Small Fishing Banka at Sea

We had left early (06:30) from our anchorage in Dumaran Island as we had a long trek to make to our next hidey hole from the weather in Cabulauan Island.  A distance a little over 55 nautical miles but we knew it was going to be too hard on the wind and we expected a contrary swell, miserable!

We got out ok (this anchorage was full of shallows and we had run aground the night before) and were making reasonable time with a 2 metre swell hitting us at about 30 degrees off the bow and a 20 knot breeze  about 50 degrees off the bow creating another swell.  A bit lumpy sort of speak.  I had just dipped below to check the engine at 12:30 when Pauline called me back on deck.  Up ahead was a small fishing banka (boat in Filipino) similar to the ones we have seen on our travels up here.  But what was he doing out in this weather?  It looked like one of the small ones that are paddled as opposed to having a motor.  We were easily 20 miles from land.  As we approached our hearts sank, for this banka was swamped and no one was aboard.  We began looking for someone and noticed there was no other debris floating around so we assumed that it had been abandoned a while ago.  It was many miles upwind to the nearest island where they could have set out from.  But we kept a eye peeled and said a silent prayer that if someone was out there alive we would spot him,  But for several miles we did not find any debris, which made us speculate that the boat could have been lost from shore during one of the recent storms which had been responsible for our unsettled weather.  Or we had also notice that sometimes the larger motorized bankas towed some of these smaller ones behind to have more boats on a fishing area.  Maybe it had just broken free and lost.  In any case, our thoughts are for the people who belonged to this boat.  If, as we hope, they are indeed safe, they still will suffer the huge loss of their income supply as the people in this region are so poor the loss of one of these boats would impact them severely.  We thought about trying to tow it to our next destination but that would have meant jumping overboard to secure a line and then we were not sure how to tow it safely in this weather.

It does make us think how fragile things are around us and how lucky we are.  We didn’t complain about the weather once after that and appreciated Sari Timur was taking us on to our next destination in relative safety.

Small Bankas Similar to the Half Sunk One We Saw 

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 saw us still anchored at the Abanico Yacht Club in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, the Philippines.

John and Cissy, the people who run the yacht club, organized a really nice Christmas lunch for all the yachties in the anchorage.  We all had to come in some sort of hats.  Cissy put together a great buffet : ham, beef pastrami, liver pate, roast pork, roast chicken, smoked turkey, boiled tongue, grilled sausages, potato salad, beef paksiew (beef stir-fry in black bean sauce), chocolate cake, log cake and lemon pie.  Yummy.  We ate so much we didn’t need dinner.

We had a great time, socializing with other yachties and it was a fantastic way to spend Christmas.

Pictures to follow.

Pictures from the neighbors

We got these from the boat next to us here in Puerto Princesa

From Kota Kinabalu to Puerto Princesa

We finally set out north towards Palawan in the Philippines on the 30^th of November.  The plan was to set out early.  But all the best laid plans sometimes go astray.  As we began our final check on everything at sunrise, we noticed the auto pilot was completely dead.  This is not a show stopper but it is also linked to our rudder angle indicator and that is always nice to have when backing out of a marina.  So we began a troubleshooting sequence.  After all we had just checked it 3 days prior and all was fine.  We traced all of the wires etc and could not find anything wrong.  Anyways, we decided there was nothing more we were going to achieve with it before departure so we put everything back in place and went around saying our goodbyes and pulled out at 08:30.  We had been watching the weather for several weeks.  Our original plans were to leave mid November in the hopes that we would still have a bit of south west monsoon.  Of course we didn’t leave when planned and the NE Monsoon kicked in a couple of days before our departure.  That meant once we rounded Pulau Gaya, the large island that shelters KK Harbour, we had it on our nose.  Just as we rounded Gaya we had a small problem with the engine so while Mark got that fixed we basically drifted backward 2 miles.  That was faster than we were going forward before the engine blew a hose!  Anyway with the hose repaired and back under power we bashed into it and decided on shortening our first day’s course to head for Usukan Bay.

