Three Ships

Newsletter 40

May 11th, 2011

This time we are writing from Mangalun Island (Positions by Lat and long are appearing by request for those who like Google earth  - 06degrees 11.3 minutes North 115degrees 36.3 minutes E  in future will just put as 06:11.3N 115:36.3E).

Since the last newsletter we sailed from Bako National Park (01:44.7N110:29.6E) on to Miri (04:23.09N 113:58.3E) this was an interesting trip where one of us had to watch the water ahead constantly looking for logs and so night sailing was not an option. The end of each afternoon saw us heading in towards the shore until we got into about 5m depth and then anchored up to a mile off shore in a rolly swell until first light. Crossing the mouths of the many rivers was even more difficult as the logs which float just under the surface were harder to see in the brown water full of suspended mud.

Miri was a pleasant place to recuperate from the concentration and a nice flat place to sleep!

The Marina was full of Rally boats together with the few local entries of the Borneo International Yacht Challenge. A grand name for a race fleet trying to gain international recognition by inducing yachts from the East Malaysia Rally to take part the majority of whom are cruisers and have never entered a yacht race before. But the local wealthy participants offer inducements such as free hotel rooms and a 600 ringgit bonus for all who compete the series and the final dinner and presentation is a fine occasion where endless speeches tumble over each other in praise of the fine international event they have all enjoyed and will enjoy again next year with the help of another 32000 ringgits sponsorship from the Saba Tourist Board – mmmm.

So, having waved off many friends with the fleet we  greeted our guests, Tim Pas Lucie and Owen Hewett who flew in from Bedford UK for a month aboard.

First on the itinerary was a short internal flight to the Gunung Mulu National Park (www.mulupark.com) for some forest and cave exploration. The pilot on this commercial flight introduced us to the Park in style, taking us for a tour past the summit of Gunung Mulu alongside the pinnacles and through the jungle at canopy height before banking hard down towards the jungle clearing and the landing strip – a far cry from a normal scheduled airline approach.

The Park is a spectacular mix of forest covered sandstone and limestone hills sculpted into deep river valleys on the surface and huge caves below ground. Much of the jungle scenery and valleys of palms and ferns are within dolines created when yet further huge caves collapsed many years ago. Having bagged beds in the dormitory we set out to walk to a waterfall to swim and met strange snails and even stranger woodlice like things along the way.

The evening was filled with a guided night walk where we met many more creepy crawlies, a snake and lots of geckos including one species reputed to be worth 30,000 ringgits each to the Chinese medicine market.

Next day the Hewett’s and friends Toni and Peter from S|V Tigger were persuaded to join us on an introductory adventure trip in Racer cave. To reach the entrance of the cave we were taken along the river in a local longtail boat with the outboard being regularly lifted to negotiate the very shallow rapids.

The cave entrance was impressive but the passage soon shrank and we were descending knotted ropes squeezing through muddy openings and climbing slippery rocks. The creepy crawlies in the cave were even more impressive than in the jungle with huge spiders and poisonous giant centipedes but the bats seemed friendly enough. Fun was had by all, or at least so they said when the last rope had been climbed and they were safely above ground. We opted to walk back through the jungle and the route turned out to include a climb up hundreds of rickety wooden steps, a passage through the ridge via moon milk cave and a similar descent to the valley. It was an excellent walk although either we are getting very old or their suggestion of 30 minutes for the route was a little underestimated!

Day three took us with local guide Ishmael on a walk along the main valley through Deer Cave to the Garden of Eden and up a steep jungle trail to a waterfall for lunch. Deer cave was truly impressive and massive with the largest cave passage in the world and the ceiling was over 250 feet high and home to over 3 million bats which could be seen as huge black patches far above us. The walkway was on boards and off each side were heaps of bat guano in truly amazing quantities, the smell was a little pungent. We emerged to cross a sparkling river as it entered the cave and then began the climb through first generation jungle to a lovely clear pool where we jumped in and swam in icy water to the waterfall. Decent was a reverse of the same path and as we entered Deer cave again and clambered out of the water onto a shingle beach we were all aware of a strange feeling as a gritty substance fell on us from on high sticking to our wet skin and clothes. It was by now mid afternoon and the bats were waking up! When bats wake up they relieve themselves and 3 million bats spread across the ceiling meant that the return trip was accompanied by a continuous gritty shower that no one wanted to think about too much. There were beautiful views back to the green of the garden entrance and circular pillars of water cascading from stalactites sparkling in the sunlight to distract us. From Deer cave we crossed to Langs cave which by contrast was small, white, clean and full of beautiful formations well lit and labelled for the stream of tourists. We felt a little strange as we sat and dried off covered in mud and other smellier substances amid all the clean people back in an arena built to watch the advertised “bat exodus”. People kept quietly arriving and then, as if on call, at 4.30 the bats began to emerge from their roost. They emerged like wisps of smoke snaking across the sky in continuous undulating waves. We walked back to the entrance to watch the bats above us and could clearly hear the sound of their wings beating, there were a few casualties crawling along the ground and one crawled up my boot which caused much laughter although mine stopped and turned to a somewhat different sound as said bat reached the top of my sock and tried to climb my leg.

