Palawan 2010

Gemma, Matt, Leo and I left Malaysia for Palawan in early February . We had strong north east winds, sailing up the west coast of Palawan was torturous. We did 15 to 25 miles most days. We took a month to get to the top of Palawan and we only had less than 3 weeks to visit the bays on the east coast. Alas, the east coast was the prettier coast, the bays had crystal clear waters.

We picked up NiZhen in El Nido. El Nido is at the top end of the west coast of Palawan. NiZhen is the daughter of Fu Hua and Gracie. She had just completed a working stint in Palawan and was free to join us for 2 weeks. It was quite an experience for her to be on a sailing vessel. I have enclosed Gemma's views of our holiday. A lovely summary of our holiday.

Walking and looking for shells.

A great leap into the clear waters.

A view from the top.

Gemma in the water.

The colourful corals.

A Nudibranch.

Dancing shrimps surrounding a sea urchin. Dinner!!

Spot the stone fish.

The photos are taken by Gemma and Matt.

Palawan 2010

On a blustery summer day,
We crossed the Balabac straits.
As we zoomed atop the cresting waves,
We willed some dinner to take our bait.

Not one, but two simultaneous strikes.
Then chaos reigned, two tuna, yikes!
In Clarendon Bay, ‘ada buwaya ?’* yes! *crocodile
Perhaps he said, ‘ you should swim a bit less’.

At low tide we walked,
Following sandy trails,
To find new seashells,
to fill our pails.

Tagbita Bay, we had a long stop.
We washed and watered in a mountain stream,
While old Mario stocked up our banana shop.
Beach fired trevalley, damper in tins,
No scrap of food left, just a couple of fins.

At Long point, we heard a flurry of dogs,
Barking and yapping in search of hogs.
Success at last, one lone boar for slaughter.
We left for Fish Bay and it’s ‘crystal clear water’

Day after day, Matt tried to catch squid.
Alas, success eluded him.
He claimed he could catch one, who’s he trying to kid?
They remained safe and sound, still free to swim.

Quezon promised fresh food and ice cream,
But the anchorqge was not exactly a dream.
The outboard sounded as if suffering a terrible plight,
While from the shore, Pewter remained so far out of sight.

Sebang, the home of the underground river,
Where we watched tiny bats hang all a quiver.
May day Bay was thick with giant jellyfish
And a cooling swim was just a mere wish.

At Alligator Island, we met the German Peter,
With his alcohol consumption, I’m surprised he didn’t teeter.
Pail after pail we drew from his well,
By lunchtime that day, my back, it could tell.

Corong Corong Bay and El Nido town,
We search for Ni* as the sun went down.
Children raced and play fought on the beach.
The peaceful air shattered by the occasional screech.

*‘Ni’ is Fu Hua and Gracie’s daughter. She joined us for 2 weeks of sailing.

The boat soon filled with the familiar stench,
Of newly found shells rotting on the bench.
We swam and dove in clear blue sea,
Exploring new reefs and bays with glee.

Two giant marble cones
Matt is delirious,
While Ni plaintively moans,
‘I want to find one!!’

Unfortunately, it all must end,
And down the east coast we start to wend.
We leave behind Palawan’s beautiful shore,
To see what else this year has in store.

By Gemma

A Family Interlude

The family (Carina, Mark, Jordan, Emma, Ping, Wayne, Gemma and Matt) all joined us on the boat in Brunei in the beginning of January. It was a tight squeeze on the boat, but everybody was ready to rough it out. Leo ended up on the floor rather than sharing a bed with Jordan and Emma as they wriggled and fought throughout the night.

It was fun having all of them around. The kids had such a tremendous capacity of finding fun in the simple things. Jordan and company (Matt, Gemma, Ping & Wayne) wrote silly song parodies as we sailed from Brunei to Labuan.

Emma the skipper

Emma and Jordan had both complained that they wanted to stop swimming lessons, and to prove it to Carina they both had to swim around the boat without a lifejacket. With lots of encouragement from all of us, especially to get Emma through her swim, as there was a slight current that she had to tackle, they made it, hooray!

