Category Archives: Circumnavigation
Ready for the off
Camomile after her final lift a few weeks ago ready for the Indian ocean
We’ve been preparing Camomile for this trip for almost a year now starting on 1st February last year when Camomile was lifted at Rebak for her major refit. Now after the rudder bearings were completely overhauled, her steering completely overhauled, a complete new paint job, new teak woodwork, new propshaft, new main sail and genoa, new sprayhood and bimini, as well as engine serviced, and numerous other jobs she’s finally ready to leave. Are we ready? I think so, every single nook and cranny has been filled with food and alcohol and I did a huge load of washing today. We’ve checked out of Thailand and are sitting in Nai Harn bay ready to head out sometime in the next week bound for Sri Lanka and the Indian ocean. The passage to Sri Lanka is a little over 1000 miles and will probably take about 7 or 8 days. No facebook but don’t worry about us. Will try to send messages this way which will pass through to facebook but we won’t receive any replies until we get to Sri Lanka.
During this year we hope to spend February in Sri Lanka, we have a 30 day visa.
March we’ll sail to the Maldives which is about 700 miles so that will probably take about 5 to 6 days. We will apply for a 60 day cruising permit there which will take us to the second week in May.
Next stop will be BIOT Chagos about 300 miles from the bottom of the Maldives so just a couple of days to get there. Chagos is a British Indian Ocean territory leased to the Americans. The permits are quite hard to obtain (we haven’t got ours yet) but it’s supposed to be beautiful so hopefully all the paperwork will be worth it. The permit will be for 28 days but we’ll be watching for a weather window and may leave before the permit expires.
The next destination will be Mahe in the Seychelles, another 1000 miles, 7 or 8 days again. Depending on the weather we should be arriving there sometime towards the end of June spending the rest of June and July there. In August we’ll have a mosey around the island groups to the west of Mahe and hopefully spend a week or so in the Comores.
September we’ll cross to Madagascar and some time in October to South Africa but it all gets a bit hazy that far away.
That’s the plan – written in the sand at low tide but hopefully it will come to fruition.
So we now we wait for a weather window.
The end of West Malaysia
Camomile is now cruising the East Malaysian coast. I haven’t written an update for a while but hopefully this will bring us up to date.
Kokomo V
We left Pangkor Tuesday 16th June at 05.30. There was now a small group of us Gary and Jackie on Inspiration Lady, Frank and Karen on Kokomo V, Terry and Alison on Pamir and Tricky and Jane and little Millie on Ananda but didn’t get a photo of their boat. Bill and Caroline on Juffa had gone the day before.
Local fishing boat
There were lots of brightly painted fishing boats out on the water. You wonder if there are enough fish for them all to catch.
There was very little wind and Bill wanted to get his new main sail out but sadly the engine was off for just 10 minutes before it was back on again as we were going so slowly.
It was a 29 hour sail to Admiral marina. Ananda got in first then us then Inspiration Lady. Juffa arrived the following day with Kokomo V having stopped overnight along the way. We only stayed for 2 nights giving us enough time to get some fuel and shopping and have a swim in the marina pool before leaving again on Friday 19th at 06.00 Admiral is a bit expensive for us.
Inspiration Lady in the sunset
The wind was on the nose as usual so we decided to tack up wind. Everything was going well with just 20 kts of wind but sadly just as we were getting into it the genoa ripped. Bill winched it away as quick as he could but it tore right up to the UV strip. Luckily he managed to get it away That was the end of our fun for the day. That evening Inspiration Lady and Camomile anchored north of Pulau Besar in the water islands at 02˚07.5N 102˚19.2E there was a beautiful sunset.
No 2 jib with the tattered remains of the genny rolled away
Saturday 20th was a long day. Starting at 05.00 we left Pular Besar in the dark following a previous track. Bill had rigged our No 2 jib on the inner forestay as a temporary measure until we could take the genoa down. Again the wind was on the nose so we had to motor sail tacking up the rhumb line. The No 2 worked ok but we were very underpowered.
Indian ocean
The sea was a bit boisterous.
Bill was happy
Ships moving into and out of the Singapore Straits
We arrived off the Johor Straits at lunch time 21st June, Fathers day. The AIS (automatic identification system) sprang into life as soon as we got near Singapore. There are so many ships anchored and moving around the Singapore Straits that the chartplotter looked like a game of space invaders! The little black boat is us and the green line is our course heading towards the red cross, bit off course, oops!
Inspiration Lady dancing with the big boats
There were lots of ships anchored inside the straits. Inspiration Lady and Camomile had to weave in between them.
Singapore docks
Police patrol
The Singapore navy are neurotic about people getting into Singapore illegally. It’s probably because singapore is ‘full’ so they post patrol boats all along the border and watch us as we pass. Woe betide you if you stray over the invisible line between Singapore and Malaysia. It’s on the chart and they can see where we are from our AIS signal. We did it once and they were straight over and followed us all the way.
I’ll say it ‘That’s torn it!’
We tied up in Puteri marina at 3pm and stayed there for 2 weeks. The first job was take down the torn genny. When Bill unrolled it we could see the extent of the damage.
Something has gone wrong with my soft ware so I’ll close this blog and start a new one.
Week 12 and the rudder is back on
The mystery object is assembled
Saturday 18th April Bill assembled his mystery object. It’s made from off cuts. The piece of plywood needs to be shaped so by using a circular saw set to a depth it allowed Bill to make cuts to break the grain. Three of the triangular shaped pieces were screwed onto them and they were both sanded down. They look like mini ski ramps possibly for the gecko’s don’t they but there’s no snow here.
Mini ski ramp
Teak for the cockpit coaming too
Bill continued to create the woodwork for the cockpit combing – no more sitting on the treadmaster and getting diamond patterns on your bottom!
Removing the last of the treadmaster
The rest of the day was spent removing the last of treadmaster and the old seating behind the wheel, it’s all going to be replaced with teak. That evening we had a lovely meal with Keith and Christine of Poco Andante and Jill and Aidan of Dunworking.
Seat and treadmaster all gone
Removing the jamming cleats
Sunday 19th Bill decided the old jamming cleats would have to go. They’ve never worked properly and they were in his way but they put up a bit of a fight.
Beautiful fan palm
I decided to go and have my coffee in the resort and take some pictures of the palm trees here for my sister Amanda. Remember we saw these in Wisley in the greenhouse. I know everyone thinks I should help Bill more but there’s really nothing I can do I just get in the way. I make sure he’s fed and watered and has clean clothes and a clean bed and that’s all he needs me to do. Sometimes he gives me jobs but he likes doing things his own way!
Palms in the resort
Stunning
Encasing them in fibreglass
When I got back he was fibre glassing the mystery objects. We spent the rest of the day getting things ready to reinsert the rudder.
Busy Bill
Two of them!
The forklift places the rudder in position
Monday 20th poor Camomile had major surgery to reinsert her rudder. The forklift moved the rudder into place before they brought the lift in. We had intended to go back in the water but we’ve still got more ‘out of the water’ jobs to do so we are just putting the rudder in and repositioning her.
The travel lift in position
Camomile was lifted.
Up she goes
Heavy old rudder
It took three of the crew to lift the rudder up into place.
