Captain Davo's True Tales

You know those moments when everyone in the room has a different version of the same story… and every single one of them sounds believable? That was Langkawi. What started as a few beers between sailors quickly turned into the strangest conversation we’d ever had. The Jade Lion wasn’t just an old statue anymore. It had become the centre of decades of rumours, disappearances, betrayals, and secrets...

You know that feeling when everyone keeps telling you not to trust someone… and then someone else tells you not to trust the people warning you? Yeah well.. welcome to Batam. We’d gone looking for answers about the jade lion, but instead found an old American sailor who’d been drifting around Indonesia for so long he seemed to know everyone’s secrets. The more he talked, the less any of it sounded...

You know those days where you think you’ll just tie the boat up, grab a beer, and head home? Yeah, nah… this wasn’t one of those days. We’d barely made it back to Singapore before one of the most famous yachts in the marina went up in flames right in front of us. Then people started asking strange questions. Too many people already seemed to know about the jade lion we’d just recovered. Some were...

People always tell you the same thing before heading to Tioman. “Watch out for the monkeys.” Turns out... the monkeys weren’t the biggest problem. We set off looking for an old jade lion after receiving some very questionable intelligence from Captain Sinbad. It sounded ridiculous. Then the monkeys stole our beer before we found a yacht that shouldn’t have been there. Then we discovered it was emp...

You pay a fortune to keep your boat in a nice marina. Security. Nice facilities. Peace and quiet. Nobody ever mentions the crocodiles. We’d barely settled in when someone pointed at our berth and calmly announced there was a crocodile floating around the marina. Naturally, nobody believed them. Until they did. Within minutes, expensive yacht owners were looking a lot less confident, the Harbourmas...

Have you ever anchored somewhere that just… didn’t feel right? Not dangerous. Just… like you weren’t alone. After a long day that hadn’t exactly gone to plan, we finally dropped the anchor at Pulau Hantu, hoping for a quiet night, a cold beer, and a chance to forget about everything that had already gone wrong. Instead, we met Captain Johnny. According to Johnny, the ghosts around Pulau Hantu are...

You know that feeling when you leave the marina convinced you’ve remembered everything? Yeah… We hadn’t. What was supposed to be a straightforward trip to the Anambas started with one very important thing being left behind. Unfortunately, we only discovered that after we’d already committed to the voyage. From there, things somehow got worse. There were permits we should probably have had, decisio...

If you’ve ever taken your boat to Batam, you’ve probably said the same thing we did… “We’ll just pop over for cheap fuel and be back before dinner.” Famous last words. The plan was simple. Fill up the tanks. Have a decent seafood lunch. Maybe a couple of beers. Head home before dark. Instead, we found ourselves wondering why everything was so cheap, why nothing seemed to make sense, and why every...

You’d think coming back to the marina would be the easy part. No waves. No storms. Just tie the boat up, grab a beer, and catch up with everyone at the yacht club. Instead… The marina had been taken over by otters. Not one or two. An entire furry crime syndicate. They were sleeping on boats, stealing fish, terrorising Pontoon C, and generally behaving like they were paying the berthing fees. Natur...

You know those Saturdays where all you want is to anchor off Lazarus Island, have a cold beer, and mind your own business? Yeah… so did we. About forty-seven boats had the same idea. By lunchtime there were hundreds of people partying, someone had brought an inflatable flamingo for reasons nobody could explain, and somehow our boat became the one everyone wanted to climb aboard. Finnigan found him...