Once again using our Lonely Planet Guide and tourist map from and advice from the resort staff we headed off in search of the islands highlights. Our first stop was to the underground fresh water cave at Kere. It was a pretty little cave with good stalactites and stalagmite formations. We saw evidence on the ground of one of the local cuisine delicacies escargot. The shells were quite large 5-6cms long, so you could see how a dozen of them would make a good meal! Unfortunately I haven’t tasted them yet as they are rather expensive item on the menu and I have no idea how to cook them myself. After a short stop at the cave we headed north past the airport to the top of the island and the bay called Gadji, after a quick look at the beach and anchorage here we headed south down the east side of the island to the legendary cave of the tribal Queen Hortense. You pay a small fee to see this cave but it has pretty garden like pathway leading up to the cave entrance showcasing native plants and ferns. The legend states that tribal Queen Hortense used this cave as a refuge place. You can see the platform where she would have rested/slept. By this stage of the day we were getting pretty hungry so we headed out to Oro Bay where the Meridien Resort is situated in this idyllic forest setting, sand beach and views out into the bay where you can see large stands of the tall and slim columnar trees known as Pin Pines that the Island gets its name from.  

We had a very pleasant and quite economic lunch here in this stunning location. Also enjoying lunch on the deck was the crew from Kiwi Coyote that we had meet the day before. We invited them to come to our boat for sunset drinks at the end of their day tour. After lunch we did the walk out to the popular location known as the natural swimming pool. It is really just a large reef rock pool with clean turquoise coloured water and a few tropical fish swimming in it. I enjoyed a snorkel and explore while Matt had a afternoon siesta. We returned to the car via the estuary river track and ocean side of the island and then continued our travels South to the main village town of Vao. I was hoping to pick up a few groceries from the store here to top up our supplies and by using some of my very little French with a group of local ladies in the village got directions to a little store to get some goodies. It was then time to complete our circuit tour of the island, return the rental car and get organised for sunset drinks with the Kiwi Coyote crew onboard our yacht. It was very pleasant and enjoyable day tour and made a change from the beach and water scenery.   

As the weather was still too windy to head back comfortably towards Noumea and the inner lagoon we did a day trip out to the next little island beyond Isle de Pins to Brossie Island. We anchored in behind the reef for the island at   GPS: 22 42.286 S 167 27.379 E. We were the only yacht here and so after lunch I had a snorkel on the reef. The construction of this reef was quite unusual in that it had lots of tunnels and channels you could swim through and into with good sized fish to view in the crevices. Whilst I was swimming Matt did some work replacing the fuel lift pump and raw water pumps  (from spares) that had been annoying him for some time with small leaks into the bilge (he hates having in engine room dirty!) At sunset we enjoyed a lovely sunset stroll down the white sands beach of this little atoll that we had all to ourselves – gave you quite a romantic tropical island paradise feeling J

The next day we headed back into the shelter of Kuto Bay at Isle de Pines again as the wind was gusting up to 25 knots again – making the coral atoll anchorage bumpy and uncomfortable. The next day the wind had settled down again and was at last blowing in the right direction to give us a nice sailing angle to head back into the inner lagoon and to explore some other coral atolls and islands. We left mid-morning and made a run down to Ndo Island. This was another isolated but pretty looking coral atoll with nice white sands and a enclosed anchorage space inside its coral reef. The recommended anchoring space from the cruising guide was very narrow with not a lot of room. After putting the anchor down we were not happy with how close to the reef we were so decided to pull it up and try to reposition ourselves. Just as we got the anchor off the bottom our electric anchor winch failed with still 15 odd metres of chain over the side. It was quite breezy at this anchorage and Matt had to pull the remaining chain and anchor in by hand while I slowly motored around in the narrow reef gap. Bugger! We had thought we were looking forward to a night in this pretty location but without an anchor (we can anchor manually, but it is slow and phisically difficult - not safe in this confined anchorage) we could not stay, so instead headed back further into the lagoon to Maitre Island (with moorings)where we had been on our way out to Isle de Pines. We had a good sail back to Maitre with the wind from almost directly behind us. Matt even got our large spinnaker sail out which hasn’t been used in ages and enjoyed the run back to Maitre getting up to 10-11 knots of boat speed at times - very good speed for us without surfing. We arrived at Maitre Island just as the last of the daylight was disappearing (just as well it was a fast sail!) and picked up the mooring bouy in the last of the fading light.