Rudder in position
Once we were happy the rudder was located properly they starting lowering Camomile down onto it inch by inch but Bill was nervous of them lowering Camomile down onto the rudder because if the new bearings didn’t fit, the weight of the boat pushing down onto them would split them and possibly do further damage.
Lowering her onto the rudder
So Bill got on board and attached the studding to the rudder so it couldn’t fall out. The forklift was brought in and placed under the rudder with the forks lifting the rudder into place. I was left on the ground to call out instructions; I’m good at that!! They stopped at the first red line so Bill could place the seal and the steering quadrant on then they continued to the second red line which was for the top quadrant which stops the rudder going to far. Bill put his head out of the hatch in our cabin to say everything was on. I asked if everything was in place ok and did he need a second pair of eyes to check? For which I received a few words; as if he would do something like that!
The forklift pushes the rudder right up
The boys continued to push the rudder up until it was in place.
It fitted perfectly
The new bearings fitted perfectly, Bill was really pleased.
Back on the ground
The boys sat Camomile back down again in a slightly different place so we could finish putting on the copper coat on the spots where the cradle rests had been and touch up the anti foul underneath the keel.
The black quadrant at the bottom of the picture was upside down.
Bill spent the afternoon reattaching all the autohelm and steering gear to the rudder. I could hear him swearing and cursing in our cabin so went to see what the problem was – he had put one of the steering quadrants on upside down! I said nothing. It was too late to do anything about it for now.
Tuesday 21st we went to Thailand for the day. When you enter Malaysia you are given a 90 day tourist visa in your passport and to renew it you need to leave the country. I had a new one when I returned but Bill’s one was due to run out 1st May plus we needed to get his new passport stamped. We had been given conflicting advice some people said you could get a new visa by going to Thailand but some said you needed to be out of the country for 72 hours to get a 90 day one and if you go for the day they only give a two week visa on your return. So we thought the only way to find out was to do it.
Ferry to Satun, Thailand
We took the 7.15 ferry across to Langkawi and a taxi to the ferry port. The ferry to Satun in Thailand leaves the ferry port 3 times a day and we were intending to take the 9am ferry. We went to immigration where we had originally checked in when we arrived and asked the question, ‘could we go to Satun for the day and come back and get a 90 day visa?’ We explained we were on a yacht in Rebak marina that was having work done and wasn’t ready to leave yet. The lady said it was ok; she would give us 90-day visa stamps on our return so we bought our tickets to Satun. We took both of Bill’s passports and they stamped us out of the country in his new one. The ferry took just over an hour. The instruments it had were very old fashioned.
The bridge of the ferry
Colourful temple
We were sitting ducks when we arrived and were immediately picked up by a local taxi driver wanting to give us ‘a tour’. It turned out the town was 15kms away so we agreed a price to just go to town and bring us back later. We could have probably got on a tuk tuk for a 10th of what we paid but the guy had a family to feed. The town was fairly uninspiring although we did come across this colourful temple in amongst the houses.
Lovely fresh produce
The market was very interesting with lots of local produce but we decided not to buy any and complicate the return.
Open stall selling chicken
These stalls were selling uncovered chicken that was open to all the flies and didn’t smell very nice – yummy! The fish stall was even worse but I didn’t chance going close enough to take a photo. You could smell it from 10 yards.
Bill found the hardware shop
We found a nice restaurant for lunch and wandered back to where we had agreed to meet our little taxi driver. Bill managed to sniff out this hardware store on the way back. We took the ferry back to Kuah on Langkawi and nervously queued for our passport stamp. Luckily the lady we spoke to was still on duty and remembered us and gave us our 90 day stamp – job done.
Looking down into the bottom of the rudder housing
Wednesday 22nd While I was out for my run Bill resolved the rudder problem. By using the studding he was able to lower the rudder enough to turn the quadrant round and wound the rudder back into place. This photo is looking down into the cupboard and the offending part is the black quadrant on the left of the photo. Bill reconnected all the steering and autohelm parts. Luckily we weren’t in the water.
The cupboard back in place
Finally Bill put the cupboard back in place ending almost 3 months of sleeping next to the ‘hole’. The mattress was rolled back into place and I made the bed. Our cabin was back to normal apart from the headlining but that will be addressed later. If anyone is interested in how Bill built the bed in the first place see Bill’s technical article Blue water comfy bed on the website.
Back to normal
New tyres on the dinghy wheels
In the next few days lots of little jobs were achieved. The tyres I had bought in the UK and brought back in my suitcase were put on the dinghy wheels but the wheels were taken off the dinghy because Bill rubbed down the transom of the dinghy for painting; probably when we’re back in the water. We managed to get the dinghy back on the davits.
The dinghy ready for painting
Spraying the diesel tanks
We carry a number of diesel jerry cans above and below decks. The ones from the bottom of the deck locker were getting really rusty so they were taken out, the rust was ground off with an angle grinder and Bill re-sprayed them. First with a prima and then the next day with black paint. I put their coats back on.
Good as new
Newly painted radiator
As some of you know we have a central heating system in the boat powered by an Eberspacher diesel unit (which isn’t working at the moment; it’s on the list). A bit crazy in the tropics you may be thinking but remember we are circumnavigating the world and intend to go back to the UK when we’ve completed it. For that we’ll need heating and some of the radiators have gone rusty so Bill took them off and sprayed them. It’s something he wanted to do.
The old and the new
You don’t get either of these here very often. You can count the motor cruisers on one hand in this marina; mostly sail boats here. You don’t normally see old traditional wooden boats either; it’s a bit too expensive for the locals but an American guy who is doing it up owns this one!
New curtain retainers
Most of the woodwork was completed now, even though not all of it was attached yet, and Bill had very little left. Our curtains are held back with a piece of headlining material that’s gone a bit saggy so Bill has used the last of the wood to make some new curtain retainers. It didn’t take him long. They will slot into these, which are made from the parts cut out from the new grab handles. As they are going inside they were given several layers of varnish.
The holders made from scraps
Another rudder going in
Friday 24th the boat next door owned by a Swedish couple had their rudder put back on and asked Bill to help. It was more complicated than ours and gave everyone a few problems. The yard boys lifted their boat off it’s cradle and got their rudder in place and proceeded to lower the boat onto the rudder. As they started there was an awful crack, I decided I was leaving and went off to the ferry for my usual trip to the Chinese man with a van. When I came back they were using the forklift to push it into place and apparently the crack had come from the piece of wood the rudder was sitting on. All ended well.
Wood bending
So what has become of the mystery objects, well they will be connected to this. This is how Bill bends wood!
Christmas Newsletter 2014
I tried to send this potted version of our year out on email but some of them failed so I’ve published here with a few more photos on it.
James’s 30th birthday
Firstly apologies that I didn’t do a newsletter last year. We had made our way up the Eastern Australian coast and reached Darwin by July. While there, as many of you know, I flew back to the UK because Mum was taken very ill. Even though she seemed to be recovering, allowing me to return to Australia, she died in August. Unfortunately as we had just entered Indonesia on single entry visas, it would have been very difficult to leave the country so Bill and I had our own little service on a beautiful island at the same time as the funeral in the UK; one of the downsides of cruising. After continuing up through Indonesia and into Malaysia, where we put Camomile up on the hard for 3 months, we returned to the UK for the internment of Mum’s ashes and to sort out her bungalow with my sisters. We had a nice time back in the UK. We also celebrated James’s 30th birthday (can’t believe my oldest baby is 30!) and spent Christmas with James in Scotland with Thomas and Sonal joining us there. The boys cooked a delicious Christmas lunch between them.
