Sunday, October 21, 2012
Kuching to Singapore
We anchored in the Satubong river feeling very isolated. For the first time in a long time we are not with other cruisers. Most have stayed up in Miri north and the others crossing to Singapore have left already.
The following morning we waited for the mini bus to Kuching which is 28km away. The buses in seem few and far between and we are thankful for the shade the trees near the road give us.
I love Kuching, larger than Miri and smaller than Kota Kinabalu and it seems to offer the best of both worlds.
This is the last opportunity for “Borneo souvenirs” and we stocked up with the great white peppercorns and small gifts for grandchildren. In one of the higher end gift stores sellling original artifacts a lovely young woman who is fourth generation Chinese explained the purpose of many of the objects to us. I had admired the heavily beaded baby carriers when we were here last and she explained that the beads which had been traded from Venice were actually used as currency. The baby carriers were also adorned with tusks and various noise makers so that as you walked along the monkeys who may be tempted to steal a young baby would be deterred and other animals would hear you coming and be gone. There are also heavily carved wooden carriers used by the upper classes. These had fairly scary faces as well to scare off any would be “bad spirits”.
There were a number of interesting knives which she explained to Ken—most of these were very expensive as they are very old and beyond our budget.
We came across a furniture store which imported high quality solid wooden furniture from Indonesia. Hmmm—we could get it shipped to Kuala Lumpur and have it shipped with our belongings—we would think about it.
The following day we decided to go to the Sarawak Cultural Village near our anchorage. We had stayed at a long house with the Iban people when we went for our headhunters hike but have seen very little of the other native cultures.
We arrived in time to see the show in which each of the seven different cultures performed dances depicting some of their daily lives. Despite the popular myth of the “Borneo headhunter with a blowpipe in hand” it was apparent that a lot of trading was done with other Asian countries as lovely colourful silk costumes were worn by many of the tribes.
After the performance we wandered the lovely park like area in which each of the tribal groups had a typical house. Various kinds of housing was built to suit the local topography but it seemed the common theme was communal living as opposed to individual houses. There were varying degrees of artistic decorations and shamans were very powerful. There were five main native groups and Malay and Chinese settlers make Sarawak the most multicultural of all Malaysia States.
The Village is owned by the Damai Resort and we wandered back and enjoyed a coffee on the deck overlooking the pool beside a lovely beach while we waited for the bus to take us back to our anchorage.
The next day we had hoped to go to the renowned Sunday Market but it was pouring with rain and by the time it abated and we made our way into town it was over. We searched for Dim Sum but despite directions given to us we finally opted for the Chinese Noodle house.
Next day was our last and once again we waited patiently for the mini bus to take us into town. We decided to bite the bullet and buy a teak wall unit which has a cupboard at the bottom and a drawer above which are shelves. We also bought a coffee table and side table all of which will cost us $1500 by the time we get it home. We gave away so much of our furnishings from Calgary, this will give a welcome relief from Ikea.
We set sail the following morning hoping once again to catch a last opportunity to snorkel before hitting West Malaysia. The first island we had intended stopping at had a wicked swell so we pressed on to the next island. We did stop there for the night but once again in the morning we could hear thunder and the swell started picking up.
Foiled again!!! We now stopped in the anchorage just south of the point of Borneo from which we would leave the following day to head across in a straight line for the 320 miles to Singapore.
There was no coral for snorkeling but was lovely to finally swim. We took a walk on the lovely trails through the forest and came across an immaculate National Park headquarters. This opens onto a great beach and shelters are built for camping and cooking—at only $1 a night this is a steal!! The rafflesia is in the area although no one seemed to know if it was flowering at the moment.
We had intended leaving the next morning but it seemed that one of our rebuilt water pumps was leaking—yet again. Ken decided that he should replace it before what we had assumed would be a long motor trip—very little wind is around at the moment. While he was in the engine room one thing led to another and he replaced a belt and by the time he had done a few other chores the day was gone and he was hot, dirty and dehydrated.
