One of the biggest headaches for cruisers in South East Asia is the sheer number of fishing boats hard at work close to land and offshore

They range from one-man canoes to smoking ocean trawlers. There are different methods of fishing too, from a single line to vast nets carried between two boats.

Sometimes nets are just left to drift with a small float on either end. Sailing can become a real assault course in many stretches of water here.

We’ve been sailing between Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia for six years. Before that, back in 2010 when we sailed the Red Sea and Arabian Sea to India, we learned some tactics to keep clear of nets and lines.

But the many methods and local ‘rules of the sea’ change in each stretch of water. Most of the time, you just have to keep your wits about you.

Night time is particularly interesting when the lighting configurations we all know and learnt from the col-regs are seldom in play among local boats.

In this video, Jamie talks through some of the lessons we have learned.