Returning back to Camomile on 2nd January Bill spent a week doing the usual out of the water jobs before having her re-launched on 7th January just in time for James to arrive. Having left the RAF at the end of 2013 James took a year off to go travelling starting with visiting us while he got over his jetlag and deciding where he wanted to go.
Elephant ride
We all left Camomile on 19th January, James went to Vietnam, Bill and I to Laos and Cambodia. We had a fantastic time visiting Vientiane, capital of Laos, then onto Vang Viang and the old capital of Louang Phabang where we enjoyed visiting the beautiful temples. While there we took part in a long arduous trek to an elephant camp where I was richly rewarded with a ride on an elephant, something I’ve always wanted to do.
Superb Angkor Wat
Phnom Penh in Cambodia didn’t quite reach our expectations but our final destination was the Cambodian ancient temples of Angkor with Angkor Wat, where we met up with James again, turning out to be the highlight of our trip.
Zoe and Bill
After returning to the boat 9th February to complete a few more boat jobs we set sail a week later and headed north. Most of March was spent in Thailand where we had 2 visitors. Firstly James arrived again for 3 weeks. The first 2 weeks spent on the western coast of Phuket and out to the Similian and Surin islands which were wonderful. That was followed by a week visiting the ‘hongs’, hollowed out rocks in Phang Nga bay, where Bill’s stepsister Zoë also joined us for 4 days as part of her 6 week stay in Thailand. It was great getting to know her.
Susan and Angela
April was spent cruising south back down the western coast of Malaysia on the Sail Malaysia East rally to Johor Bahru in time for my sister Angela to arrive on 27th April for a 2 week holiday. Unfortunately shortly before she arrived we were struck by lightening. Luckily it wasn’t a direct hit but it was close enough to take out most of the navigation equipment, both VHF and SSB radios, battery management system, the fridge, the alternator, TV, music radio, the list kept building over the first few days. My poor sister arrived to a very sick boat but hopefully she still had a nice time. We all went to Singapore for a few days to celebrate my birthday as well as limping out to see a couple of islands to give her a taste of the cruising life. Once she had gone Bill set about restoring Camomile with the help of a Singapore supplier and our insurance company, miraculously we were up and running in 7 weeks and finally able to leave JB on 16th June to catch up with the rally and continue on our travels. Top Sail on behalf of RSA settled our claim in full.
Pulau Gaya
July and August were spent on the Sabah coastline of Malaysian Borneo. Our week in the most excellent Kinabatangan River being the highlight. We saw lots of Proboscis monkeys, macaque monkeys and dozens of varieties of birds but our sighting of a Pygmy elephant on his own and later a small herd was the pinnacle of the trip. Pygmy elephants are only about 4 inches shorter than normal elephants but with the removal of a lot of their natural rainforest habitat, sightings of them have become rare so we considered ourselves fortunate.
Fantastic Borobodur
At the end of August we headed south into Indonesia crossing the equator back into the southern hemisphere again. It took us 5 days to sail to Lombok arriving in time for our 36th wedding anniversary on 2nd September. While Camomile was safely tucked up in Medana bay marina we took the opportunity to fly to Yogyakarta for a 4 day to visit Prambanana, the biggest Hindu temple in Indonesia, and Borobudur, the biggest Buddhist stupa in the world, along with a selection of other sights. It was all pretty spectacular.
Thomas and Sonal with Sue and Bill in Gili Air
We returned to Camomile to welcome our youngest son Thomas and lovely girlfriend Sonal onto Camomile, their first visit since we left the UK. We had a wonderful time with them visiting the waterfalls of the Rinjani volcano and the Gili islands among other things. They were with us for 8 wonderful days before heading to Bali and onto Singapore before flying home. It was the highlight of the year for us.
The beautiful beach at Tanjung Kelayang
1st October we arrived at the Karimanjava islands which are north of the island of Java in Indonesia, while there we found some of the best snorkelling of our trip, almost as good as Fiji. Continuing to the island of Belitung to the beaches of Tanjung Kelayang, which we both decided was the best beach of the year. It was also the last beach for this year because on 13th October we checked out of Indonesia and headed back across the equator again and onto Johor Bahru at the bottom of the Malaysia peninsular arriving back at Puteri marina on 17th October to check back into Malaysia for the rest of the year. We were sad to leave Indonesia having spent 2 summers there and discovered such nice friendly people.
Buying goods in the Bac Ha market near Sapa
After spending a couple of weeks doing boat jobs (the list never seems to go down, as fast as jobs come off one end, more jobs get added on the other end!) we headed on ‘holiday’ to Vietnam for a couple of weeks. Vietnam was wonderful and worth the trip. We visited the capital of Hanoi, madness, took the train to Lao Cai to visit the hill tribes of the Hamong people and do some trekking, back to Hanoi on the train.
The waterfront at Hoi An
Flew to Nadang to visit beautiful Hoi An, which was our favourite, and the enigmatic Cham ruins of My Son, practically destroyed by the American airforce during the war. Then finally flew to Hoi Chin Minh city even madder but with a certain amount of charm where, among other things, we visited the evocative and haunting War Remnants museum. It was very sobering and told a totally different side of the war story. Although some of it was propaganda the photos were not fakes and left us emotionally drained for the rest of the day. We finished our tour with a visit to the Cu Chi tunnels, which was also very thought provoking. We loved Vietnam and the Vietnamese people; they are spirited survivors.
Norman, Sara, Sue and Bill at pre Christmas cocktail party at Rebak marina
On the 12th November we returned to Camomile to start our journey up the west Malaysian coast. At Pangkor marina, where we had left them last year, our good sailing friends Norman and Sara were waiting for us on Norsa to sail north with us for the next 3 or 4 months. We are all spending Christmas together at Rebak marina off the island of Langkawi, which is on the Malaysian/Thailand border. A real yachtie paradise because we can use the 5 star resort facilities, including their beautiful pool.
The plan next year is to spend January in Thailand before heading back to Rebak beginning of February for a month up on the hard where Camomile is going to have a new prop shaft, rudder bearings and cutlass bearing and the GRP on her hull is going to be thoroughly cut back and polished and new cove and boot line and the transom painted. The old treadmaster deck is going to be removed (a lot of it has disappeared already) and the coach roof will also be cut and polished. We will then go back in the water and move down to Pangkor where Joe is going to paint the decks with 2 pack paint and Bill will replace all the woodwork. We’ve also got a new Mainsail and sail bag on order so she will look thoroughly beautiful after all that.
Meanwhile I’m going back to the UK for 3 or 4 weeks in March to visit my niece’s new baby due in February and for my sister’s wedding.
Hopefully Camomile will be out of cosmetic surgery by end of April in time for us to cruise the Sarawak and Sabah coast of Malaysian Borneo again as we missed a lot of it last year. The Philippines is planned for June before heading back down to Sabah. Depending on the weather we would like to get over to the eastern Thailand coast in August and our ‘holiday’ next year is hopefully going to be Hong Kong and China for the first 2 weeks in September. We’ll probably eventually end up back in Western Thailand at the end of the year ready to head across the Indian Ocean in 2016 but plans on a yacht are always set in jelly so any of this could change.
