Miri to Tawau

I am writing this as we sit anchored in the Kinabantgan River hoping that some pygmy elephants will come out to swim. Since my last blog, Brunny and Michael, our friends from Brunei drove to join us in Miri to crew with us for a week. After checking out with customs we cast off from Miri marina which has been where we have awaited Ken’s shoulder injury to heal well enough to leave. We motor sailed 35miles the first day to anchor in the river just inside Brunei. Michael, a keen racing sailor enjoyed tweaking the sails and turning the auto pilot off to hand steer. We were only too happy to let him play as the mentality of a racer is very different from a cruiser who does not feel the fraction of a knot faster makes any difference in the long run. They made for great guests as we got on extremely well with them; they are a lovely couple and a lot of fun. The following day involved yet another motor sail as the winds need an assist and arrived in Labuan which is the duty free port in this part of the world. We stocked up yet again up on cheap beer, gin and scotch. The town itself is a major port where the crews for the oil rigs change shift rotations. They are housed in the hotels for a day or so each side of their rotation before and after they are flown home for leave. The whole town has a transient scruffy air and does not inspire a long stay. It is in Sabah—Malaysia—and Brunei residents ferry over so they can buy their allotment of duty free alcohol to take home—you cannot buy alcohol in conservative Muslim Brunei. The anchorage is surrounded by huge tankers and busy with taxis for the locals who live in the stilt village to get to town as well as rig workers transiting. Michael’s nephew lives there and lent us a car to tour the small island. The highlight was a wonderful Chinese seafood restaurant where we had a wonderful inexpensive dinner. We visited the war cemetery which was a sad reminder of the waste of young men’s lives as we scanned the hundreds of headstones. Many of these were graves of unknown young men and the ages of the known ones were so young. Malaysia having been invaded by the brutal Japanese troupes during the war has a great respect for those who lost their lives to free the nation. The next day we were off to Pulau Tiga –otherwise known as “Survivor Island” where the first two Survivor episodes were filmed. This is about our fifth “Survivor” islands and was, as all of the other ones very beautiful but is close enough to civilization to make it hardly necessary to survive on coconuts alone!! The claim to fame of this island is the volcanic mud pools. These are bubbling but not hot and it is possible to bathe in the mucky mud but as there is not water until you hike the 30 minutes back to the sea we decided to forgo the experience. Our last sailing day took us to the Kota Kinabalu Marina which is an amazing world class marina. It is anchored by two first class hotels and as a guest you are entitled to use any of the three pools or gym. There is a shuttle bus downtown hourly and is a very popular choice for cruisers to hang awhile. The city is the largest in Borneo with over 700,000 people and is a hub for the oil industry as well as palm oil and agriculture. They are starting to build a huge tanker facility and the already booming city will explode. I went to a supermarket with more western products than I have ever seen since Hong Kong, no doubt to cater to all of the expats who service the oil industry here. Is always wonderful to find rare treats and somehow I always end up spending more than I had planned—I justified it by reasoning that it will be a long 4 months before we hit Australia as this is the last place of significant size till then. Brunny and Michael had family there—as they seem to have everywhere and we were once again welcomed and driven everywhere. Meals were the centre of the agenda and we had the advantage of being taken to the best restaurants frequented by the locals. One Chinese restaurant covered a whole city block with several cooking stations where you could pick your fish, prawns or shellfish—yummm. On our last day I went to the Sunday market where they close down a city street and vendors set up stalls where I got fruit and vegs to last to our next stop. It was the start of Hari Raya which is the end of Ramadan and the start of the New Year. This is the equivalent of our Xmas with everyone shopping like mad for the preceding week. Hair salons were packed as it seemed that everyone must get their hair done for the festivities—this seemed a little odd to me as presumably all of these women would wear head coverings anyway. During the month of Ramadan all of the Muslims have to fast from before sunrise till after sunset. As I was at the market the mosque serviced finished and everyone poured into town dressed in amazing bright silks and satins. They are finally allowed to eat during the day and the whole place is buzzing. They have open houses where all are welcome and the food flows—not the wine though as they do not drink. The mood downtown was alive and I was glad that I had happened to be at the right time at the right place. That day was Ken’s birthday—the start of his New Year too!! All of the restaurants were closed—imagine trying to get fed on Xmas day in Canada!! We did manage to get some pork from one restaurant to bring to the boat and had a last dinner with Brunny and Michael as they would leave the next morning. Michael treated us to after dinner drinks at one of the hotels and I was glad I never saw the bill—there are two price structures here—one for the rich and one for everyone else. We had two small coffees at the hotel earlier that day and were shocked to pay US$7 each—our Italian main course at the restaurant the night before had not been much more. Later that night Ron, our next crew helper flew in from Miri. He will be with us for a week till we drop him off in Sandakan. Early in the morning we sadly bid farewell to Brunny and Michael as they flew home and cast off yet again to continue our journey. Ron is Ken’s chiropractor who has worked on his shoulder and is also a keen sailor. He is South African living in Miri now and was happy to