9^th October 2012

GPS Mooring Position: 22.20.100 S:166.24.300 E

Back into the inner lagoon to Maitre Island which is a small but very popular resort island and anchorage with about 15 free moorings you can use,  and which is close by to Noumea - only 3 nautical miles away. We planned to just stop here overnight as a sheltered stop off point before heading down the main channel around the Southern Lagoon area that is known as the “woodin canal” before making a trip out to the famous outer Island of Isle de Pins.

6-8^th October 2012

GPS Anchor Position:

Leaving the marina at lunchtime it was a quick 1 ½ hour downwind sail to Signal Island 12 nautical miles away. Signal Island gets its name from the large white coral block constructed marker (see pic) that was erected on this island in the early 19^th Century. It was used to mark the break in the outer lagoon reef beyond this island that was the closet exit for the sailing convict ships heading back to France from New Caledonia.

The island is now a nature reserve and so the next day I went for a little snorkel on the reef to see the underwater scenery. Although the water wasn’t particular clear it was pleasing to see some really good sized reef fish, and live coral. It has been our experience that where countries have developed restricted fishing zones and conservation practices that the size and quantity of fish rapidly increases and the reef recovers from being overfished and damaged as a result. J The water temperature here near the outer reef was only 21.5 °C. I was quite chilled by the time I got back from my exploration having been used to sea temperatures of between 27-34°C the last couple of years, so I had to have a hot water shower to warm up afterwards. 

Later in the afternoon we went for a circuit walk around the island observing the remains of an early limestone making plant, sea snakes basking themselves and laying their eggs in the warm sand, also a large bird of prey nest that was constructed in the branches of driftwood on the beach. (see pic) 

The next day Matt and I both went for a snorkel – but this time we dug out our 3 and 5mm wetsuits to keep warm. As it was Sunday all the local boaties and campers who had come out on the ferry went home in the late afternoon and we had the whole island to ourselves. So we enjoyed a sunset walk around the island with the wildlife even more active now that most of the humans had disappeared before going back to the yacht for dinner.

2-6^th October 2012            Marina GPS Position:                                                        VHF Channel 67

We shifted into the Port Moselle Marina Visitors Berth located right in the centre of the main city of Noumea, as it is requirement to do this in order to complete the necessary immigration and customs clearances. Once these requirements were finalised we were free to leave the boat.  It was the first time on our travels to date that our remaining fresh fruit and vegetables were removed by the authorities from the boat to meet their quarantine requirements (very similar to what happens when you enter NZ and Australia).  They have a minimum 3 day stay policy for the marina so we restocked our fruit and vegetables at the market, did a historic building walking tour around the town and walked out to the Boat Chandlery Store on the other side of the harbour. This is the first time we have seen a properly stocked Chandlery service since leaving Thailand at the beginning of this year. It was good to be able to purchase a few bits and pieces of equipment that have been on our replacement/fix it list J.

New Caledonia boasts they have the largest coral lagoon and island reef system in the world. It was accorded UNESCO World Heritage status in 2008. So after having stayed the required 3 day stay in the marina we headed out to explore some of this lagoon, coral atolls and islands within it.

29^th September -1^st October 2012

After filling up with duty free fuel at the Port Vila fuel wharf and topping up our water tanks we exited the harbour at around 10.30am. It was a nice clear day with an easy 10-15 knot sailing breeze from abeam. The lovely sailing conditions lasted through the night and throughout the next day, dying off to seven knots as we approached the main reef and channel entrance for New Caledonia on Monday 1^st October.

It was a pleasure to finally have an ocean passage where there is actually some wind, and it is going is going the right direction!  After spending the majority of the last two years around the equator region where there is little wind, and the last couple of months trying to head South against the prevailing trade winds it was a pleasure to have 2 whole days of pleasant sailing conditions.  However as we drop another few degrees South in latitude, and with more of a wind chill factor in place we have both had to dig out our polar fleece sweatshirts and shoes and socks to wear in the evenings and early morning sailing watches. This clothing has not seen the light of day in the last 2.5 years and I must say it feels quite odd having your feet back in enclosed shoes again. I guess it will help us to acclimatise to the New Zealand summer temperatures!  We have also noted that with increasingly clearer blue skies over our heads we are more easily sunburnt, so are having to slap the sunscreen on a bit more again as well.

Shortly after entering the main reef and protected lagoon of New Caledonia our starboard sheet winch which holds our headsail up stopped working. Matt pulled it to bits and serviced it - a good clean and some new grease - all working again. However with the dying winds and tidal current coming out of the Lagoon we had to switch the motor back on again to keep up our forward momentum so we could get into the main port - Noumea = around the West side of the island before dark. We reached the protected harbour and capital city of Noumea around 4.30pm. We have noticed in our travels that the French people are keen Sailors. Here in Noumea there are great number of vessels of all descriptions either in the harbour at anchor, in the marinas or tied up on permanent moorings. It was too late in the day to contact the Immigrations and Customs officials, so we just set the anchor outside the central town marina of Port Moselle. Then it was an early dinner and off to bed to catch up on some of the sleep that you miss out on when doing ocean passages and maintaining a 24 hour watch system.