I started this newsletter on a sad note so I want to end it on a happy one and wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a wonderful and healthy New Year wherever you may be.
Lots of love from Bill and Sue xx
Happy Christmas from Malaysia
Convoy to Tawau
I’ve written this blog for the cruisers that are coming along after us. It has waypoints of the anchorages we used, which should all be checked before use. I hope you find it useful.
Our route through to Dewhurst bay
After our wonderful time up the Kinabatagan river we made our way back down the river to the junction at waypoint
05º41.95N
118º23.07E
(just to the left of where Camomile is in this screen shot of the chartplotter)
At this point you have two choices
- go back the way you came and continue back down the Malaysian west Sabah coast and onto Sarawak and the Singapore area
- or go back the way you came but instead of heading to Singapore head north to the Philippines after checking out in Kudat
If you’re not going to Indonesia then I would recommend one of the above
- or turn right and continue on the journey down the east Sabah coast, which is what we did.
Within a few days the rally was assembled in Dewhurst bay (I’m pointing to it with the pencil) for the start of the convoy that we were being encouraged to join for our safety. The pirate situation in the Sula sea was perceived to be a big enough threat to concern the Malaysian navy, having already been told a curfew was in place from 6pm to 6am.
Driftwood point beach
Driftwood
On the evening of 31st August the boats all moved out to the outer anchorage ready for an early start.
05º38.12N
118º36.5E
On the chart it’s called driftwood point and this certainly described the beach. The dinghy was lowered so we could take a closer look. The beach was indeed covered in the biggest logs I’ve ever seen on a beach before. Luckily they were on the beach and not in the water, some of them would have caused some serious damage to rudders, etc.
Monkeys playing
Monkey looking for food
There were monkeys playing among them searching for titbits of food, we sat and watched them from the waters edge for a while.
Some big pieces
Trees taking root
Some of the ‘driftwood’ were taking root and beginning to form new trees on the low tide line. It was the most extraordinary sight.
Early morning sunrise
The next morning, 1st August just before 6am the sky turned the most stunning colours before the sun came up. Everyone had agreed to leave at 6am so it was anchors up and we all left together.
Half of our convoy showing their AIS signals
There were now just 15 boats travelling together with more than half of them transmitting their position on AIS. The screen on the chartplotter looked quite amusing as we all travelled together. No sign of our escort yet.
There wasn’t any wind so we motored the 24 miles to Evans bay until a few miles outside when the wind piped up but too late to be of any use and it was accompanied by rain. The rest of the day was spent reading. We had all been invited to sundowners on Labarque but the weather put a stop to that so I dusted down the quiz book and we had a Camomile Quiz on the radio instead.
Evans bay waypoint
05º24.2N
118º56.1E
Early morning start
2nd August, another 6am start but there was enough wind to sail so up went the sails and we sailed most of the 36 miles to Dent Haven, on the most eastern headland on the Malaysia mainland.
Navy gunship
Today our navy escort made an appearance. We had seen a navy ship on the AIS but as we all came into anchor a Police boat and a small gun ship arrived. Yes that is a machine gun on its bow! It was a nice evening and the invitation to Labarque was renewed.
Anchored at waypoint
05º14.9N
119º15.5E
Another early morning start
3rd August after, yes you’ve guessed correctly, another 6am start we had a really good sail to the Tungku lighthouse 32 miles away, many of us didn’t want to stop but we’d all agreed to stick together and we wouldn’t have made Lahad Datu in daylight. The American catamaran Ocelot invited everyone for sundowners that evening.
Waypoint for anchorage west of Tungku lighthouse
04º59.3N
118º50.3E
Friend or foe?
4th August started off a sad day for me because it had been a year since my Mum had passed away but I wasn’t allowed to be sad for long because on our passage to Lahad Datu the security was really stepped up as we approached the area where there had been a pirate attack earlier in the year. As well as our now normal police escort and the gunboat, first we were over flown by a police helicopter, then these guys pulled alongside us. Were they the pirates?
Glad they are on our side
Fortunately they were on our side as they started waving and taking photos of US. I felt they deserved a medal simply for wearing that amount of clothes they must have been baking! After motoring alongside for about 5 minutes they moved on to photograph the next boat – bizarre!
So we made it to Lahad Datu where we stayed for 2 nights at
05º01.1N
118º20.0E
Hardware shop
What’s the first shop you would think we’d look for, supermarket maybe? No we start with hardware stores! This one was fairly well packed with all sorts of things; it even had some chandlery bits towards the back.
Lovely Malaysian ladies
I left Bill to have a rummage around while I headed off to look for the market. The markets here are always well stocked with lovely fresh fruit and veggies. These two ladies had a fantastic stall where I bought lots of lovely produce. They loved having their photo taken. The Malaysians are such friendly people.
Dried fish stall
I continued through the market and knew by the smell I was getting close to the dried fish stall. I managed to hold my breathe long enough to take this photo before I had to move away. The whole stall consists of dried fish of varying sizes, it’s very popular and looks very fresh in a dried sort of way but it absolutely stinks.
This lady was selling medical supplies
It was possible to buy anything from this lady, antibiotics, birth control, paracetamol, viagra, anything. Whether it was real is another matter as is the fact that a lot of them should be prescription drugs but I assume doctors are too expensive to visit. A bit worrying really.
Rubbish is a problem
Rubbish is a real problem in these areas. Underneath this pile of mostly plastic and polystyrene is a river that flows into the sea, fortunately there was a grill preventing the rubbish from going any further but it’s a huge problem here. Many fish and sea creatures such as turtles are badly affected by the rubbish floating in the sea. To be fair a truck had just arrived to clear away the debris but something has to done about the rubbish problem in this part of the world, and soon.
Rally boats at anchor
We walked back to the harbour where the fleet were anchored. Our police escort were tied alongside the local police wharf and our dinghies were tied alongside them. Hopefully there won’t be an emergency!
Some of our friendly escorts
On our second day in Lahad Datu the rally put on a lunch in a local hotel so we could meet and greet our protectors, they were a really lovely bunch of lads. After their talk they spread out and came and sat with us for lunch. Some of them only had basic English but managed really well chatting to us and answering our questions. Most of them were still carrying a weapon. In the afternoon I found a hairdresser for a haircut. Something got lost in translation because instead of ‘a inch or two off’ I got an inch or two left! Oh well it’ll grow and it’s cooler.
Our first sight of Pulau Bohey Dulang
Wednesday 6th August we motored the 33 miles to the Tun Sakaran marine park and Pulau Bohey Dulang. The first sight of these islands took our breath away. The sheer cliffs and lush tropical jungle make a striking contrast to the fairly flat, palm tree covered islands around it. Being part of the rim of an ancient volcanic crater, now inundated, it’s encircled by coral reefs. Normally yachts aren’t allowed into the lagoon because it’s a marine research centre but the rally had obtained permission for us to enter. One by one we entered the reef at waypoint
04º35.33N
118º42.99E
Our escort at the entrance
Our police escort was the last in and anchored across the entrance as a ‘plug’, the navy tied their boats (there were now two of them) to the wharf. The rally had been asked to anchor close together but unfortunately the organisers hadn’t realised that the area they wanted us to anchor in was 20m+. Bill’s normal policy is to find somewhere 10m or less but it went from 20m to reef so we didn’t have any option but to anchor in 20m. We were consoled by the fact that several of the yachts carried divers with tanks and compressors so if the anchor got stuck we could ask for their help. We anchored at
04º35.9N
118º46.7E in 20.3m of water, the deepest we’ve ever anchored in.
