Picture: Yoga poses with fellow cruisers.

As I mentioned in our last blog, the minute we arrived at the Miri Marina, we were welcomed and surrounded with friendly cruisers. I guess sea wanderers like us need a sense of community sometimes. This yacht community was very different from the one at Royal Langkawi Yacht Club. There, it seemed that most people had finished their sailing adventure, while here, everybody was working on their boats and getting ready for the next leg. The next leg might be a year or so, but they had not given up hope of sailing again like some in Langkawi.

Brian, whose boat's name, I forgot to ask, is looking after his boat while his wife, Grace, a paramedic, is working in Australia to replenish their sailing kitty so that they can sail again. They were robbed in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. He said he suspected it was someone who was familiar with the boat and knew exactly where to look, such as the mechanics who had been working on his engine. Brian and Grace were asleep when thieves came aboard and stole all their valuables, such as the AIS, computers, GPS, cameras, radios, cell phones and so on. The cost to replace everything is about AU$40,000 (USD about $30,000). For some reason their insurance company did not pay up. Brian is a very nice guy and extremely helpful.

Sue and Brent in the next boat to us on S/V Tenacious are an interesting couple. Sue was originally from the USA but Brent, like Ted, was from Cairns, Queensland, Australia. It's a small world. He and Ted talked a lot about various happenings in their home town. Sue was quiet most of time and she was usually in her boat. Later, I found out that they had recently lost their son (Scott). He was only thirty years old and a lieutenant in the Australian navy stationed in Darwin, Northern Territory. One day he and a mate were sitting in his SUV truck at a traffic light waiting for the light to turn green when another SUV truck ran two red lights at high speed and smashed into them. The impact caused the two vehicles to flip over, killing Scott instantly. The other driver and Scott's mate had some injuries but lived. The strange part about it is that the case was handed over to the insurance companies even though it was a traffic violation (speeding and running two red lights).

On our other side in the marina were Gilles and Amelia on S/V Freedom V. They have been sailing for thirty years! Gilles is from Quebec, Canada and has a unique French/Canadian accent. Amelia is American and definitely has an American accent. This week they are flying to Fiji to deliver a boat from there to Subic Bay, Philippines. It is a long way, more than 4,000 nautical miles. Their sailing experience is extensive and includes the East Cost of United States and some of its rivers. They are going to sail to Alaska next year so maybe we will see them on the way.

A motor yacht called Harmony 888 was in front of our boat. Her crew was Dr. Graham, a retired dentist, and his partner, Beverly. Beverly is from Port Douglas, just North of Cairns, Australia and Dr Graham worked in Cairns. Like us, they are heading to Japan to join the rally there so maybe we will see them. Actually in this part of the world, motor yachts are more practical than sailing yachts because there is no consistent wind for sailing. It was different in the South Pacific where the Southeast Trade Winds blow all the time. However, we still prefer our sailing yacht more than a motor yacht because we want to go beyond Southeast Asia to where the winds are more constant.

What made this community so unique for me was that quite a few people participate in yoga and everybody seems to have a bike. The yoga teacher, a Chinese woman named Xing, picked us up in her car and took us to a "beach house" across town. We did yoga there and on the way back she stopped for us to shop for groceries. Her style is called Iyengar, with which I am familiar and the other people seemed to enjoy. She only worked on a few poses each time and helped people prefect them using props and belts. Ted even joined the class a few times and found it tolerable. He usually thinks yoga is torture because he is so inflexible. One evening Ted and I were biking home from town and we met the gang from the marina on their way to an Indian restaurant so we turned around and joined them. It was fun to be part of a group. Here we were, all oldies but goodies, sailing, doing yoga and biking�... what more could senior citizens want for their golden years?