Usukan Bay with Mt Kinabalu

This is only about thirty miles but it was straight into a pretty short sea and the wind was blowing 25 knots on the nose.  Usukan Bay is supposedly Sabah’s largest deepwater bay.  It didn’t seem that large but it was very pretty and it sure was nice getting out of the swell.  We decided to hang here for two nights and hope the weather would die down a bit as well as give us a chance to look more thoroughly at the auto pilot. 

We got the autopilot working again and after giving the wind the fake delay it decided to die down for our next leg up to an anchorage just south of Tanjong Tambuluran.  The winds again picked up after lunch so we were happy that we had another sort of short leg to do.  This wind pattern of strong winds from the NNE in the afternoon seemed to be a trend so for the rest of our trip we decided to make all the passages into small legs.  This worked out well because each anchorage that we found had something nice to offer.  Tanjong Tambuluran is just across the peninsula from Kudat and not far from Kota Belud where Pauline and the gang had a good visit to see the cowboys of Sabah.  This coast is really spectacular when viewed from the sea.  Mount Kinabalu stands proud and dominates in the background and it is thrilling to watch it from the various angles as you sail up the coast.  Sabah’s coast is definitely one of the most dramatic places in the world.

Pulau Balambangan, Malaysia

Pulau Banggi, Malaysia

From Tg Tambuluran we rounded the top of Borneo right into a line squall.  45 knots and lots of rain.  But after punching through it for a little over an hour the weather abated and we continued at a nice pace for our next anchorage off of Pulau Balambangan.  This island is just in the lee of Pulau Bangi (Malaysia’s largest island) and it offered a very nice stop.  We watched a couple of monkeys on the beach as we were anchoring and felt quite secure, however the busted hull of some other large boat laying on the beach just a few meters away from us was a bit disconcerting.  This was our last stop in Malaysia and we managed to get a little bit of internet via a radio tower on the top of Bangi.  The signal was poor but at least we could download some mails and check the weather and news.

Clarendon Bay, Philippines

The Spanish light and the modern light

The next leg of the trip was to cross the Balabac Straits.  Here we had been told to watch for floating debris, fisherman, strong currents and high speed smugglers.  Instead we had the best sail of the trip.  The wind had backed around just east enough that we did the entire crossing with the engine off until just before entering Clarendon Bay in the Philippines.  That slightly more east wind did make Clarendon Bay a little rolly but still a great stop.  There is an old Spanish light on the hill overlooking the straits that can be seen from inside the bay as well.  The light still looks neat but has been replaced by a modern light a few metres away.

Candaraman Island, Philippines

Just off the top of Balabac Island is a small island called Candaraman and we had been told this anchorage is a gem and one of the nicest to see in the southern Philippines.  We decided it sounded too good to miss so we headed there the next day.  If you imagined a pretty beach with loads of coconut trees, very clear water with loads of fish and turtles you are right.  We decided there was no hurry to leave this place and so we played here for a couple of days.

Iglesia Point, Philippines

From Candaraman, we worked our way to Palawan Island and took refuge the first night behind Iglesia Point.  There are a couple of anchorages here, we chose the one just behind the point.  There is another up the Rio Tuba.  There is also a large commercial jetty in the same harbour but there are shallows between the top and the commercial jetty harbour.

James Brooke Point, Philippines

From Iglasia Point we headed north to James Brooke Point.  This has a pretty little town with the backdrop of some mountains.  The anchorage is very well protected behind a combination of a break water and commercial jetty.  It is a bit shallow but good holding and calm.

James Brooke Point - the jetty and the breakwater

After James Brooke Point we got some weird weather with waves breaking from the south east in bands of a few hundred metres with long periods of flat water in between.  We could not figure out what was causing this as there was really no consistency to timing, height etc.  At one time we even wondered if it was a tsunami.  Later a storm came up from the south and we guessed it was caused by a wind generated swell fighting out the traditional swell from the north east.  The bad thing with this is our next anchorage was Rasa Island and we were extremely exposed to the south.  The new southerly storm generated a very uncomfortable anchorage.  We have been told this is a great anchorage during a north east but we can attest it is very lousy from the other direction.  During the night the wind died down and came back from the north but the swell continued from the south enough that at first light we were pulling the anchor with very little sleep.