Beautiful anchorage beyond the reef
The cages have clams in them
Our surroundings were superb, the water was an amazing colour; so blue. We took the dinghy to the wharf and were given a guided tour of the marine research centre where they cultivate clams before putting them back in the water in a controlled environment for their protection. Unfortunately the locals eat them and their numbers are diminishing.
Pot luck supper
Cruisers enjoying the delicious food.
The wharf made an ideal setting for a pot luck supper so I got on the radio and managed to organise several tables, some chairs and a ‘pot’ from everyone for supper. We all took our own plates, k,f & s, and alcohol. We invited the navy boys to join us because they didn’t appear to have much food on board, cans of coke were also given to them and they seemed really happy with the invitation. It was that evening that we found out that we had become ‘tethered goats’. Earlier in the year there had been a pirate attack on the island of Mabul and one of the police or navy had been shot and killed and another had been taken ransom. If the pirates launched an attack on us the navy planned to capture one of them so they could exchange him for their colleague because the government won’t pay the ransom. Not sure how we felt about that situation but fortunately the pirates stayed away.
‘Can I come home with you?’
This little chap quietly waited for titbits all evening and did quite well, he was very thin and obviously a stray. I would have loved to have taken him on board but Bill, sensibly, said No. I called him Snowy.
Looking down on the bay
Bill and Sue looking hot?!
The next day the research centre made one of their staff available to take us on a trek up the hill to an amazing viewpoint. The view was astounding. If you think our t-shirts look wet you’re right and it’s perspiration. It only took an hour to walk up there but it was very steep and there were lots of steps and it was HOT. Try putting a stepper machine in a sauna and using it for an hour and you’ll get an idea of the conditions. All agreed the view was worth it.
Hot and sweaty cruisers
Camomile in the bay
Little Camomile waiting for us.
Our young guide
Our little guide, who did the walk without any effort, sat on the cliff logged onto facebook as there wasn’t a signal in the bay making many of us feel our age. Note he’s beyond the line that says ‘Don’t pass’!
Beautiful green coral
In the afternoon we went snorkelling. The water was so clear, there were lots of different coloured coral, fish and lots of rays lying on the sand. We weren’t allowed to go outside the reef but you didn’t need to there was so much to see inside.
and pink coral
Puffer fish about the size of my foot
Jacqui kits me up
Our friends Jacqui and Dave on Jackster have their own diving kit on board and offered to give me a diving lesson later that day. Dave didn’t give me any chance to think about it because he knew I would have found an excuse but I didn’t and off we went to the beach.
Diving with Dave
The water was a bit cloudy close in but I managed to get down a few metres and Dave helped me to regulate my buoyancy. It was fun but I don’t think I’ll be signing up for my Padi just yet.
After 3 days it was time to leave and after our usual 6am start we headed towards Bum Bum island and into the Bum Bum channel. As you can imagine there were lots of jokes being cracked on the radio about the passage, I’ll say no more!
The village of Semporna
Waypoint at the entrance
04º31.41N
118º37.74E
We passed Semporna, which had been on our original itinerary, but after the attack on Mabul earlier in the year the navy didn’t want us to stop there. Sadly the local people abuse the sea terribly and there was so much rubbish floating in the water. Several of the boats had to stop with blocked inlets or rubbish around their prop. Most of the islanders live in houses on stilts over the water and just throw their rubbish over the side.
A local boat
As the rally passed through it generated a lot of interest with local boats coming out to see us and wave. Everyone seemed very friendly it was a shame we couldn’t stop.
Hitching a ride
Once out the other side we continued on to the Kumpong river. There was lots of shipping although mainly tug and tows. Some locals had hitched a ride on this barge and this one was so overloaded it was difficult to see the barge underneath. It looked very unbalanced, no wonder there are so many logs floating around in this area.
An overloaded barge
The entrance to the river was very shallow and the rally had arrived too early. Some of the boats anchored outside for a while. Camomile touched the soft mud bottom but ploughed on, literally, with the rising tide and eventually found enough water to continue inside.
The shallowest part was at
04º19.46N
118º22.30E
Some of the boats came in about a mile to our port really close in to the Kiraz point you could try that but proceed with caution.
Another water residence
There was a stilt village on the inside and the children waved as we passed by and made our way up another muddy brown estuary but luckily not too far.
Chartplotter way out
As you can see the chartplotter was out again so we just used the rule of sticking to the outside of the bends. The black line is our track.
A bit too close
The anchorage was alongside a nice resort but the river was quite narrow and when the tide turned we could almost touch the trees. We anchored at
04º21.4N
118º19.2E
Fishing structure with fisherman rigging his nets
On the final leg to Tawau we discovered some structures that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a War of the Worlds film set. They are fishing traps, unlit of course, but quite visible being about 10 feet above the water level. What was more worrying was that there were some derelict ones with just a few stumps sticking out of the water. What was underneath the water in between them?
Many structures as far as you can see
There were hundreds of structures spread over many miles so to go around them would have been a huge detour. I kept watch on the bow as we motored in between them, carefully, hoping we didn’t get lucky!
Tawau
Eventually we got clear of them and continued on to Tawau, our final stopover in Malaysia, where we anchored at
04º15.0N
117º52.4E.
Final party
The rally organised a lovely farewell party for the cruisers, everyone was relieved to have got there in one piece and the only thing that marred the evening were some ‘rascals’ who stole furling lines from some of the boats at anchor while we were all ashore enjoying ourselves.
Camomile’s was cut just below the drum but not taken (Bill had enough spare line to reload it though). It was a shame for the 3 or 4 boats affected and the organisers were exceedingly embarrassed that it had happened right in front of the yacht club with several of the police/navy hierarchy present. Patrol boats were sent out but the culprits were long gone.
During the final leg of the passage our trip counter had clicked over 40,000 miles since leaving the UK and so far this is the only time anything like that has happened despite some of the remote locations Camomile has visited. We’ve had such a diverse journey meeting so many wonderful people of all different faiths and cultures who have all wanted to warmly greet us. Not once have we felt threatened, a truly remarkable journey and it continues.
The Kinabatangan River
Chart showing entrance waypoints
We spent a week at Sandakan before moving on to the Kinabatangan river. The night before we left a huge storm swept across the anchorage causing some of the boats to drag again. There was so much rubbish on the sea bed the anchors couldn’t dig in properly. The pink area on this chart is rain, when it rains here it rains!! This chart also shows the waypoints and our route plotted across the sandbanks to the entrance to the Kinabatangan river. The entrance has a sandbar and lots of sandbanks, it looks like our route went over the shallows but we didn’t have less than a metre under our keel the whole journey on the high tide.
Jackster with Samsara II in the distance
Our friends on Jackster followed us in and Samsara II were a little way behind them. Fortunately the convoy had broken up a bit, some of the catamarans had gone in a day or two earlier and some of the mono hulls were still in Sandakan waiting another day or two for a higher high tide.
Wildlife spotting on the bow
I took up my position on the bow with my deckchair, sunshade and binoculars looking out for wildlife.