20 September 2012

GPS Anchor Position: 17.44.870 S : 168. 18.625 E

On our way down to Port Vila we stopped at Paul’s Rock  (GPS: 17.39.874 S:168.10.848 E), a local dive spot in very clear water with great visibility and a pretty array of coral and fish life. It was well worth the stop.

Here in Port Vila we are restocking and refuelling before our trip across to New Caledonia. The town has a number of high rise buildings now compared to our previous visit in 2003, but in many aspects still the same.

Whilst we were here Matt arranged to have two new Hydraulic Hoses made up for the Auto Pilot steering system,as he had recently noticed the old ones were perished. He also replaced our boarding platform shower hose that had sprung a leak, along with a number of other checks - normal boat maintenance.

Whilst here in Vila we enjoyed a day trip up to the Summit Gardens, a recently opened tourist attraction, claiming to have the largest tropical garden in the Southern Hemisphere. It was initially established as a Sandalwood Plantation but their love of gardening saw the place grow into a beautiful landscaped garden on the hilltop with stunning views out over Vila. We were lucky to finish the tour just as the rain set in for the afternoon, and after a leisurely and beautifully presented lunch at the garden cafe we caught a ride back down to town with another yachty couple that we had meet on the garden tour. The trip back down the steep driveway from the gardens in the drivers beaten up old van was a bit of a hair raising adventure ride in its own right! The driver barrelled down the road, brakes skidding only one or two wheels, around sharp corners with large drops, and with brakes fading out as we neared the bottom! We were pleased to get down in one piece!

Then, on return to Island Time in the harbour, we had one of those ‘it’s a small world incidences’- we were approached by an English yachty couple who now reside in New Zealand, but were on a yacht moored nearby . They asked us do you have a daughter in Wellington?”  We replied “ yes - we have two”. They then asked “is one of them interested in Parrots?” “Yes our eldest – Sue” we said. As it turned out their daughter who is studying at Victoria University, in Wellington also has a parrot, and our Sue had recently looked after it whilst their daughter had a holiday with them on their  yacht.

Anyway after nine days in Port Vila a suitable weather window opened up to start the passage across to New Caledonia. There were about six international yachts who had all been waiting in Vila for the weather, and so we all ended up leaving as a group on the same day. It is always quite nice on an open ocean passage to know other yachts are nearby for assistance if need be.

19^th September 2012

GPS Anchor Position: 17.33.015 S : 168.17.020 E

We had a great day sail of around 50 nautical miles down to the top of Efate Island in 8-10 knots of wind from abeam. This meant it was actually ad day where we could sail, it was a pleasure to have our Genaker (a type of spinaker) up. Havannah harbour is an excellent, sheltered natural harbour with a variety of bays to choose from to anchor in. We arrived in good time so had a quick swim, the late afternoon brought the ominous sounds of a thunderstorm but it didn’t eventuate to anything much.

18^th September 2012

GPS Anchor Position:

16.43.710 S : 168.08.657 E

It was another short hop down the island to this bay for the night. On the way Matt spotted a small pod of 3 humpback whales playing in the water, and so we followed them along the coastline for some way. They didn’t seem at all bothered by our presence and it was special to see their antics on display as they were breeching. We think 2 females, and one calf. Unfortunely with only a half knackered cellphone camera working at the moment, no good pics!

16 & 17th^th September 2012

GPS 16.35.797 S : 168.09.805 E

This was a busy anchorage with around 9 boats at anchor. We headed ashore for a stroll along the beach and village area. Stopped for a drink at Paradise Lodge, and caught up with various other cruisers and fishermen. The Sailing Ship Soren Larson was here also en route to Port Villa. The weather forecast was not suitable for moving on for a day or two so we were laid up here waiting for a weather change. I hoped to catch sight of the Dugong that resides in this bay but was not lucky enough to do so, although Matt thought he heard it surface nearby. Lots of turtles around though, and I love watching them gracefully glide through the water.

15^th September 2012

GPS Anchor Position: 16.15.144 S : 167.55.220 E

We head further along the coastline of Ambryn Island to Buwoma Bay which has hot springs oozing out of the cliffs below the volcano. I enjoyed an exploratory swim along the coastline with the warm water bathing over me. The black volcanic sand bottom made the rocks and coral very clear to see. Unfortunately the wind began to swing around bringing in waves and surf to the bay making it unsuitable for an overnight anchorage, so we continued on around the corner to Craigs Cove which was a much calmer and better anchorage. We had a quick visit ashore to stretch our legs and obtain permission to snorkel. The water here is very clear and I saw numerous turtles and spectacular 1.5 metre lump head parrot fish gracefully swimming around the bay.