I started packing some of the food stuffs we want to take home—we had not anticipated selling the boat so quickly and had no urgency eating our supplies. We also have found that in this part of the world with cheap tasty food available at the restaurants we are not eating on the boat as much. We have some wonderful oils, vinegars chutneys and hot sauces we have bought as we have travelled and I will ship them home. It does apparently complicate our customs clearance when the shipment arrives so I am photographing it as I pack so hopefully we get a sympathetic quarantine agent. We are also trying to eat most of the canned foods we have had on board in case we could not get fresh produce—well we always have been able to get fresh produce so there is quite the supply—for those Canadians who fret about the “best before” dates I will not say how long we have had some of these—NB neither of us has had any ill effects from stale dated products!!!!! I have a lot of milk powder from NZ—before then we had been using it when we could not get UHT milk and I was also using it to make yoghurt. Since buying it I have always been able to get UHT milk and either buy fresh yoghurt or use my NZ yoghurt maker with the pre made packages—hmm not sure what to do with the milk powder??
We have started the 350 mile passage to Singapore as I write this with a nasty 2 knot current against us and no wind. This will be our last long passage as the rest will be day passages as we go up the west coast of Malaysia so I will attempt to paint the picture of this passage.
With an adverse current and what little wind there is we are struggling to do 4 knots with both engines going and are hoping our fuel will last the voyage!! What we had assumed would be a 3 day passage will now be 4 days.
The seas have a slight swell but it is not uncomfortable.
It is frustrating as we now need to maintain 4.5 knots to arrive at the Singapore Straits at dawn on our 4th day. This will allow us to cross the incredibly busy shipping lanes in daylight and get to the marina before dark.
The winds come and go and we are forever putting the foresail out and bringing it in. We are at least able to run on only one engine now so the fuel should be fine but we are revving it up or bringing it down as the conditions are constantly changing. The current ranges from 1-2 knots against us. We have had several huge downpours but mostly with little wind and no lightning—one of the dreaded things at this time of year in this region. We know of several boats which have been struck and even a near strike can destroy your electronics.
We are now half way through the passage in the middle of the second night and I am on watch as Ken sleeps. We are in yet another rainstorm which is disconcerting as you cannot see if there are any other boats around you. It is pitch dark and the radar cannot spick up any ships if it is raining. I will be glad when it is dawn. The seas have become choppy while the storm is near and sleeping in the fore berth becomes impossible—luckily the bed at the aft is always calmer and provides a comfortable night. We have had to turn on the second engine to maintain speed, if we cannot get to the marina in the daylight we would have to cross the Straits and anchor in the Malaysian side for the night and continue the next day. There is no anchoring allowed in Singapore waters—we want to avoid that if at all possible.
We are in Indonesian waters now in the tanker lane but they are generally going parallel to us, better than crossing paths. Despite the area being a “no fishing” zone—presumably because of the tankers—there are quite a number of fishing boats around—I suspect the policing is lax. We were concerned when one came towards us just before dusk and seemed to keep coming—there are always fears at the back of your mind how vulnerable you are and we do hear of “boardings “ of boats underway from time to time—we have not heard of any in this region. We are generally very relaxed as the fishermen all wave happily to us—this is one of the things we have loved as we come across them. Anyway our worries were unfounded as the boat was positioning itself to drag its net and it turned just before it reached us.
We were joined by a small swiftlet who accompanied us for a while. They come and land appearing exhausted but do not like the rocky boat and will fly around to try and be comfortable. They often get inside and Ken found a dead one in his workroom yesterday—poor thing probably died of heart failure when he couldn’t find his way out. We also seem to have a resident gecko who had been feasting when we were close to shore but must be hungry by now—hope he can survive till Singapore. A grasshopper was hopping around but drove me crazy as he would fly into your face I caught him and threw him overboard—I hope he figures out how to fly to Singapore.
It is now the next morning and the skies are overcast with eerie grey flat seas. The wind has totally gone and we are motoring with one engine and able to do 4.5 knots despite the 1 knot of current against us.
The grasshopper is back—obviously decided that the long flight to Singapore is beyond what he had wanted to do—he had better keep out of my face!!! Maybe the gecko will find him and have a feast!!!
We enjoyed a pod of dolphins that came and played with us—always an amazing treat.
