12th January, 2010 We ended up staying two nights at Gaya Island- the 4th being my birthday and Sowelu, Vulcan and us had drinks ashore on a little sandy beach (Marida had gone January into Kota Kinabalu) and then came out to our boat and we had a potluck barbecue, plus one of the Xmas puddings I had made for Xmas but did not need and then we sat down for a couple of hours and played Train Dominoes which we all enjoyed. I bought the train dominoes while home in NZ and is a great game, taught by us by Janine and Garth on Catala during the Indonesian rally. The six of us also polished off a couple of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blancs which I had bought at Labuan for the occasion - most enjoyable with good wines not being on tap as they are so expensive, although was only just over $NZ20 a bottle - all right for special occasions only. Next morning we were up and away again at 6am and did a 33 mile trip to Usakan Bay for the night - motor sailing all the way as the usual, wind on the nose being the same old story. Another pre 6am start on 6th January and we heard on the morning sked with Allan Riches just after 7am that he had no paper work for us for the rally so would not be coming up to Kudat from Brunei. Vulcan & Sowelu stopped off for the night at Algal Bay but we needed to go into Kudat to stock up on fuel as we don't hold as much as the other two boats so we carried on to the tip of Borneo and on around to Kudat. Did have an hours sailing first thing in the morning and then had to motor sail but once coming around the top we had some lovely sailing down to Kudat, finally berthing in “The Pond”, at 6.30pm with help from friend Doug from Tonic which was appreciated as it was dark. Anchoring in the pond is like tying up in the Mediterranean - anchor down and then ropes on the stern and tie up to a concrete wall. A nice surprise to catch up with Tonic again as we last saw and were with them in Layang-Layang in the Sprattly Group in August. Next day was spent on our bikes doing last minute groceries, trying too cancel my Celcom Internet for a couple of months with no success so have had to email friends in KK and ask them to do it there for me and Dave doing three fuel runs with jerry cans on his bike. He has a pipe which goes across the carrier and puts one 20 litre container on each side with rope holding them on. Hot work in the heat. Doug & Margaret from Tonic came and had drinks and then the four of us went to the Golf Club for dinner - very cheap and nice meal and just behind the pond. Friday morning was up early to make a last minute skype call to talk to Brodin & Daisy and then we left Kudat at 8.30am and headed off to Balambanga Island, 21 miles north of Kudat, motor sailing all the way but in the interests of saving fuel were in no hurry so arrived at 3.30pm to join up with Sowelu & Vulcan who arrived the day before along with three other yachts on the rally, Kalearin (US, who are friends) and Jaraman & First Light (both Australians). Had a barbecue on the beach, and although a lovely spot, swimming was out of the question as there were box jelly fish everywhere and they are poisonous. Balambanga Island was still Malaysian. THE PHILIPPINES Set sail the next morning again at 6am and headed up to Clarendon Bay, Balarac Island in the Philippines. We had 20 knots of wind most of the way, on the nose and the sea was about 2 metres and we ended up having to put a reef in. A distance of 37 miles and we were quite pleased to get into sheltered waters in Clarendon Bay, arriving at 2pm. We were all approached by a local who systematically visited all seven boats wanting pain killers as he had tooth ache so guess he ended up with quite a good supply. Sowelu was also asked for malaria tablets. Another local went around selling us coconuts. We bought two for 40 pesos (33 peso to the NZ dollar). We are now back into what I call the “funny money” but certainly not as bad as Indonesia when we got 6000 rupiah to $NZ1. Sunday morning we didn't leave until 8am and came 21 miles up to Candaraman Island. We motor sailed for 3 ½ hrs and then had a lovely sail for the last 1 ½ hrs arriving at 12.30pm to the most beautiful spot, a lovely tropical island with a white sandy beach, lined with coconut trees, clear blue, blue water and we are surrounded by a coral reef. Shortly after leaving Clarendon Bay we caught our first fish in about four months - a lovely Spanish mackerel which we have enjoyed over the last two nights, the rest in the freezer to give us a little more variety from pork and chicken! We decided to wait here until Marida caught up to us (they also came into Kudat the night before we left as they had fuel & mail to get) and arrived here last night. The two Aussi boats seem to want to do their own thing and they headed off this morning but the rest of us are still here and will head north again tomorrow. Our genoa furler has been a bit stiff so yesterday morning I hoisted Dave up the mast while he lubricated the top bearing on the furler and checked it out. Our Spectra water maker is once again giving us more trouble so we spent yesterday afternoon taking the Clark pump off which was leaking and requires both of us on the job and is a sod of a thing to take off. Dave thought he had fixed the leak so back it went on, tested it this morning and it is still leaking, even more so. So this morning we took it off again, tried to fix a few more seals and this afternoon put it back on and we will see what happens tomorrow. We could send the pump back to the US for a $US350 service and it would be like new but the cost of getting it there would be prohibitive as it weighs 8kg. As we have all the parts here we will look at making up a simpler system and buy a 240 volt high pressure pump when back in NZ to do the job as we have a diagram and instructions on how to make one which has been in use for more than 12 years with no problems. Our spectra one was on the boat when we bought it but it has given us no end of trouble and cost us heaps - enough is enough, but as we only hold 300 litres a water maker is a necessity in the tropics. In between doing boat maintenance which is an ongoing job, Dave has taught himself to splice rope - quite a complicated procedure which he thought I could do but has found that one actually needs quite a bit of strength! Good for halyards, docking and tow lines. As I am writing this the weather has turned a bit nasty and we have a northerly of 20 knots blowing and we are more sheltered from the NE so are getting a bit of a roll. This weather has been predicted everyday for the last week but only had it on Sunday, but hopefully when we get the rain the wind will die down. I can update our blog and our position on the blog via Brunei Bay Radio so everyone can check the blog regularly for updates but will not be able to add pictures until we have internet access.