Quite a while ago, I subscribed to the US State Departments travel information system. We let them know where we are and if there are any problems--weather or terrorist, etc, they send out emails to let us know. We received a day or so ago a notice advising cruisers and tourists to say away from the Sabah area of Malaysia that covers the north section of Borneo from Tawau to Kudat. There have been several attacks on tourists and cruisers in the area and they advise people to stay away. We passes through the area late last year in the company of Azizah, a fellow cruiser we met in the Philippines. We kept close to each other and anchored in remote bays when ever possible and maintained radio watch all the time. Just after we passed through the area, a Korean couple was attacked on Pom Pom Island with the man being killed and his wife kidnapped and held for ransom(later paid). It's gotten far worse according to reports we have seen in Indonesia just south of us and in the area the US State Department just warned us about. It now has more attacks(mainly on larger commercial ships) than have been happening east of Somalia.
Today was battery day. I took off all the cushions and headed for our battery banks. We bought new Trojans while we were in the Philippines last year after roasting our last set at the marina in Davao. Off came the tops of the boxes and off came the caps and I added a bit of distilled water(actually water from our water maker) to each cell till they appeared full. Being at a marina with power available now available, we have had the charger running most of the time we have been here. Once charged, the charger goes to "Float" mode where it sits slowing keeping them all topped up. It's been about a month since I last checked them and they are just fine. I used my volt meter and checked each battery independently and all showed to be about 6.48 volts or well over 12 volts for each pair even though the charger has been off for several hours. Another job off the list.
The next two days are big holidays here in Malaysia. It's Hari Raya, the feast of breaking fast at the end of Ramadan when all Muslims fast from Sun up to Sun down. The nation is going to be celebrating for the next two days so much of it will be closed. We will be heading for Singapore on Wednesday just to make sure the holiday is past to buy our new roller furling system. We need to get going on it so once it's installed we can get our new Genoa sail ordered. We will get out of here eventually.