Another fishing boat approached us—gesturing if we had cigarettes—sorry none.
It is now the last night of the passage—we are only 29 miles from our way point which is where we intend crossing the double shipping lanes. There is a lane for eastbound tankers and one for west. They are continuous and about 12 minutes apart. That sounds reasonable but the lanes are about 1 ½ miles wide and we need to time it so we can avoid a collision!! You can stop in the centre and wait for the other traffic if necessary but we definitely want to be crossing in the daylight. That means trying to maintain under 4 knots of speed till then.
We are travelling beside vast numbers of tankers all anchored awaiting their turn to enter the shipping lanes. Although it is a channel it is one of the busiest in the world and is heavily controlled.
It is a calm clear night but there is some lightening on the horizon. If it does rain and the visibility goes we will have to try and to stop and wait it out. Hitting an anchored tanker would not be a good thing!!
The chatter on the radio has started and the multinational languages are apparent—Italian, Chinese, Bahasa Malay and very heavily accented English.
It is now morning and we have successfully crossed the shipping lanes. The number of tankers is amazing—we went past 25 miles of anchored tankers and there is another 25 miles before they will run out. Singapore is one of the biggest marine centres in the world but it has no natural harbor. It is almost on the equator—we are at latitude 01 degrees so there are no cyclones here.
We will go to the Republic of Singapore Yacht Club for a few days and have one last explore of Singapore before heading up the coast of Malaysia—our final route on our long journey.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Kinabatangan RIver to Kuching
Somehow retracing steps in a voyage seem more difficult to write about—the experiences seem “old hat” and lack the spontaneity of the first time—hence the time between blogs.
We left Jen and Nick as they went up the Kinabatangan river hoping to find the elephants—which they subsequently were not able to, we were soooo lucky!!
We made our way back to Santabong to restock with the fuel we had used motoring up the river. We anchored once again at the “yacht club”. Ken was reluctant to go back as although we had not fouled our anchor last time we had learned that 4-5 boats from the rally had. They needed divers to untangle the mess at the bottom of the ocean made by sunken boat parts littering the area. The anchorage is also noisy with ferries, fishing boats and even seadoos using the yachts for a slalom course—something that we hardly ever have to deal with in Malaysia. They go by you very closely waving happily oblivious to the rock and roll they are causing.
We anchored to the left of the yacht club as we had been told was the safest place and arranged the fuel which involved phoning David who brought his pick- up truck and drove Ken and the jerry cans to the gas station.
This is the way we have to buy fuel in most of Malaysia with almost no fuel docks. The government only allows one jerry can to be filled at a time to curb so called terrorism and smuggling. Fuel in nearby Indonesia and Philippines is more expensive. This means you need a local who knows the owner of the gas station who will allow him to fill more—we usually have 8-10 jerry cans at a time. It also means you are at the mercy of the driver who sometimes will add 30 cents a litre onto the 60 cents a litre pump price. David, as in a few other places only charges the pump price and his $6 taxi fare so we all get as much as we can under these circumstances. You then have to lug the jerry cans down the rickety dock and lower them to the dingy which at low tide is a long way down. You then take them back to the boat and pass them up to the deck. All of this in 35C temperatures makes for an arduous fill.
I restocked fresh fruit and vegs at the most immaculate market in the whole of Malaysia—no flies and the chicken and meat are covered until you buy it. We are used to watching the flies being swatted from the meat and usually buy from the supermarket where we allude ourselves it is handled more hygienically?? It was nice to be able get a lovely fresh “clean” chicken—with attached feet but at least the head was gone—they often are still attached and when I ask for them to cut it off I am still offered it to take with me—oh my Western sensitivities go deep!!!
Dinner was had at the yacht club and we played the coupon game with the drinks once again. The staff is not trusted to handle cash so you need to buy coupons. The problem becomes that a beer is 14RM and the coupons are 20RM. Somehow however many you buy and how hard you calculate you will always have coupons left over—we had given our left over ones to a local when we were here last—where is he now???
Next day Ken was sick but rather than spend another day in this hot rocky anchorage we set off to motor to Langkayan where I hoped to spend the next day snorkeling in the clear water there.