Abanico Yacht Club, Puerto Princesa

Puerto Princesa was the next stop and is the end of this journey for a couple of weeks.  This is a great stop; the Abanico Yacht Club is very friendly to visiting yachts and has a wonderful bar/restaurant with a gorgeous view and very reasonable prices.

Buttons on the Right

Hey a while back we updated our blog a bit.  But we have been told that most of you have not noticed.  I guess it is a bit conceited to think that viewers would look closely at the blog for something slightly different.  But there are some new things.  First and the coolest is the position report.  This is via Pangolin’s website.  Which is a website that offers weather information etc.  We update our position daily (when we are moving) with the weather we are currently experiencing and they load our position reports into a database.  The plus side of this is a few minutes after we give and update they plot these positions for us on a world map display that you can zoom in on and see what the area we are in looks like.  They also show our last positions the blue dots along the way so you can see just how slow we are going!  Point to the line that says ‘click here to see our position’ and click on it.  It is that simple.

Another update is we have published a few articles.  So far these are only in the Raffles Marina bi-monthly but we have loaded them up to a site so you can read them as if you got the magazine.  Hopefully as we refine our writing skills and do more that interests people there will be more articles to view.

We have just arrived in Puerto Princesa (in case you still can’t figure out the buttons).  We should have an update of our trip up, posted with in the next couple of days or so.

The New Flat in Singapore

In December 2002, Pauline bought a flat in Holland Village.  It was about 118 sq.m in a great location.  Her parents live in it and we have the master bedroom reserved for when we needed a place to crash.

In 2005, the government decided to take back the flats in that location.  In doing so, they would build new flats across the street as replacements.  We selected a smaller flat (about 92 sq.m) on the 39^th floor.  Pauline’s parents will be living in it while we are out there, somewhere.

The government started building the new flats in 2006 and completion was scheduled for 2011.  We were told that we might have to fly back to Singapore in December 2010 to sign the papers.  However, we received an email at the end of October that our flat is ready and we could go sign the papers, pay the money and collect the keys early November.

Our plan was to leave for the Philippines mid November and find somewhere safe in the Philippines to leave Sari Timur and fly to Singapore in December.  Since we can actually collect our keys early November, we can safely leave Sari Timur in Sutera Harbor Marina in Kota Kinabalu and fly to Singapore.  This means that our departure has been postponed to end November.

On Monday, November 8, 2010 we met with the officer at the Housing and Development Board (HDB) offices.  We signed lots of forms and paid lots of money and an hour later, we shook hands and were handed the keys to our new flat.  We were so excited and went straight to the flat to have a peek.

We met with the contractor and gave instructions for him to fit out the flat in our absence.  He said it would take about 5-6 weeks to complete fitting it out.  We are having wardrobes made for the 3 bedrooms and the kitchen completely fitted.  Air-conditioners and lights will be installed and the whole flat painted.  Then it will be the arduous task of moving from a relatively big flat to this smaller new flat.  Pauline would have to fly back to Singapore once again to facilitate the move.

Our new flat, taken from the old one

Entrance to the service yard

 

 

 

 

 

passage to the bedrooms

the kitchen

The living area

The living area

view from the flat

view from the flat

We will update and post pictures of the flat after the fittings are done.

Kota Belud Tamu Besar

In English : Kota Belud Big Sunday Market.

While Mark and Walt were climbing Mt Kinabalu, Jane and I, together with 9 other cruisers hired a van and drove to Kota Belud for the annual Tamu Besar.

vegetable vendor

vegetable vendor

fish vendor

Kota Belud is situated 70 km northeast of Kota Kinabalu and is known as the "Land of the Cowboys of the East".  It is a melting pot of cultures and customs with a blend of the largely Muslim Bajau community and the many tribes of the Kadazandusun and the Irranun.  The Kota Belud tamu (Sunday open market) is a venue for the people of the various communities to meet and trade.