Chocolate brown river
Ninah palms on the river bank
The Kinabatangan river is Sabah’s longest at 560km of chocolate brown water, it coils into the Borneo interior. There’s a narrow strip of rain forest trees that have lots of wildlife in it that flee ever-encroaching palm-oil plantations. The scenery was beautiful not in a ‘chocolate box cottage’ kind of way but in a ‘Borneo rainforest’ kind of way.
Riverside scenery
Our plan was to slowly glide along and just stop whenever we saw something interesting. All along the river are different types of trees holding 100s of monkeys. We were able to get in quite close to the rivers edge; it was fairly deep.
Nudging the bow in close
Proboscis monkey
There were Proboscis monkeys everywhere; the males have large pendulus noses. They leap from tree to tree, bush to bush. We have lots of photos of them but here are just a few.
The three boats anchored together that evening and we all enjoyed a fantastic display of fireflies once it got dark. Our waypoint was
05º42.08N
118º21.63E
Waking up in the morning in the middle of a rain forest was magical. The silence was very noisy.
Fishing village
We got under way and continued our slow journey stopping whenever we caught sight of something in the trees.
Homestead
Local woman doing the washing
We went past some homesteads. The little shed on the waters edge is a ‘long drop’ toilet. Then a bit further along the riverbank the ladies were washing their hair and their clothes, as they’ve probably done for centuries, and the children were swimming in the water. The river flowed fairly fast so I suppose everything gets washed out to sea.
Local boys swimming
Local boys fishing
These young boys were fishing, not sure I would like to eat anything caught in that water.
Slooping house
Yes this house is sloping towards the water; I wasn’t holding the camera crooked.
Anchored next to resort
Egrets balancing on floating logs
We turned right into the main river and anchored off of a resort for the rest of the day. There were lots of lumps of wood floating down the river. The egrets like to stand on them and float down with the tide and watch for fish but they were a real nuisance getting caught around the anchor chain.
Debris caught around the anchor chain
There was more heavy rain in the afternoon, well we are in a rainforest. We only travelled about 6 miles that day, if it hadn’t rained we might have gone on but we had plenty of time. Our waypoint was
05º41.10N
118º22.98E
Entrance to Oxbow lake
The next morning we made our way to the entrance of an oxbow lake, which was only 3 miles away. An oxbow lake is a U-shaped body of water that forms when a wide meander from the main stem of a river is cut off, creating a freestanding body of water. The first part was long and narrow then it opened up into the lake and wow!
The oxbow lake
Egret in the lake
The photos don’t do it justice but I’ve taken some panoramic shots to try and recreate our view.
Egret in flight
Kingfisher with orange breast
The bird life was fantastic. Lots of hornbills, egrets and this beautiful kingfisher with an orange breast and red beak.
Blue water Hyacinth
The blue water hyacinths that covered more than half the lake were exquisite.
Dave and Jacqui on Jackster
Jackster and Samsara were there too.
Steve and Julie on Samsara II
Pygmy elephant
After an hour or so we motored back to the boats, I took up my position on the bow again and we continued up the river. We were so lucky being the lead boat that day because just around the next bend I saw a pygmy elephant drinking from the river.
“Cruisers coming, I’m off”
It was on it’s own and we glided slowly towards it but it saw us coming and turned back into jungle. The others arrived and we could hear it stamping around behind the bush but it didn’t come back out again.
Pencil marks the spot
The pencil marks the spot where we saw the elephant. The red and white flag at the bottom of the chart is as far as we could go because it’s marking power lines that we couldn’t get under.
Macques on the webbing line
Our third night at anchor was spent only about an hour before the power lines next to a tributary. We took a closer look in the dinghy. There was webbing stretched high up across the tributary. Just as we were wondering what it was for a couple of monkeys walked along it. When they stopped they wound their tails expertly around the webbing hanging down for balance. We got some great photos of them.
Macaque monkey
Further in there were lots of macaque monkeys playing in the undergrowth.
Stunning sunset
A stunning sunset awaited us back at the boat.
Our waypoint was
05º33.35N
118º20.17E
The next day we motored the last hour into Sukau the village next to the power lines.
The waypoint was
05º30.48N
118º17.54E our chartplotter showed this on land but the chart had been roughly correct up to the last little bit.
Tug and tow
Our old friend the ‘tug and tow’ was there to greet us. We were only 20 miles inland as the crow flies but we’d travelled 41 miles from the river entrance. I don’t think Camomile has been that far away from the sea since crossing the Panama canal.
Camomile pretending to be the African Queen
Local mosque
I went ashore to explore Sukau. There was the usual mosque and several rows of prettily painted houses with the usual washing hanging out.
Pretty houses
Barge acting as ferry
The roads were only dirt tracks but to cross the river a barge was used pushed along by a large tug.
I walked for a couple of miles on a circuit from the village to a couple of resorts and back. Sadly I found as soon as I was away from the river the trees changed to palm oil plantations, miles and miles of them. It’s so wrong because the wildlife can’t live in them and in particular the wild Orang-utans need proper trees to live in.
Another pygmy elephant
We spent 2 nights in Sukau before making our way back down the river. On the second evening we took the dinghy under the power lines to see what we could find. We found a whole herd of pygmy elephants and we managed to get really close. So lucky
I took 100s of photos and it was difficult choosing which ones to post on my blog, I hope you like my choice. A photo can show you what we saw but you can’t feel the temperature or the humidity, you can’t smell the jungle and you can’t hear the sounds of which there was a cacophony.
I’m looking at you, looking at me, looking at you
Sandakan
The yachts arrived in convoy
On the 15th July we left Turtle Island (Siligan island), without seeing the turtles, to go to Sandakan and onto the Kinabatangan river, hopefully we’d see some wildlife there. We were now in convoy because we are in the Sula sea which is one of the areas in the world that has pirates. Sazli, the rally organiser accompanied us on Out of the Blue II with some local dignitaries and asked if we could all arrive at the same time with our sails up to impress the local people – so much for keeping a low profile.
The town of Sandakan
The water village
Sandakan sits on the entrance to a large bay. The mosque towered over the surrounding buildings. There was also a big water village where all the houses are built on stilts, I say houses but they are little more than garden sheds. One decent cyclone or tsunami would wipe the whole village out, and frequently does.
Monitor lizard prowling the shoreline
We went ashore to the local yacht club and spotted this little chap doing his rounds of the ‘beach’ looking for food or animals smaller than him, he was about a metre long.
Flats in the town
The next day we had a whole bunch of jobs to do and headed into the town. As usual everyone was happy and friendly and greeted us warmly but this is one of the rows of flats in town where they live, it looked fairly grim but the people don’t seem to complain. I suppose they don’t know any different.
The little laundry girl
This sweet young girl runs the local laundry, it felt strange asking her to do our washing but she seemed pleased to do it. I’m sure when the rally arrived in town all the prices went up but it was still reasonable at MR31 (about £5.50) for a huge bagful.
One of many workers sewing
This man was working out on the balcony, the light was bad inside, making clothing that would probably end up in a western shop somewhere
The big mall
In sharp contrast next door was a huge mall complete with air conditioning. As Hari Raya was coming up every where was decorated similar to our Christmas, the children seemed excited. We couldn’t find out the significance of this house with Hari Raya but everyone was taking photos of it.
