Photo: The Kinabatangan

So we decided to explore the Kinabatangan River. We had lost our passage window to head eastwards to Papua New Guinea and in to the Pacific for the Solomon Islands. Delays, essential work to Sänna's autopilot and reports of piracy attacks south of Mindanao forced a re-think and, once again, our plans were changing. The Sandakan 'Yacht Club' had 'charts' and a waypoint list to navigate the north entrance to the fascinating 200 mile river adventure so we decided to go for it and head into the heart of Borneo's jungle paradise. Now, my hair is gone, my fingers have been knarred to the bone and Marie tells me I'm a quivering wreck when anyone mentions the word "crocodile"....

Grounding on sand banks infested with crocodiles is a new experience for me although I now consider myself an expert after five groundings. Lying to anchor in nine knot currents with floating tree trunks hammering your hull is a formality to be dismissed after you've sat on the bows through the night with spotlights, boat hooks and grappling ropes. But the Kinabatangan was a fantastic experience of jungle river cruising straight out of the 'African Queen' movie. After successfully negotiating the entrance estuary (two days) I easily fancied myself as Humphrey Bogart in my white hunters hat and colonial shorts whilst overnight mooring in native villages. We traded for their food and found wild orangutans, countless monkeys, elephant herds, exotic bird life and, of course, Borneo's infamous crocodile swarms. We became masters of river navigation techniques and learned to explore the creeks and tributaries by dinghy - ignoring the danger of sudden attack by inquisative underwater predators. No swimming in this river!

After a couple of hair raising weeks we cautiously back tracked our way out of the Kinatabangan into the relative calmness of the Sulu Sea and headed north to Palawan in the Philippines - to more engine problems through bad diesel, F8 headwinds and to fantastically warm people, more amazing food and stunning scenery. I need time to recover my senses and pondor why land locked water can prove more demanding than anything we've encountered at sea. Marie and Hen consider the Kinabatangan some of the best stuff we've done - I prefer the deep depths and refreshing comfort of endless ocean. It's much, much safer...!
________________________________________________________________________________
Please visit our SV Sänna website for more details of our circumnavigation voyage from the UK. Also at www.facebook.com/SV.Sanna. Like our Facebook page if you'd like to receive more news about our sail adventure. You can contact us here.