The best time to view Kota Belud's striking cultural mix is during the annual Tamu Besar. It is Sabah's biggest open-air market where farmers, fishermen and vendors offer their best produce and wares for sale to the public.  We had fun walking around, watching the vendors doing their crafts.  There is this one lady making neat baskets out of newspapers and coconut sticks.  She rolls the newspapers into tight tubes and weaves them into baskets, then paints them with polyurethane lacquer.  Another lady was making colorful hats out of rattan.

weaving a hat with rattan

the finished hat

newspaper, lacquer

the beginning

end products

I was a little sad about some of the seafood on display, which should be left in the sea.

sharks without their fins

rays

parrot fish

After the market, we walked over to the field where we waited for the Bajaus, resplendent in their costumes, to stage a grand parade of ponies and perform a spirited display of their riding skills.  However, it started to rain about the time they were going to start the parade.  We were going to sit it out but as the downpour got worse, we decided to abandon the wait and drive back to Kota Kinabalu.  It was such a disappointment to have missed the chance to witness such a display of culture.  We did however, take some pictures of the cowboys and their horses while we waited.

horses grazing

horse getting dressed up

Bajaus with their horses

kid on his horse

Kinabalu Climb

Well it has been a while since I have updated the blog.  But having just returned from climbing Mount Kinabalu for the second time it is better to use my fingers to work the keyboard rather than use my legs for anything else.

Mark and Walt still fit

All in all it was a good trip.  But if I left it at that it would not do it justice.  I first climbed the mountain a little over 11 years ago with Pauline before we were married and my sister Chris and her husband Tom.  Most of us struggled on that trip, though Tom made it seem a bit easy.  My target this time was to first, make it again, second, not hurt myself too bad in the process, third, try to make it before sunrise and fourth, to make sure my climbing companion Walter made it up in one piece.  Walt just turned 70 and though he is a fit 70 year old, his body was going to take some abuse.

The plan this time was to make it a three night four day trip.  This meant one afternoon and night up at park headquarters near the start of the climb to get our lungs a little used to the lighter air.  One day climb up the mountain most of the way to the guest house, Laban Rata, stay there until 02:30 hours the next morning and then climb to the top.  Come down after the climb to Laban Rata again, eat lunch, Tiger Balm the legs and sleep and recuperate at Laban Rata for one more night.  Return to park headquarters the next morning.  Most people make it a two nights and three days trip which means one night at the park headquarters and one night at Laban Rata.  There are those other poorly advised people, like us last time, that come up from sea level and try and do it in two days and one night.  So let’s just say one good thing that usually comes with age is wisdom.  If it hurt the first time there must be a better way!

First wildlife

Our accommodation at the park was quite nice and we took the chance to walk to the restaurant for dinner and then back to the room rather than use the transport service to get a small light weight workout prior to our morning start. We also took in a video show and trip briefing before retiring for the night as well as seeing our first wild life - a pinching beetle!

Walt and Luke

The next morning we were up at 6 am to hit the breakfast for 7 and meet with our guide a 7:30.  Our guide was Luke and believe me, both Walt and I think he is the wonder guide of the year.  We were on our way just before 8.

The scenery along the first 6 km walk up to Laban Rata is very interesting and sometimes pretty.  But you get so caught up in the effort of climbing that you miss out on the pictures.  Of course the problem with this trip is there is no way pictures can really do it justice but we took some to try whenever we could.

Carson Falls

Flowers

Walt and Carson Falls

Mountain squirrels

Bridges

Steps

Trees thinning out

As you climb you move from tropical rain forest to thinning forest to sub alpine then alpine and I guess finally barren tundra.  All in, it is a little over 8.7 km walk to Lows Peak which is the highest of several peaks on Mount Kinabalu.  It comes in at 4095.2 metres high which is 13,433 feet or over 2.5 miles up!  It is often called the strangest mountain as it does not make sense.  Borneo is geologically pretty stable.  Most mountains are created by being at the edge of a subterranean plate where either the force of that plate against another or some volcanic activity made it grow.  But Borneo is nowhere near any plates and other than Poring Hot springs there seems to be no thermal activity in the vicinity.  And it is still growing about 5 mm a year.  Also Kinabalu is made up of ganodiorite, similar to granite, which is different than most volcanic structures.  Kinabalu is a relatively young mountain only about 10 million years.  Even older than Walter and my combined ages but young in mountain terms.  It receives a huge amount of rainfall around 24 metres per year so things grow.  Even in the crags near the summit you find plants.  Some of the trees near the top are only dwarf scrub but the same species further down the hill grows well above twenty metres.