Set for the rally dinner
The following evening was the rally dinner in the Sandakan yacht club, which is opposite to where the boats are. The bar looked very grand with all the extra tables to fit us all in.
The pool at the yacht club
The yacht club has a colonial look about it like most of these places it was like an oasis. The pool looked lovely but sadly we don’t seem to have the time to use these pools, too busy trying to write and post blogs!
Orang-utans feeding
The next morning after our briefing on the next stage of our journey, most of the rally got on a coach provided by the local council to go and visit the Sepilok Orang-Utan rehabilitation centre. Established in 1964 it rehabilitates orphaned or injured orang-utans to return to forest life. We arrived at feeding time and were lucky to see several young orang-utans swing out of the trees onto the feeding platform.
Orang-utan swinging through the trees
Otang-utans are beautiful creatures and their name means ‘man of the wild’, they are the only species of great ape found outside of Africa. The males can weigh up to 144kg although there weren’t any big males at Sepilok. Sadly their natural habitat is slowly but surely disappearing, it was once said that an orang-utan could swing from tree to tree from one side of Borneo to the other without touching the ground but not any more. With hunting and habitat destruction it’s estimated fewer than 15,000 specimens now exist in the wild, very sad.
Beautiful gardens
I could watch them all day but we moved onto the Rainforest discovery centre that has a series of towers connected by walkways giving us a birds eye view overlooking the rainforest. We saw lots of macaque monkeys, hornbills and a slow loris, going slowly, but all too far away to get photos of them. Back at the entrance they had the beautiful plant discovery garden, it was wonderful to look around a garden for a change instead of hardware stores and boat shops.
The lake by the gardens
Entrance to Agnes Keith museum
During our stay, in between shopping, buying fuel, finding gas fixing the watermaker and all the other 101 jobs, we found time to walk up the 100 or so steps to Agnes Keith’s house on the hill above the town. Agnes was an American who came to Sandakan in the 1930s with her husband, the then conservator of the local forests. The house has been turned into a museum with some wonderful photos of how Sandakan used to look.
Tea in the garden
In the grounds was an English Tea house serving afternoon tea – it would have been rude not to stop!
Joining the Rally in Kudat
Leaving the Rig support vessels behind
At the beginning of the journey to Kudat a gentle breeze in filled our sails and gave us 2.2kts of speed, hmmmm this was going to take a while. We realised that the island was shielding us from the wind and, despite hoisting the cruising chute, we’d have to motor. We soon left the rig support vessels behind us in the distance. If you look in the foreground of this photo you can see the tips of part of a tree sticking up in the water. That’s the sort of thing we have to look for on this coast, the tropical equivalent to icebergs.
Mount Kinabalu shrouded in cloud
We had decided to do one more night sail mainly to catch up with the rally but also, with the swell that was running, any anchorage on this side of the peninsular would have been untenable. By 15.00, when the sea breezes set in, the mainsail and the cruising chute were back up and the engine was off; we were sailing again. By 18.00 the wind had got stronger and the cruising chute was replaced by the genny and the sea was getting rougher. By 23.00 the wind died completely and the engine was back on. I went to bed at 2am, although sleep was impossible in the swell that was hitting Camomile from the west. Bill came up on watch just in time for the squalls to start; poor Bill got soaked. The wind was up and down during the night, as the squalls crossed our path. At 6am I came back on watch and we were sailing although it was like a washing machine down below and I hadn’t slept much. Bill went down to try to sleep but by 10.00 he was back on deck as we started having 30/35kt squalls. This is Mount Kinabalu, I had hoped to see it in all its glory but it was shrouded in cloud for our journey. Unfortunately we had the tide against us giving us wind against tide and we were only achieving a boat speed of 4kts.
Approaching the northern tip of Borneo
At 2pm we rounded the tip of Borneo, this is the most northerly part of mainland Malaysia.
Much calmer on the eastern side
Thankfully the swell disappeared as we started heading south on the other side of the peninsular. I was hoping we would arrive in time for the trip the rally were running to a Longhouse further inland that was leaving at 4pm, the GPS was giving us an arrival time of 16.01! As we approached I called our friends on the boat Jackster and asked them if the coach would wait for me, although Bill wouldn’t be able to leave Camomile if we had only just anchored. As we arrived at the anchorage and dropped the anchor it was indeed 16.01, how clever is that? Dave very kindly came out to get me in their dinghy and I was whisked away leaving poor Bill to sort the boat out. Luckily he didn’t mind.
A traditional Long house
After a drive of about ¾ of an hour we arrived at the traditional Longhouse, which is one of the distinctive features of Dayak life. The longhouse was raised above the damp jungle floor on stilts and built alongside the beach. In fact this was the stretch of coastline we had battled along earlier in the day. Some longhouses have whole villages living in them but this one was available for guests. It consisted of a long covered veranda along which were rows of doors giving access to the basic rooms.
Drinking from a fresh coconut
We were invited to sit down inside the veranda and offered fresh coconuts with the top sliced off allowing us to drink the delicious liquid inside them.
Village girls in local costume
The rally was invited onto the beach to watch local girls performing some traditional dancing. Their costumes were beautifully made. The guy on the end seemed to be doing his own thing.
Clever dance using bamboo poles
The rocks behind the beach made a wonderful backdrop. After the sun had gone down we were invited into the living quarters of the longhouse for a meal. As we are in the time of Ramadan at the moment many of the locals fast from sunrise to sunset. A delicious buffet meal was served but with very little light it was difficult to see what we were eating; perhaps that was the idea! It all tasted very good and it was nice to have finally caught up with the rally.
Beautiful sunset
Kudat was a funny little town. It had quite a few Chinese hardware stores, a couple of small supermarkets and a handful of eateries. After 2 days of wandering around we decided we wanted to get out into the surrounding islands rather than sit in anchorage surrounded in murky water.
Scenery surrounding island of Banggi
So Saturday 5th July we left early and headed north to Banggi island. It was beautiful. We tucked ourselves into an enclosed anchorage with little islands to the south covered in jungle. We took the dinghy on a little tour of the anchorage but there were mangroves growing down to the waterline and we couldn’t find anywhere to land. For those following along behind us the waypoint for the anchorage is 07º10.15 North 117º09.5 East.
Happy Birthday Bill
This was the furthest north that we were going this year so the next day we headed south again. Bill wasn’t happy being on our own as we were now in the Sula sea, one of the areas in the world that claims to have pirates. The rally have arranged for us to have a naval escort when we get further south into the more notorious area. We headed to Silk island where many of the rally boats had arrived having just left Kudat. As it was Bill’s birthday we invited our friends Dave and Jacqui from Jackster to come and join us for a meal. We had a wonderful evening together.
The duty free island of Labuan
Driftwood on the beach
Labuan is only 20 miles from BSB in Brunei and, as it was a Sunday and we wouldn’t be able to check in until the next day, we decided to have a lunch stop at Keraman island. It’s a small island just south of the main island and had an interesting sand spit protruding out into the sea that gave us a nice protected anchorage. The tide was out exposing the beach along the sand spit so we jumped into the dinghy and headed over to it. It had a steep incline to the beach landing and it was easier to jump in the water and wade in, luckily we had gone in swimming costumes. The beach was littered with the most amazing driftwood that had been washed up on the high tide.