Showering!

From Labuan we sailed to Pulau Tiga, the island where they filmed the first of the Survivor series. The island has volcanic mud pools, and Ping and Wayne got themselves completely covered in mud (actually Ping fell into the mud pool trying to rope walk across the pool!) They had to jump off the jetty to clean themselves up, and the rest of the family thought it was a great idea to leap off the jetty as well. Soon they were all leaping in. Emma and Jordan had no qualms leaping in with the rest. I was the only chicken…

A muddy pair...eek!

A flying leap

Ready, steady, JUMP!

Everyday we’d play ‘Oh Golly’, our favourite card game. Losing meant washing dishes so it was a rowdy and often, contentious event. Carina usually took the honours of doing dishes!

We stopped in a 5 star marina in Kota Kinabalu and it was great for the family. We enjoyed the swimming pools, the bowling alley, free bus rides to town, and pre-heated towels!

The main event was the trip to the Mulu Caves in Sarawak, the largest cave system in the world. The caves were great, however I found the long walks hot and tiring. We swam in clear streams during the walks and even found 4 wild durians for morning tea one day. The best part was the 3-hour boat ride out of the national park, riding the mini rapids down the river on very unstable canoes. The boatman would warn us not to move too much whenever we hit a rapid.

All set to walk

Like all wonderful holidays, it came to an end. The family left Gemma, Matt, Leo and I in Brunei, heading home to NZ while we traveled back to Kota Kinabalu before heading to Palawan, Philippines.

Family Parodies

Blob It

by Matt Gemma, Jordan, Ping & Wayne.

( music to 'Beat It' by Michael Jackson). It's about a card game ' Oh Golly '.

1. Told you, if you wanna play, you gotta play fair.

The stakes are pretty high, so you betta beware.

The contest's in their eyes, so you gotta take care.

So blob it, just blob it.

2. They told her there are lots of dirty dishes round here.

You betta clean em' up, make em' disappear.

The trumps are in their hands and their message is clear.

So blob it but you wanna beat dad.

Chorus:

So blob it, blob it, blob it, blob it.

Do what Car does and blob it.

You've got a nine in the trump suit,

You don't know whether to bid 1 or 2.

Just blob it, blog it.

3. You betta trump, you betta win while you can.

Don't wanna see no blobs, wanna be a blob free man.

If you wanna survive, betta blob while you can.

So blob it, just blob it.

4. There's only 5 cards and it's well over bid.

You ask for bonus points 'cause you're just a kid,

They trump you or they'll duck you ,

Then they'll got you like a squid,

So blob it but you wanna beat dad.

Chorus x6.

You'll Be Stung

By Matt.

sung to the tune of' She's the One' by Robbie Williams.

Chorus

Kong Kong steers,

Por Por yells,

Emma cries,

Jordan smells.

1. If you go swimming, out in the sun.

You'll be stung, you'll be stung.

If you go swimming, sting suit or none.

You'll be stung.

2. Carina cuts up a ripe pineapple.

Matt complains about the temperature.

It's BOILING!

Ping & Wayne lounge in the forecabin.

G laments the bites upon her skin.

Mark reads a book that sounds

BORING!!

10 People on a Boat

by Ping & Wayne.

10 people on a boat.

It's hard to stay afloat

Going nowhere fast

But it's such a blast.

10 people on a boat.

I think that's a great quote.

Someone spiked my 100 Plus.

Now I think the boat's a bus.

I'm getting really high.

Maybe the boat will touch the sky.

10 people on a boat.

Let's learn this song by rote.

Why should we stop here.

Only 10 is just not fair.

let's each invite a friend.

drive Ma and Pa round the bend.

20 people on a boat.

Oh no, it's not afloat.

Water's coming in.

Maybe we can't win.

We're gonna sink for sure.

Let's chuck our friends over board.