It was an impressive spectacle.

Next day we all enjoyed a walk through the canopy on the 500m long aerial walkway watching birds and butterflies and seeing all the many vines and creepers which ascend to the light on host trees. We spent 5 days in the park in somewhat basic accommodation and had a great time although our planned trip through the Clearwater Connection was called off twice due to high water levels and we had to settle for a visit to Stone Horse cave – another ‘adventure’ cave where we had many close encounters with bats and the young swiflets in their nests seemed to think we would bring them food. We will certainly visit Mulu again.

Back aboard we headed out to sea at 9am having cleared out for Brunei and we had an easier time watching for logs with our crew of 6. It was a long 95nm sail and we anchored off Brunei Yacht Club at 2.30 am (04:59.95N 115:04.45E). The yacht club is welcoming and as guests we could swim in the pool use shower facilities and purchase food and drinks from the bar although this was a little expensive.

We took a local bus to the capital Bandar Seri Begawan via Muara and it was a strange experience with stilt villages only meters from sky scrapers and a huge mosque making a very scenic backdrop to it all. It had just been the Sultans 64^th birthday and there were many banners celebrating the occasion. We had a lovely meal in a local restaurant where there were many special dishes to tempt people in the last few days prior to the start of Ramadan. This month long Muslim festival of fasting from sunrise to sunset starts on the day the moon first appears after the dark period and as soon as it is seen the Sultan proclaims the start of fasting so there are a few days of anticipation where everyone eats their fill. It was good to wander through the town and visit the huge shopping malls but the interior of the mosque was the most impressive sight. We are not really city people and the day trip was enough for us although there are many tours available to jungles and national parks too.

Next port of call was the tax free island of Labuan (05:16.32N 115:14.95E) having had a brief snorkelling stop at a smaller island on the way to clean the hull. Here we shopped for beer and other essentials but still failed to find cheese for which we were by now craving having not found anywhere to buy any form other than processed slices since Johor.

Then we set off for Pulau Tiga with the promise of good snorkelling and had a lovely sail in a fresh breeze and anchored in clear water where our visitors enjoyed meeting some under water wildlife. (05:43.08N 115:38.88E)

Next was Sutera Harbour Marina in Kota Kinabalu (you should see the website). Here we reluctantly paid 143ringets a night to leave the boat and go travelling in a hired minivan. The next most expensive Malaysian marina had cost us 50 ringgits a night so we were a bit miffed especially as there were no real cleats to tie to, a very long walk to the shower block, and rats running along the pontoon at night. However the children loved the pool and the bowling alley and the boat was safe.

Setting off  at 4am we headed for Sepilok orang-utan sanctuary passing the impressive peak of Mount Kinabalu just as the sun rose, it was a long drive but we made it with 15 minutes to spare before the 10am feeding. On the walk to the platform we saw a mother orang with her baby and seeing the wonder on the faces of our visitors was a pleasure not to be missed. There were a lot of people on the platform and the orang-utans were disappointingly distant – once again our spoiling in Kalimantan could not be matched. Chris discovered that we could sign in for an unguided walk so as the crowds thinned returning to the many busses we set off along a pleasant jungle trail. Minutes later we met a couple coming the other way hurriedly retreating having met “aggressive monkeys”. Of course we all eagerly but warily continued along the trail. We were rewarded with a fantastic sighting of several long tailed grey macaques only meters from the path and then a troupe of pig tailed macaques with their tell tale red behinds joined the scene and came right to the path. We were all quiet and calm and never felt any hostility as they seemed to ignore us and continue foraging in the ground for insects and munching leaves in the trees. Next we were treated to close sightings of the giant Rhinoceros Hornbills with their seemingly impossibly large horns. After about a two hour walk we returned to the board walks near the centre to spot several orang-utans above us in a tree and we stopped to observe them feeding their young and chasing around. One young male of about 7 years was chased away by a mother carrying a baby and he fell crashing through the branches rolling under the board walk. He soon emerged unscathed pulling himself onto the board walk and coming right up to us before settling on the hand rail. Soon he was joined by two mothers with babies who also sat close to us preening each other and ignoring our presence. The young male climbed up a tree and started building a nest from which he peered down at us proudly with amazingly human expressions. Needless to say we were all amazed and impressed with the experience and we returned to the car park a very happy group.

