Monday, 4th January, 2010
It seems like more than a month since we arrived back in Miri from our trip to New Zealand and time to update the blog.

We were up at 4am on Tuesday 1st Dec and our shuttle arrived just after 5am to pick us up and take us to the airport, arriving there at 5.30am. Had gone through to the departure lounge when I realized that I had left my camera case in the shuttle, fortunately I had the shuttle company's card and was able to ring and tell him and later that day he dropped it back at Hilda's (Dave's mother).

Flight left at 8am and arrived in Melbourne just before 10am - went straight through customs etc., although big queues and then caught the Skybus to the Southern Cross station in the city and then caught a train from their out to Leith & Hannah's and they had left a key for us to get in. Later on we wandered up to Kensington village and had lunch at a little cafe and had a look around the village and bought some fruit.

Leith and Hannah arrived home just before 6pm and then a bit later they took us down to Docklands where we went to a nice restaurant for dinner - their shout for us for Xmas and we had a lovely three course meal.
Dave and I caught the train into the city on Wednesday morning and we bought a camera (will sell my Canon on trade me when we come home in May) and Hannah's Xmas & Birthday present. Had lunch in the city before heading back to Leith's who took three hours off work to spend with us and we bought him a home brew kit for Xmas and birthday and I stocked up on some Easi Yo yoghurt packets (bought the supermarket out of Greek style and vanilla). Had a barbecue dinner and then Leith took us out to the airport, arriving there at about 10.30pm.

Our flight left at 01.30am and I can't say it was an enjoyable flight - Air Asia is not a budget airline for nothing. While the flight was good going from KL to Melbourne, it was a daytime/ early evening flight but coming back it was night time and the seats are upright, no leaning back so sleeping was very uncomfortable. Arrived at KL LCCT (low cost carrier terminal) at 6.30am (Malaysian time - 3 hrs behind Aus) and then we transferred over to the main KL terminal. Priced a taxi - 50RM (a rip off) but caught a bus instead for 2RM each! The main KL terminal is an amazing building and is the airport of the year for all the airports around the world.

It is years since we have been to McDonald's but we succumbed and went there for breakfast - couldn't do rice or noodles for breakfast!!

Our luggage was a juggling act for weight and we just managed to sneak in with all the checkins with our 20kg each but our hand luggage was another matter (definitely overweight there but managed to get through without it being weighed) as we bought back four pumps - two from NZ and another 2 from Australia which we had purchased on EBay as that is one thing that is cheaper there than in NZ and had them sent to Leith's. We did get queried in Melbourne with only having a one way ticket into Malaysia but had our boat papers with us so no problems.

From KL to Miri we went Malaysian Air and we were sitting in the departure lounge with about 10 minutes to go before boarding when an announcement came that the plane we were to go on had technical difficulties and would be another 20 minutes - at that point all the luggage and food was on board. The technical difficulties could not be resolved so next thing all the luggage and food came off the plane and eventually we were shifted to another boarding gate and the plane finally left at 12 noon - being 2 hrs late. We came to Miri via Kuching where we had to get off the plane and do Immigration into Sarawak - different ruling here, Sabah comes under Peninsular Malaysia but not Sarawak, and then reboard for flight to Miri, arriving at 3.15pm. I have enough trouble with my ears at the best of times but after three flights going up and down my ears were terrible - they hurt and gurgled when I blew my nose and for two days afterwards were blocked and painful when I tried to clear them.

Everyone in the Miri marina uses a local guy, Simon, for a taxi and he picked us up and we finally got to the marina at 4pm. Simon is not a registered taxi driver and has a clapped out Toyota but a really nice person and is a mine of information for us yachties. We save up all the empty beer cans for him - he's saving to buy a new car. Pied A Mer was looking pretty good, was nice and cool with having the air conditioning going while away. We ended up having a beer on Katani 11 and a light dinner before hitting the sack feeling pretty weary.

Our breakfast at McDonald's included a small packet of cornflakes so we put those in our hand luggage and the next morning had them for breakfast along with tinned fruit. Later in the morning we headed into the city on our bikes to the markets and supermarket to replenish our food supplies.

Our three and a half weeks in Miri was spent recommissioning the boat plus doing the usual round of maintenance jobs which in the harsh environment that we are in is never ending and Dave put in three of the four pumps we bought back - have one as a spare. It virtually took me two days to clean up the boric acid we had laid to kill the German cockroaches while we were away. It has certainly done the trick and we haven't seen any live ones since coming back. They are a big problem here in the tropics and there are not too many boats that don't have them. At least they are little, not like the ones we have in NZ.

While in Miri for the three and a half weeks, there were between 7 and 10 boats of us at any one time. Dave & Frown Chown (Melric 11) from Te Kauwhata arrived in a week or so after we got back and left the same day as us so it was great being able to spend time with them and also Daemon who came in for a few days.

