swimmers competing in the swim didn't look like very fit athletes but I suppose it's about endurance rather than physical fitness. I was with swimmer number 7 a Malaysian guy probably in his 40-50s and two boat guys from the village. We set up a bottle of water on a string and had bananas and biscuits at the ready. The race started just after 7am. We waited just past the start/finish line and we waited until our guy showed up. When we spotted him we stayed close being his line marker so he didn't go too far out to sea or too far into the coast. They used large red balls like beach balls to mark the edge they should be keeping. During the early stages many of the swimmers were quite close and one Scandinavian bloke got very annoyed as he could taste the petrol from our boat. Our guy was fine and was about 6th. A few hours in the swaying sensation of being on a boat made me need to pee so went and joined the swimmers for a pee before climbing back in the boat. We had Malaysian music while we followed our swimmer and the other guy in the boat got seasick halfway through. When we were at the east of the island we heard people getting very excited and being loud near one of the dive sites. My boat guy told me that he got a text there was a whale shark there, I asked him to take me there but we had to stay with our swimmer unfortunately. It was coming up to the last stretch and our guy was still in 6^th, but we could see another swimmer up ahead slowing down. He had stopped free style swimming and started using breast stroke, we could see him going to his kayak helper a lot so we knew our guy could take him. We timed the water stops perfectly and our swimmer kept a steady rhythm compared to the guy we took who was changing stroke and kicking to much which meant he tired out. We got round the last stretch and could see the finish our swimmer was knackered but he carried on. At the finish he swam to the beach and there was a tape for him to run the rough and his wife waiting for him. We went a parked the boat and gave him his stuff he didn't use. He thanked me for my help and asked where I was from, I told him England and he was like what you doing here then. I told him about the project and he was taken by it. I was just getting back on the boat to take me back the village when the guy handed me 100 rm, he said thank you again and said it was a bonus. This was lucky as I am very short of money and with visa run coking up needed a bit extra, was very kind of him.

No.7 My swimmer I was helping

The Big Balls used to mark the swim line around the island

This was a 7 hour event and I got back to the house about 2pm, my volunteers on the other hand got back at 4pm. They did not have as a good day. One of them had been put on a boat with the other race and dumped at beaches where he had no clue where he was or what he was meant to do. The other three weren’t fed like promised for 7 hours and one had no job to do as he was on a boat which already had a feeder. They came back to the house and shouted at me it was not a nice experience, I was very disappointed at how they were treated as I had been told they would have a good day out like I had. Instead they went almost 12 hours with very little food and not a lot to do. They also got left at PIR beach when they should have been taken back to the village after the race, it was only cause they asked someone that they got a lift to the village. I listened to their concerns and then gave them some money so they could go for lunch. I spoke to Ainn who had organised it and she didn’t really have much to say, I was off to Tiga Ruang in the evening but I still felt guilty they had an awful time. I spoke to them after and apologised on behalf of Ainn and they seemed to be in a slightly better mood. I got a boat at 6:30 to Tiga Ruang, I offered to do the late shift as I was knackered. At around 11pm fisheries woke me up and I spent about ½ an hour chatting to Jarr with Maisy, Jarr cracks me up and we had a great laugh. Jarr also told me we are down to our last 3 nests so I think Tiga Ruang will be shut soon. Now that it’s the end of the season we are doing 1 ½ patrols which make it easier to sleep between walks.

 The view while waiting for Joju to take me Tiga Ruang