Walt in Poncho in rain

Anyway back to our climb.  As we got higher and our legs more tired our rest stops became more frequent. The rain came early that day and by 10:30 we had our ponchos on.

But we finally made Laban Rata just before the 6 km mark and 3270 metres up ( 2 miles for those North American folk).  We were pre warned that the guest house had a generator failure which meant no hot water or heaters.  With the outside temp at 10 degrees C or around 50 F it was cool! 

We tried to get some sleep but were a bit wired from the trip.  And basically just changed and hung out until dinner time.  Our guide arranged to meet us for a 2:30 departure and after dinner we retired hoping to catch a few winks before waking up. Walt made me promise that when I got the chance for me to head up with the front climbers to make sure I made it for the sunrise.  He said if I hung back he would be tempted to push too hard.  So that was the plan and I left him and Luke just before the 7 km mark.  After 7 km the terrain becomes what I called tundra.  Now you are basically following ropes.  Sometimes just to make sure you do not fall.  It is a long way down way up there.  Most of the time as long as you are taking baby steps you can walk it but there are a few locations where the rope is essential.

 

Mark at the summit

At the 8 km mark one of the guides warned us to take a break.  This was because the peak itself was near freezing and we were a bit more protected here.  But after what seemed like only seconds we were advised to get moving or we would miss the sunrise. By the time we hit the 8.5 km mark I am sure there were some light snowflakes swirling around my head lamp.  I mentioned it to some of the others and they said maybe just light rain.  But then they agreed it must be some frosty thing or another.  Luckily it was not heavy and vanishing before it hit the ground.   Lows Peak is the highest of all the Peaks and this is the one that we needed to climb to get our certificate.  I made it up just before 5:30 and sunrise was scheduled for 5:40.  We didn’t get a clear sunrise as there was some cloud cover to the east.  But I had a clear view of the lights below in Kota Kinabalu and had earlier seen the lights of Sandakan.

Sunrise

The top of the peak is pretty crowded and I had told Walt I would wait for him at the base.  I was a bit worried he wasn’t going to make it as his knee was giving him some problems.  But when I got down from Lows someone asked me where Walt was and I said I wasn’t sure if he would make it but I was to wait for him here.  Then someone else said there he is and sure enough slow and steady he was there.  I asked if he wanted me to go back up with him and he said that it wasn’t required.  But after a few minutes watching him I decided to head up again and give him moral support.  He made it to the top sometime after 6:30.  And this time it was a bit warmer and brighter and I could get some better pics.

Victoria Peak

Top of South Peak

St John's Peak

Walt at the top

We made it

Going down, we were both glad we opted for an extra night at Laban Rata.  Though there was no heat at least we could Tiger Balm up our legs and get rested before the final descent.  That night we got the mother of all storms.  Many of the people we met during the day who were scheduled to climb the next morning didn’t make it.  There were stories of knee high streams that they had to travel through.  About 3 metre visibility and thus no scenery.  The winds were shaking the guest house and rattling the windows so I am sure the poor climbers out on the mountain were suffering.  We stayed tucked in our beds until 7:00 and awoke to it still raining but at least the winds had dropped off.  A waterfall was screaming past outside the rest house window where the stream usually flows.  I tried taking a picture through the window but my camera really wasn’t up to it.

Walt's broken shoe

Better photo of it

At 8:00, though it was still raining and awful cold, we headed out the door.  We had gotten about a kilometer when Walt’s shoe had a blowout.  He had some string and I had some dental floss and we made repairs every few hundred metres.  I then came up with the idea that after we tied it up we could fit one of my socks over the boot to hold it in place.  This worked for about two kilometers until the sock wore through but we now knew we had the means so we fixed it again at the two kilometer mark and it made it all the way back to the marina.

10 steps to go

We finally made it back to Timpohon Gate just after 2pm and we were all smiles.

Almost there

Luke, you did your job

Laban Rata, as seen from the Park headquarters.  White dots between the cloud line and the towers