Next we wanted to carry on to visit the Kinabatangan river where we hoped to introduce the Hewetts to proboscis monkeys and where we thought there was a slight chance we could track down an elusive pygmy elephant. We asked advice from the driver of a tour van and he was really helpful in telling us where to go on the river and phoning a friend who could take us on a long boat tour. We arrived in Sukau village and met Bob and his boat at the Lampuit jetty at 4pm. By 4.15 we were in the boat and gently floating up a tributary with proboscis monkeys above our heads. Bob had amazingly sharp eyes and showed us many birds and monkeys. We asked him about an early morning tour next day to find elephants at which point he told us they only come down to the water in the afternoons. When we explained that we had to return to KK next day he agreed to try and find some for us. We headed back to the main river and whizzed up stream passing many returning tour boats with Bob miming flapping ears to their guides as we crossed. There was much waving and pointing and several thumbs up so we all dared to get excited. Finally we heard trumpeting and saw movement in the long elephant grass and as Bob glided to the bank with engine off we came face to face with elephants. It was an amazing sight and they really are very very small compared to their African cousins. We had the group to ourselves for about half an hour seeing about 8 adults and 2 calves and then a couple of other boats arrived packed with other delighted tourists. We were sad to leave but the light was failing and Lucie and Owen were not alone in thinking how lucky we had been seeing so much in one day.

Bob found us accommodation and a meal and we retired about 9pm exhausted but very contented.

We called at the Gunung Kinabalu park on the return journey to try and find a way to climb the peak in September with Dan and Ros but all the accommodation on the hill was fully booked and there was no way around it. Every climber has to be guided despite the very well trodden route and although we do not begrudge the guides an income the 385 ringets hut fee seemed a little steep. As there are hundreds climbing every day in a long stream and it is impossible to do the walk, stay in a hut from 9pm and set out again for the summit at 2am and then walk down for less than £220 per person, we think we were actually rather relieved that it was so booked up.

We returned to Three Ships and left the marina for a few days of clear water swimming and snorkelling with all sorts of brightly coloured but small fish. We were sad to see a lot of destroyed and dead coral and in one anchorage even witnessed a local boat blasting to try and catch the few fish that were left. They destroyed new coral growth and didn’t even seem to get any fish!

We did find some lovely anchorages and clear water and saw a lot of fish and in some places there was a bit of healthy young coral growth so we hope in the future Sabah’s reefs will return.

Back at Sutera we negotiated a better rate for one night and had a farewell dinner with our crew at the restaurants superb buffet. Next day we were sad to say goodbye as a taxi whisked our friends off to the airport and we moved out to anchor and wave to the plane.

Now as I said as I started this letter we are at Pulau Mangalun, the water is clear and slightly cooler than a hot bath but unfortunately this coral too  has been destroyed by blasting and so the snorkelling is a little sad and the small fish trying to find homes amongst the rubble even sadder.

We had a lovely walk around the island this morning which was great except for the 60+ sand fly bites which I collected along with a couple of shells for my growing collection. We are now enjoying a quiet, if somewhat itchy, rest before Dan and Ros join us on 3^rd September.

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Newsletter 39

May 11th, 2011

This newsletter comes to you from Borneo which is just like that misty mysterious land dreamed of during David Attenborough documentaries of childhood.

We left Tioman (from where NL38 came) and sailed overnight to Tengol Island 120 miles north. The bay was beautiful with some of the best snorkelling since leaving Fiji and we spent a lot of time under the water towing the dinghy with our 12volt powerdive unit on board allowing us to dive down to a depth of 6m for hours. We saw corals of every colour and beautiful angel fishes bat fish parrot fish and even one reef shark. Next day I went for a dive with local dive master Charlie and spent an hour in a multicoloured paradise, a few other sailboats arrived that afternoon and we got several dive trips booked for the days to come.

Such is cruising that at 9am next day a NW wind was forecast to blow and the bay is wide open to the NW with only a huge and valuable coral reef between the yachts and the beach so anchors were raised dives cancelled and boats scattered. Many of us reconvened in a lovely anchorage off Kapis Island and a few days of snorkelling with 2m long bump head parrot fish and evenings of drinks on the beach followed.

Next was a visit to the marina in Terranganu on the mainland where we visited local markets enjoying an abundance of fresh produce and tasting new local delicacies. It was slightly worrying to find that although the government here are spending millions of their own and charitable aid funds on the conservation of turtles and protection of nesting sites there were several stalls selling turtle eggs with seemingly no consequences.

It took several days to sort out a supply of diesel and two days to get it distributed from the 200 litre barrels brought in on local fishing boats into jerry cans and then the tanks of about 20 cruising yachts. However the days were almost fun with grateful skippers supplying cold beers to those like Chris who got their sleeves rolled up and their legs liberally coated in diesel in the process.

