We spent the next two days, 2nd & 3rd August in Sutera Harbour Marina, showing Margaret & John some of the sights in Kota Kinabalu and Margaret and I did a bit of girls shopping while the men did their own thing, although they were very patient after we met up with them and followed us around, standing outside shops talking!!
We left Sutera Harbour Marina on Wednesday 4th and went over to Gaya Island where we anchored across from Sapi Island so that John & Margaret could have a snorkel off Sapi as there is nice snorkelling and fish life there. Later on in the afternoon we moved around to the other side of Gaya Island in Police Bay for the night, along with Cool Bananas and Katani 11 and we all had drinks on Katani 11. We met Daryl & Laurel on Cool Bananas in 2007 in Vanuatu along with their friends Dynes & Lyn Mcconnell who were also on board this trip. Dynes had rented our marina berth in Tauranga in 2005.
The next morning Cool Bananas and us left Gaya Island and headed north - they stopped just around the tip of Borneo for the night but as Margaret and John were both feeling seasick we headed around the top and down into Kudat so we could have a nice calm anchorage. Finally anchored at Kudat at 8.30pm after some great sailing, at times doing 7 and 8 knots and coming down into Kudat doing over 9 knots and having done 90 miles in 14 ¼ hours with a storm for a couple of hours during the day.
Before leaving the next morning Dave and I went ashore to check with the boat yard here about pulling the boat out, so finally got away shortly after 9am with more great sailing, top speed 9.6knots and anchored for the night at Tigabu Island in 17metres of water - 46miles in 7 hours. We were anchored alongside a number of fishing boats along with three police vessels. Apparently some fisherman kidnapped from nearby on their fish traps 100 miles from Sandakan a few weeks earlier. We had a reasonably comfortable night there, although a little roly but were heading in to it so was fine. Next morning we left at 6.40 and headed to Lankayan Island where we met up with Cool Bananas again. We anchored in a sandy patch amongst the coral and what a beautiful spot. Ended up motor sailing the 36 miles to there. Lankayan was just beautiful with lovely blue water and some beautiful coral and fish life - it is a marine reserve. We ended up spending two nights there and had a pot luck dinner one night on Cool Bananas along with another yacht joining us as well. The other night had a nice meal at the resort on the island. Cool Bananas are really into games so we taught them how to play Mexican Train dominoes and they taught us games as well. We were going to spend another day there but then the weather looked as though it was going to deteriorate so decided to move on. Went to start the motor and it wouldn't turn over. Dave then did all the usual things like changing the filters and checking the injectors but all to no avail so in the end gave up and decided we just had to sail. Finally left at 10.30am and it was a real battle getting away from Lankayan Island with lots of tacking as the wind was in the wrong direction and on the nose. Gradually as the day wore on the wind changed and we finally joined Cool Bananas at Libarron Island at 7.15pm with Daryl & Dynes coming out in their dinghy to give us a tow into the anchorage. We spent two nights there and the men did their best to see if they could get the motor going but all to no avail and decided it was the fuel injection pump that was the problem. As you can imagine, keeping the house batteries up was a bit of a problem, would just get enough during the day from the solar panels and wind generator.
Left Libarron Island at 6.30am on 11th August and did the final 27 miles to Sandakan and had some great sailing although we had to do a fair bit of tacking for the last four miles down into Sandakan where we anchored off the Sandakan Yacht Club at 12.30pm. After a quick lunch we went ashore to see if we could get someone to look at the fuel pump. All took time so it was not until the next morning (Thursday) that a guy came to the Yacht Club to take the fuel pump away to be looked at. Dave had also bought the starting battery ashore for him to charge and then forgot to give it to him. So we then got a taxi to go to his (Kelly's) workshop to take it to him. He already had it in bits and said when and where did you have work done on it - when Dave said Brunei he threw his hands up in horror and asked if we had diesel in with the oil which we did. Kelly then informed us that the wrong seals had been put in. By Friday afternoon we had the pump back - took Dave two hours to put it back on, still the motor would not turn over so Kelly came out onto the boat to have a look and decided our battery had gone flat again so they went ashore and got his Mercedes car battery but that was all to no avail so the problem was then the starter motor. We had the fuel injector pump completely reconditioned for 500RM ($NZ225) and when we had the same job done in NZ at the end of 2004 it cost us $NZ1800!!
On the Thursday, Margaret, John, Dynes & Lyn caught a local bus and went out to Sepilok to the orang-utan sanctuary and that night we all had dinner at the yacht club. Next night at the yacht club they had a film evening which Margaret and I went to and it was about Agnes Keith during the Japanese invasion of Sandakan during the war - she was a local identity and her house is one of the attractions to see in Sandakan.
Kelly came back later that night to the Yacht Club and picked up the starter motor and said he had a friend who would get on the job at 8am Saturday morning. The guy arrived back with it at 10am and it is now running better than it has for over a year - it needed a new copassitor. We were up and away, heading for the Kinabatangan River at 12.30pm - Cool Bananas and Out of the Bag (Jean (NZ) & Bill (Aussi) having left earlier that morning. We headed up the Kinabatangan River as far as we could until dark. As the entrance to the river is very shallow we had a track to follow in and it was just about dead low tide when we got there but we didn't touch the bottom.
