Closer to Labuan Harbour
28 December 2013 | South of Labuan Island
Partly cloudy with rain earlier
We just pulled into Rusukan Besar, a small island off the south coast of Labuan Island. We'd anchored off the north coast of Labuan last night and watched as storms danced around us through the evening and well into the night. As we sat in the cockpit watching shows on the computer, lightening high in the sky lit up the shoreline. About 2030, when it looked like a big storm was about to decent on us, we cleared off the decks and cockpit of everything and put the mainsail cover back on figuring that we probably wouldn't be using it the next day. Once everything we cleared, we sat back and watched the end of the show and headed for bed about 2200. At 2330, the anchor drag alarm went off in the cockpit. I jumped out of bed and rushed on deck. We hadn't dragged, the wind had changed direction since we went to bed and the storm that looked like it was going to hit us had fled the scene. Strangely, the wind wasn't controlling the direction Zephyr was sitting. Instead of us heading into the wind, we were getting hit about broadside. The current passing us was apparently controlling our position. As the tide changed, so did our bow direction setting off the alarm. I headed back to bed only to be awakened at 0230 with another alarm. Again, the wind had shifted as had the current but our Rochna anchor held us fast. We weren't going anywhere. At 0500, the rain finally came with a vengeance and continued till close to 0700 sprinkling on and off.
We got our breakfast had decided to go around the north side of the island to get to the south side as there was an anchorage we wanted to try for one last night before we hit Labuan Island. We got nailed by swells of up to 7 feet as we headed out past the reef that covers the northern most tip of the island. We got hit head on and then on the starboard side as we turned west and the on the stern as we finally headed south for the channel around the south side. It took us 23 miles to make it around as we had quite a job getting around the north reef of Labuan. Poor Zephyr was getting thrown violently from side to side most of the trip. We found out quickly what was and what wasn't stowed well down below decks. Papers and books and other things crashed around the cabin luckily no breaking anything. We make sure that all doors on the ccabinets are dogged shut so they won't hurtle their contents all over the place.
It took till 1320 for us to get to the anchorage which is really just a spot between two small islands but we are the only boat in here. We have plenty of chain out and we know our anchor will do the job of keeping us safe and sound here. Tomorrow, Sunday, we will be heading into Labuan Harbour and drop the anchor off the marina. It's been closed for quite some time and has no date set to re open though you can dinghy in and tie up and use what services they do have(restaurant and shower so we have heard). On Monday, we will find the Jabatan Laut(Harbor Master0, Immigration, and Customs and get checked out. It's been a fun three months but with our Visa expiring, we must move on. The nice thing is that after we leave Brunei, the next country to the south is again Malaysia so we will be checking back in again to see more of this beautiful country.
Right now, it's partly cloudy with winds of about 8 knots coming in from the west and where we are, just about no swell at all and that's a good thing.