on the move again.
18 October 2013 | near Tambisan Island, Malaysia
Bill/Sunny and some breeze
Well, we are in mid passage from where we dropped anchor(near Felda Palm) to near Tambisan Island. A journey of about 40 miles so not too bad. Azizah and I upped the anchor this morning about 0600 and headed out around the northeastern point of Borneo and then west along the shoreline. We were close to the Philippine Island chain that has been at odds with this area of Malaysia. Malaysian troops, ships and helicopters are very present. Give you a bit of feeling of safety though we still locked all the doors and hatches last night. By tonight, we will be past the area that is having problems.
We've been fighting another current stream most of the day only making about 4 to 4.5 knot and sometimes down into the high 3 knot range. Doing 5 now so maybe the current is changing. Not much info out here about the tides. Closes station is about 30 miles away up in the Philippines.
It's turned into a nice sunny day with just a bit of wind from the starboard side. About 6-7 knots so it's enough to keep us cool but with no genoa sail, even with the forestaysail and main up, with the current against us, it's not the fastest. The engine just keeps purring along allowing us to do what we are doing. Without it, it would be much slower. Azizah is relying on their sail far more than we are but being a catamaran, they can do that as they are much lighter than us. Even so, they are a good 4-5 miles behind us.
The swells are about 3-4 feet so we may scout out the west side of Tambisan and see what the swell is there. Not looking forward to just dropping our anchors in the middle of no where with no protection from the swells. Once we scout it out, we will give Azizah a call on our vhf and let them know. Richard set up these waypoints for the trip so we will check in with him. Other alternative is up the river at Marowop, about 4 miles further west.
Yesterday afternoon, Richard came over in his dinghy and brought us some loaves of bread that Samia had baked during their days journey. Tasted great with butter and better today as tuna sandwiches. Yesterday, we had fried spam with fresh tomatoes and mashed potatoes for our early dinner. We eat our big meal at lunch anymore and snack a bit at dinner time. We've both lost a good bit of weight eating that way. I know, Spam has it's reputation but served this way was great. Give it a try.