have the opportunity to have a week on the boat. Our first stop was at the small islands of Mantanani where we had a somewhat rolly anchorage in the pretty islands. We found a nice coral spot to snorkel before we left once again to head to the “top of Borneo”. We had better wind and were able to sail a lot and the last two hours had a wonderful spinnaker sail to the next anchorage. We are on a fast track trip to catch the other boats going to Indonesia and then Australia so once again set sail in the morning and anchored that night off a beautiful tropical island set in turquoise seas with white sand. This is one of many islands in the region where turtles come in and lay their eggs. Unfortunately because of our time restraints we did not have time to go ashore and watch the turtles hatch. During the following day we anchored off another small island for a swim—it is still VERY HOT!!! While at anchor we looked out as Babadudu with Steve and Marivek who we had not seen for some time came in and put down anchor beside us. They are off to the Philippines as are many of the other boats from the rally. We had a fleeting visit with them before heading off to cross the bar into the river. We had way points which turned out to be accurate as we saw no less than 3 feet under our keel as we crossed. We found a turn in the river where we anchored for the night. The next morning was magical as we awoke in the river to the tropical birdsong in a beautiful peaceful jungle scene. We saw several kinds of monkeys as we motored up the river and anchored for a short time up the river where some of the yachties had previously seen the elephants. None appeared so we continued up to the village where the power lines prevent boats going further up the river. When we got an internet signal there we had a message saying that someone was interested in looking at our boat which we had advertised in the Appollo Duck website—oh oh—we had not expected that—and we are on our fast track to catch the rally boats to Australia. I phoned the number and explained to the woman where we were and that we would only be in Malaysia for a few more days, we would return to Sandakan for a quick visit to drop Ron and then head off the next day to Tawau to check out. They were in Langkawi but quickly responded saying they would fly in and be there when we got there---aaaahhhh!!—do we want to sell the boat---not really!!!!! We tried to focus back on the river with a thousand possibilities going through our heads!! Late in the afternoon we headed up a small tributary where we found many kinds of monkeys including the preposterous proboscis monkeys who were noisily crashing as they swung from tree to tree and some orangutans. Even though we had seen these in the rehabilitation areas it was incredible to actually discover them in the wild. Lots of hornbills and other birds added to the trip. Unfortunately still no elephants and sadly a guide we had tried to contact came by later saying that they had just seen some down the main river and he would take us the next day. We could not stay one more day so motored down the river anchoring at two of the locations we had been told of but still no elephants. It gave us time to clean up the boat and stow away excess “stuff”, as Kristen reminded me that monohull owners—as these people were—were looking for more room and we needed to make the boat look as though there was more room. Other than throw things in the river at this stage there was little we could do to empty some of our belongings but at least it looked tidy and clean. The following morning we set off to cross the bar once again breaking all of the rules of attempting such an endeavor—lower tide than we came in on and a falling one at that—this meant that if we grounded we could be sitting on the bar for 5 hours before floating off. Luckily the least water saw 1.6 feet under the keel which is enough to keep us floating. Upon arrival we saw a couple looking out as we came in—the potential buyers. We took Ron to shore and picked Kaye and Adam an Australian couple who indeed were looking for a cat with more space than their 43 foot Mason—coincidentally that had been the monohull we had been looking at before seeing the light and buying Cop Out. They appeared impressed and told us that it was between our boat and a Lagoon 46 they had looked at in Langkawi. We liked them both and went ashore joining Saltotu and Ron who came back for an enjoyable dinner at the yacht club. We offered to take them out on the water in the morning and Adam offered to help Ken get fuel. When they came in the morning we offered them a two day passage to Tawau. We had been intending to leave in the morning anyway and could do with crew for a few days to help Ken’s shoulder heal. It would give them the opportunity to see how the boat performs and the systems we set up. They could catch the bus back in a few days to fly back to Langkawi. They quickly agreed and as I write this now on my watch they are sleeping and we are able to have the luxury of short night watches. They do like the boat but we understand that it is a huge step to choose your future home and we will try and plan for our original trip open to the possibility that we will be sailing it to Langkawi not Australia if they decide to buy it. In our advertisement we had said we would deliver the boat wherever the buyer wanted it in the region. We are in a strange place right now in our minds—partly wanting to continue our plans which may give us up to two years yet on our beloved Cop Out but also realizing that if we have a buyer we have to sell. I am not sure how I will feel whichever decision they make!! We have enjoyed their company and they have had a good look at Cop Out so will be able to make an informed choice. We however will get our CAIT for Indonesia on Thursday and check out and if necessary will take the route back to Langkawi if necessary. For any of you reading who know my friend Anne Reid from Wellington—having been friends since we were 5 years old has just had a diagnosis of breast cancer—she has had a mastectomy and we send our warmest wishes—it is pretty hot here still so easy to send very warm wishes for a full recovery!!!!