 14th September 2012

GPS Anchor Position: 16.08.38 S : 168.07.08

We enjoyed a 20 nautical mile passage across to Ambryn Island which has a large active volcano. It is also known as one of the best places to buy carvings from and Rikki and Bruce from See Going want to purchase some mementos. We are escorted through the village and shown 3 different carvers wares from which See Going make a purchase from. We also arrange for some fresh vegetable and fruit supplies which are delivered to us later in the afternoon. Matt and Bruce do some work on our radar which has developed yet another problem, while Rikki and I enjoy a game of cards.

GPS Anchor Position:15.47.200 S: 168.09.700 E

13^th September 2012

It was a pleasant short 16 nautical mile hop down the coast to this bay, where a picturesque waterfall can be seen pouring down the hillside just behind the bay. It was an easy 10 minute walk up to the waterfall and the water was a crystal clear aquamarine colour in the pools in which you could see the fish swimming around in. It was pleasant to escape the middle of the day heat with a cooling swim in the pools.

9-13^th September 2012

GPS Anchor Position: 15.33.210 South: 168.08.301 East

It was a short trip across the gap from the bottom of Maewo to Pentecost Island. The forecast is not good for travelling on for a few days and this is one of the most sheltered anchorages around. We make ourselves known ashore and are greeted by the chief who gives us a 2 hour guided tour of the bay. We were warmly welcomed by all those that we meet. We make arrangements to have a meal in the yacht club restaurant that another yacht (Bubas from Ausy)who was leaving the bay when we arrived recommended to us.

We spent our days here waiting for a better weather window. We offered the fix-it skills of both Bruce from Sea Going and Matt to the two volunteer Australian teachers at the Mission school to fix up the plumbing problems. They spent a couple of days following the waterpipe up the hill but it was a job beyond repair, really requiring the replacement of the entire water pipe to the village, as it was broken in over 20 places, and what wasn't was full of scale. The pipes used to go over 5 km's into the bush, up a steep hill.

Rikki taught me a new game of cards and we enjoyed a number of shared meals together. We also swapped movies between each other to enhance our collection.

8^th September 2012

GPS Anchor Position:

15.22.490 S:168.07.900 E

It was a short 2.5 hour trip across to this anchorage at the bottom of Maewo Island that is highly recommended in the cruising guide. We were welcomed by the village representative Erica who showed us the yacht club and where her restaurant and shop was, and told us about the tours available. We decided to do the waterfall trip in the afternoon after we had had some lunch. The village was very pretty and organised with planted gardens and hedging along the pathway. It was a pleasant trek up the hillside to the waterfall were we enjoyed a refreshing fresh water swim followed by some fresh coconut, with a bamboo drinking straw, and papaya that was provided by Erica.

6^th & 7^th September 2012

GPS Anchor Position:

15.16.880 E: 167.58.880 S

Our 7 hour trip across to the anchorage at the top of Ambae Island was a real mix of conditions. We had winds gusting up to 30 knots and swinging right around the compass, and also a period of flat calm.

Lolowai anchorage is inside an old sunken volcano crater which you carefully enter by passing over the shallow rim on the seaward side. Also at anchor was another NZ yacht called ‘Sea Going’ from Tutukaka.

I went for a snorkel the next day whilst Matt looked at and cleaned out the engine bay, and did a repair job on our automatic steering system. We were invited for drinks on See Going with Rikki and Bruce and discovered we were heading in same direction the next few days so moved on in convoy with them.

5^th- 6th September 2012

GPS Anchor Position: 15.27.499 S : 167.13.189 E

It was a quick trip around the bottom of Luganville to this bay at the bottom of Espiritu Santo where we planned to wait for the wind to drop off and move around to a more suitable direction for our hop across to the island of Ambae.  It was a pretty little bay with what looked like a rather fancy and exclusive resort. I was quite looking forward to a day or so of exploration of another Blue Hole in this bay and remains of WWII remains in the bush. However that next morning’s forecast showed that we would get the best wind conditions that day for the jump across to Ambae Island. As we don’t want to wait another week for suitable conditions, it was time to move on.