10 people on a boat.

10 people

10 people

Te-en people

on a boat

And it's name is Pewter.

Kinabatangan River, Sabah – December 2009

The Rhinoceros Hornbill

The Buffy Fish Owl

The Greater Egret

Ping, Wayne, and Leo’s nephew, Jeremy, joined us to sail north from Kota Kinabalu, over the top end of Sabah to the mouth of the Kinabatangan River. Which is just south of Sandakan.

It was a slow sail north, close haul, (winds from the front of the boat) all the way to the top end of Sabah. Battling with winds that were 20+ knots, Wayne was horizontal most days, only reviving when we anchored each night. Although, some of the anchorages were only slightly better than when we were sailing.

We all breathed a sigh of relief once we rounded the top end of Sabah, a lovely beam reach to Sandakan. We motored to the north entrance of the Kinabantangan River, and touched the bottom several times as the depth was never more than 1.5 to 1.8 meters. Normally, we need over 1.8m to clear the bottom, but the soft mud was a blessing, and allowed us to carry on even in depths of only 1.5 m, and occasionally 1.3m. That’s when we would touch the bottom, though just momentarily.

It was awesome entering the massive Kinabantangan River, the river was calm and glassy, and even Wayne could read while we motored upriver. The trees by the banks were full of wild life. Egrets, hornbills, orangutans, proboscis monkeys, eagles, kingfishers, owls……. The antics of the proboscis monkeys were very entertaining. One evening we anchored just beneath a tree with a large family of proboscis monkeys. It was fun watching them play, eat and sleep. Waking up in the morning gave us another exciting view of the monkeys, as they too wake up with the sunrise.

Proboscis Monkeys leaping

One night a local guide took us up the river and we saw sleeping kingfishers, owls, crocodiles and some small mouse deer. The highlight was the sleeping kingfishers. Even with the torches shining at them, they didn’t move and we could get really close to them. In fact, we’d get as close as the next branch over, being only a metre or two away from the sleeping birds.

Sleeping Stork-billed Kingfishers

Ping, Wayne and Jeremy left us from the little village along the Kinatangan by road, and traveled overland back to Sandakan. Leo and I motored down the river and then sailed up the coast. Farewell to a lovely calm interlude where we could see monkeys and birds roam freely, which may not last for long, as the oil palm estates are encroaching on their territory.

The photographs were taken by Jeremy.

Captions for the photos

Sorry, i missed getting the captions for each of the photos before posting them.

1. Pewter on the move. Taken by a fellow yachtie just at the start of the race. Almost becalmed.

2. The rest of the fleet, waiting for the wind to pick up, just after crossing the starting line.

3. The coil of fishing net that was caught in our propeller.

Borneo Yacht Race

The Borneo Sailing Regetta is an annual event and we decided to take part this year as we're in Borneo. This is our first yacht race.

The race started in Miri, Sarawak , sail to Labuan and then to Kota Kinabalu, a week of fun for most of us in cruising yachts. There were only 5 serious racers, one sailed all the way from Manila to take part. The rest of the fleet composed of cruising yachts. There were 25 cruisers ( monohulls and multihulls ).

We're placed in the Cruising Class B. Class A was for the more serious, lighter weight cruisers. Class C for the truly heavy boats, then a multihull class. Each class had about 6 -7 boats.

