We ended up spending another two weeks in Sutera Harbour Marina awaiting the fixing of the alternator - it was a hard job getting the man on the job as he was being called this way and that from the various yachties in the marina. Finally got the job done but then we waited for Leith's friend Bjorn to join us again but then he went off for a couple of days to climb Mt. Kinabalu with kiwis Margaret & Doug from Tonic and Mitch from Fourstar. While they were away I had my crown put on on the Tuesday (25th Aug) and later that day Dave sailed in a yacht race on optimists. I was going to do it too but I was not back from the dentist in time. The Sutera yacht club race every fortnight and the marina put on a yachties dinner after the racing. Dave came second on handicap and his prize - dinner for 2 at the Sutera Harbour Marina Saturday night barbecue dinner which we have until November to use.
Bjorn & co made it to the top of Mt. Kinabalu which is 4095m - higher than Mt. Cook but of curse no snow. It is a two day trip and accommodation is provided for the night before a very early start to reach the top in time for sunrise over Borneo. The air gets pretty thin up there and they all struggled with their breathing. Dave was keen to do it but a few days earlier he slipped down the front shower hatch when sliding through and cracked his ribs - in fact they are still a bit sore. With guides, accommodation, meals etc. it costs between 700 - 800 RM to climb Kinabalu so it's not cheap. They arrived back late afternoon on the Wednesday absolutely shattered and had sore knees and legs for several days.
On the Friday morning (28th) we untied from the marina and headed out to Police Bay at Gaya Island and had a lovely relaxing afternoon swimming and Dave and I giving the hull of the boat a clean.
Next morning we up anchored at 5.15am and headed off to Pulau Layang-Layang in the Sprattly Islands - 160 miles away. We had great sailing for 9 hours, including a storm for 2hrs and then the wind died and we had everything against us, tide, wind and current and motored the rest of the way, all but for 2 hrs, arriving in the lagoon at Layang-Layang at 2.30pm. The Sprattly group of islands is one of the most contentious groups of islands in the world with Vietnam, China, Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia all trying to claim them. Layang-Layang has been claimed by Malaysia and there is a permanent navy base with 50 personnel based there. We had to apply to the Malaysian Navy to go there and this was done by a couple of the yachties who were ex navy (US & NZ) guys. The only other establishment there is a resort which closed on 21 Aug and does not reopen until March, due to the monsoon seasons. Of the half dozen yachts going we were the first to arrive and three others arrived the next day, with another two to arrive on the Wednesday. However, on Wednesday the weather really turned to custard and we had 40 knot winds blowing in the lagoon and three of us lost our snubbers on the anchor chain and we were rocking and rolling in 1.5m seas. Sundance & Kalaerin left on Tuesday and they were getting a pounding then so Kalaerin turned back and headed for Kudat and Sundance finally arrived in on Wednesday at 5pm but they had had a horrendous trip with storm after storm, 3-4m seas and on the nose the whole way. We thought it was pretty ghastly in the lagoon but they thought it was heaven!
For the next few days the wind just kept on blowing, but not quite as bad as Wednesday but we still kept getting storms of 30-40 knots so there was no way one could contemplate going diving as the dive spots were on the outer part of the reef and drop off to 1000m. We did do some snorkeling inside the lagoon which was quite nice. It was only on Friday night that we could go to another boat for sundowners.
As Bjorn was flying from KK to KL today we decided that we would leave on Saturday morning and head for Kudat and then he could get a bus or taxi from Kudat to KK. We left at 7am and had 30-35 knot winds the whole way with 3.5m seas, but the good thing was it was a following sea. Unfortunately the autohelm decided to pack up 30 minutes after leaving so we had to hand steer the whole way - 192 miles. At 3am Sunday morning while Bjorn and I were trying (trying being the operative word) to get some sleep, Dave on the helm, a storm came and of course he could not leave the helm to furl in the genoa so all hell broke loose, including a crash gybe, until we were all on deck and got the boat under control. Unfortunately we have a tear in the new UV strip on the genoa so I have a bit of a repair job to do. Within about 20 min it was all over and we could carry on. Was lovely to round the tip of Borneo and then have absolutely flat sailing into Kudat, at times reaching 9 knots as we still had 30-35 knots of wind. It was the first time we had been able to sail all the way to a destination with no motor and we averaged just over 6 knots for the whole trip.
We caught a small mahi-mahi on the way to Layang-Layang and on the way back caught a small tuna and what we think is an ocean barracuda which are apparently nice eating and quite different to the barracuda we have at home in NZ. Have yet to try the latter.
We are now anchored in what is called the pond in Kudat and is to be a marina associated with a golf club and so we are tied up to a wall from the stern which is on the edge of the golf club and resort. Sunday night we went to the golf club for dinner - meal being all of 6RM along with Dave & Fran Chown (Te Kauwhata) who have their yacht up on the hard stand here doing there antifouling along with a few other yachtie friends. It is great catching up with Dave & Fran as we haven't seen them since leaving Bundaberg. We had them here for a roast dinner on Monday night and yesterday morning Bjorn got a taxi (25RM) to KK which is a 2-3 hr trip.
Went into the town on Monday morning and had a bit of a look around as well as going to the market which is quite big. Have spent the last couple of days doing a bit of maintenance as well as skyping Rachel, Cameron & Leith and seeing and chatting to the grandchildren. It is surprising how much time it takes as we generally talked to each one for close on an hour. Skype is certainly a wonderful thing when overseas as it keeps us in regular contact with the family and also some friends who are also on Skype. We also use it for making very cheap phone calls to the mothers. Skype to Skype is free.
Some other kiwi friends arrived in here late yesterday so they had morning tea with us this morning and we are heading off to the golf club for dinner tonight and on Saturday we are hoping we are going to be able to watch the rugby at the golf club.
We will head off to KK early next week and perhaps have 2 nights in the marina in order to take in the free dinner on Saturday week and then we will head on south to Miri, doing day hops, arriving there on 23rd or 24th, then decommission the boat before flying out from Miri at 10am on 30th Sept. Spend a night in KL and fly to Melbourne on 1st Oct to spend the weekend with Leith & Hannah and fly on to Auckland on 5th October.
I think that about covers our news for the time being so until next time.