The day was still and we motored the whole way. When we awoke the following morning however, the wind was up and the snorkeling did not appeal. The wind would be behind us so we decided to take advantage of the favourable conditions to go to Bangi at the top corner of the east coast of Borneo.
By about lunch time the wind had changed and was now 30 knots in our face. This made for an extremely choppy horrible trip. We were forced to motor which both engines on full now burning up the fuel we had hoped would last us for a while.
We arrived at dark and anchored off the town. Although the seas were calm the wind howled through the anchorage. We were just settling in for the night when we heard our wind generator free wheel, which it does past 35 knots of wind when all of a sudden it started making a horrible noise and was spinning out of control with the whole support shaking so badly that Ken feared it would pull the cables holding it from the deck and do some serious damage. The wind abated for a moment and Ken was able to tie it to prevent it spinning when we saw that the pin holding the tail had sheared off and the tail was sitting on our bottom step. Our life ring and light were also there—they had been mounted happily on the life lines for 6 years so we feel that we were in a small whirlwind which had whipped everything around. Several of the blades from the wind generator were damaged and two were missing. This meant that it was now severely unbalanced and would need to be held tightly to prevent it shaking the boat apart.
One of my most upsetting things was that my “sitting hammock” which has been my seat of choice while reading in the cockpit was shredded!!!!!!! I am now trying to figure out how to get a new one from Koh Lanta, Thailand which I had lusted over when we were there but could not justify buying one as I had a great one already—I should have obeyed my instincts then.
In the morning we had intended continuing around the “top of Borneo” to make our way to Kota Kinabalu but when we pulled anchor and set off the wind was rising and it was obvious that we would be wise to wait for better weather. This area has “cape” conditions which we have learned to be very wary of. We made the decision to return and sailed into the “hurricane hole” anchorage where Peter and Margie on Peregrina were waiting for the weather to abate to leave for to the Philippines.
It was fun to catch up and visit with them; they had a better wind angle than us so they left the next morning. We decided to wait one more day and were joined by Just Magic and Sharita allowing for yet one more happy hour.
The following morning we set off in radio contact with Splashdown who were leaving from Kudat and would be a couple of hours ahead of us.
As they rounded the corner hoping it would get better they found it was worse. Rather than turn back we elected to anchor in the lee of the mainland before the cape and had a peaceful night. They had unwisely pushed on and had a horrendous passage and nasty night at anchor in 40 knots of wind at an open anchorage. There are very few sheltered anchorages in this part of the world and you often arrive at what you have been told was an anchorage to look around and feel as though you are in the middle of the ocean—the depths are shallow all through the area and it is easy to be in less than 40 feet.
Next morning we started early and rounded the point in 25 knots of wind. As it appeared to be rising we were trying to look to see if we could find a sheltered spot to sit it out when the wind abated and we even had enough of an angle to sail at 7 knots to get to a safe anchorage 20 miles from Kota Kinabalu.
After a calm night we set off once again and apart from the torrential rain which hit us making the visibility zero were able to make it into Sutera Harbour and join Splashdown who had made it in the day before.
We stayed to enjoy the city—population 1million with lots of modern amenities and the wonderful marina with its Olympic swimming pool and great gym.
A lot of boats have chosen to use this marina as a base and will pay the US$12,000 lifetime membership fee for the marina and club. They will sell the membership when they are ready to move on. This gives them cheaper berthage, restaurant and facility discounts. Splashdown is considering putting Alex into an International school there and would do the same.
Ken the ultimate “massage spotter” found a new massage salon which had newly opened near a new office complex offering an “opening special” of an hour massage for US$15. We both took advantage of this regularly as I do not think it will be in our Canadian future!!
I found the two fancy ex pat supermarkets with a lot of Australian products so although we are trying to eat the stores from the boat could not resist some of the treats.
Once again the marina had a lively social atmosphere and we shared happy hours and dinners with other yachties.
After ten days it was time to move on so we bade Colin on Splashdown a sad farewell—Bev and Alex had flown back to Australia for a month. Although we are loving meeting up with friends as we make our way west we are aware this time that it is really goodbye and we most probably not see these people who have become such close friends again. This lifestyle requires the interdependent bonding which is not necessary in our increasingly independent western lifestyles. We will miss this and the wonderful generous people we have met on our journey.