Friday nights were a ritual of drinks and nibbles on the pier and gradually became light finger food so we ladies did not have to go back to our boats and cook dinner. We did a lot of cycling in Miri as the marina is a good half hours walk to the main part of town and Melric 11 & Daemon also used our bikes a lot - certainly a good investment.

Several of us went to a Christmas charity concert which was most enjoyable. A world renowned children's choir from Kuala Lumpur came over to perform and they were outstanding and have sung all over the world. Their ages ranged from 7 yrs to 16. Performances were given by the Miri Choir and also some local talent - including a young girl doing a Michael Jackson take off with five year old twins - one white and one black! Really entertaining.

The Saturday before Christmas 22 of us went to the Everly Park Hotel for their seafood buffet ($NZ23) per person. What a meal - every possible seafood you could imagine and all superbly cooked. Most of us just ate the seafood and didn't bother with anything else. We all needed to walk the long way back to the marina to walk some of it off! That night those of us who were going to still be there for Xmas decided there was no point in us all standing over a hot stove cooking Xmas dinner in the heat that we booked in again for Xmas dinner.

The lead up to Xmas in Miri was no different than at home and the city was pretty busy; shops were crowded with most of them playing Xmas music, especially the malls. Xmas day was a holiday but I gather the bigger supermarkets were open.

We had drinks and nibbles on the pier on Xmas eve and on Xmas morning everyone (there were 7 boats left in the marina for Xmas) came on board Pied A Mer for morning coffee and Xmas cake (I had made one). The rest of the day Dave and I relaxed, had all the phone calls to the family back in NZ and at 5pm the 14 of us walked up to a local café/bar for drinks before going to the Everly Park Hotel for dinner at 6.30pm. Drinks are too expensive at the top class hotels/restaurants, as dear as a meal and that includes fruit juices! We had another superb meal along with the same range of seafood plus turkey, lamb, beef etc. with the usual array of trimmings. As well as the seafood I also had the lamb & turkey which was cooked to perfection. We all had to take a small gift along and were given a number and took turns to draw out of the bag - it provided a bit of entertainment as well as to some of the other patrons at the hotel. By the time we left at 9.30pm the restaurant was full.

MIRI

Miri is a prosperous city, population 300,000 with its main industry being oil and logging. It has rebranded itself the "Resort City" and adopted the seahorse as its mascot. The area had been known for its black oil that seeped from the ground in various locations. Dr. Charles Hose persuaded the Anglo Saxon Petroleum Company, a British subsidiary of Shell, to conduct exploratory drilling in the area and on August 10th 1910 the first oil was struck on a hill overlooking the small fishing village of Miri at a depth of 123 metres. The well, subsequently christened the "Grand Old Lady" continued to produce oil until 1972.

With the discovery of commercial quantities of oil, Miri rapidly transformed from a sleepy fishing village to a booming oil town. MirI continued to thrive until the onset of WW11. Shell staff did their best to sabotage the Miri oilfield to prevent the invading Japanese forces from making use of it, but resourceful Japanese engineers soon had the field back to pre-war production levels.

During the 1950's, the onshore oilfield began to decline as wells dried up so exploration gradually moved offshore with the development of mobile exploration rigs. By the early 1970's offshore production reached 95,000 barrels a day but the onshore field was then in decline and was closed down in October 1972.

The move offshore coincided with a boom in Sarawak's timber industry and Miri became a major timber processing and transshipment hub, so the economy of the town continued to grow throughout the 1970's and 80's. It was finally granted city status in May 2005.

Our hot water cylinder, just after we arrived in Miri in September sprung a major leak and before heading back to NZ Dave found a guy who said he could make us a replica of the Raritan one we had. We paid a deposit and said he had 2 mths to make it. We arrived back and nothing had happened and then 10 days before Xmas we biked up to see him only to discover that still nothing much had happened, give me one week, he says. Two days before Xmas we got Simon (taxi driver) to ring him as he is so hard to understand on the phone but it wasn't ready so we told him we would now not be back until May. That's okay but we can see that it will still be the same in May. However we are not too worried as we have cold showers anyway as it is so hot and the water is lukewarm anyway, it just means we have to boil the kettle for the dishes.

Boxing Day was spent doing the last minute jobs in readiness to leave Miri the next day. We left Miri at 6am on Sunday 27th Dec. along with Marida (Dutch), Sowelu & Vulcan (both kiwis who have lived in Australia for years). We motor sailed the whole 33 miles with wind on the nose to Kuala Belait which is the southernmost port of Brunei and anchored in the river for the night. Another 6am start to do 46 miles to Jeradong to anchor in front of Prince Jeffery's (the Sultan of Brunei's brother) Palace inside a huge stone wall with a manmade island inside built by Prince Jeffery. You may recall that Prince Jeffery was the Minister of Finance for Brunei and when the Sultan discovered that he had spent $14 billion of the country's money on himself he was fired! We ended up staying a second night there as on Tuesday morning it was blowing 20-25 knots and we would have had the wind on the nose the whole way to Labuan. It was still blowing when we went to bed that night but when we got up at 5.30am on Wednesday all was quiet so we were away by 6am and had a lovely motor sail up to Labuan where we were tied up in the dilapidated marina by 2.15pm. One good thing as well as water and being free, this time we also had power, although for the short time we were there we did not bother hooking up the air conditioning.