Next day, 19th we travelled a further 19 miles up the river and caught up with Cool Bananas and Out of the Bag (incidentally they are both catamarans). We spent two nights at this anchorage and could hear the elephants trumpeting so went off in our dinghies for little detours to see if we could see any closer up and we did see one or two coming out into the river to cool off. Had one swimming right behind our boat and then later on in the afternoon the next day there were several elephants on the opposite bank and some of them gradually moved down into the river to cool off and eat the foliage on the river bank. We all took off in our dinghies to watch them and got within a few feet of them. Was a bit scary when some of them further back did a big trumpet!! It was wonderful to see them and so many - I was disappointed when we did not see them when we did the land based trip to the Kinabatangan in March with don & Linda from the USA.
On the 17th we moved 3 miles upriver to anchor off the small village of Sukau and from there the 10 of us went on a night trip up a tributary of the main river to see some of the insects, birds etc. It was a good trip and our guide Ahmed was able to show us all sorts of things with a flash light that we would never be able to see.
We also had him take us four plus another couple off Truest Passion who had arrived up the river late the next afternoon to get a closer look at the proboscis monkeys. It was a bit far for us to go in our dinghy with only a 2hp motor. We could not go further up the river because of power lines going across and our masts were too high. The others went further up the river in their dinghies to a lake where they saw heaps of elephants. While at Sukau the ten of us went to one of the resorts for lunch.
On the 19th we had an early start to head the 34 miles back to the mouth of the river, stopping off by a tributary to do a dinghy trip up to a lake which proved not much to see. By the time we got back Cool Bananas had arrived - they did the trip and after we had had lunch the heavens opened and we had a cracking electrical storm. We all got out on deck and had a great shower, washed our hair etc. in the rain - bliss as there was no way we would swim in the muddy looking river and also because of the crocodiles - not that we saw any this trip.
Had a nice calm anchorage for the night and the next morning (20th) did the final 17 miles back to Sandakan. Dynes and Lyn flew out on the Saturday morning and Margaret & John caught a bus that morning to Kota Kinabalu where they spent a few days before flying on to KL and Australia. We caught up on a few boat jobs while in Sandakan plus I caught up on all the washing and then we headed off from Sandakan to Lankayan Island for the night - motor sailing all the way. Left Lankayan Island at 6am the next morning (Tuesday, 24th) and motor sailed all but the last 12 miles to Kudat when we had brilliant sailing, dropping the pick at 8.20pm.
Our friends, Anne & Leo from Pewter were on the hardstand at Kudat so they arranged for us to be hauled out, which was done at 9am last Wednesday (25th), so here we are on the hard stand sitting up in the air and having to climb up a ladder to get on the boat - something I hate!!
Dave has removed all the barnacles and has nearly finished the sanding process in readiness for an antifouling in February when we come back from land based travels.

THE NEXT FEW MONTHS PLANS
On Saturday, 4th September we are catching a mini bus to Kota Kinabalu and at 2.20pm we fly to Hong Kong where we will meet up with sailing friends, Jim & Joy Carey (Kelaerin) and spend 3-4 nights in Hong Kong where we will get a visa to go into China. We are going to be back packing through China for about 6-7 weeks and as well as seeing out of the way places will also do the touristy things and plan to go to the World Expo in Shanghai. We fly out of Beijing to KL on 1st November - 3 nights there and then on to the gold Coast to have 3 nights with Dave's sister, Barbara before flying on to Auckland on 7th November. I fly to Christchurch on 10th Nov to spend a week with Cameron & Melissa and to see how new grandchild which is due beginning of October. I fly back to Wellington on 17th and then Rachel, Sean, Brodin, Daisy and I will head up to Turangi on 19th to meet Dave and we will have a long weekend there, with Dave teaching Sean how to fly fish for trout - something he has always wanted to do. Rachel & Co. Will head back to Wellington and we will head back to spend the next 2-3 weeks in the Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, and Auckland area.
Dave crosses over to the South Island on 12th Dec where he will meet Leith & Hannah who are flying in from Melbourne and the three of them are heading down to spend 3 days walking the Milford Track starting on 19th Dec. I will stay with Rachel and then we all cross over to the South Island on 22nd January and we are all going to be in Nelson for Xmas. Cameron & co. Stay with Melissa's parents in Motueka. After New Year we will spend a bit of time with Cameron & Co. And then cross back to North Island on 12th January - will have a week or so camping with Rachel & Co. Fly to Melbourne on 4th Feb to spend a few days with Leith and then from Melbourne -KL to KK on 8th February and will be back here in Kudat on 9th February. All in all a pretty full schedule for the next five months!
From Kudat at the end of February we will head up through the Philippines to Pulau and then start making our way sailing back to New Zealand to be home in November 2011.