After leaving the Miri Marina and having a good early start we motor sailed for a couple of hours, then the breeze got up and we turned off the motor and had a nice sail for a couple of hours and then the wind died. Went to turn on the motor and it wouldn't start, just would not quite start. For about 3 hours we wallowed around with no wind while Dave tried to get it started but all to no avail. Lloyd on Déjà Vu eventually came along in his 10m catamaran and offered to tow us, which I gladly accepted, although if Dave had had his way he would have said no, we are okay - he had already turned down a couple of other boat's help. Lloyd towed us for 3 hours, getting along at 4 knots and I took the helm while Dave still tried to get the motor to go but still no joy. He must have bled the injectors 20 times and when the wind finally appeared again and we let go the tow line he gave up and decided the stop button in the fuel injector pump was the cause as the fuel was getting to the pump but not to the injectors. We had some lovely sailing for a few hours and even had the spinnaker up for a couple of hours to give us a bit more speed and a few more miles under our belt, dropping it just before dark. Lloyd ended up being a few miles behind us but kept in touch in case we needed another tow.

We were doing an overnight passage to Brunei and at about 10pm we were down to doing 2.7 knots when all of a sudden we lost steerage. Thinking the wind had died to absolutely nothing I called up Lloyd and said that we would need another tow when he caught us up. We could see the lights of a fishing boat about a mile away and it was when Dave turned the wheel to head away from the supposed net that we lost steerage. The fishing boat was gradually coming closer and closer to us and we could not get away from them as they were pulling up the net. Yes they had got the biggest fish of their lives, a 46 foot sailing boat. We tried to tell them to stop pulling it up as we could not move but they spoke no English and kept coming at us and of course we soon realised that we were caught in their fishing net. They banged into us and then we had to fend them off and they did not seem to understand that we had no motor. One of them dived overboard to see if he could unwrap us from the net but it was pitch dark and was impossible to see. In the end he said Knife, knife so we gave them one and they had to cut the net in two places to release us. We were surprised they did not ask for compensation but most nets have droppers and so are below the water line and we can sail over them but this one was on top of the water and at night there is no way you would see it and was about a mile long. All very stressful to say the least and there is no way one wants to be sailing single handed in these waters and especially at night. We also had to contend with avoiding the dozens of oil rigs and platforms which are in these waters, although most are well lit but the abandoned ones are not lit.

Lloyd eventually caught us up and gave us another tow for an hour or so when the wind picked up and we could sail again. We dropped anchor at 4am just outside the Brunei River so Dave could dive down when it was light to remove the remaining net. Fortunately it was only caught around the rudder but if we had of been motoring it could have done some serious damage to the propeller and the propeller shaft. Déjà Vu had carried on in up the river so we got a tow up the river to anchor outside the Royal Brunei Yacht Club at Serasa from Baker Street.