China town in Teranganu was wonderful and both Chris and I took acupuncture treatments together with strange brown medicines to try and sort out bad cases of sciatica. The jury is still out on the effectiveness of treatment but we both seem to be moving a little more easily and furling the headsail is not quite the agony it had become. In a mainly Muslim area China town has pork butchers selling cuts straight from the beast between 5am and 8am each morning so we had fresh meat as a welcome change.

The cruising north to Redang was pleasant and the bays around the islands were nice to share with a few other cruisers and some balmy sociable evenings were spent discussing the merits of various routes across the South China Sea to North Borneo. This was a problem as there had been 16 piracy incidents spread between the various options over the past two months and fear and paranoia were growing in the fleet. There was a beautiful back drop for these discussions of white sand beaches and growing numbers of turtles swam around the boats by day and made their way ashore at night where the full moon was calling them to nest back at the sites of their hatching. As darkness settled fruit bats circled the bay before choosing which mast to hang from to roost, it was somewhat strange to shine a torch up the rigging and see several pairs of red eyes staring down at you. Once ensconced they screamed protests at others seeking to join them and each morning the droppings which had to be scrubbed from the deck served to prove their stay had not been a dream.

The much publicised piracy incidents have centred on ships and not sail boats but the culprits were reported to have been local wooden craft armed with anything from axes and crow bars to light weapons and all incidents had been close to the Indonesian Islands littering the routes.

It seemed that keeping 30 miles from any land and keeping radio silence and showing no navigation lights when near any islands was the favoured action.

The fleet split into several groups going North South and through the centre of the Island groups and the wind seemed to favour a dog legged trip through the middle avoiding anywhere within 30 miles of land so we set off south in company,  and in vhf radio contact,  with  two other boats. While sailing we overtook the others and when motorsailing kept pace but motoring a 49 foot Australian sloop named China Grove left us for dust and the Belgian catamaran Catamini got left behind. Two days out we lost Radio contact with Catamini and the wind had gone so China Grove and ourselves changed course to go south of the islands and used the SSB on the Rally Net to ensure that Catamini had joined another group sticking to middle ground. There were many rumours of unknown vessels lurking and much refusal to give positions to the net in case of unfriendly ears listening in but nothing untoward happened on that front. Several boats ran over fishing nets and traps and had to jump in to free their props and China Grove was stopped dead when a huge log got wedged between their wing keel and rudder trapping the prop in the process. We caught up and stood by as they dived and planned but the log was wedged fast. In the end a rope to the log and the port winch and another to a prop blade and the starboard winch wound in simultaneously caused the offending article to burst to the surface and all was well. We ended up passing the worst of the Islands in day light with no problems and 4 days and 4 nights after leaving we dropped our anchor in the Santabong River beneath an impressive rain forest covered pinnacle rising from the sea named Gunung Santobong. The local villagers were friendly and helpful and were employed to take in laundry and make jerry jug runs to town for diesel. A local taxi took skippers into Kuching to check in with the authorities and visits to supermarkets and local produce markets were twinned with running commentaries on the local people and area.

We tested our atrophied legs and somewhat improved backs by climbing Gunung Santabong right to its 755m summit and were pleasantly surprised when having left the boat at 5.45 and after a short road walk a slippery ridge trail and scaling many half worn through rope ladders we emerged from the forest to a fine view at 9.20 am. We took our time in descent and it has to be said legs were a little heavy next day.

The Santabong cultural village is home to the “International Rainforest Music Festival” which is in its 10^th year. We were lucky to have got tickets through the rally and spent a wonderful afternoon attending jamming sessions in traditional longhouses with artistes from as far away as Africa and the Czech republic. The night time festival proper was a mixed bag with the biggest disappointment being a very poor ceilidh band from the UK – we had heard better bands in portside bars in Oban and Dublin and as the band had been paid and flown here at the expense of the Borneo Tourist Board it seemed a shame. However there were many wonderful musicians too and the local star on the Sape (a long necked thin guitar like instrument) was the highlight. The atmosphere was great and the jungle setting a delight and the torrential rain and resulting stage ringed with mud rather Glastonbury like!

We took a bus tour to visit an orangutan reserve and a local pottery and it was a great day but we have been spoilt by our orangutan experiences in Kalimantan and they can we fear not be beaten or repeated. The local potters have many Chinese influences and their work is varied and impressive however it does not make good company on a sailboat so we had to be content with a pair of mugs.

After this we  slowly made our way along the coast towards Miri and anchored off the Bako national Park.  We sighted two proboscis monkeys which were beautiful in the early evening sun and donated blood to many local mosquitos which were not.

More news soon.

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