PUERTO PRINCESA TO KOTA KINABALU

We eventually anchored off the Abanico Yacht Club at Puerto Princesa at 3.30pm, after nearly hitting the bottom after going rounding a green bouy on the starboard side, then realizing that the Philippines use the US system and you leave the green bouy to port and the red to starboard - oops!

Went ashore to the yacht club later on for a drink and to gain some info etc. and ended up having dinner there and a long chat to the co-owner John.

Next morning we went by tricycle into town to do immigration clearance and have a look around the town before getting our tricycle driver to pick us up at 3pm and take us back to the yacht club which is quite away out of town. Had a drink at the club before dinner back on board. We paid another 500 pesos to immigration and the lady told us that we had certainly been ripped off by "our appointed agent" when we cleared in. We had never appointed her, she had appointed herself as she is in a group along with Alan Riches (from Brunei) that is trying to promote sailing etc. in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

We left Puerto Princesa at 6.40am on Friday 26th February and motor sailed the whole 45 miles to Raza Island where we had a lovely calm anchorage for the night. The wind was on the nose until just after 1pm when it turned to the NE but only 5 knots.

We were up and away at 6.20am the next day and decided to do an over night passage with a very light Easterly wind and motor sailed all day, except for 1 ½ hrs. Dave was asleep and I was on watch when at 11.15pm the reel on the fishing rod went so had to wake Dave to pull it in. It appeared to be a big fish but I said to Dave that I had better bring in the hand line so the lines don't get caught around each other and lo and behold found there was a fish on that line too. However the supposed fish on the rod turned out to be a big fibre glass sack but the hand line had a nice mahimahi on it. After landing the fish etc. the breeze had picked up and we were able to turn off the motor and sail until 4am the next morning when we motor sailed for another 2 ¾ hrs and then had lovely sailing until 11.15pm on the night of 28th Feb, when the wind died, having caught another two fish - a Spanish mackerel and a big one which we still do not know what it was but it was nice eating and very nice smoked. We made 114 miles in the first 24 hrs and 124 miles in the second 24 hrs. Finally arrived at Gaya Island, 4 miles from Kota Kinabalu, at 6am on 1st March. As neither of us had had much sleep over the previous 2 days we headed to bed and sleep as soon as the anchor was down.

We got up again at 10am but we seemed to be out of kilta all day but we did get stuck in once we had had breakfast with a big clean up for our guests and continued to do so the next day. I spent a whole day moisturizing the teak through out the boat as it had become very dry. We headed into Sutera Harbour Marina early afternoon on the 3rd and that night went out for dinner with friends, Gloria & Richard Shaw from Aquarius 1 and a friend of their's from Motueka who were flying back to Australia the next day. Richard and friend were to be sailing back but Richard had a health problem and was advised to fly back to Australia so their boat is still in Sutera.

Thursday we spent most of the day in KK doing customs and immigration, supermarket shopping and getting some fruit, reconnecting our Celcom internet etc. and having walked for miles. Also had a look in a new, fabulous mall that had opened in December. Got back to the boat late in the afternoon feeling a little weary!

We were just finishing our lunch and had one or two more small jobs to do when our friends, Don & Linda Jenkins from the USA arrived. We were not expecting them until later in the afternoon as they were being met at the Tune Hotel at 11am by some Rotarians who were to take them to lunch etc. However, by 12 noon they had still not shown up so they came on over to us. The rest of the day was spent chatting and relaxing and we had dinner on board.

Saturday morning we headed off into the city to visit a travel agent to book a land based trip down to the Kinabatangan River and Sepilok and to book a rental car for a couple of days. Took Don & Linda to the new mall which they were pretty impressed with and had lunch while there. I also had a hair cut and blow wave, expected it to take half an hour but was there for well over an hour and my scalp would have been massaged for at least half an hour!! At the end of it I was pretty pleased with the cut.

Sunday morning we all went to the Gaya Street Sunday market which is a tourist and local attraction. Over these two days we were also looking for leach socks which we were advised to wear while jungle trekking in the Kinabatangan, with not a lot of joy. We were in the mall which is the closest to the marina and passed by a sports shop, went in on the off chance that they might have some leach socks and lo and behold they did so we all bought a pair. Linda and I caught the bus back to the marina and Dave and Don went and picked up the rental car.

Monday morning, Dave and I had a brief meeting with Allan Riches and then we headed off up to Mt. Kinabalu, stopping for lunch on the way. While up there we did a couple of little walks and visited the information centre. Unfortunately the top of the mountain was mostly covered in cloud and also there are a lot of fires in Sabah at the moment which does not help the visibility. Had dinner at a Korean restaurant before getting back to the boat.

Tuesday morning we headed off by car to the tip of Borneo - we have rounded it by sea several times but was good to see it from a different perspective. The car just made it there when it stopped to find that it had run out of water. Fortunately no damage so after waiting for it to cool added more water and all was well again. We then headed off into Kudat and went to the hardstand area by the pond to book in Pied A Mer for a lift out at the end of October and to stay on the hard stand while we are back in NZ for 3 months. On the way back we visited a long house where they also did bead making. We were to have the car back by 5pm but with the break down we rang and said it would be 7pm before we got back which was fine and the car was picked up at the marina.

We had a celebration dinner that night along with a bottle of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc which I had bought three of in Labuan and kept the last one for Linda's birthday and was very surprised when she told us it was her 70th. Linda sort of made it a joint celebration, celebrating both hers and our birthdays! Her actual birthday was Wednesday, 10th March but that was the day we were leaving for the Kinabatangan.