Bill brought the dinghy up the beach while Camomile watched
The dinghy was misbehaving so Bill managed to drag it on to the beach so we could walk the length of the sand spit.
There was surf on both sides of the sand spit
Bill and I on the beach
Storm clouds building
At the far end where the two sides of the beach met the sea the waves were crashing into each other and sending up great walls of spray but look behind the waves and note the black clouds forming in the background. We managed to launch the dinghy and headed back to Camomile and lift the anchor quickly. We motored as fast as we could but the squall caught us and we were lashed by the driving rain followed by 40kt gusts of wind as the storm picked Camomile up and propelled her through the choppy sea towards Victoria harbour on Labuan. The visibility was down to a mile or two but with the radar on we carefully inched our way to the marina in the north of the bay.
Lots of contacts on the chartplotter
The AIS contacts on the chartplotter showed many ships anchored in front of us but we couldn’t see them.
There were many ships anchored in the harbour.
Gradually as the storm cleared the ships started appearing out of the gloom. It appeared they were all support vessels of different kinds for the many oil rigs in the area
Victoria harbour marina
By the time we got to the marina the blue skies were back and you wouldn’t believe we’d had a storm.
The next day we had to go through the usual hoops to check in, it took 2 b*****y hours because we had the wrong stamps in our passports. Long story, won’t bore you with it but eventually they cleared us so we could go shopping.
Mission accomplished
As I’ve said before Labuan is an island; it’s a duty free island, what does that mean ….. cheap booze! Particularly if you go to the Chinese shops because unlike the Malaysians they love to barter. By the end of the day we had been back to the boat twice with 14 litres of spirits and 66 litres of wine. This is my supply of white wine for the next 5 months, the red trolley bag is full of red wine in boxes, they didn’t have a very big supply but managed to find some Banrock Station Shiraz and some French Merlot, we bought all they had. We spent the rest of the day finding places to put it all including lifting the floorboards, Camomile will have to have her waterline lifted again!
Sailing north leaving the ships behind us
The next day, with mission accomplished, we left the marina for an overnight trip around the tip of Borneo to Kudat. The rally were there so we would finally catch up.
The Kingdom of Brunei
Finally got internet coverage so I can continue the tale of our adventure.
The east Malaysian coast
After stopping at the island of Pulau Satang Besar we continued on our journey North East. There wasn’t time to visit Kucking and so we motored about 50 hours until we reached Miri (I’m pointing the pencil at it) on the Sarawak coast. We arrived at the marina entrance on 23rd June about an hour before low water and we knew the entrance was shallow. We had a tense half an hour as we slowly edged towards the entrance in a 1-metre swell watching the depth dropping. Fortunately it didn’t go below 1 metre below our keel. Bill had calibrated the depth transducer before we had entered as it had been set wrong. First things first – air conditioning on. The plan had been to check in and do some shopping but the next morning I discovered the marina was right outside the town and a taxi was needed to get there. I managed to get a few bits of shopping in a local shop. After which a plan B was developed and we decided to move on to Brunei. Originally we didn’t think we would have time to visit but after talking to friends who said fuel was the equivalent of 15p a litre the decision was made.
Oil rigs in the distance
We didn’t want to do any more night sailing because this coastline is littered with oilrigs and their entourage of supply ships so a day sail to Kuala Belait was planned. We passed many oilrigs on the way mostly a fair way out to sea but some were closer in.
Some were a little closer
Oil rig construction
We entered Kuala Belait at 4pm and motored up the river for about a mile and a half before dropping the anchor. In front of us was a bizarre sight as this was the base where the rigs were built and there were a row of them along the riverfront. They were a hive of activity until 5pm when it was down tools and home time. It left an eerie silence except for the cicadas chirping in the untouched jungle opposite.
opposite untouched jungle.
Beautiful sunset in our wake
We left at 5am the next morning for the 63 mile journey to Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei otherwise known as BSB. There wasn’t any wind so we motored all the way arriving at the entrance channel just after 6pm leaving a beautiful sunset in our wake.
Pink glow over the container port
The container port looked striking in its pink glow as we approached the anchorage. Fortunately there was enough light coming from the land to guide us in.
BSB yacht club
The following morning we took the dinghy into the yacht club. It had a wonderful colonial feel about it.
Camomile sat and waited for us.
Camomile waiting for us.
Lots of washing to do
I’d heard there was a FREE washing machine, yippee, cruiser price. The lockers were emptied and all the washing was taken ashore; don’t know where the next washing machine will be.
Lovely outlook
Delicious chocolate fondant pudding with ice cream… yummmm
While the washing was churning away we sat and used the free internet service to download emails and facebook then enjoyed a delicious meal.
Lovely swimming pool
They even had a swimming pool but we didn’t get a chance to try that out. We contacted Allan Riches of Sailmail who, its reported, can arrange a fuel run. His van was booked that day but it was arranged for Zahir to pick us up the next morning with our jerry cans and take us first to a supermarket then on to a fuel station. We retired to Camomile for the evening. Sharia law has limited the bar to soft drinks and beer so we opened a bottle of wine on board instead.
Striking buildings
Zahir was a funny little man in his early 30s and insisted on calling us Mammy and Daddy even though we had given him our names, quite weird. It took almost an hour to drive into the city during which time Zahir ‘grilled’ us about out life. We in turn found out a lot about Brunei from him. Contrary to popular belief the people don’t lead a suppressed life, far from it, Zahir was extolling the virtues of the Sultan and how he looks after everyone handing out money to the children at the end of Ramadan and inviting the whole country to his palace for Hari Raya (the big feast at the end of Ramadan, their equivalent to Christmas). Also they have no income tax, no capital gains tax, no VAT, free schools, free health care, all in all they have a pretty good life. The supermarket was bizarre because it was full of English products, some of which were from Waitrose, right down to the price printed in pounds on the products, although they were being sold for the equivalent of twice the price. I managed to get some things that I haven’t seen since Australia like yoghurt mixes for my yoghurt maker, cranberry juice and really nice museli. I filled the supermarket trolley and it was loaded into the back of the van before we moved on to the fuel station. Bill was really pleased because it was B$0.31 a litre which is the equivalent to 15p a litre….. 15P A LITRE! That’s the cheapest we’ve found since Gibraltar, luckily Bill had borrowed some jerry cans from the yacht club.
Chinese temple
As we drove back to the yacht club Zahir took a different route so we had the chance to see a bit of the town. There were some very modern buildings on the way as well as some traditional ones like this Chinese temple.
The water village on the opposite bank of the river
BSB is home to the biggest water village in the world. Founded at least a thousand years ago it has its own schools, mosques, police stations and fire brigade and is home to an estimated 20,000 people.
School on water
A mosque on water
One of the car parks for the water village
On the opposite bank there were large car parks with luxury cars parked in them, many of which belong to the water village residents.
The Sabah coastline
We stayed at the anchorage for a second night so we could enjoy another meal in the Yacht club but the following morning we had to leave. If time had allowed it would have been great to stay another couple of days and explore further but we needed to keep heading north to catch up with the rally. This chart shows us just outside BSB and the rally were at Kota Kinabalu and travelling north to the tip of Borneo so we weren’t far away but we wanted to stop at the duty free island of Labuan first for a little alcohol!
Camomile 