Tuesday, 14th July, 2009

Last Tuesday we caught the bus into Kuching and then a walk to the DHL office to pay them the customs duty. En route we came across a motor bike hire outfit so promptly hired a motor bike for 6 days and then carried on up to DHL. NZ$10 per day! Got there and the head lady (Yvonne) in the office told us if we were a boat in transit we should not have to pay duty but we needed to show our boat registration certific ate, copies of passports, crew list etc. which were all back in Santubong on the boat. Customs had already started the process but she would see what she could do to stop it. So we then turned around and went back to Santubong (on the bike) to get all our papers etc. We got talking to Yvonne who was a delightful lady and we invited her out to the boat and arranged for a visit on Saturday. She and her husband, Dennis, came out for a visit on Saturday afternoon and they actually own the DHL agency in Kuching. We really enjoyed their visit and they are a delightful couple and at some stage may come sailing with us for a couple of days. We were finally able to go into Kuching and pick up the heat exchanger end caps on Wednesday and Dave had them on that night, all be it with a few other leaks appearing.

Thursday morning Dave went to start the motor to charge the batteries and the starter motor would not turn over fast enough and started to give off a burning smell. Oh dear, with all the leaks water had obviously got into the starter motor. So off it comes and Dave then took off into Kuching to find someone to fix it, which he managed to do so we both went back in on the bike on Friday to pick it up and by late afternoon he had it back on and up and running, but Saturday there were a few more leaks and a few other minor jobs to do on the motor and he had a very frustrating day and I had to put up with varying degrees of expletives and frustrations with working in a small, confined place with very little light. However by the time Yvonne & Dennis arrived late afternoon most of it was back in order.

Friday night we had Barbara & David (Baker Street) and Gloria & Richard (Aquarius 1) for sundowners but had to spend it down below as the heavens opened but when they went to go we hadn't realised just how much rain there had been. They had to bail out their dinghies before they could head back to their boats.
By Saturday and Sunday most of the yachts that were left were going to the Rain Forest Music festival but we had only bought tickets for Sunday. However I went into Kuching with Lorraine (Katanne 11) and her two friends who were staying in the morning as they had a rental car and once back Dave and I went along to the Music Festival, getting there about 4pm. The main music part with bands etc. was at night but during the day they had workshops with various artists so we went to the one on rhythm, which was mainly using drums. Wasn't really Dave's thing at all so just as well we didn't buy a three day ticket. They also had craft stalls etc. and then 5 bands played at night, each with a 45 minute slot and then all of the participants came on for the finale and did just one number. The Zawose Family from Tanzania were the highlight of Sunday night and the women were amazing holding drums between their knees and dancing at the same time. There were thousands there and the crowd behavior was excellent with no incidents that we saw at all. There were dozens of food stalls with a good variety of food. On entering we had our temperatures taken for swine flue and a lot of people were wearing masks!! We were also given a security check, just like at the airport. No food or drink was allowed in so you had to buy there but it was not expensive. We left about 10 minutes before the end to avoid the rush of people and traffic so got away on the bike pretty quickly and were back on board by 12.30am!

Yesterday morning we headed back into Kuching to take the bike back, get a few food items and also had a look at some of the gift shops and for once Dave did not complain. We had lunch at a nice Chinese restaurant we had eaten at before and then by coincidence met up with Graeme on Katanne 11 on our way to the bus depot so got a ride back to Santubong with him.

We were back about an hour or so when we had visitors arrive - a real surprise a couple we had met in Vanuatu in 2007 - Helen & Jim from Gaia. Katanne 11 were coming for sundowners so then we all decided to go out for dinner to the Chinese seafood restaurant that we had been to for dinner when we first arrived. Jim and Helen had rowed over in their dinghy and had no money and bare feet but we told them not to worry about that. We had another beautiful meal there and we took the dinghies right up to where the restaurant was. Jim popped over this morning to reimburse us.

We left Santubong this morning a few minutes before 9am and are spending the night at Pulau Lakai which is 22 miles from Santubong, having dropped anchor at 2.45pm. We had to motor the whole way as there was no wind as well as the current being against us, even though the Malaysian Met Office weather forecast for the next few days forecasts westerly winds of 20-28knots with 3-3.5m seas. Since leaving Sebana Cove we have been trailed by the Malaysian Maritime Police and tonight they are also anchored in the bay with us.
Once securely anchored we were in the water for a swim after having not been able to swim for three weeks but also to give the hull of the boat a clean and scrape off the small barnacles that have grown while in the Sarawak River for the last 2 weeks. I had to hang on to a rope as the current was so strong and without holding on to something I was swept away!

Wednesday, 15th July 2009

Arrived at Pulau Lakai and found I no longer had internet service so will have to wait until we get closer to the mainland to get service and put this on the blog.

Today we did a 57 mile trip to the Belawai River and up anchored at 6am. It is apparently very interesting going into the heart of the jungle up the rivers but we don't think we have much time to do a lot of that as we need to be in Miri by 20-21st July for the next rally event. However we will do some of that in the months ahead as we think we will be around Borneo until about this time next year. We motor sailed for an hour after leaving this morning and then a nice breeze kicked in and we were even able to hoist the spinnaker for just over an hour which certainly picked our speed up but then as usual the wind gradually came around on the nose and we ended up motoring for the remaining 5 ¾ hrs. We were coming into the river at low tide and the entrance is very shallow and ended up hitting the bottom a few times until we sorted out that the channel had moved and we were 300 metres north of the channel. Once we moved 300m south of the leading line on C Map we were right. We finally dropped anchor at 6.20pm at 02 13.75N & 111 13.75E.