LABUAN
Labuan is 10km off the north western coast of Borneo, adjacent to the state of Sabah, is Malaysia's only deep water anchorage and is at the mouth of Brunei Bay. Along with Langkawi is the only other duty free island in Malaysia.

In the past Labuan was a place of refuge for seafarers travelling across Brunei Bay and the South China Sea. Its name was derived from the word "labuhan" or anchorage in Malay.

In 1840, the Sultan of 'Brunei ceded Labuan along with its islets to Britain making it the empire's smallest colony. Within years, the population grew from just a handful to thousands of people. During WW11 Britain lost the island to Japan, which renamed it, Maida Island. When Britain resumed power in 1945, it assumed its former name. Britain subsequently ceded the island to Sabah in 1963 when Malaysia was formed.

In 1984, Labuan was proclaimed a Federal Territory of Malaysia and placed under the authority of the Labuan Corporation. It was further declared an International Financial Centre in 1990.

The WW11 Memorial in Labuan is the largest in Malaysia and is the final resting place of 3908 war heroes from Australia, New Zealand, India as well as Malaya. Every year an elaborate memorial ceremony conducted in full military tradition is organized to mark Remembrance Day and is held on 11th November (or the Sunday closest to it). We are as yet to visit it plus a lot of other interesting places to see in Labuan so we will have to return for a longer visit.

New year's Eve day was spent doing the clearing in and out of Malaysia with customs, immigration and the Harbour Master, stocking up the beer & liquor supply, which we had delivered to our boats later on in the day, plus having a bit of a look around the town. The heat really hit us in Labuan as suddenly the temperatures had risen to 35°C. Was bathed in perspiration most of the time, something we have not had since arriving back in Borneo.

On New Year's Eve the 8 of us walked along to the Labuan yacht Club, overlooking the water for a seafood dinner which was most enjoyable. Had drinks on Vulcan beforehand and after our meal went back to their boat to see the New Year in. I was struggling to keep a wake. I'm getting old, 61 today!!!

A hotel adjacent to the marina had a speaker system set up and all was quiet there until 11.55pm when they played some music and then did the countdown to midnight. We were off to bed pretty smartly after that.

A large majority of the shops were open on New Year's Day so Dave and I cycled into town looking for a small microwave for me for my birthday as my one died a few days before we left Miri. After looking the previous day, and finding a few more shops finally found one small enough and cheap enough which would fit in the gap we had. It was a fraction higher than the previous microwave so Dave had to do a bit of chiseling to get it in far enough as the deck floor is above and has a gradual slope down.

A short walk from the marina is the Grand Dorsett Hotel (and it is grand too) so on Saturday us 8 plus another Canadian couple who were in the marina and had been in Miri before Xmas, went to the Grand Dorsett for lunch as it is half price for over 55 year olds. We had a beautiful smorgasbord lunch for 18RM ($NZ7.50). Most of us had an orange juice with the lunch and were a bit shocked to find they were 16RM each, especially when we discovered that Mike had a beer and it was only 9.50RM! From there we went and did fruit, vegetable and grocery shopping and I don't think we could fit any more food etc. in the boat - we are chocker!

The four of us yachts headed off yesterday morning at 6am and half an hour later we were stuck on the bottom - Dave had missed seeing one of the green marker buoys, had gone up to the bow, I was down below and we ground to a halt and the tide was running out. We could not back off so in the end Sowelu came to our aid, threw us a line (Dave had to let the dinghy down so we could get it) and thank goodness managed to pull us off. We had originally intended to just do a 36 mile day to Tiga Island but we were having such a good trip, all be it motor sailing, that we all decided to carry on for another 30 miles to Gaya Island off Kota Kinabalu arriving at 7pm last night. We did manage a couple of hours sailing without the motor and the last couple of hours the wind did come around on the nose. We actually do have to expect that as we are now in the North East monsoon weather.

We will head on up to Kudat tomorrow with a couple of overnight stops on route to Kudat where we will join up with another four yachts to do a cruise in company up the West Coast of Palawan in the Philippines which will leave Kudat on 10th or 11th Jan. This is being organized by Allan Riches from Brunei who is organizing things with the authorities in Palawan to make things easier for us. Originally the rally was to start on 17th Jan which was too late for us but I think he now has groups with different departure dates so the four of us only made the decision to join on Saturday.

Internet and cell phone coverage on Palawan is pretty hit and miss and the West coast is pretty isolated but I have arranged with Allan for us to use his Brunei Net, similar to sailmail, at a reduced rate as it was not worth paying $US250 to join up again with sailmail when we really only need communication for 2 mths.

I think that about covers all our doings for the last month.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL.