The shows are extremely entertaining and it’s a mystery how they get these huge mammals to perform and respond to commands, but there's still this strong underlying feeling that “this is very wrong.” Considering that they normally have a whole lot of ocean to swim in a swimming pool seems to be a poor substitute. But I did watch it and I did enjoy it, guiltily. Kai stayed for a week and had a great experience. He was great and made the best of what I imagine world be an unusual experience for the average Japanese person. He cooked us a delicious meal one night and his interpreting skills were very handy .

This trip will be spent backtracking through the inland sea to the island of Kurahashi where we will leave the boat for winter. We revisited a few islands we’ve been to before and a few days after our departure we ended back at Shodo island . As we entered the bay where we were to dock the wind picked up as forecast, we were planning to reverse alongside the dock when the gearbox failed and we couldn't get into forward, with the wind blowing us back onto the corner of the floating dock. We managed to secure a line from our stern and get some bow lines to the dock where with some serious heaving we could eventually secure Kanaloa. Pulling in 26 tonnes of boat against the wind is difficult. If we hadn't managed to get a line to the dock we were only a minute or two from being blown onto a large concrete sea wall and… well, don't want to think of how that would have ended. A few other boats were struggling to dock and all hands were employed to secure everyone. The gearbox has been giving us issues for a while now, you're not so much at its mercy if you're anchoring but for berthing its kind of mandatory.

Unfortunately we decided that we wouldn't venture to as many islands as planned but stick to a couple we had visited before and where we knew we were able to berth easily. The gearbox wasn't completely useless, you just had to nurse it into gear very carefully and as berthing can sometimes require a bit of back and forward manoeuvring we decided this would be the best plan.

We stayed at Shodo for a few days and hired a car for a tiki tour round the island. We also took the ferry to Okayama where we said goodbye to Kai putting him on a train home to Fukuoka. Next stop was Yuge Island. We knew a few people here and also got to benefit from the air conditioned sea station where Morgan could do some schoolwork in comfort out of the 35° heat.

Giovanni being the mad keen spear diver saw us snorkelling under the pilings of shore front buildings and bridges. A little scary at times given that we know there are poisonous lions mane and box fish jellyfish, still Giovanni managed to spear a few nice fish. He even managed to convince the local sushi chef to create an elaborate meal for us from his catch. Again another outstanding seafood feast was delivered.

We were invited to a few local summer music festivals while here. The drumming festival was brilliant, an assortment of huge drums and bongos but the sound was unreal. Unfortunately the video doesn’t do it justice.

After a couple of weeks at Yuge we said our farewells and carried onto Kurahashi via a nights stop at Osaka Shimozina Island. Lovely little restaurant here where we had a meal from the fish Giovanni had speared. We ended up having a bit of a sake night with the owner and her staff. Warren asked if there was an onsen nearby and she pointed to the roof. we soon deciphered that there was some sort of private bath there that she owned so arranged to come use it the morning. Turned out it was just that, a bath, albeit on the second floor of an exceptionally beautiful apartment that had just been built. The bath was outside on the balcony, so although it wasn’t an onsen as we knew it, Warren and I decided to make use of it.

Next minute we’re butt naked in the bath and the owner comes back in and starts taking photos of us from all sorts of angles while we’re both trying to cover up each others bits. Not even any bubbles to hide in. I was just laughing so much at this weird situation and she was probably really happy to get some shots of people who were really enjoying her bath. Don’t want to think what forum she posted these on, most likely the Japanese B&B that she uses. No shame.

As Morg and I were flying out of Tokyo returning home for Morgans exams we took the opportunity to spend a few days at Mt Fuji where Warren had hired a beautiful lodge in the forest. We weren't intending to climb Mt Fuji but decided to give it a go even though we didn't have any hiking gear with us . We ended up hiring some wet weather gear and set off at 5am for the hike to the top. We chose to climb the Fujinomiya trail which starts at 2380m ending at 3776m. It’s a relatively steep climb over jagged basalt which sounds like broken glass when stepped on and about half way you could feel the lack of oxygen. Morgan struggled a little until he got used to it- Giovanni has lungs the size of Africa due to his free diving and l didn't really notice any shortness of breath but more a slowing down of pace. Nobody was hurtling up the track that's for sure and a lot of the Japanese were sucking on disposable oxygen canisters. Not sure that this altitude warranted these and thought they may have been a bit of a gimmick but who knows.

Warren managed to get to 3010m which is a remarkable effort given his knees are very old.

We reached the summit about 1pm, clear at the top and cloudy below but still good views and a wee sense of achievement. Morgan had carried a half of champagne in his backpack so we cracked this open and downed it in 2s. We hung around the summit for an hour or so resting before our descent and marvelling at our sealed sandwich packs which had ballooned with the decrease in pressure.

My legs were feeling the climb and I knew going down could possibly be worse. About half way down I could feel my hips seizing up. By the time I got to the bottom I was walking zombie style too scared to bend my knees or hips. It’s a strange feeling when you’re legs just won’t do what they’re told. A few trampers suffered nasty falls with messy cuts from the sharp basalt which I was trying to avoid.

Our last few days were spent in the heat of Tokyo, hot hot hot. We ventured up the Skytree, Tokyo’s sky tower, where we had a great view of the city. A city of concrete housing 38 mil people. Unreal. We visited a couple of touristy things managing to work out the train and subway system, like anything, easy once you know how it works. The most challenging thing was walking up and down subway stairs, by this time Fuji had caused all our legs to seize and the four of us couldn’t get up or down stairs without clinging onto railings looking like we’d just hopped off our horse.

So now the boat is tied up in Kurahashi for the winter. Mast out and a big job list for the yard. Will see how this goes???

See you next year when we hope to venture north. Brrrrr.

On Fri 20 June we left for Marin Craft boat yard on Kurahashi just 14 miles South of Hiroshima. This is where we intend to leave the boat while we go back to NZ with the intention of taking the rig out and getting a few other jobs done. It’s a very small yard and isolated as no roads into the place. Getting work done on your boat is not easy in Japan as there are limited facilities for bigger boats and not a lot of skilled marine workers around. We met the owner and his wife who showed us around. Warren then presented Hideto with the task list for Kanaloa, his eyebrows went north, but in true Japanese style he kept smiling and nodding his head politely. So we shall see.

From here we carried on round the corner to our favorite spot on Kurahashi and just spent a couple of days eating great food at our favourite restaurant and sweating out a few more games of badminton with Morg. The next trip saw as motoring through some heavy fog, a very eerie feeling hearing the thump thump of ships around us but not being able to lay eyes on them. This is where AIS comes in handy-but only if boats have it enabled. We got our trusty old brass fog horn out and gave it a few long blasts and heard a few return blasts. Beautiful view seeing the islands emerge high above the fog.

We arrived at Omishima in the afternoon and Warren and I went for an evening stroll. through town and stumbled upon a small boutique brewery where we sampled a couple of their very good beers. The next day we caught a bus over to the other side of the island. A fairly desolate town greeted us but again we stumbled on a great pizza place check out the pizza oven below made of ceramic marine creatures. Very cool and smashing pizza too. Japan is also famous for Okonomiyaki-cabbage pancakes. Doesn’t sound appealing really, but they’re are delish, we found a wee restaurant where an elderly lady took great care in cooking us this delicacy.

From this island we caught a ferry to Rabbit Island, and yes its just like Deer island only full of rabbits. This island however has a very sinister history. It was used to manufacture toxic gases for WWII e.g. mustard and tear gas. The work was well paid which it had to be considering the damage it did to the workers, severe burns were not uncommon. They had primitive PPE gear of that era which looked very scary but any compromises in the suit was disastrous.

Also the location of the island was top secret so much so that the government actually erased it from Japans map during the war. People passing by in trains with a view of the island from the mainland were required to have all the window shades down. And I'll give you 3 guesses which animal was used to test the effects of the gases-rabbits The descendants of which are happily hopping around the island today and appear to be remarkably normal. The groundwater is said to be contaminated so the rabbits rely on fresh water provided by staff and tourists, this is also where they get the majority of food. Not a lot of natural food in the island and once tourist season is over the condition of the rabbits deteriorate significantly so much so that they only have a lifespan of about two years.

It was here that we met another rare cruising boat, Takaroa with Paulo from Brazil and Nadia from USA and their 2 children. They had been to this island before and knew some of the locals including our friends from the brewery. That night Paulo cooked us a big pasta and lots of saki and soju was drunk. Next port of call was Umijama recommended by the guys above. A bit more of a sophisticated place with a huge marine college and busier than the other islands. Again, a floating dock, we have been spoiled as most of the islands so for have had good floating docks for us to use with fees varying from free to $30 NZ.

Here in Umijama there was a neat little community hub with air conditioning, wifi showers, and washing machine. We met a few kiwis at the hub who actually live on the island, and I can see why.

A trimaran called Kori with a German couple on board also arrived, so this necessitated a dock party -three boats all with Pacifica names - Paulo and Nadia entertaining us with some hilarious stories. Nadia is a well known photographer/journalist and Paulo had a fruitful medicinal cannabis company in Colorado. I must say we meet some really interesting people on the sea. So many different backgrounds and stories. It’s fascinating and most people are keen to sit down and have a yarn over a few beers. I guess there is always that sense of commonality from our love for adventure and sailing

After a couple of days here we left for Shodo Island- not too exciting here but we rented some bikes and Morg and I went for our first dip in Japan. Sea is not as warm as SE Asia so still refreshing, however a lot of moon jellyfish around and some very large eagle rays. It was nice to be back in the water but altogether the clarity and colour of the sea is not inviting. If there's one thing we miss it’s the swimming + diving from last year.

The Japanese are well known for really getting into themes and some of the entertainment is out there. I remember Warren saying they went to a Cat cafe in Okinawa, filled with cats. That would have to be my worst nightmare as I hate the slimy fekkers. They were sitting on the tables in the toilets, everywhere. You can find all sorts of themed cafes, Guinea pigs, hedgehog, pigs, owls, ninja, Pokémon etc. But here on Shodo you can take a trip to the Olive park and hire a broomstick and pretend to fly. I think this tops the weirdness meter but the people below were really getting into it.

Our final stop before Osaka was Ie Island. We entered the main port here and it was like stepping into a Mad Max film. Old ships and rusty ship sheds and cranes scattered along the shore. Kind of spooky looking.

There wasn’t anywhere for us to berth -thank goodness, but a friendly council man told Warren to go to Tanga Island 5 miles to the East where there was a resort. As we motored across a fishing boat sped past us directing us to the island. It turned out this was the resorts owner who was coming across to open it just for us. The resort was actually closed but he let us berth at his wee dock and cooked us the most magnificent meal. He had an enclosed sea water pool full of snapper and various tanks with an assortment of live fish so everything was very fresh. It really was a special evening.

We felt very spoiled and he sat and chatted with us while we ate, although he couldn’t speak much English he got an ancient laptop out and explained how the half the island had been blown away for quarrying and he and his father were trying to save it. Very obvious on google maps.

We spent just the 1 night here as on a mission to get to Osaka as we were flying out to Korea on the 6 July for a visa run. First stop in Korea was Busan, a coastal city - had a quick peep of the beach and lunched atop a 100 storey building. Check out the views from the toilet.

From here we caught a fast train to Gyeongju with a visit to some temples. I'm more of a scenery person myself and there's only so many temples and churches I can visit. It was a bit cooler up here which was nice. We hired bikes for a morning which is a great way to get around.

Another fast train saw as arrive in Seoul. The highlight of our visit here was a trip to the DMZ, about 50km from Seoul, fascinating. This is a 4 km no mans land between the border of N and S Korea.

It’s the most militarised border in the world and is full of land mines, approximately 1-2 million. Understandably it is uninhabited and has become a sanctuary for wildlife with many endangered species living here. Although I’m not sure a million land mines would help with their endangerdness. I’m thinking the Asian black bear wouldn’t fare to well if he strolled onto one.

We also got to take a walk down the infamous ‘tunnel 3’, one of 4 tunnels that the N Koreans dug -through granite -to try and infiltrate S Korea in 1978. Unfortunately they were dobbed in by a N Korean defector and the South Koreans intercepted the tunnel and put an end to that. Apparently the N Koreans cooly explained they were just tunnelling for coal and smeared coal dust on the tunnel walls for authenticity, even though there was no coal to be had for miles -as coal is mostly found in sedimentary rocks not granite. It was no small tunnel though, as by the time it was intercepted it was 435 m long and 73m below ground. And if completed could have accommodated 30,000 men per hour along with light weapons.

The tunnels had very low ceilings as, even today the north Koreans average height was 15 cm shorter than the South Koreans, this is due to malnourishment. We were also told that over 1000 people per year died of starvation in the city across from where we were standing, many of them having taken their own lives due to the pain.

We enjoyed Korea, although overall found the Koreans more aggressive than the mild Japanese. A few drivers just greeted us with a No No, as I don’t think they could be bothered with English, whereas the Japanese usually try.

It’s getting hot hot hot back here in Japan. Wish I could come home for a bit of respite from the heat.

Until next time.

We spent a few days in the marina as the weather wasn't too great. the following day was mother’s day so Julianne and I were given the green light to go into town for a browse in the shops meeting up with the guys later for a special mother’s day dinner atop a multi storied hotel. Had a very special memorable Teppanyaki meal in a private room with our own chef and waiter. You probably only do it once in a lifetime, and it’s worth it. Another Japanese taste sensation for us all.

Monday we motor sailed to Himeshima via a night in Oshima. At Himeshima we met John the Ozzie who owned his own little cafe on the waterfront. We had a chat with him before walking around the town and apart from a walk to see the prawn lakes there wasn’t too much to see here. But I now regret not buying a jar of Vegemite from his shop!

Japan is a bit stricter about bringing food into the country, compared to SE Asia where they didn’t even blink at the 10 bags of white powder I brought in-yoghurt mix.

Next stop was Kaminoseki, where we were able to tie up to a floating dock which is far better than a concrete wharf where you need to watch your lines during tides and make sure your fenders are well placed so you don’t gore the topsides of the boat on oysters and barnacles. We spent the day walking around the island to a great wee restaurant with beautiful rose gardens. There is a lot of greenery in the hills surrounding the towns and cites but really not a lot within the towns themselves. I didn’t appreciate how hilly and mountainous Japan actually is and there isn’t a tendency to build in the hills either.

Walking over the hill through the small town to the other side of the island we came across a few abandoned houses -testament to a declining population. Most of the small island towns we have been to have one or two abandoned schools as there are no kids to fill them. Actually it’s one thing we have really noticed, the lack of kids around and the abundance of older people. I guess most of the kids go away to school at some stage. You can apparently buy very cheap real estate in places.

The problem with the abandoned houses is that people use them as junk yards. Because its expensive to get rid of rubbish here, people tend to dump their used whitewater and electronics inside .

That night we waited for a storm to pass though before getting up early in the morning to depart for Hiroshima. Here we stayed at Kanon Marina, a rickety old marina that creaked and groaned constantly. The huge concrete breakwater is actually a floating wall, so doesn’t stop a lot of the big wakes entering. A strange feeling to be heavily rocking inside a marina. The marina itself is in on reclaimed land in an industrial part of the city surrounded by vacant lots, mega logistics warehouses and car manufacturers. It’s not the most inspiring of places compared to the picturesque islands.

Des and Juliane left us in Hiroshima to continue their trip through Japan and sth Korea. We caught up with Alan and Cindy who were berthed opposite us and had a few good nights of card playing. Alan presented Morgan with a signed copy of his book ‘The Sea is So Great”, a great story of his foray into sailing which led to him competing in the BOC single handed Challenge Race-a race around the world.

We visited the peace park and Hiroshima bomb museum, again like Nagasaki, a very grim reminder of the war with very graphic murals. Those bombs were something else.

Monday 26th we left Hiroshima for a wee cruise around some of the islands while we waited for boat parts to arrive. First stop was Miyajima. Quite a tourist spot but you can see why. It has a famous Tori gate (a religious doorway if you like, from the ordinary world into the Kami) in the water here which is a big attraction. These gates are a very important part of the Shinto religion in Japan and found everywhere. But what I liked was the deer roaming freely around the island. They are pretty friendly and of course you’re not encouraged to pat or feed them but when one wandered up and polished off Cindy’s saki you have to chuckle. One happy deer.

We also rode the gondola up Mt Misen with spectacular views at the top. There’s several trails you can walk up, but not sure Warrens knees would have thanked him. We did walk down though which was still quite a hike but thankfully shady and picturesque. Lots of solemn looking people hiking up, some women dressed for a cocktail party and looking ready to murder their partners. Gondolas are there for a reason. Also lots of manmade stone aqueducts running through the island which lends to the beauty of it. Guess they get a lot of rainfall.

Even though it is a fairly popular tourist spot everything shuts at 5 on the dot. I think it’s to keep the town peaceful and stop wanna be revellers wrecking the place.

One thing Japan does very well is aquariums. Well worth a visit to the one here, although I’m not a fan of big animals in captivity, here they had sea lions and porpoises and some forlorn little penguins who were put in a display box for up close family photo opportunities. They didn’t look too happy and I’m sure they’d rather be back home jumping off ice cliffs. The long necked turtles below were pretty groovy though.

After a few days enjoying Miyajima we headed down to Kurahashi. Again a floating dock within a high breakwater albeit next to an oyster factory which when the wind was blowing the wrong way was very pungent. The waterways around these islands are intensively farmed for oysters, producing around 200 000 tonnes of oysters annually. Japan is the third largest oyster producer in the world. Long lines of racks of scallop shells are used as spat collectors and once they begin to grow the scallops shells are separated by plastic spacers. Unfortunately it’s not oyster season at the moment so fresh oysters aren’t available.

The farms are everywhere and given the amount of derelict infrastructure we see from the racks etc probably the reason why it’s not recommended to anchor around them. Which seems unusual for the Japanese as they seem so efficient, organized and safety conscious. Check out the Japanese meth lab below, proper PPE gear, outside in the open air, every thing documented…….

We haven’t yet anchored in Japan. There is not as much crap in the water as in SE Asia but we did get a disposable raincoat wrapped round the prop, and in 16 degree water guess who drew the short straw of going in.

After a week away we headed back up to Hiroshima as Warren had to fly back home for a meeting and we were still waiting for some boat stuff to arrive.

A couple of the boats from this years 2 handed Melbourne Osaka race were berthed here when we returned and we had a great boozy night with White Spirit, a Melbourne yacht crewed by Lilly and Cyrus. It’s no cake run this race, taking boats on average 36 days. A Japanese boat Zero who had also participated was parked here and we were invited to join the celebrations at the marina restaurant.

A fun night with lots of speeches and prizes and good to see the Japanese sailors are no different, all got stuck into their Sake and whisky and of course the party ended up on one of the Japanese boats. I’d had enough by this time but Warren managed to stay the distance and joined in the pole dancing on the boat and was fluent in Japanese by the time he got back to Kanaloa.

see ya soon!

Instead we flew to Fukuoka in the middle of April where we met up with friends from NZ-Judy & Mark in a very nice hotel. We spent a day bullet training down to Nagasaki for a sober reminder of what an atom bomb is capable of. Clocked a speed of 247km/hr on the train, not that you’d know it’s such a smooth ride.

We then caught a hydrofoil to Iki Island, where we were to await the arrival of Kanaloa enroute from Okinawa. Checked into our hotel, pretty average sort of place and next morning wandered down to the wharf to meet Kanaloa and crew

They arrived midday. After a joyful reunion with Warren, brother Doug, and a lovely young Swiss man - Rrrrramon, we had a few drinks and joined a potluck on shore for members of the Japan Rally. A total of 6 boats heading up to Alaska via Japan and Aleutians. We were planning to do that route this year but have now opted to stay the season in Japan rather than rushing through, and intend spending the majority of the time cruising the Inland sea between Honshu and Shikoku.

We stayed at Iki for a couple of more days, cleaning the salt drenched boat. I opened my knicker drawer to find it swimming in an inch of water. An open cockpit porthole one furious night had let buckets of water into our cabin. Just a small porthole, but the amount of water able to get through from a wave into a centre cockpit is scary.

Next day we joined a rally bus tour which was probably the best tour I've done. Straight to a sushi restaurant with an abundance of raw fish and instructions on eating sushi Japanese style. Basically stuff a seaweed sheet full of rice and fish, bunch it into a cone shape and snaffle it. No bamboo rolling mats here. Then on to monkey rock - can you seen the Baboon face?

Then to our first Onsen or Japanese bath house. This was extremely educational as there had been Onsen's at our hotels but not being versed in Onsen etiquette we weren't confident to use them. It’s a massive part of the Japanese way of life, and I love them.

You enter the ante room where you take off your clothes, (all of them, considered very unhygienic to enter an Onsen in anything but skin) then enter the Onsen itself where there are one or more shallow, very hot pools - but -before stepping into the pool you go to a cleaning station where you sit on a wee stool in a cubicle and shower. All cleaning products provided. No idea what I used as couldn't read the labels on the bottles. Once you are squeaky clean you slip into the hot bath- some are mineral others just heated water - and relax. Once you're ready to pass out you can opt to plunge into an icy bath and then back into the hot pool. When you're sufficiently boiled- back to the cleaning stations then out to the ante room where there are cubicles with a myriad of products for body, face, hair dryers etc etc. It’s sort of a spa treatment if you like. I was surprised that the Japanese are so comfortable bathing in the nick with each other. The Onsens are not unisex, thankfully, although I’m sure men wouldn’t mind sharing with women but not sure the other way round would apply.

For those of you who have experienced boat life, this sort of cleaning process is bliss. Boat showers are OK, but sometimes you just feel the need for a deep clean.

Also it's still a little chilly here at the moment. We are sleeping under duvets- a first in about 10 years. Bloody nice to not be sweltering in the 35 degrees of wet heat that we are so used to in SE Asia.

While we’re on ablutions I have to mention the toilets here. They are very high tech all encompassing cleaning machines. Complete with bidet, music, seat warmers, and coffee making functions. Well maybe not coffee making. Again it’s a bit hit and miss for us as all buttons are in Japanese and the first few times I came out with a soaking wet back but have now managed to master the water angle and pressure buttons. Quite a step up from SE Asian squat loos.

April 22 saw us motor sail to Horado, an island south of Iki. We arrived in the afternoon but the wharf where we were to berth was full, however 10 mins later we were directed to the other side by locals, secured lines and went in search of food and the local Onsen which was a short walk to hotel atop a hill. Bliss. We decided we might go and visit a local bar after this as the hotel had no drinking facilities That's right - a hotel without a bar, unheard of. The taxi driver dropped us off at an ordinary looking door- if you weren’t local you’d have no idea this led to a narrow, smokey bar. We managed to order a drink, not sure what, but it was good, so we had a few more and then we were presented with microphones.

My first ever foray into Karaoke, it has never appealed to me. Who wants to sit in a bar listening to dickheads trying to sing. Luckily the four of us are exceptionally good singers, so we spent a couple of hours belting out every ballad we could think of. Luckily the Japanese are very polite people who kept encouraging us, but were probably very relieved to see to see these four dickheads leave. Luckily there were only a 5 other people in the bar.

Horado was a funny little Island. Rich in history, the first Japanese port to welcome European traders, hence the huge Dutch influence, but it almost seemed deserted. Maybe it got busier in summer. We hired some ebikes and did a quick tour of the castle and town, a pretty wee place.

Friday we moved on to Kujukushima, actually on the mainland, north of Nagasaki, and the gateway to Saikai National Parks’ 99 islands. Only 4 of the islands are inhabited-Horado being one of them. Again upon arriving there was no where to berth but we were waved alongside a floating dock which we had to ourselves. The local council representative came down and charged up $1 NZ/night. Daylight bloody robbery.

We went for a few walks and again searched out a local Onsen. Told there was only one at the top of the hill at the Hotel Yumiharinooka . It was about 10km away so opted for a taxi and after a fairly steep climb arrived and were greeted with a spectacular view from the balcony of the hotel..

Just look at the photos. That is an outdoor pool in the photo not the Onsen. The Onsen was set inside large glass walls giving you the same view.

Japan is the land of vending machines, usually drinks. They are on every street corner with never a sign of graffiti or vandalism. Imagine what state they would be in NZ. But happy to say there was a selection of vending machines outside the onsen- complete with beer. Bliss. So we sat down and admired the beautiful sunset from the top of the hill.

Sun 27 we headed back north to Fukuoka. There is a marina here, albeit without water and power, Fukuoka being a well known yacht club having hosted the Louis Vuitton Americas Cup series in 2016. The city has a pop of to 1.5 million and is surrounded by hills, in fact I never really appreciated how mountainous Japan is. The cities tend to be squeezed into any flat land available. One island we visited had the hospital way up in the hills, purely because this is where you find cheaper real estate.

We said goodbye to Mark and Judy here in Fukuoka and awaited the arrival of Julianne and Des a week later.

We also bumped into Mari, a young Japanese woman who lives locally . We met her at the pot luck dinner in Iki, as she helps co-ordinate the Japan rally. Mari is a keen 420 sailor and was competing in a regatta at the yacht club. She organised for Morgan to join the local sailing dinghy squad for 3 days. Very fortuitous as Morgan is going to sail in the Bic skiff worlds in Osaka in July.

The coaches and kids were so welcoming . Morgan befriended a Laser sailor called Kai. He and his mum, Haruna visited the boat for an evening, she had great English as had been an exchange student in the USA. In the Japanese way they came with bags of gifts, and wanted to take us out to dinner the next night. It turned out Haruna’s friends owned a restaurant and we were treated to the most amazing sashimi meal, about 7 different courses, sitting up at the sushi bar having a great conversation with the Chef - who had fluent English having worked in the USA for years. It was an amazing meal. One course was sashimi layered over a peeled squid. Luckily he said we weren't expected to eat the squid as it was still alive- he did chop off some of the tentacles for me to try which were still alive and wiggling on my plate. Try picking them up with chopsticks! The tuna sashimi melted in your mouth, as it was from the belly-the best bit of the tuna.

WE had every sashimi possible, tuna belly, salmon, mackerel, squid, octopus followed by a huge snapper head cooked in a sweet sauce. It was a taste sensation, quaffed down with beer and warm Sake.

It felt like some Kind of Michelin dining experience.

Not sure about you, but grocery shopping in foreign lands can be quite fun and an adventure. Although I loathe doing it at home, supermarkets in Japan are something else. Fresh food is of the highest quality, and often every item is individually plastic wrapped. Youve never seen so much plastic packaging as you do in a Japanese supermarket. Along with an abundance of plastic bottles from the vending machines found on every major corner, that poses a lot of waste plastic. There are no public rubbish bins but there is minimal littering too. Bottles and cans etc are recycled but rubbish collection is sorted into 2 bags, non burnable and burnable. They burn just about everything that’s not recyclable.

Anyway back to shopping. Fruit is really expensive, about $2 for one apple or one kiwifruit, $4 for an avocado, $45 for an average size watermelon, $25 for a wee rockmelon. There is little variety. Straw berries are the only cheap fruit as they’re grown locally. Meat and seafood is abundant and of the highest quality and sadly -have a look at the photo below-it’s still part of the Japanese diet.

There are a great selection of restaurants and cafes, and wine and beer, actually alcohol in general, is cheap. We are really enjoying Japan. Beautiful scenery, good food and lovely people. Till next time😉.

We said goodbye to Sulawesi on the 4th of October and 9 lives and ourselves headed for a tiny speck in the middle of the ocean called Gureda island. We arrived in the late afternoon, 9 lives had already entered the reef and given us details to enter the lagoon. Its preferable to enter these reef areas when the sun is over head so as to get a clear view of reefs and bombies. We would never attempt these entrances in the dark. Catamarans get away with a lot more then us mono-hulls having only a couple of feet draught, so we’re very polite and always let them go first. There were actually a couple of rudimentary channel markers too which helped and sailing sites such as noonsite and zulu, often have info placed by other cruisers with really helpful navigation and anchoring tips. As we entered the lagoon, we headed for a sheltered arm of the lagoon which looked like something out of a postcard, it was idyllic. Look at the video below.

One of those rare places untouched by tourism, you feel like you’re miles away from the big world. There was a small village onshore and the next day we visited a coconut plantation owned by the local pastor. The islands main income is from coconut oil and all things coconutty. The pastor was a keen spear diver and proudly displayed his home made fins to us. Get a load of these in these in the photo below. Warren gifted him a nice pair of slightly larger, more normal looking fins and a rash suit which made his day. The day before a dugout with two teenage girls came out to the boat and we gave them a bag full of girly clothes and a box of stationary, which they were very excited about. One of them Desi, was quite enamored with Morgan and invited him to come live in the village and attend school there. He politely declined despite my encouragement. Although I could think of worse places to grow up thats for sure.

It was also Morgans 15th B-Day on the 7th of October, so I baked a necessary chocolate cake and invited Mariposa and 9 lives for lunch. Michael (The crazy German) brought an amazing cake- layers of thin cake stuffed with vanilla custard topped with strawberries and raspberries in a red glaze topped with whipped cream laced with Lemoncello and Cointreau. It was deeeeeevine. Better then anything I had tasted from a bakery. It was gone in two seconds and I hid my very average chocolate cake under a tea towel and told it to keep its head down. So Morgs birthday was celebrated that afternoon with mountains of food and champagne and great gifts .

We ended up staying in this remote paradise for a couple of days (again a week would have been nice).

Next stop was the volcano island of Ternate. As part of Morgans B-Day present, 9 lives had offered Morgan a free sail across on a “real boat”. For reasons unexplained, Morgan has never liked catamarans, but still, he looked forward to a ride on another boat and you never know, it may change his view a little.

Kanaloa arrived in Ternate in the late afternoon and anchored across the passage on Todora, guided by Mariposa. It wasn’t until dark when 9 lives arrived and found that their windlass was on the blink. They rafted up with us and the next day was spent finding out the problem by a process of elimination. Again the benefits of cruising in company. A repair was done and we all motored over to Ternate. We organised a tour of Ternate and saw some interesting old forts and a crater lake at the top of the mountain with a resident white croc, who occasionally nibbles on the odd human game enough to enter the lake. Not sure whether this is a mythical creature, although there have been several “sightings” and a mauling last year.

Ternate was a good place to provision with a huge fruit and vege market. From Ternate we sailed up to Dedola, stopping at Laloda for a night on the way, The next morning the boat was covered in gritty ash from the nearby volcanos, we could see one (Mt Umi) of them blowing ash as we sailed away. There had been quite a lot of volcanic activity in this area recently.

Dedola is a small resort island surrounded by reef so Morg and I were on mast duty going in through the reefs. I can still manage to free climb to the first set of spreaders and my goal is to do this until I’m 60, or before if I fall off.

We were the only boat around and enjoyed good snorkeling on the outer reef where we saw a few curious black tip sharks. That afternoon, Morg, Warren and I went ashore and wandered around the now abandoned resort. We weren’t sure if the resort was a victim of Covid, but the place was now inhabited by a few fishermen who had set up camp. We strolled around the island and I lay down on one of those shaded outdoor platforms common in resort areas, a place where you have an afternoon siesta or massage. I felt some bitey things on my shin, and picked off a few tiny crustation like things squishing them between my finger nails. Thought nothing of it and luckily I decided to swim back to the boat.

The next morning I woke up covered in horrible bites that over the next few days blistered and turned a deep ruby red. Nobody else had succumbed to whatever plague it was that had infested the island and me. A search on google resulting in the exact image of the beast I had squashed in my fingers, revealed that they were Cimex lectularius, aka bed bugs. And man did they itch. I thought BB’s were solely the proprietors of hotel beds, but nope, they quite like the outdoors and fiber too. The skipper was ready to put me in isolation in the dinghy, but I’m happy to report that none got onboard, probably owing to my decision to swim back to the boat.

We stayed here for two nights, and then did an overnight sail to Wayag island, finally reaching our dream destination of Raja Ampat. For years we have dreamed of getting here, and finally we could see for ourselves why this area has a reputation for spectacular scenery and diving. Wayag covers a total area of 155 000 Hectares, with hundreds of breath taking atolls, with pristine beaches and unique karst islands that look like mushrooms sprouting from the sea. Their near vertical walls hang over the sea which have undercut the razor sharp rock below. Below is the view from the top of a climb we did.

You can dinghy for miles between these wee islands and get totally lost. Its the equivalent to a maze on water. No one lives here and again, apart from a hand full of cruising boats, you have the place to your self. Bliss.

Unfortunately due to time constraints, we could only spend a few days here. Adrianna needed to get a ferry to Sorong so that she could make her flight back to Italy. So we continued on our way south coming across some big, fast moving over-falls just out of Wayag. This was possibly where two currents may have met resulting in an area of disturbed surface water in an otherwise flat, calm sea.

We headed the 55 miles to Pulau Pef which reminded us of sailing through the sounds in the South Island with steep forested hills right down to the waters edge. There were a couple of moorings here owned by an upmarket Swiss resort. We hoped there might be the chance of getting Adrianna on a resort boat to Sorong, but no luck. But what we did find out is that the mooring cost 20 Euros Per-person per-night. Most cruisers don’t have a budget that allows for a hundred euros per night mooring fees unless you are in the Med. So we high tailed it out of there early morning, it was a beautiful spot and one thing we have noticed since being in RA is the return of bird song.

The dawn chorus is loud and magnificent here as there has sadly been a lack of bird life throughout SE Asia, or in places we have anchored anyway. Off the coast we see the odd sea eagle, hand fulls of frigate birds and boobies, and the occasional flock of working terns. We even had a stray swallow hitch a ride with us for half an hour, but that was pretty rare. We also noticed that no seagulls have been spotted on our travels through SE Asia.

We sailed down to Waisai where there were regular ferry’s to Sorong, and farewelled Adriana. We didn’t stick around as it was an uninviting place and we headed for an anchorage at the start of a narrow passage between Gam and Waigeo Island. This channel boasts a thriving ecosystem and here we had a lot fun. The current in the fjord like passage roars through, so we dropped out of the dinghy at one end, tumbling along a kilometer stretch through the passage to the other end. Nothing much grows in the middle of this passage because of the current but around the banks its akin to diving in a jungle river thanks to its lush mangroves and rainforest lined banks. Giovanni, Morg, and myself spent six hours snorkeling around the banks viewing the spectacular coral and big fish in the small pockets of slack water.

Giovanni was in his element as he could spearfish here and managed a good sized sweet lips only to have a bastard shark come along and bite it in half. He was devastated as he had been stalking this fish for 32 hours, well maybe half an hour anyway. If that shark understood Italian, his ears would be bleeding.

The next day however he was rewarded with a great catch of coral trout and a big lobster, yum yum.

Thats an evil smile Giovanni

The next few day we based our selves off Pulau Friwin and did a few days of diving with Biodiversity, a resort across the water on Gam, which was run by a friendly young couple who organised several nice trips for us. We dove at numerous sites, but the most outstanding for me was Cape Kri, it was like diving in a mammoth aquarium. The water was crystal clear and abounded with sea life, from near microscopic pigmy seahorses and six foot long wobbygongs. We saw cuttle fish, octopus, lobster, morays, crocodile fish, scorpion fish, vibrant nudibranchs, and tropical fish of almost every colour, size and shape. It was mind blowing. Melissas garden was also an exceptional display of never ending corals in shallow water where hundreds of brightly coloured fish mooched around. Below are images that divers kindly shared with me on our trip. There was some sophisticated camera gear around!

We were having a chat to some of the dive guides over a beer one evening telling them of the great snorkelling and fun we had in ‘the passage’ a few days before. The guides looked at us like we had grown another head.

Apparently there are quite large crocs in the passage, and the dive guides refuse to take tourists there. Probably explains why we were the only boat. Morgan did comment on it looking a bit crocky. I wonder if Giovanni was telling us the truth about the shark.

Wonderful to see that there are still parts of this world that havnt’t been too badly scarred by man. RA is an out of the way destination and fairly expensive so I’m hoping it stays that way,which will hopefully deter the extremely destructive mass tourism that we have experienced on our travels. While yes, we too on Kanaloa contribute to tourism on our journey,we are very aware of our impact and do our best to take with us and leave only memories.

Sadly this is the end of Morgans and mine journey for a while as we head back to NZ for some school and family time. Warren and Giovanni will carry on to The Phillipines via Palau and hopefully find a typhoon free place to settle Kanaloa for a few months before our next adventure. We had a great journey this year and fingers crossed will be back next year.

Thanks for sharing our journey x

Would you take this guy sailing with you???

Warren loving the early mornings.

Bird of Paradise seen during early morning hike, This ones for you Des!

We anchored at Pindjang, our first stop in Sulawesi, and ourselves and 9 Lives went for a recce to the village. This area is renown for its clove groves, and we were met with the beautiful smell of cloves drying on ground sheets throughout the town. The houses on the shore were very basic but nevertheless still sported the mandatory satellite dish .

Clockwise:spot the satellite dish; cloves; happy school kids; morg and warren in there somewhere; warren arriving with the eggs.

It was a hot 2km walk into town to a very warm welcome from the locals. We were greeted with the usual ‘hey mister’ regardless of sex and hundreds of requests for selfies.

I’m guessing we may have been the only foreigners to have visited these shores in a very long time. We arrived just as school was finishing and were swarmed by kids. Happy, laughing, cheeky kids, just as they should be. They were beautifully dressed in their school uniforms and followed us all the way back to the beach while we stopped from time to time to buy bananas and eggs. The one outstanding feature of this town was its lack of rubbish, not sure why but it was a lot cleaner then most of the other villages we have visited, it seemed that these people were proud of their town.

The next day we departed for Buol, a town of about 10,000 people, and in stark contrast to Pindjang, we landed on a beach with more trash then sand. We were in need of a fresh fruit market, so Morgan and I braved the smelly drains and piles of rubbish. We were joined by a band of five kids. The girl, who was probably about 10 took it upon herself to be our guide. With the limited Bahasa (Indonesian) I know, I explained that we were in the need for fruit and vegges. She promptly took us to a small fruit shop with limited choice, so I did my best impression of a market, and low and behold, a motorbike was summoned and Morgan and I piled on to the two seats attached to the front of the bike, ready for market. I said goodbye and thank you to our guide, but she just grinned and hopped onto the foot board in front of us. I turned around and saw that a couple of boys had also attached themselves to the driver and running boards. They were not going to let us go. Turned out to be lucky actually, as we had no idea of how to get back to the beach through the maze of houses and alleys. Our trusty guide came through with flying colours and was rewarded handsomely in rupiers. The last video has a shot of her on our bike trip to market.

Back at the beach, as we were waiting for Giovanni to come and pick us up in the dinghy, Morgan and I we surrounded by a few very scary looking old women, with no teeth, or if they had one left it was red from beetle nut, and thick glasses that had probably been passed down through the generations. More and more of them with freshly applied lipstick came down to the beach for a photo opportunity. As soon as we saw Giovanni arrive, Morg and I ran the hundred meters to the dingy with all of our shopping in under 9.84 seconds. It was kind of a surreal place that town.

Glad to be on our way, we departed the next day with an overnight anchor in Malangato. At this stage we were still travelling with 3 catamarans; 9 Lives with Mark and Jane aboard, Mariposa (the crazy German) and Ananda with an American couple on board. If you have read our blogs from years ago we were good friends with Ananda’s previous owners who had a wee girl Millie, Morg and Millie were great friends for the years we spent mooching around Thailand.

There are not a lot of cruising boats in these waters so even though the idea is to be totally independent it is nice to be able to swap stories- discuss boat problems and have a collective of spare parts from 4 boats. Plus the fact that that the people themselves are great company. For those of you not accustomed to boats , there is an endless list of breakdowns to be fixed, maintenance to be done and cleaning. Its nearly a daily occurrence that something on the boat has stopped working, jammed or clogged up. Little leaks are always there, as the boat houses a labyrinth of pumps, hoses and wiring. And the fun starts when they turn into big leaks.

Then there’s the engine, batteries, the electrical system, the fridges freezers, winches, windlasses, sails, dinghy, outboards, water maker……………………………………………….all needing R&M.

We stopped for a few hours enroute to Seronde at Palau Popaya, just because it looked so spectacular and we had to jump in for a snorkel. So here we are at a very remote island, no resorts or village of any description, but look at the clip below so you too can share my depression about the rubbish on an otherwise perfect spot in paradise.

Our next anchorage was Lito Seronde which was in the middle of the northern Sulawasi arm where we were joined by all the aforementioned cruising boats Another spectacular anchorage with a boutique resort owned by a German couple who welcomed us to use the facilities. The resorts we visit are very small-10 12 bures-low key places based around snorkeling and diving. As far removed from a Musket Cove as you could get. We had lovely happy hour drinks, great food and the occasional massage.

As we move further east there is a definite Papuan influence among the people-frizzy hair, darker skin and big brown eyes. The children are just gorgeous. Christianity is more common here and the atmosphere feels more relaxed and happy. The resort staff would play guitar and sing in the evenings and it was hard not to think we were back in Fiji. Needless to stay we stayed here for a couple of days chilling. It is so easy to spend a week or more at these places but we needed to reach Manado at the eastern end of Sulawesi to renew our visas in time.

Clockwise: Jane and I paddling in for our morning coffee at Seronde. Dinner with the rest of the cruisers. Hermit crab finds prime piece of real estate. The Trimaran-Kanaloa and 9 Lives rafted.

We left Seronde on the 25 Sept with an overnight stop at at Labuna Uki . We arrived in Manado (the capital of North Sulawesi) anchoring outside a small harbour in deep, but unusually clear water for a city anchorage.

It was so clear that inside the harbour you can clearly see a sunken ferry a few meters under the surface.

Manado has a pop of about 500 000. The Dutch East India Co had a big presence here in the 1600’s, and the influence of the Dutch missionary’s is seen by the predominantly christian population. It is a relatively wealthy town compared to the others we have visited on the way.

Jane and I took advantage of a few supermarkets here, having an interesting ride in the local taxi-see below. The supermarkets in SE Asia and a bit different to what we are used to and sometimes it can take a whole day to source a few special dietary requirements, such as meat (that would be chicken and the odd bit of beef or pork if you’re lucky) tonic water and beer.

We went for a mini tour around Manado in a beautiful, new air conditioned mini van. This was what we were told we were getting. Instead we got a rusty old banger with no air con, no suspension, windows that needed a crowbar to open, and seats that were perfect for people under 3 feet.

After a 3 hour wait for ‘the’ promised van in the morning which for whatever reason didn’t turn up, the guy managed to secure the above shit bucket and we were off. Up to the mountain village of Tomohon, 53 kms from Mandano. This town has an infamous wet market that sells cat, dog and various other delicacies as well as using barbaric slaughter methods and has been described as a cafeteria for animal pathogens. Nice. Criticism from celebrities supposedly resulted in a ban of these products in July 2023 by the town mayor.

Thankfully it was a Sunday and the market was very quiet when we visited. There wasn’t much flesh on offer, but the remains of slaughtering were evident in the big red puddles we long jumped over and the over riding stench of dead things. Not sure if there is still a black market for domestic pets, however the absence of four legged furballs in the town didn’t go unnoticed by us in the van. We also had lunch at a local restaurant, I chose vegetarian.

The meat department at Tomohon. Believe it or not these ugly things on the right are bats. Yes, bats. Yum yum.

We visited the crater at the top of Manado and zig zagged down to a pretty uninspiring lake to the east somewhere. Then zig zagged back up and down to Manado. Morg was wise as he opted to stay on the boat for this tour as it wasn’t the most exciting.

We also had to get our visas renewed here, what we thought would be a few hours at immigration-what were we thinking. After we handed over all the documentation we were told it would take 3 days to process. So instead of waiting in Manado we motored across to the island of Bunaken about 20 miles north. This is beautiful place with pretty good coral and neat little villages. We picked up a mooring and spent a few days mooching and roaming the villages. No cars here, just the transport in the video below. The whole place had a laid back,”manana” feel to it. Bliss.

Above video:The Streets of Bunaken.

We then picked up our visas as promised and departed for the next leg of our journey to Maluku. See you soon!

Not sure if anyone reading these bogs has clicked on the tracker link above-but that will show our route to date if you’re interested. Actually, not sure if anyone even reads these blogs!

Little bit of sailing footage below.

After our lovely relaxing stay at Bohey Dulang-could have easily stayed there for another week, we moved on to Tawau. This is our last stop in Malaysia before we head over the border to Indonesia. Tawau also had a yacht club which we anchored out from, but as with most of the ‘yacht clubs’ we visited on the way round, they are really a drinking establishment (disguised as a yacht club)for the local Chinese business men who can put away a fair bit of whiskey. We spent 5 days here along with 10 other rally boats headed this way. It was a good chance to provision and rumour was that it also had a fuel barge. Definitely a rumour as we jerry canned 600 L of diesel by dinghy out to the boat in 35 degree heat. Fun aye?

We also wanted to hire a car and get our alternator bench tested but weren’t having much luck with either. With Warren getting mildly frustrated at this point, we checked out a nice little cafe in town where two young Chinese guys were having a coffee next to us. Seeing an opportunity I started up a conversation with these two, slowly heading the conversation to hire cars and alternators and after a few furious phone calls they had a hire car organised for us and Warren was whisked away with his alternator to a bench testing place. Why are males so bloody adverse to asking for help or directions.

One night we were having dinner at the Yacht club with the other boaties and saw in the distance a very fast dark moving sky. We looked at it for a while and then suddenly there was a mass exodus back to boats as a 30 knot squall raced in. These squalls hit so fast. One minute its calm and balmy next minute its howling. We just got back to the boat in time, the sea picked up and boats were dragging all over the place. The bottom, as one boat put it, was like black yogurt, so holding was shit. We started our engines and motored into it while one of the boats whose owner was at the airport dragged 400m into the ship wharves and I think he was pretty lucky to still have a boat when he got back. These squalls normally don’t last long but they can be pretty intense, just very glad most of us got back out to our boats.

Giovanni and his sister Adrianne from Italy joined us in Tawau. Giovanni has sailed with us on Mustang on numerous occasions and is a mad keen fisherman, speardiver and freediver and a marine engineer. Handy.

From Tawau (where we cleared out of Malaysia)t was a short hop around the point and up a river to Nunukan, Indonesia. We prepared ourselves for a long, drawn out day clearing into Indonesia, but, as we employed an agent-basically someone who does most of the paper work for you, speaks the language and knows how the system works, the process went quite smoothly. In the immigration and customs offices which are small with a handful of staff, we even got treated to fish balls and banana fritters as they had a mini deep fryer on their office table and were busily cooking away. Yup, they do things differently here. This appeared to be pretty normal behaviour, so we gladly joined in. Can imagine that happening at NZ immigration.

We have had some of the best sailing in Indonesia but don’t get me started on the bureaucracy. Immigration etc while travelling on a boat is vastly different then entering a country by plane. Usually upon entering a new country we have to search out quarantine, harbour master, immigration and sometimes health officials. If you’re lucky the different offices may be in a 30km radius. Some towns manage to hide them really well, and you’re off on a wild goose chase heading out to the mountains to the immigration office only to find out it moved 15 years ago. It usually takes a day to clear in and sort out immigration etc but can drag on for days. Years ago In the Indonesian Island of Flores it took us a entire week taxiing back and fourth into town 40 km away just to get a 1 month visa extension. They drip fed us the information we required and while I was considering shooting the puffed up …………………officious little prick who seemed to enjoy our protracted agony, Warren was his usual calm self. Probably why he deals with all that.

Anyway that is just a little anecdote to give you an idea of how frustrating it can be. Not to mention that every island (there’s only 17 500 islands in Indonesia) has their own interpretation of the rules and the national database is erratic to say the least.

It was a pretty grotty river anchorage at Nunukan so we left asap and headed down to Maratua Island, a beautiful horseshoe atoll with pretty spectacular diving and snorkeling on the outside reef. Initially we anchored in the channel next to a small resort island within the atoll-again look at the tracker if you want to see exactly where we are- with a 3 knot current. Giovanni suggested we go ashore and try find a recommended cafe about 5 km along the island and then go for a snorkel on the outer reef. So armed with all our snorkeling gear in 37 degrees heat we headed for the shore. Not being too excited by a 5 km walk in that heat I stuck my thumb out at first vehicle that came along. It was an empty dump truck, we gave the Italians the front seat while Morg and I pole vaulted into the back of it for a breezy ride.

The resort we anchored near was run by a lovely young Malaysian girl who had studied in Germany and was also a dive instructor. She organised a dive trip for us the next day to the outer reef. Beautiful diving, with a compilation below. The skippers plan was to stay here for a couple of days but the the crew mutinied and we ended up staying for a week as it was just so pleasant.

Morg and I got the wing foil out and I even managed to get up tow foiling albeit with some spectacular crashes which, when I finally surfaced after checking that I had all my body parts, I’d see Morg pissing himself with laughter in the dinghy. I’d then remind him of the 45 yr age gap. For those of you not familiar with foil boards, the foils are razor sharp and my main concern when ditching is to jump as far away from these speeding machetes as possible. I am also aware that I’ve lived most of my 9 lives.

Thats all for now.

Next stop was Lahad Datu, a small town of 30,000 where we anchored off the marine police station. I have to say there is no shortage of maritime police presence all down this east coast of Borneo, probably for good reason. A day trip was organised for us to a traditional mountain village where we were entertained with music and food. This village was struggling to hang onto their cultures with deforestation and the decline of village life in general. This was followed by a visit to another local group who were tree planting to reestablish the riparian margins of the local river. Again we were treated to food and local dance and music. Their intentions are good but hard to get excited when you see the endless rubbish floating past in the river.

Enthusiasm abounds!! Mind you the kids did volunteer.

We stayed here for a couple of days and much to the kids delight there was a fun park nearby with bone shaking rides, one where everyone sat in a circle on this hideous round disc which shook and pulsed while spinning round. You weren’t strapped in and just hung on hoping for the best. The kids and a few adults enjoyed it immensely while my spine and bony bum was pummeled to death and I lost my voice screaming at the operator to stop the bloody thing so I could hop off. I never learn. But in my defense these rides looked old and I have mentioned before that maintenance is not a word in the Malay vocabulary. Hence my trepidation.

After this I wobbled over to the bumper cars deciding these were more my kind of ride. At home you are required to wear seat belts in these with a limit of 2 people per ride. No working seat belts here and you had whole families cramming into cars with mums clinging onto their babies, hijabs flying, the bigger kids clinging onto anything they could hold on to and fighting their fathers for control of the wheel . Probably the most fun they’ve had with their hijabs on. They ride scooters in a similar fashion.

From Lahad Datu Warren left to Perth for a week for family reasons, and Morg and I were entrusted to skipper Kanaloa to the next two destinations. Something I wouldn’t have been willing to do without Morg as he is proving to be an indispensable crew member. Morg and I carefully plotted our next two passages through some reefy areas and the next morning the 2 of us set off for W Bay. We had a lovely motor sail with Morg up the mast on reef and bombie (big lumps of coral) watch as we entered W bay. We chose to anchor on the outer reef away from the rest of the fleet in deep water of 24 meters with 80 m of chain out. All the reef areas had steep drop offs, so shallow anchoring was not an option.

The reef looked so inviting we were in for a snorkel pretty quick. The nearby beach had a net cordon to stop crocs entering but we convinced ourselves that they’re not really into reefy terrain. Again, pretty sad looking coral and an abundance of spiny urchins. One poor lady from the rally rolled out of the dinghy on her back straight onto a load of spines, ouch, the pain.

W Bay had a nice jetty and a lovely relaxed feel, so evenings were spent under a covered jetty eating Jos’ mums food. Jo is an enterprising young Malay man affiliated with the rally who organised dive trips and events for us. He also introduced us to the local fermented rice spirit, a very strong alcohol, personally I thought paint stripper tasted better.

Morg and I spent a day diving at Tabawan, (also known as Pearl Island as it was a former pearl farm ) an island about 20 miles out from W Bay that houses another police station. Below is a photo of the blue hole dive spot off Pearl Is. It was a beautiful dive with clear waters and pretty good sea life. Also did a wreck dive on the way back, a sunken timber ship, it was rather ominous seeing the great bulk looming out of the cloudy water.

After a few relaxing days here we left for our next destination of Kunak. This was a new stop for the rally and the locals put on so many activities for us that after 3 days we all were after a bit of down time. On the way here Morg managed to reel in a nice big fish, but found it had funny worm things attached to it and he was ready to chuck it back, but I put it on the forum and every one said no! don’t chuck it away its a spanish mackeral. Sazli, our rally co coordinator bagged the head as no part of the fish here is wasted. He offered to make me a nice fish head soup, he probably guessed by the look of horror on my face that I preferred sausages. The clingons (later identified as anchor worms) didn’t look appetising but we were assured they didnt affect the flesh. So Morg spent an hour filleting it while we were trying to negotiate our way into a reefy anchorage. The Mackeral proved lovely eating, so in the end we were very glad that it hadn’t been fed to Neptune

Warren rejoined us at Kunak after missing various connecting flights and having to stay in KK for a night. He came armed with 3 starter motors and a chandlers store in his luggage and was very happy to see the boat in one piece. Oh ye of little faith.

We sailed off to Bohey Dulang on the 19 Aug, this is the second largest island in the Tun Sakaran Marine Park and would be our last stop with the rally and here we had our final dinner. Everyone was excited about this destination as it is a marine park and from here we would be taken for some great diving on nearby Sipidan island.

The entrance to the lagoon into Bohey Dulang was fairly straight forward. We anchored with the rest of the rally in a beautiful area to the east of the lagoon in 15 m of water, with reef surrounding us. 100m from the boat was great snorkeling with lots of turtles and small fish. One day was spent on an organised boat ride to Sipadan Island, a privilege as only 250 people are allowed here per day. The difference here was that besides good coral and tropical fish, there was an abundance of big fish such as hump-head wrasse and giant trevallys. What a day that was.

We departed the Turtle Islands for Sandakan on 28 July 2024. Sandakan is a large town, pop about half a 500,000 and a main trading port for oil, sago, tobacco and timber. We anchored outside the Sandakan Yacht Club in pretty grubby water, with the pleasant smells of the local fish markets, the nearby palm oil factory and the occasional sewerage outpour. Warren wanted to commission the water maker here, but I strongly objected.

The town itself was fairly basic and it was the first time a lot of us had encountered beggars on the streets. Along with open drains, rubbish scattered everywhere and missing concrete culvert lids -you didn’t want to walk here in the dark without a good torch because chances are you’d disappear down some dark hole-the town wasn’t that endearing. Almost to scared to look down these holes in case you might see remains of the last victim.

We stayed here for 4 nights giving us the chance to provision and do some sight seeing including the sun bears, orangutan sanctuary and nature walks. We only visited the sun bear park, as we heard he orangutan sanctuary was a bit hit and miss as to whether you got up close and personal with any orangutans. Last year we had visited an orangutan sanctuary located on a wee island in the middle of a lake in Ipoh (Peninsular Malaysia) which was a great experience. Many of the apes were rescued from some awful situations (one was set on fire because he was stealing the village food, you could understand making him stand in the naughty corner, but setting him alight???) and the nice thing was they were not kept in enclosures and had the whole island with an abundance of fruit trees to roam free. It was us humans who were in the viewing cages.

Evenings were spent in the pool at the yacht club, yarning with the other boats. I do have to mention that it was here that Morgan spotted a python that had crawled up our anchor chain, it was still on deck and hadn’t slithered inside…... yet. Morg and Warren managed to put in back in the water with the boat hook, but said snake wasn’t very happy about this. This sparked many snake stories from the other boaties, one boat having returned to find a large python curled up beside their bed.

This was the story from Mikel , and unusually he is a very , very funny German. He told us how he got ze fire extinguisher and shprayed ze shnakes mouth, so it vas frozen and ze schnake could not close hiz mouth, so zen it was easy to take a sling around za schnake and put it back into the water. Zen he putz the schnake back into the sea but I first look to see if she needs a schwimming class, but no she schwimms fine and i let her go.

I have a vision of this poor snake swimming along with a mouth frozen wide open. And possibly a fear of fire extinguishers. Creeps me out to think of a snake hiding in the boat.

The 2 August we were joined by long time sailing friends Des and Julianne from Brisbane, who were keen to experience the river with us. Des is a keen twitcher so was hoping to see some Borneo birdies.

Morg up the mast entering the river.

We entered the River and motored 20mn up the river to our first stop- Abai. Initially it was a strange sensation motoring up a brown river on a yacht. Because of our draught we opted to follow another keeler called Wodan, a steel boat who drew 1.6m and would be able to give us some cautionary soundings . We knew that a trawler with a 3m draught had traveled the same route safely up this river last year. However at the first fork we managed to ground but were thankfully pulled off by Wodan. The river varies in depth enormously, from 2-3m in the shallows to 35 m in some of the deepest parts, but as its a muddy brown there is no bottom in site.

We managed to reach our first anchorage without any further incidents. You are pretty vulnerable in a keel boat in a river. There is limited room for maneuvering, if your anchor snags on the bottom you don’t have the option of diving down to take a look, vis and crocs being the issue here. And if your motor fails, hoisting the sails aint gonna help. So far minimal wildlife has been spotted. A few white egrets and thats it. That night in the anchorage we had torrential rain, so we took advantage of this and had a fresh water deck shower and collected a load of drinking water. No one even thought of the possible repercussions of such rain on a river!

The next day we motored a further 30 nm up to our next base at Sukau. This is where The Rainforest Ecolodge is located and that evening we went for a local, guided boat ride in search of the wildlife. The BIG 5 are, orangutans, proboscus monkeys, crocs, sun bears and pygmy elephants. The proboscus monkeys were in good supply but not much else. The river banks weren’t exactly teaming with wildlife. And as Des so aptly noted ‘I see more wildlife in my backyard at home in Brisbane’, Gotta agree with him, because Ive seen his backyard, cockatoos, bats, butcher birds, kookaburras, king fishers, bush turkeys……Borneos got nothing on Shorncliffe.

After our boat trip we had dinner at the lodge and this is when a few of the rally boats got the call that some of our boats were dragging in the river. It transpired that the heavy rainfall from the night before had also occurred further up the catchment, resulting in a strong current and a shit load of debris rushing downstream. It looked like half a rain forest was floating down the river.

The catamarans were particularly vulnerable as they usually have a bridle system for their anchors which helped in capturing all the wood and debris. The strain on the anchors from this heavy load and strong currents caused 3 cats to pile up on each other, some sustaining significant damage to hulls and others suffering stretched anchor chains.

So the next day was spent clearing anchor chains and bridles of logs and branches and a unanimous vote among the boats saw us motoring back to Abai, which was a fast trip with 3 knots of current with us. We just wanted to get out of this river as fast as possible. There was another tributary off the river at Abai with not nearly so much crap in the water so we were a little happier here and took the opportunity to have a recce of a nearby oxbow lake. We also had a fun dinghy raft up hooning down the river with cold beers.

That is the end of our river journey and the next posy will show some nice underwater shots as we head to a great marine park. Thanks to Des and Joleen for photos and video content!!

This is a form of torture when the cockpit temp reaches high 30’s and you’re unable to jump over the side for a dip. Not that the sea cools you off that much as average temp here is 32 degrees. There were a few lodges on the coast at Usukan which advertised diving, but I’d say this would be on some of the off shore islands because the shore line here was dotted with mangrove forests and brown muddy rivers which is croc real estate. Usukan was just an overnight stop and the next day we were up early and headed for Kudat.

Kudat is the northern most point of Borneo. It used to be a bustling trading post in the 19C but now is a quiet chilled town with a pop of 30 000. Here you could anchor in what was called the duckpond, a wee inner harbour with a few jetties and a yacht club. But we chose to anchor outside and dinghied in for a meal at the yacht club with the rally boats. We had a heap of the freshest juiciest prawns, and a few coldies to wash it down with. A memorable meal.

Kudat was the beginning of our Navy and Police escort (ESSCom) for the rest of the rally. In total we had 21 rally boats, a mix of nationalities (mainly Australians- with some Swiss, Germans, Scottish and north Americans) and a mix of monos, cats and 2 big power cats. We were given instructions on which routes to take and were not to spread out more than 10 NM along the coast while voyaging with patrol boats at the fore, aft and seaward side of the convoy.

While at anchor overnight we were scheduled onto 2 hour watches to watch for any suspicious activity. What ever that may be.

The East coast of Borneo suffered terrorist attacks by the Abu Sayyaf (an ISIS affiliated group from the Philippines) who in 2013 attacked Lahad Datu, a town on Sabahs East coast, resulting in 68 deaths. In 2000 they took 21 tourists from Sipadan, (a marine park island which is on our schedule) hostage, holding them for 6 months, but they were all eventually released unharmed. Between 2014-16 there were 12 kidnapping incidences along the east coast by the same group. Needless to say this was devastating for the tourism industry and why ESSCOM (Eastern Sabah Security Command) was founded to patrol the maritime region. It is ESSCOM that will provide our escort through these waters and includes a both naval and police presence.

We did feel quite safe and assured with our escort, navy and police boats with armed guards and machine guns on the bow which I’m sure would be a big enough deterrent to any militia lurking around. The only thing that really concerned us was the media attention and publication of the routes and times that the rally would be voyaging. We didn’t feel it was wise to broadcast our movements, but from the reception we got in the towns visited along the way you could see it was hard to curb their enthusiasm for a fleet of 20 odd boats anchored off their shores. Officials and media were out in force to make us feel so welcome. They looked upon our boats and us as ambassadors for tourism. Although I certainly didn’t get the feel that tourism was in decline from some of the spots we visited.

Below is a wee video that the ESSCOM boys did for us! You’ll see some footage from the river trip which will be the next post. It was a very memorable trip-but all for the wrong reasons

The next morning we got a grab cab into the local markets and stocked up on fruit and veges. Then back to the boat for a short haul to Banggi Island, one a group of islands just off Kudat where incidentally a woman had been attacked by a croc in Jan this year. Luckily the villagers beat the croc off and saved her. We opted for a ocean swim a couple of miles from the island, convincing ourselves the crocs wouldn’t venture out this far. So we all jumped in for a refreshing dip, while Warren stood on deck watching for anything suspicious. I dont think we swam more than half a meter from the duckboard but it was still nice. The lure of a dip in the sea bigger than our fear.

This was a short overnight stay and the next day was a beautiful 50 mile sail to Jombongan where we anchored in a uninspiring estuary. Below is a clip of Kanaloa having a nice sail.

Another 50 mile sail the following day saw us at the Turtle Islands. We anchored off Selingan, the largest of the islands which is a turtle hatchery. As soon as the anchor was dug in we jumped over for a swim in lovely clear, croc free water. Magic. Greenback and Hawksbill turtles come and lay there eggs every evening, they are then collected and placed in labelled hatcheries in the middle of the island away from predators. These turtles are massive, I’m not sure how they move in the sand but its a big lumbering task for them to get themselves up above the high water mark, dig a very big deep hole and lay their eggs. Funny how the males are conspicuously absent during this arduous task. Once the hatchlings appear they are transported back to the waters edge where they find there way into the sea.. ….And then get eaten by birds and fish. Oh well. Its estimated that only 1 in 1000 survive to adulthood. Grim statistics. The hatchery lifts the initial survival rate in the dash across the beach to about 20%. Glad I’m not a turtle ….

The anchorage here wasn’t great with a short, steep chop that saw many boats have a sleepless night. Poor Joleen got the brunt of it getting tossed around in the forepeak while Warren and I had a relatively smooth night in the back cabin. Morgan can basically sleep through anything, but he is wind wary and as soon as a squall or rain shower hits us he is up shutting hatches and securing everything above deck. Good man.

Morg, Joleen and I went for a snorkel on the Selingan reef in the morning, there was a bit of fish life but mostly the coral was bleached and had seen better days. Good coral is very scarce these days. So stay tune for the next post which is our trip up the Kinabantang River.

Morg and I were on our own for a week while Warren carried onto NZ for work but were joined by Joleen, who if you’ve read the blogs from years ago has sailed with us from time to time on MS.

The town of KK is spread along the coastline and is a contrast of Malay subsistence fishing villages to high rise apartments and lavish shopping malls hosting all the high end labels.

There is a different history here in Sabah, the Malaysian region which we will spend the majority of our time in  Borneo. Sabahs history is entwined with that of Malaysia and Brunei. However, the earliest record of organised civilisation in Sabah is that from the Sultanate of Brunei and dates back to the 15th century. The Sultan of Brunei also ceded a great potion of the state to the Sulu Sutan. Prior to the establishment of the sultanate, tribal societies existed. Though they reduced in numbers and size, they thrived even in early 20th century. British infiltration in the region started in late 19th century, when both Sultans granted their territories to the foreign syndicate. It did not take long for Sabah to become a protectorate of the UK in 1888.

It merged with Singapore, Sarawak and Malaya to form Federation of Malaysia.

Self-government was established in North Borneo in 1963, but there are still claims over Sabah from various ‘Sulu Sultans’ which believe hey still have rights to the land.

Overall there is a more relaxed feeling in the towns, more akin to Penang, and not as predominantly Muslim as on Peninsular Malaysia.

History lesson over, we headed up to Mt Kinabalu for a night staying at the famous Poring Hot Springs, a UNESCO listed national park. We hired a car for the 4 hr drive to the mountain, enjoying the beautiful scenery on the way. The car was a small Proton that struggled to get the 4 of us up the mountainous roads and required ear plugs on the way down with squealing, graunching brakes due to, I’m guessing the absence of brake pads. Just glad the roads were dry.

We were treated to a beautiful chalet stay by Warren at the springs and indulged in the luxury of big beds and massive rain showers. Bliss.

The next day we bathed in the thermal baths, just what you need in 30 degree heat!, and had a great canopy tree walk. This was great but not for the feint hearted. The look of fear on Joleen’s face said it all. I guess we were 50m up, equivalent to an 8 story building holding on to a narrow suspension boardwalk. I tend to approach all these sorts of things in Malaysia with trepidation as the word ‘maintenance’ does not feature in the Malay dictionary. It’ll be fine………………………….. Oh OK then. The views were great but not an abundance of wildlife except for a measly squirrel.

On the way back down to KK that day we stopped for the Rally dinner at Tuaran. The rally boats were anchored in an inlet in Tuaran , the entrance to which was a narrow  pass with a shallow bar. As Kanaloa has the deepest draught of all the rally boats (2.4m) and there would be marginal water under us, we opted to stay at KK and forgo this anchorage. This turned out to be a prudent decision as the inlet had a 40kt squall that night with a few boats dragging and one hitting the bridge with its mast.

The next few days in KK were spent doing boat chores and installing a new washing machine. A washing machine you say?  Yes, on a boat, pure luxury. A large part of shore time can be spent trying to find laundromats and carting hefty loads of suppurating washing around. I even have an iron, but no intention of ever using that.

While doing this, Morgan came down to the boat from the air conditioned chart room at the resort where he had been doing his school work to ask us if he had a cousin called Todd. ‘Yes’ we replied. ‘Well this guy up in the chart room reckons hes my cousin.’   Dodgy, I though to myself. I doubt if its really your cousin here, probably some………

But yes, it turned out to be Morgans cousin here on holiday with his wife Claire and children, Nico and Lila and another family. Morgan knows Nico as they have surfed together and Nico has stayed with us at home, but hadn’t seen Todd for a few years so didn’t recognise him.

So we had a great few days with them, leaving all the kids on the boat one night while the adults hit the bars of KK and spilled a lot of Mojitos.  Lots of fun playing 10 pin bowling, badminton and para sailing. Was a really neat catch up.

Joleen, Morgan and I also participated in a clean up dive at one of the small islands off KK, an initiative of Dive & Build, a non government org trying to clean up the seas. We dove along a pretty decimated reef collecting mainly plastic bottles and other rubbish from the sea floor. This was followed to a trip to a local fishing village where they had a plastic shredder which produced coarse plastic particles which were made into bricks with sand and water. Watch Joleens video of this.

The village is built on stilts over the water and underneath the houses is a sea of plastic which had all been washed in by the tides. Its very depressing and just looking at the amount of rubbish around you can’t help but feeling any clean up efforts are quite futile. Theres a huge media emphasis on global warming, however I feel the sea and its animals is being consumed by plastic and needs equal attention. Its everywhere.

Kanaloa getting ready to splash at Boat Lagoon Phuket June 2024

We still have Mustang Sally who we sailed back to NZ via Cocos Keeling and Perth in 2017  and 18. MS is berthed in Opua NZ and is used in the Bay during summer when we return to NZ for a few months. She is still Warren’s darling and with nearly 30 years of memories is difficult to part with.

Warren returned to Phuket in April 24 to oversee the last few jobs  on Kanaloa with the  intention of sailing to Pangkor to join up with the East Malaysia rally  which will provide us with a navy escort around the NE of Borneo where piracy  has previously been an issue. Although with a combined edict from the Malaysian and Indonesian Governments for the navies to blow the fekkers out of the water the area has been relatively free of trouble for the past few years.

BUT on leaving Phuket for Langkawi a loud graunching sound put a stop to the engine and a dive over the side  found the rope cutter jammed up against the P bracket, resulting in a tow into Boat Lagoon on the SE coast of Phuket. Meanwhile Morgan and I delayed our flight from NZ . What we though would be a week’s work fitting a new shaft in true boat fashion  dragged on to 5 weeks.

So with the nod from Warren that we might splash in a week or so Morg and I packed up and headed for Phuket. We convinced Warren to buy a couple of electric scooters, so we ditched the old rusty bikes to some desperate Australians and had great fun hooning around the marina on our new wheels. Warren managed to catapult over the handle bars but luckily on grass and  so bounced, no medical attention needed.

Two weeks later we were underway with an almost contented skipper, happy with the condition of the boat and ready to start our adventures once again. I had every limb and digit on my body crossed at this stage.

A couple of  miles out of Boat Lagoon we were hit by a good squall, only 30 knots in it but fun nevertheless. Full sails and no vis, but it passed by as quickly as it came and off we headed for an overnight at Phi Phi, our go to anchorage on the way to Langkawi. WE opted to stay in our old haunt at Rebak, a small resort island off the west coast of Langkawi. Here we were joined by Uncle Doug, Warrens brother for the trip up to Kota Kinabalu (KK).

Long story short, after Rebak we headed for Pangkor where we needed to pick up a few spare parts and install Starlink. This was  game changer-full internet connection on the open seas which means constant comms and numerous weather apps to hand. As much as we love to loath Elon, bring it on! A week went by in Pangkor and we departed on the 26 June for a direct run through to KK.  Kanaloa resided in Pangkor for 4 years over covid and for a 5 mth semi refit last year so we had got to know the marina and surrounding towns well. I just need to mention the marina staff here- James Khoo the fantastic marina manager who is a font of knowledge, always available to help,  and a great story teller, the anecdotes of his tiny, elderly Chinese mother are hilarious, especially the one where she successfully wrestles  a 12 foot python in the back yard, no way was she letting go of the beast as an intact python skin and meat are of great value at the local market. Trust me we saw the video.

The nights spent sailing along the one of the busiest shipping channels in the world-the Straits of Malacca- is quite surreal. There  is a constant stream of cargo ships -some of the Super tankers up to 400m long -ghosting along in the distance, and  an occasional eery blast echoing out of the dark.  You feel very, very  small on a yacht next to these behemoths. Needless to say one has to be very vigilant but AIS is an amazing support.

Before rounding the corner into the Singapore Straits that evening and  trying to tackle the crossing in the wee hours of the morning, much like playing chicken on  a 6 lane highway with ships, we opted to anchor at Pisang, a small island NE of Singapore to await the dawn.

Ships waiting on anchor outside Singapore

We motored sailed away early down through the Singapore Straits via hundreds of anchored  ships against the backdrop of Singapore. A great sight.  The Singapore Maritime Police approached us a couple times, and after identifying ourselves we were given a bearing by one of the patrols which set us on a course for the middle of the shipping lane. We chose to ignore their command and they tailed us for 10 minutes before racing off to give someone else a bum steer.

That afternoon we were finally clear of the Straits and heading out into Blue water. YAY!! After 7 years of  Peninsula Malaysia and Thailand we were all ready for a change of scenery.

As the water changed from a dirty brown to that beautiful ocean blue that almost takes on a deep violet colour we were pleasantly surprised to see an abundance of sea life. Fish jumping, dolphins bow riding and then that awesome sound of the reels alarm telling us we had a hook up. A 8 foot Marlin hauled in by Warren, well not quite. Kanaloa doesn’t have an easily accessible duck board like Mustang so after a big fight Mr Marlin was reeled up alongside with the idea of gaffing him and getting a rope around the tail. Hanging over 3 foot side topsides with rope and gaff  trying to secure a fish that size requires the art of a yogi, which the two Batt brothers are not, so after much grunting and sweating the fish escaped back into the blue. A blessing as not sure where we were going to store all that meat.

BUT an hour later, another strike -which was a manageable 1.9 metre sail fish bought in by Morgan.  Sashimi that evening.  Nice.

Proud Morgan with his catch.

The passage up to KK was mainly spent motor sailing interspersed with the odd squall apart from one gusty wet night with a constant 20 knots and spurts to 25 knots. I awoke for night watch to find the main saloon rather wet, as the previous watch had not shut the 2 main saloon hatches, not sure how they missed that as I could feel the cool breeze as soon as I came into the saloon. Water also running down the mast, so a patchy Silicon job done by Morgan and Warren stemmed the flow a little. Doug  had also neglected to lock down the forward hatch and  had a lovely floating salt water bed. Hmmmm

Doug on watch. Hmmm

So, our first passage on Kanaloa completed what was the consensus?? A very different motion to MS, but she sails very nicely given her weight, down below you would have no idea you were moving along at 7 knots in a mod sea.  

We arrived in KK on 3 July and flew out to Brisbane on the 4^th to attend my nephew’s wedding.  Doug also flew back to NZ. After a  good catch up with friends and family in Brisbane for a few days, Morg and I flew back to KK and Warren to NZ for a week. We had finally caught up with the rally boats which were 2 months ahead of us and due to arrive in KK over the next week.

Be back soon. Cheers Trish

We left Langkawi on 9 July and motored a couple of hours to Singa Basar where we anchored for a couple of days just having lots fun in the water and playing with all the toys. 

Marta and Guillaum loved the water so we were kayaking, running in the 2horse outboard and sailing Morgs Bic all day.

Days spent doing what we embarked on this lifestyle for!! It’s very beautiful around here, quiet, nice beaches and those groovy limestone islands shooting straight up out of the sea. A few quiet beers at sunset and a bbq on the back of the boat-bliss.

Riding on Guillaum’s shoulders

Having a bathe in the cool waterfall

Heading under the Penang Bridge

After two chill out days here we had a nice motor sail down to Penang. A few more chores to do here so we elected to go into Straits Quay Marina on the western side of Penang. It was spring tides at the time so we were sunk in mud at least to 4 feet in our berth. Topped with a big swell coming straight into the entrance and jerking us around like anything it wasn’t exactly a pleasant stay. Although we do like Penang. It’s a nice place to visit, a mix of Chinese 

Leaving Penang

Indian and Malay cultures resulting in great food and interesting history and buildings. We stayed here for a few days and then headed down to an anchorage on the south western corner of Penang ready for the big haul down to Pangkor. The idea being to arrive somewhere around evening when we could anchor off Pangkor Island. Nice idea.

It’s now August, and we are in Pangkor (Malaysia) the next stop south of Penang. We arrived here after a bit of a challenging night on the boat, the genoa furler disintegrated and we had to take the big heavy genoa down on the deck, glad we had Marta and Guillaum on board. Then in the early hours of the morning the bilge alarm went off, there was more water than normal in the bilge but we weren’t sure how it had got there. That morning as we left Penang and were motoring out from the anchorage on the south eastern corner of the island, we heard a strange sound and found a plastic bag caught around the fan belt. We were in a narrow channel at the time so anchored while this was sorted out, but still a whining coming from the fan belt from the engine driven bilge pump. Impossible to tighten so we cut it. And whadda you know! Needed our bilge pumps that night.

I was manually pumping the saloon pump and Guillaum the cockpit pump, while Warren was trying to find the source of the leak, nothing obvious found, no broken hoses or major leaks.  The level of the water subsided and stayed that way. We figured it had probably come from the lazarette which hadn’t been dogged down and we had been beating with some water coming over the boat. Although theoretically the lazarette should be water tight. Pumped the water out and relieved to see that no more was coming in, so there didn’t appear to be a major leak. But funny what goes through your head at the time, liferaft hadn’t been serviced for quite a few years, epirb hadn’t been updated, nor had our call sign, dinghy had just been sold……………………………Extremely unusual for us as Mustang has always met Cat 1 requirements.

So after several delays and incidents we arrived at Pangkor Island in the early hours and mooched around outside the island till dawn, dodging trawlers, fishing boats, nets etc etc , as we didn’t want to approach in the dark, unsure if the engine would go ( if the bilge water may have been from a broken hose off the engine) and also it is a very tricky narrow channel into the marina itself.

Dawn arrived and we headed into the marina full steam.  No problems. After a bit of sleep and damage assessment along with other variables (such as Warren still needing to go back home frequently) we have decided that as this is our last opportunity to reengine before we head to the northern latitudes. Saying that, the engine has been the one thing that always starts first pop. It’s a 30yr old Perkins. You have to lip read when motoring but once the smoke clears from the initial start-up it goes and goes.

Alas, another delay. There is a nice little cruising community here though. A big hard stand with lots of boats, mainly made up of boaties who do their own work but tradies are available, not the selection provided in Phuket, but a little cheaper. 

Morgan has made friends with some of the boaties cats and takes Max the cat for a walk at 7 in the morning when he’s up. He’s also befriended a Malay boy –“Appie” who is a couple of years older and manages the local toilets in the mall by the ferry terminal, which involves collecting 50c for a pee and mopping the floors. No shame in that I guess. Morg thinks it’s fun.

He also has another friend in the local village where he spends time. It’s a village of 50 houses and they seem to live as one big family, happily or otherwise. There is always some celebration or festivity in the village, weddings, national holidays. The thing about SE Asia is there seems to be a public holiday every second day, whether it’s a national, state or religious celebration, people of all race and religion celebrate.  A communal sand football pitch keeps the boys occupied while the women gather and cook and cook and cook. It’s nice to see this side of life. It’s a little similar to island life (Pacific Island that is). We are made very welcome. Probably something of a novelty. Things happen at a very slow pace, mainly due to the heat I’d say. It’s zapping, at all times except for early morning and late evening. How the women wear long trousers, sweaters and hijabs in this heat defies me. How they get to the end of a long hot day without a cold beer also defies me.

Pete, Tanya, Morg, Warren and me, Singapore

We also had a week in Singapore as Morg and I had to do a visa run which coincided with his big sister Tanya and her husband Pete being there.

We all had a nice time tripping around Singapore. Then we headed over to Jahore for a long-promised visit to LEGOLAND and a 10 hour bus ride back up to Pangkor. Lovely comfy seats. Just you had to eat real fast before the cockroaches invited themselves for snacks.

Anyway, that’s life in Pangkor. Not sure how long we’ll be here for but Morg and I will head home so he can get the last term of school in.

Saturday the 19 May and we finally departed Yachthaven Phuket!! After two and half years we slipped our lines and motored out of our birth with mixed feelings. We had become immersed in the community and formed some great friendships, and there is comfort in familiarity. Knowing the people and being able to source most things for the boat is a plus. A lot of work has been done on Kanaloa but you have to stop eventually, and , well, leave.  The timing also seemed right as there have been some big changes at the marina and with that a change in the whole vibe of the place.

The week before we left was a blur of farewells and leaving dos for ourselves and other people from the marina. Morg had also become the proud owner of an Open Bic sailing skiff which we had delivered down from Pattaya the week before we left. So, amongst everything else we had to find the time to get out on this. It’s a lot of fun, light and fast and designed to take an ideal weight of 60kgs. The perfect vessel for learning the dynamics of sailing. Morgan is very comfortable in it-and out -as he loves to spend time in the water so manages to capsize it a fair bit. Even I’m having a great time sailing it.

The first day we motored down to PhiPhi for the night. We have  anchored there several times now but never actually been ashore. Doesn’t really appeal to us, as its a tourist mecca but we use it as a convenient stop over anchorage down to Langkawi. Still Morg and I had a nice snorkel at Monkey Bay where we spotted a creepy moray eel and our kayak got overtaken by baby monkeys. They were very playful, even climbing up my legs and pulling my bikini down. Nice.

Up at 5.30 next morning for a long run down to the bottom of Tarutao where we arrived at dusk. Again, a motor down as no wind. Early to bed and another early start to Kuah. We decided to try this marina instead of Rebak, as customs etc is only a 5 min walk away and we had to get all this done before Warren jumped on a plane back to NZ that same night. Once in Kuah and checked in Milly came down to see Morg and their 2 week play date began. They had a great time together, organising their own schedules and advising the parents of where they were going to sleep etc. So with a mix of swimming, trips around Kuah, breakfasts at the famous Smiling Buffalo Café, movies and lots of lego, 2 weeks skipped by and it was a sad farewell to Milly, Jane and Tricky as they (having sold their catamaran Ananda) flew off to Spain to travel around on wheels instead of hulls. Probably a very wise manoeuvre.

Our planned departure to Singapore has been delayed though as Warren has had to go back home again, after returning to the boat for 2 weeks. But still it’s a bit easier for Morg and I here with other kids around and quick access to town and activities.  Lots of boat boys around Langkawi so he is not short of playtime.

Jamming at Rebak

Rebak still has a boaties jam session playing on Friday night so we and other keen music friends pile into the car and head over for music and drinks while the kids play around.

Boat and weather permitting we hope to be away from here this week (today is the 1 July) and head for the Anambas as quick as possible. Very squally weather at the moment so not sure I want to be doing any night sailing in that along with playing dodgems down the Malacca Straits. We do have 2 crew joining us for a while, Marta, a Polish geologist with sailing experience. I can imagine the conversations that will transpire having 2 passionate geologists on board…………………….yawn (Did I really type that).

Guilluame, (I have no idea how to pronounce this) is French Canadian from Sydney who will join us for a few weeks before his job starts in August. He is a surfer and rock climber so will be handy to have a mast monkey on board. Be nice to have a bit of a mix of people, although it may take a bit of getting used to as have had the boat to ourselves for so long.  Anyway I have sewn up all the holes in Warrens boxers. (TMI?-probably).

I am very ready to depart SE Asia. The rubbish/plastic in the water depresses me. I long for clean waters untainted by crap. Personally I don’t think global warming is going to be our biggest problem, the plastic in the oceans and land that is getting into our food chains is going to kill everyone before GW does. And on that happy note I will leave you and hopefully the next update will be when we are on the move. Please think twice before you drink out of that next plastic straw.

As mine and Morgans Thai visa expired on the 17 Feb we needed to get out of Thailand to renew our visas, so we decided to go visit Laos and Cambodia while we’re in this neck of the woods.

Valentine’s Day in Vientiane

We flew into Vientiane  (Laos)and stayed there for a couple of nights. We met Nigel an old mining friend of Warrens who had lived in Laos for 20 years. He kindly took us for a bit of a tour around and we went and saw his plot of land about 50 km out of the city on the banks of the Mekong. From here we hired a driver and mini van for a few days to drive us north over the mountains to Luang Prabang.  The first night we stayed in Vang Vieng ,a town north of Vien Tiane on the banks of the Nam Song River filled with backpackers and Chinese tourists.

Tubing

The highlight of this stay was tubing down the Nam Song River in big tire tubes. About 3 hours in the water with the chance to stop at lots of rave bars filled with semi naked youthful partygoers. Probably not great bars for Morgan to visit………………or Warren. I think we felt our age a bit so we opted to stay in the water all the way down. A few years ago there were as many as 20 bars lining the river with pulsating music, drugs and drink, which when combined with river activities proved to be quite fatal. 27 tourists died on the river in 2011 alone so the authorities clamped down and now only allow a handful or bars to operate.

 The next day we visited some of the enormous cave systems in the area and the aqua mountain pool. This was beautiful. A large natural pool with a zip line and swinging ropes where Morg had a ball. Only a few tourists here so a nice retreat from the maddening crowds. In the afternoon we continued our journey high into the mountains. Tiny villages dotted all the way up with houses hanging precariously over cliff edges. The scenery is spectacular up at 1400m, steep limestone mountains and deep valleys all veiled by a bluish haze. Probably from burning rubbish.

Laos Mountains

We stayed at a wee town called Phou Khoun, which is located at the intersection of the two main mountain passes. Not a lot of travellers about but we managed to find nice accommodation and a meal was available at a local restaurant after 6pm when the towns electricity would be turned on. A bit cooler up here too so the innkeeper supplied us with a few extra duvets. Not a lot happening in town so in bed by 9pm ready for an early start in the morning.

The next day was the downhill run to Luang Prabang, a world heritage site located at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. Very picturesque town with old French architecture, loads of Buddhist temples and lots of natural beauty. Here we did the mandatory tourist things, ride on the river in one of the narrow boats, visited one of the many temples and bathed with a few elephants in the Mekong-that was really special. Much as I don’t like the use of baby elephants as bridesmaids (you can hire a baby elephant for your wedding in Thailand) and always get the feeling that those poor creatures just aren’t happy performing for peanuts, my conscience was eased a little at the elephant sanctuary in Luang Prabang. These were rescued elephants, all had their own mahouts and a huge outdoor enclave was under construction so that eventually they could all roam free. Riding and bathing with them would soon be a thing of the past. Well, so we were told.

After three days here, we flew onto Siem Reap, Cambodia to have a squiz at the famous temple ruins of Ankor Wat. Built about a 1000yrs ago and surrounded completely by a man-made moat it is one of the largest religious monuments ever constructed. It gets you wondering how the heck something this complex and ornate could have been constructed without today’s technology.  Makes the pyramids look easy. For example, to create the moat around the temple, 1.5 million cubic meters of sand and silt were moved, a task that would have required thousands of people working at one time. No unions in those days I guess.

Ankor Wat

I wondered how long this structure would last though with 3 million tourists a year clambering over the ruins. No signs of the authorities trying to preserve it at all. The experience was spoiled a little by the sheer number of people visiting the site all vying for the best pictures and Chinese tour groups complete with guides shouting into loud halers. We spoke with friends who had visited here 20 years ago when they could wander around the site in silence with only a few hundred other tourists. Sadly, those days are gone. It makes me hanker for an isolated anchorage in some remote island or bay free of the maddening crowds, as we experienced in Flores.

Waterfalls at Phomn Kulen

We also drove to Phnom Kulen (literally Mountain of the Lychees) about an hour out of SR. The main attraction is the waterfalls at the top of Kulen Mount where Morg enjoyed a refreshing swim.  Kampong Phluk, a floating village built on stilts on the Tonlé Sap (largest freshwater lake in SE Asia)  was also fun. Hired a local boat to take us down the river where colourful houses  balanced on really high stilts to avoid flooding during the wet season. Once out on the lake we were hustled into little canoes paddled by the local women for a jaunt through the mangroves where we got ambushed by more ladies selling us their wares. Again I have an image in my mind of how this all was before the onslaught of mass tourism. Can’t blame them for making the most out of us tourists, but at what cost.

Trip finished and its back to Phuket for a few days before home to NZ and the big mine move.

Yachthaven

Another few months have passed. We arrived back in Phuket just before Christmas with good intentions of leaving a couple of days before Christmas to venture out to the islands around Phuket, but……………………………………..well, we finally left on New Years Day.   

Giovanni, an old sailing friend, who has sailed with Warren a few times on MS joined us for a few weeks on Kanaloa and spent 10 days in the marina before we departed. Still we had a nice Christmas Day at Yacht Haven joining other sailors and transients and expats for a Christmas feast on the deck at noon. It didn’t really feel that Christmassy though, not the same when you’re in a foreign place without the usual friends and family, even for me who is definitely not a fan of the Yuletide season.

So Jan 1 we sailed to Koh Yai Yau where we met up with Milly, Jane and Tricky from SY Ananda. We have spent time with them on various occasions down in Langkawi. Milly and Morg have been great buddies for a few years now and the two of them love spending hours together mucking around in the water and playing Lego.

Story Time

The next day we headed down to Nai Harn (down the bottom of Phuket) and spent a couple of days there. Giovanni and his Thai girlfriend Pim left us here as Pim had felt a bit off on the trip down to Nai Harn and didn’t think she would enjoy the rest of the trip. A very foreign environment for someone who has been in Bangkok most of their life.

We then headed down to the Racha Islands, Racha Yai a beautiful snow white sandy beach with a coupe of high end resorts on it but inundated with tourist boats during the day. Bliss as late afternoon approaches and they disappeared back to the mainland and the bay returned to a cul de sac rather than a 6-lane expressway.  It’s easy to forget that we ourselves are tourists, but maybe having been here for a couple of years we fit into a different category. Maybe.

We motored down to the next island (Racha Noi) a few miles south where there was no beach to attract  the tourists to and we had the place to ourselves, not a good anchorage overnight so returned to Racha Yai in the afternoon. The kids and I enjoyed a nice snorkel all along the outer sides of the bay.

The next day we left for Koh Rok Islands, a tiny paradise 30 km south of Koh Lanta. Small, rugged and mostly unspoilt, these islands are home to an impressive coral reef system, pristine white-sand beaches, a small ranger’s station, a restaurant and very little else. We were last here two years ago when there was probably only 5 moorings and two other boats. Bit of a surprise to see that there were now about 25 moorings and a few dozen tourist boats coming each day. At least here they have prohibited anchoring, built a floating pontoon for the boats to unload their visitors and the boats did slow down when entering the moorings. Some places its just too dangerous to swim around your own boat without the risk of being turned into burly.

We spent a few days here as it was bliss. Lovely snorkelling and relatively peaceful even with the tourist boats. Then on to Koh Lanta where we had a pretty rolly night as we always tend to here even though it should be OK during the North East monsoon. The next day we motored out of the bay but soon had to drift around as we tried to find where a strange electrical smell was coming from. After some time spent tightening the engine belts we were on our way again and rewarded with a nice Barracuda just north of Phi Phi Island. A very edible fish and we feasted on it with Ananda that night in a lovely flat anchorage at Koh Yai Yay along with a spectacular electrical storm. These are frequent over in this part of the world and lovely to see from a distance but too many boats we know have been struck here and suffered varying degrees of damage.  It’s the only time I get to eat fresh big fish as a lot of the fish eaten in Thailand is farmed and has a bit of a muddy taste.

Sadly after a wonderful 10 days out we had to return to YH as Warren had to return to NZ.  It was a really enjoyable cruise and nice to get out and use Kanaloa. Still a few things to iron out. We did manage to get the main furler jammed but once back in the marina managed to free it with Tricky volunteering to go up the mast. There is definitely a knack to getting the right angle and tension on the sail before furling. Weather wise we didn’t get much opportunity to have a good sail but the new sails did look good. The outboard motors were next to useless and we were lamenting having to sell our faithful old 8 horse Yamaha, it no longer suited either of the dinghy’s on Kanaloa. It was a trusty outboard that we have had for 7 years on Mustang Sally and sold it to Gary for not a lot, he was extremely pleased with his purchase though. We met Gary down in Racha and he very sheepishly told me that it was now at rest on the bottom of the sea having met with some unfortunate incident which he mumbled over. He pleaded with me not to tell Warren. Good one.

Louie and Morg

Warren ended up staying in NZ for 3 and half weeks so Morgan and I fell back into the routine of schoolwork, yoga and swimming lessons at Thanyapura. Also supervised some more work on the boat. Morg had a couple of friends come and stay, Matt his friend from Thailand and Louie from Singapore.

Roger just landed a nice striped tuna, breaking a 2 year drought of no fish aboard Mustang Sally. We left Yacht Haven yesterday afternoon and pulled into Chalong on the SE corner of Phuket to anchor overnight as a black thunderstorm rolled over us heralding the start of the rains after 2 weeks of hot and sunny weather.

Roger’s Tuna

We left this morning at first light, or what there was of it, bound for Sabang in heavy rain and poor visibilty, the wind blowing force 5 gusting F6 – should have continued on last night as originally planned. With 2 reefs in the main we cleared Phuket, the wind and rain easing during the morning as we cleared land. Spring tides appear to be generating powerful tidal streams offshore, especially on the edge of the continental shelf, where we passed through bands of overfalls and confused water. Towards midday we went to motor through a particularly confused sea as we were tossed around going nowhere, but the raw water intake was blocked and we had to immediately stop the engine. Eventually we sailed clear. Trish dived on the intake to find it all clear, whatever it was that blocked the intake floating free, but the impeller in the raw water pump was cooked. Our first small drama of the day, but resolved when I replace the impeller. We are now motor sailing over calm seas with 6-8 knots of wind on our quarter. A high veil of cloud is keeping the sun at bay, the rain has stopped, Roger has recovered from his mal de mere (the stong coffee I made him) and life is quite pleasant on board. Our ETA Sabang is currently 1500 hrs tomorrow. You might need a good atlas to find Sabang – it’s an old coaling port, from back in the days of steamers, on Pulau Weh, a small island off the northern tip of Sumatera (or Sumatra). We will spend a couple of days there before moving on towards Cocos Keeling and Fremantle on Mustang Sally’s homeward passage. And yes, we still have Kanaloa, now extensively refitted and almost ready to move aboard on our eventual return to Phuket. Its been a year more or less to the day since we moved off her to return by plane to NZ last year, and we are looking forward to making her our home. Still its fitting we get to take Mustang Sally for a final voyage before finally parting with her.

Sabang 07 53.3N 095 19.3 E 13 Sep 1630 hrs

Dropped anchor in Sabang 1615 hrs yesterday at the head of the bay forming the commercial port. Spent 2 hours yesterday and another 3 today clearing in, the 5 hours being a vast improvement on the 5 days it took in Bali 2 years ago. We registered on line before we departed Phuket and no longer needed to apply 6 weeks in advance for a cruising permit. Sabang has a developing reputation as being yachtie friendly and doing much to make itself a sailing destination, hosting a Festival of Sail at the end of this year.

Although strongly Muslim with a plethora of mosques competing for the faithful, there is laid back charm to the town. We were met by Ai on the dock who has been our guide, transport and mentor – immigration, customs, and the harbour master and port health are spread around town and not in easy walking distance. Instead Ai zipped us around in his motorcycle taxi, all 4 of us perched in his side car – he is definitely the man around town with a friendly wave and toot to many and deep time consuming conversations with the officials. Looks as though we will clear out of here and head more or less direct to Cocos, even if we take the passage down the inside of the islands. I need a day or two to recover (feeling rather poorly again) plus some business to attend to before we get going again, but will look to clear out Friday if government departments are open, Friday being prayer day. We are no going to move to a better anchorage and hopefully escape the plastic trash that rides the tide in the bay. Also quite exposed to the prevailing wind. Last night was very jobbly. Morgan was first on deck this morning only to report the dinghy gone! The double painter had snapped – it should have been replaced sometime ago! Fortunately, it had blown into the seawall 100 meters away, along with a mass of garbage, where some kind soul had tied her off to a mooring buoy. Roger hailed down a passing boat and for 100,000 Rp gladly forked out we had it back – no one was game to swim ashore, and even the dinghy couldn’t make 50 meters without the prop being fouled by plastic bags.

Siaba Bay, Nias Island 01 30.5 N 097 23.2 E 20 Sep 1300 hrs

Dropped anchor in this land-locked mill pond surround by mangrove forest into which the local fishermen mysteriously disappear on their way home. A haven after 18 hours of sailing with following winds building to 20-25 knots over the second night, a very black night of continuous thunderstorms and rain. Made our planned anchorage 1000 hrs yesterday, 48 hours after departing Sabang. The first 26 hours were under the iron main (engine) after we cleared the tide wracked Aroih Raya (pass) between the islands immediately off the northern tip of Sumatra. We planned for slack water but the tidal stream had already turned against us as we entered the pass to fight the 3-4 knot seething currents and overfalls. Once clear of the pass we headed and stayed well off shore to stay clear of the worst of the evening storms and debris washed out from the rivers in the rainy season. Unfortunately our destination  was not and anchorage for deep keeled yachts in the transitional months from SW to NE monsoon (Sep-Nov). Very open and really a surfers venue on catamarans, with all the surfer charterers now departed for the season and the homestays on the shore closed up. Managed to briefly run aground on an invisible bommie on a falling tide, but fortunately able to crunch ourselves off in quick time and made a hasty retreat back out to sea. So much for the new anti-fouling, further bashed and scraped down the length of the hull when we hit a large floating bamboo pole later in the day on our way across to Siaba. Roger caught a nice mahimahi 5 miles off our new destination – his first, and proof the tuna of a week ago was not just luck. Deliciously fresh off the BBQ but I have some sort of bug, and tossed my share up a couple of hours later. Locals very friendly and curious – Trish progressively giving away all my T-shirts – she needs to develop a trading instinct – coconuts for rokoks and shirts!. Very isolated, but a cell phone tower a mile to the east with no internet connection. We plan to depart 0300 tomorrow for Sibolga on mainland Sumatra to clear out if possible, rather than continuing on another 300 miles to Padang. We have decided we want to get south of the convergence zone and out of the rain and electrical storms as quickly as possible.

Sibolga 01 43.4 N 098 47.4 E 21 Sep 2000 hrs

Departed Siaba 0300 hrs and after 13 hours of largely motor sailing dropped anchor at Sibolga late this afternoon in a tannin brown, plastic bag ridden inner harbour surrounded by fishing boats, ferries and stilt houses, the stench of fish meal or drying fish wafting across the bay. Highlight of the day was drifting off    an   amazing waterfall cascading down the forest clad mountain straight into the sea on the coast of Pulau Mansalar about 20 miles off Sibolga – a totally unexpected sight one doesn’t read of in Lonely Planet. As we drifted, hove to in the gentle breeze Trish and Morgan swam in the limpid blue waters – magical. Having said all that, Sibolga is also off the tourist map and cruising guides but we understand we can clear out of here. Roger and I dinghied ashore on arrival to find the Harbourmaster, a helpful and friendly man, and fingers crossed, we will finish clearance formalties tomorrow morning. Bigi is picking us up at the wharf tomorrow morning in his motorcycle taxi to take us to Kantor Imigrasi, Bea dans Cukai (Customs) and Karatina (quaratine & Health) before the Harbourmaster gives us clearance to Australia. Tonight we have been regaled by the calls of many mosques, the ultimate surround sound, with additional chants and broadcasts of what seemed to be full services. There is an exotic, hypnotic appeal to the muzzeins song on the still sultry night and one can almost understand the power of its influence on daily lives. We could spend much more time exploring this largely untouched part of the world. Yesterday evening we ventured out in the dinghy to penetrate the apparently solid ring of mangrove forest into which we saw fishermen disappearing. A small dark break led into a winding creek under a canopy of arched mangrove trees up which we wound for fifteen minutes to a landing marked by boats and a large school built on very swampy ground that looked as though it would be inundated on king springs. A short walk lead us to a paved highway and a strung out kampong  full of friendly people keen to practice English, take selfies and ply us with banana fritters on our jalan jalan or wander. Our remote anchorage was not so remote after all!

Sibolga 01 43.4 N 098 47.4 E 23 Sep 1200 hrs

A frustrating day, yesterday – we have been cleared out of Indonesia by Immigration but Customs won’t give us clearance because they are on a manual system and we are in the new electronic yacht register. We now have a letter authorising us to proceed to Padang for Customs and harbourmaster clearance. We will depart at 1600 hrs for Pulau Pini 110 miles south, and then on tomorrow night to Padang where we should arrive Monday morning. If all goes well we should be on our way to Cocos that afternoon.

Despite the final frustration at the end of a long and tiring day, it was not without its humour and entertainment. Bigi, our motorcycle taxi driver, proved to be a well known Christian alcoholic with a strong liking for local whisky, not that he got to touch a drop during the day. His steed was the most ancient, decrepit motor cycle in town yet he insisted taking us all, except for the run back to the  port from the market when there was just no room for 3 adults, Morgan and the vegies. Morgan continues to attract admiration despite his curly looks now a tarnished golden brown. We met Bengbeng, the local yacht agent while having kopi waiting for Immigration to open – he proved very helpful but couldn’t fix our Customs problem; in a way it was nice to see bribery and corruption don’t prevail everywhere. But he helped with fuel and found us some good Sumatran coffee and a slab of Bintang. We are now anchored outside the harbour amongst the myriad fish platforms and a pleasant escape from the trash and fish stench of the harbour – fishing is very big here with boats of all sizes and fishing platforms almost filling the bay.

Sibolga is 50:50 Muslim:Christian although when it comes to the airways, its all Muslim, the loud speakers turned to maximum, distorting the muzzeins’ calls. No noise control officers here! Would have liked to spend more time exploring the town and hinterland. Its a busy little port servicing the offshore islands with a couple of larger passenger/vehicular ferries per day. Lake Toba is only 5 hours drive away but too late now – officially we are not here.

All the officials we have met have been Christian, well spoken and some remarkably well-informed. The highest ranking Custom’s officer we met has been interviewed for a scholarship at Victoria University in Wellington studying public policy – I wish him luck.

Posn01 11 S 100 18 E 0900 hrs

Departed Padang 0750 this morning bound for Cocos Keeling, ETA Sunday a.m. Alls well. Crew in good spirits and glad to be on the way. Skipper will be fine once he has had a good sleep.

Posn 03 16 S 099 39 27 Sep 0500 hrs

The Indonesian flag is down and we are well into the Indian Ocean with 554 miles to Cocos Keeling. With a full genoa and reefed main we are sailing slightly cracked above our course with a lumpy sea on a 2-3 metre swell under our keel. Not a pleasant motion and one that has kept Morgan awake much of the night – especially when Roger was in racing mode, slamming us over the waves, sails on hard – “could you start the engine, Dad, to hide creaks and bangs”, a plaintive request in the wee hours of this morning – that was resolved by giving him the earphones and some soothing music  We haven’t really experienced working to windward for over 2 years but we are going to have to adjust to the heel, noise and liveliness over the next 3 weeks – it will be par for the course. As I write a grey dawn has broken, the wind has eased to a benign 8-9 knots and the seas have smoothed a little as we we dance along at 6 1/2 knots.

We motored all day yesterday over a silver sea under a silver sky. We didn’t start sailing until we picked up the breeze after dark in the strait between Sipura and the Mentawis to the south. The lines were out all day without success but in the late afternoon we were joined by pods of small grey dolphing putting on a wonderful display of synchronised swimming and leaping, 5-6 shoulder toshoulder abreast. And then “there she blows” as we had a close encounter with 2 enormous blue whales basking together in the late afternoon cool snorting away – magic!They must have been over 100 feet long, their heads and tails drooping at the extremities, their long smooth backs broken only by a small dorsal fin

Better have a look around. Roger is asleep in the cockpit and the rest of the crew out to it below.

Posn 005 24 S 099 10 29 Sep 0500 hrs

Steady progress trying to stay as far east as possible to give us a easier reach to Cocos when the wind increases as forecast. Yesterday was uncomfortable – the confused seas remained on top of a 3 metre southerly swell, but by late afternoon the swell had eased and the seas flattened to give us more enjoyable conditions. To get that easting we are sailing pretty close to the wind – that doesn’t add to comfort. Morgan tells me “I don’t like this sort of sailing.”

As you may gather I have the 0300 watch until the crew re-emerge. At least I get to see the sun rise and put out the fishing lines. Didn’t cover myself with any glory yesterday morning – must have got a big strike not long after daybreak that took Roger’s line, reel and all! The skies are clear overhead with puffy cumulus forming in the afternoon – we have left the silvery yellow grey overcast skies of Sumatra and are now entering the trades proper. 

Posn 09 44 S 097 59 E 30 Sep 1800 hrs

A more pleasant day after Force 4-5 all day yesterday and last night on the wind on a very lumpy sea – no one wanted to share happy hour with me. Today the wind was a pleasant Force 4 slowly backing east on a more regular sea – even Morgan joined us in the cockpit. A slow moving squall line crossed us from the west late this afternoon bring a 180 degree wind shift and heavy rain, but is now clearing to the west and and the wind has moved back to the NE. We are now 155 miles out of Cocos with an ETA mid-afternoon tomorrow. Still no luck fishing, another lure severed from the trace. Hopefully we will get a big wahoo or spanish mackerel as we close the islands. Looking forward to flat water!

Cocos Islands 12 06 S 096 53 E 1 Oct 2100 hrs

Wow that was a bit premature. The wind built back up to Force 5/6 (20-25 knots) for a fast, wet and boisterous close reach to Cocos in 3-4 metre seas over the last 18 hours. Did 190 miles in the noon to noon run finishing today, with a double reef in the main and a scrap of genoa. Needless to say, crew did their watches and returned to their berths, food not being a priority. Morgan has been a bit crook last 2 mornings but has bounced back chirpy enough. We flew over the final few miles as we cracked off for the entrance to the atoll’s lagoon. Much to our surprise many yachts started to appear on the AIS in the anchorage. The Australian patrol ship Bathurst hailed us at 1300 hours as she crossed to enter ahead of us and seemed satisfied with our response. We lost time looking for a non existent marked entrance into the inner anchorage at Direction Island bur eventually made our way across the shallow sand bar dodging bombies with a minimum of 2 feet of water under our keel at high tide. Bliss, anchored in flat aquamarine waters shared with 17 other yachts, mostly belonging to the ARC World rally. Always my luck, just when you think you have the world to yourself. Haven’t been for a swim yet – there is as a school of small sharks (1 metre) swimming around our stern – but showers to wash off the salt of the last couple of days were great. Roger has repaired the cockpit table which I broke off its brackets in a great lurch while clambering back into the cockpit earlier on in the day. Customs will come and clear us in the morning after which we will ponder our next move. Telecommunications aren’t what I was led to believe – there is a local network but it looks as though you need a special SIM card. Time for a good night’s sleep.

Cocos Islands 12 06 S 096 53 E 6 Oct 0630 hrs

Big change in plans. We have a delivery crew flying in on Saturday and we fly out Tuesday night for Perth after handover, Inshallah. Virgin has a reputation for canceled, postponed and delayed flights in and out of Cocos and there are only 2 flights a week.  We are running 3 weeks behind schedule (originally planned to be in Perth before Morgan’s birthday, which is tomorrow) and other commitments are building. We get back to NZ on Sunday 15th.

Won’t be sad to leave here. As I write the dawn is grey and it’s blowing 20-25 knots in the anchorage with the wind swinging southwards to give us less lee behind Direction Island. Although the waters are crystal clear, the wind has blown more or less an unabated Force 5 since we arrived and is expected to continue so until Sunday. The only redeeming benefit, it is cool – in fact, showering on the aft deck in the evening can be quite a chilly experience. Still, Morgan loves the water and occasionally entices me in for a swim, black tipped reef sharks and all. We thought the sharks may have been trained by customs to keep us aboard our boats while waiting clearance, but Dan, the AFP officer responsible for clearing us in last Monday assured us they were harmless. Nevertheless, with 5-6 circling the stern at times, you are never quite sure!

Direction Island is uninhabited and the only anchorage in which yachts are allowed. The ARC World Rally fleet that monopolised most of the anchorage on arrival left the day after bound for Mauritius, 14 yachts en masse followed shortly later by the remaining 3, leaving the anchorage to just 3 of us – Jackie on ‘Shianti’, an ex Bucklands Bay girl from Melbourne attempting to sail her Sadler 32 single handed around the world, and ‘Tangled Up’, a Lidgard 17 owned by Tony Williams returning home to England with a mixed crew of 5 after 15 years in Queenstown. We have been joined since by 2 solo German sailors anchored within spitting distance of each other – Wolfgang and Klaus are joined at the hip, anchoring and sailing in tandem for the last 12 years, even sharing watches when at sea on their respective yachts – and a French boat anchored some distance from us, and I see another yacht has arrived overnight in the outer anchorage. Should be a jolly pot luck dinner ashore tomorrow night to celebrate

Morg having fun with the French kids

Coming into Home Island on the ferry

Morgan’s 8th birthday. Never realised it would be so busy here with 7 yachts now anchored in transit. The monthly freight ship arrived yesterday morning to anchor in the outer anchorage half a mile from us to discharge is cargo by lighter to West and Home Islands and there is a large cable or survey ship anchored outside the reef 3 miles away with its imposing helicopter platform dominating the foredeck, and most nights the Australian patrol boat ‘Bathurst’ returns to keep an eye on us from the outer anchorage.

It’s hard to believe that for 60 plus years Direction Island was a thriving community running the cable station at the junction of cables connecting Australia to the rest of the world. It finally closed in 1966 but today there is barely a trace, the island over-run by coconut palms. It is administered now by the national parks of Australia with well signed heritage trails and recreational areas along the shore used by locals from West Island. A big bonus is the freshwater collected off the roofs of the recreational shelters that have allowed Trish the dubious luxury of hand washing 4 weeks of accumulated linen and non essential clothing with overtaxing our on board water supply. There is a a remote WiFi station to which we are connected with an intermittent connection as we swing at anchor – it is much better ashore but I’m loath to move the office from aboard.

Yesterday we took the bi-weekly ferry to Home Island, a mile and a half to the south of us, although the distance steamed around reefs was significantly greater. Hordes of West Islanders and children poured off the ferry for the day, it being school holidays while Jackie, Klaus, Wolfgang and we 4 were the only passengers embarking. Home Island, the former centre of the Clunies-Ross copra empire, is home to the now Australianised Malay population, descendants of the those originally brought to the island to work the coconut plantations. The town is well laid out, clean and tidy, with employment now dominated by the local shire and island cooperative. We found a surprisingly well stocked supermarket (though very light on fresh fruit and vegetables), 2 stroke oil at the marine centre and will be able to get diesel and fill our spare gas bottle Monday for the departing crew. We enjoyed the best donuts ever made – sugary fresh that melted in your mouth – and enjoyed “Cocos-style” chili chicken and rice with our companions before returning to the boat in the afternoon, having completed the mandatory jalan jalan around the island and

the “Big House” once the seat of the Clunies-Ross feudal state! The next ferry on Saturday will bring Leszek and Wendy, the new crew.

It’s a pity about the wind – it restricts what we can do. Its too far to Home Island and far too windy for the 2 HP outboard on the dinghy (the 8 hp Mercury’s shaft seized and was not reparable before we left Phuket) so we are stuck in the anchorage dependent on the ferry, although we will hire a local from Home Island on Monday to take us ashore to catch the ferry to West Island for the night. Well that’s it for the day. I have another demon making demands on me which I have to attend to today.

Mustang Sally at Koh Phayam

I meet Warren back in 2004 after famously presenting him with a Mount Gay Rum jacket from Cronin’s Pub in Crosshaven, Co. Cork. Sure how could he resist the charms of an Irish cailín when I cheekily asked could I join them for the Atlantic crossing. Back then I set off with Sam and Trish and we sailed from the Canaries to the Cape Verdes and onwards to Barbados. I left them in Trinidad to join Star of the West, but they hadn’t seen the last of me, as we’ve been in touch ever since and after several rendezvous in New Zealand, we all met again in Thailand!

Joleen, our guest blogger for this post

Laden down with enough sun screen to open a shop, sarong, several swimsuits and snorkelling gear I was excited to join Mustang Sally and the crew again. Warren since bought a new boat Kanaloa, an Oyster 55, but she was sitting in the yard at Premier in Phuket getting some work done to her. We had planned to set off in her to Myanmar and the Andaman islands on this trip but it simply was not to be this time.

Sundown at Yacht Haven Marina, Phuket

We waited in the marina at Yacht Haven for a week for several jobs to be completed to Mustang Sally. It was a great insight into what life has been like for Warren, Trish and young Morgan who had rented a little room near the marina and life was filled with boat duties, corresponding for work back in NZ, home schooling, weekly Maui Thai and swimming lessons and playing with kids at the marina.

Our first stop was a short sail to Phang Nga Bay. Exploding for a swim, we all jumped into the water but I managed to swim into jellyfish soup and got some nasty stings, so we reverted to kayaks for Hong hunting and cave exploration from then on.

Hong hunting at Koh Phanak

Phang Nga Bay

No adventure could go undocumented and as Warren had been gifted a new Go Pro from his family. We set that up on route and recorded a fun time lapse of our motor sail to Nai Harn on the south western tip of Phuket.

This was a lovely little town, which seemed to be overrun with fitness fanatics who were out running, cycling, saluting the sun and doing press ups by the roundabouts and enjoying the free outdoor gyms. The sun set over the bay for a delightful sight as we sipped cold beers at the dinghy dock and ate the best pizza in Thailand (after a year in the country, we think that Morgan and Trish are qualified experts to warrant such a claim!)

Nah Hairn Beach

From here it was onto the uninhabited islands of Koh Surin and Koh Similan. The Similans, known for pristine waters, great diving and snorkelling did not disappoint. We picked up a mooring on the north western side of island #8. We arrived in the evening and had the beach and all it’s funny shaped rocks pretty much to ourselves, except for a few campers who were pitched up for the night. The following day, the bay seemed like a different place with oodles upon oodles of speed boats and dive boats joining us. At one point we counted just under 50 boats, each of whom would have been carrying between 20 and 50 passengers. The beach did not have a square inch free and so we waited onboard until the crowds left and then escaped by dinghy to a little island opposite us, where we enjoyed a lovely snorkel amongst schools of bright fish and a zippy little turtle!.

Snorkelling at the Similan Islands

Dinghy ride at the Similan Islands

Crossing into Burmese Waters

We were also joined by Ray and Shaunnaugh and their 15 year old dog Whiskey on their boat Parlay. We sailed onwards with them to the Surin Islands, another un-inhabited island group which is part of the national park and the closest island group to Burmese waters. Of course, since Myanmar was initially on our to-do list, we made a point of sailing over the border. Check!

Ray from Parley, snorkelling at the Similan islands

By now, Morgan and I had a morning routine of kayaking, swimming, beach combing and what not. At this point you would think that a holiday couldn’t get any better, but a longer morning swim undisturbed by jellyfish, was followed by amazing snorkelling topped my daily list.

Rumour on the sailing circuit that Koh Phayam was a must visit island. The type of place that once you arrive, you just don’t want to leave. It’s not in the pilot book and by all accounts was  a hidden paradise. Curious for what was on offer, we sailed the 35 nautical miles for Aow Yai or “Big Bay” on the south west of the island. The island is certainly a little gem that hasn’t been overrun by the typical Thai tourist scene. It is calm, beautiful, clean, remote and friendly. Our first stop was the Rasta Bar where we chatted with a guy Mark who owned a Fish and Chip shop near Butlins in the UK and met Stephanie, a hypnotherapist who lived in Paris with her 6 year old son Milo. Milo and Morgan became best friends in minutes and entertained each other over the following days as we were quite happy to stay.

Set back from the beach were several bars, shops and restaurants. We hired scooters and combed all 35 sq km of the island and found possibly the most unique bar in the world!. Built like a pirate ship from driftwood the bow juts out of the jungle at Buffalo Bay. It’s quite amazing and a treasure trove of nooks and crannies and little driftwood details.

“The Hippy Bar” built like a pirate ship at Buffalo Bay, Koh Phayam

Trish and Morgan on the scooter

We are now sitting at anchor in that same bay. We motored here yesterday and were joined by Stephanie and Milo who were very excited by the alternative travel arrangements we offered them. We’ve meet more cruisers, more families and enjoyed a happy hour at the beach yesterday evening with Graham and Caitriona and their kids Max and Jude on Shanti.

For me it’s the final days of another super time on Mustang Sally. I’ve enjoyed not having to wear shoes for three weeks, watching Trish chew through books, Morgan building all types of Lego ships, our endless games of the pirate brothers Olonso and Alfonso and Warren’s detailed planning and logging with tipples of rum in the evening and general goodness all round. There’s a Full Moon party tonight, so it’s glow sticks and luminous paint at the ready. On a scale of one to ten, we are at about eleven right now

Happy hour on the beach with Ray and Shaunagh from Parlay and Caitriona and Graham from Shanti

“Aye aye me hearties”

Sundown at Koh Similan

Trish, Morgan and Warren at Aoi Yai, Koh Phayam with Mustang Sally in the background.