For our friends on the west coast of Malaysia, we stopped for the night at Pulau Bidan, 14 miles north of Penang (Lat 05 44′.6N Lon 100 17′.4E). In the morning we woke up to a fisherman anchored across our anchor and with a fish line draped along our hull with a float about to tangle in our rudder or 
prop. Of course this is the often used ploy to say we caused the anchoring problem and now we owe the fisherman money. In no uncertain terms I told him to move, which he did and then we were able to leave. The strange thing is, an hour later when we were about 7 miles on our way to Langkawi, he showed up along side us well out to sea. He motored along, motioning with his arms like we needed to give him something. I won’t bore you with the whole story but after 45 minutes, I tired of him and his unsafe maneuvers across our bow and off our stern so I fired a flare into the sky. That pretty much solved the problem for a while…..but he came close again. When 
I started taking pictures with my telephoto lens, that seemed to have the best effect and he disappeared for good heading back to Bidan. He burned up a lot of gasoline for nothing. I am attaching some pictures in case someone in Penang keeps track of these things. The Red Bull insignia on the side of his boat is distinctive.
After arriving in Langkawi, we made a report to the Marine Police. They were very interested in the situation and it seems they are not fully aware that this sort of thing is common place against peaceful cruisers. More cruisers need to take pictures and make a report. The big learning point from this experience is to take pictures early on and from all angles. I should have taken a picture of the bow of the fishing boat where the registration numbers are for Malaysian boats. Without such definite evidence, the police can do little. We have one cruising friend here in the marina at Langkawi who has dealt 3 times with this sort of thing. He has never paid anything but they keep trying.