We started from Miri on the 11 October. Weather forecast given to us before the start was for SW winds, 10 -15 knots ( 1 knot is 1 nautical mile / hour ) By the time our turn came to cross the start line, just outside Miri Marina, the wind died! Most of the boats barely manage to cross the starting line. 15 minutes after the start, cruising boats were allowed to start their engines and all the boats with huge engines took off. They dissappeared into the horizon. There were less than 10 boats that struggled to sail in 5 knots of wind. We took 5 hours to sail 10 miles and we did motor 2 of those hours. We had some problems with our engine and it was heating up and did not want to risk damaging the motor which could happen if we motored for too long and too fast. We had to cover 105 nautical miles ( nm) in less than 26 hours to reach the finish line in Labuan. This meant that we had to average 4+ knots to get to the finish line. There was hardly any wind for the first 8 hours and when the winds did come, it was blowing from the front of the boat, a NE instead of the forecasted SW. So much for the weather forecast. We had to tack all the way to Labuan. Tacking meant that we could only sail at an angle to the wind and was therefore unable to lay the required course. It also meant that we had to sail more miles to reach our destination. We sailed over 150 nm and took 35 hours!. We're the last boat into Labuan
and of course we failed to make the finish line on time and was disqualified. One of the boat motored 19 out of the allowed 26 hours in order to cross the line in time. With that amount of motoring, one could hardly call this race a sailing regetta! Had they allowed a more realised time to complete the race we would have been 3rd at least as we only motored less than 5 hours. More than 50 % of the boats failed to complete the race. In both the multihulls and Cruising Class C, only 1 boat in each class completed the race. In our class only 3 out of 7 crossed the finish line. Even in the racing class, only 50 % completed their race. The organisers should have had taken into consideration that most boats are unable to averge 4+ knots especially if there was no winds or that the winds were from the front of the boat.

The next leg started the following day, a 65 nm sail to KK . We had to complete the race in less than 24 hours, a more realised time frame. In this leg, all the boats finished. Again it was no wind start, all the boats milling around the start line for the first hour. When the winds came, it was a strong NW 10 -15 knots. Beautiful sailing breeze, all the boats on their favourite tack ( a beam reach ), with the wind from the side of the boat. We covered 40 nm in less than 9 hours.

10 miles from the finish line, we has a nasty encounter with a fishing net. At midnight we sailed through a fishing net laid of the surface. the net was caught on our propeller and rudder. Sheared off our depth sounder as well. Had to wait for the fishermen to come to cut the net. They were most reluctant to cut the net as they were afraid of their boss. After almost 3 hours of trying to free the net, they finally decided that the net had to be cut and they asked us to pay for the net. They wanted 500RM. In the end we managed to reduce the amount to 100 RM. It was hard to argue with 3 young fishermen waving their parangs around in our cockpit. After they cut the net ,we sailed off with a piece trailing from the stern. With no engine and no speed, we could not raise the main sail. We used only the jib and crossed the finish line just before dawn. Last in again, the rest had crossed the finish line by 2 am.

Again because we only motored less than 4 hours we managed to come 2nd in our division. The rules said that any boat that motored more than 20 % could not beat a boat that motored less.

There were 2 very exciting harbour races round buoys the following day. Quite scary when all the boats are milling around the start line. Each category started at 5 minutes intervals so at the start line one had to dodge the slower boats that started before the next group. One of the multihulls lost control of the jib rope at the start line and started to drift backwards. Our class that were starting 5 minutes later were all crossing the start line when she drifted towards us. She hit the committee boat. Thank goodness, we're lucky to be at the other end of the committee boat. After we're rounding one of the marker buoy, a boat was heading towards us. She was to give way but she was not going to do so. In the end we had to bear away and had to make an emergency gibed to get away from her. Didn't think I wanted to damage our boat. The race official told that skipper off after the race when Leo complained. Gosh there was lots of adrenaline flowing in out bodies. It was extremely exciting and nerve racking as well. It was a good finish to a good regetta. We managed to take the 3rd spot in the harbour races as well despite crossing the line last again..

The organising committee truly put on a fantastic regetta. We had 4 night free accommodation in 5 stars hotels, 7 nights free marina berths, lots of dinners and teas, a trip to a longhouse. The main prize for us yachties was the 1000 RM ' participant ' reward. All the boats received that. Some of the boats that did not participate in the harbour races were only given 500RM. They were not too please but they had to realise that they could not receive the money if they did not participate in all the events. Last year the committee foolishly handled the money out before the race and 2 yachts took the money and disappeared. That's in not in the spirit of participation.

Borneo Yacht Race