Our first day was to Pulau Tiga—Survivor Island—where once again I had hoped to snorkel but the pending squalls once again made this not feasible.
The next day took us to the duty free port of Labuan where we bought a small amount of beer and a lot of tonic. We are also trying to drink our “ship’s supplies” which seems to be lots of hard liquor which we will be unable to ship to Canada---at $10 a bottle of gin it will be difficult to continue with our “G&T’s” there!!! Ken has enjoyed paying no more than $40 for a 12 year old Scotch!!
We have been checking out our options of being “returning residents” to Canada and are able to ship all that we own except are only allowed the 1 litre each but only as we fly in---we can actually take in a car if we want but not our liquor!!!!!—what is with the Canadian government!!!!!
Once again in Labuan we had the best seafood value in Malaysia in the upper floor of the “wet market” where the restaurant serves all of the seafood you can imagine. Our dinner was ½ kilo each of slipper lobster, scallops and crab cooked in a variety of ways, a generous serving of garlic snow peas and beers all for $30!!!!
Hmmm—yet one more thing we are enjoying before Canadian prices catches up to us.
The following day was to Jeffri’s folly—this is the huge breakwater which makes an amazing harbor which the now disgraced brother of the Sultan who, when he was finance minister financed it for his two yachts—named Tits and Ass—really!!!!!!!!!! He apparently is not waiting for the 40 virgins when he dies a noble death!!
It is an enormous harbor 22 feet deep throughout and even an island with a beach in the middle. I had a lovely swim and walk on that. Other than a few fishing boats anchored here it is deserted. Maybe when the oil runs out they will find a commercial use for it?
The following day we went up the river in Brunei near the Malay border to anchor by the yacht club. As we were not planning on checking into Brunei we did not go ashore but apparently other boats have with no issues.
We arrived into Miri marina the following day waving to Ron, Ken’s chiropractor as we came in –his practice is by the entrance.
Keri and Bruce from Haven were there to tie us up as was Sally who had been crewing with Ramprasad and had joined us for our Bali tour last year. She is now on another British boat.
We enjoyed happy hour on Cop Out with them—and also greeted the many yachties who are still there from our previous visit.
Miri is a cheaper alternative to Kota Kinabalu and attracts yachties who cannot afford to be there. Miri is a small friendly city and there is a close community at the marina. It is also a cheap place to leave your boat when you fly home for several months and many of our friend’s boats who were in the rally were there.
We have met many yachties over the years who have sold everything to buy their boat and set off for their voyage but as the years go by and their boat depreciates and the cost of home ownership “at home” appreciates they cannot afford to return. They need to find somewhere cheap to live out their lives. Miri is one of the places offering an affordable option.
Simon is the yachtie’s taxi driver and we used him to pick up more fuel and mail off another big parcel to NZ. This has some of our camping gear we are hoping to use when we are there. Another day we had him drop us off at Lambur Hills National Park to go for a hike. It was nice to be in the rainforest again but it was very humid and hot and the difficult hike between waterfalls was tough---that is one thing we will not miss—the heat and humidity!!!
After several more cheap dinners with old friends and the regular Friday night happy hour on the dock it was time to move on again towards Kuching.
The weather as we move further from the eastern tip of Borneo is much more benign and it looked good for the next while.
We decided to do two overnight passages and get to Baco Island and spend a day.
It was an easy passage with the second night one of those great nights when everything comes together in perfect harmony.
The winds were only 9 knots but on our beam and with flat seas and no adverse current we were able to cruise at an easy 5 knots.
I went and lay on the trampoline for a while enjoying the balmy tropical night with the sky with a million stars and the water glistening with phosphorescence as we glided through—despite the hundreds of nights we have sailed there are always the memorable few which are magical.
Baco anchorage was calm and lovely and after a morning hike set off for our last 15 miles to go into the Santubong River where we will base ourselves while spending a few days in Kuching. It is the anchorage where we saw the croc on the banks so will hopefully have one last look at the wilds of Borneo before we leave for a more urban Singapore.
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