8-20^th August 2012

Upon finalising our immigration clearance in Honiara we made the 50 nautical mile trip to the island of Rua Sura (Anchor GPS: 09.29.994S:160.36.072E). One other yacht was anchored here - it was a peaceful and pretty anchorage. The next day we did another 50 nautical mile trip to the bottom of Guadalcanal Island, with a stop late afternoon for a snorkel on the reef at the bottom before moving in towards the main part of the coast and Marua Sound, which is a jumbled system of reefs and islands. We stayed at Marapa Island (09.49.520S:160.51.951E) We were visited by a local man in his canoe who worked at a nearby resort who advised us not to go onto the rocks at the end of the bay we were anchored in as it was a sacred area. The next morning we headed out through a narrow passage - it took us between various islands at the end of Guadalcanal before heading out into the open ocean again and a passage of nearly 60 nautical miles to the small island of Masi on the eastern side of San Cristobel Island (GPS 10.17.036S:161.43.297E). On the 11^th August we started our 240 nautical mile passage across to the Santa Cruz group of islands. We motor sailed almost the entire distance, as the wind was light, then right on the nose. Just before our arrival at Santa Cruz the radar once again was playing up fading in and out and being unreliable. We ended up spending 3 days anchored here (GPS 10.42. 940S:165.49.902E), waiting for better weather and doing boat maintenance. Matt spent some time trying to resolve the radar issue, changed the oil in saildrive unit and we both spent a bit of time reading. Our next jump was a 270 nautical mile trip to Espirito Santo, when the wind turned towards east from SSE. This made the passage sailable, (on one tack) and therfore easier. The passage turned out to be quite rough, 2-3m steep seas, but quite sailable and relatively fast.

Due to the uncomfortable conditions at around 7pm we ended stopping at Hiu Island in the Torres group of Islands in Vanuatu at Central Bay (GPS 13.06.650S:166.33.153E), thinking that we would stop for a nights rest. We had dinner and then after getting the latest forecast decided it would be unwise to stay here as the forecast was for deteriorating conditions that would see us stuck in this less than ideal anchorage for several days. We made the decision to continue on towards Luganville.



20-26^th August 2012

We were last in Luganville in 2003 when we were here with our children on our pacific island cruise. The town has developed quite a lot in that time and is considerably busier with a lot more vehicles on the road. It is still essentially a one road with an assortment of general merchandise stores, liquor outlets, banks, petrol stations and a few cafes, along with a fresh fruit and vege market. On arrival, after customs clearance, we took a mooring off Aore Island Resort (which is across the channel on the island opposite Luganville town, GPS: 15.32.302S:167.10.711E). We enjoyed a very tasty meal there our first night, with Matt making the comment that the steak was the best one he has had since leaving New Zealand. Luganville is located on the island of Espirtu Santo and is reknown for the quality of the local beef. We moored here for 3 nights but found it expensive with the mooring charge of $1500 vatu a night (approx. $18 NZ), and the cost of dingy fuel to go across the channel to the township. We decided to check out the other anchorage at the western end of the town, offshore from the Beach Front Resort (GPS: 15.31.388S.167.09.848E). Although not as sheltered, is it much more accessible to town by walking or a $200 vatu taxi ride. The resort staff are much more yachtie friendly, and laundry charges were ½ the price of Aore Resort.

 Whilst in Luganville we restocked with supplies, and Matt fixed the Volvo Engine fresh water pump that we replaced in May, and which has leaked slightly since then - it was slowly getting worse. Matt was not at all impressed with this Volvo part which was very expensive to replace at $1600 and been leaking through a factory assembled gasket since then. He discovered there was grit/foreign object contamination in the original gasket seal that has been causing the problem. He also did an oil change, replaced the lifting hinge on our front bunk that had rusted out, and replaced our front hatch seal that has been leaking, and now that we are doing more sailing passages to weather and getting a lot more water over the deck our bed has been getting quite wet.  Finally Matt also identified the current problem with the radar – the quatech RS422 covnverter that allows PC connection had an intermittent fault. We’ve ordered a new one – from the USA  via fedex much cheaper than a new radar, so that is good!

It has been quite breezy and overcast whilst we have been here with much lower humidity. Daytime temps around 27-29 degrees which we are finding much more comfortable. The water temperature is down to 28.5 degrees, and feels positively cool compared to the 32 degrees we have become accustomed to throughout South East Asia. We tried out the various cafes and eateries and enjoyed watching the second Bledisloe Rugby game against Australia at the Aqua Bar the night before we head up the coast of Espirtu Santo to check out some other bays and anchorages, reefs, WWII dive wrecks and to do the stunning Blue Hole river excursions.

   27 -28^th August 2012

   GPS Anchor Position:

   15.08.648S:167.06.974E

It was an easy 35 nautical mile sail just using the headsail up the coast from Luganville, although the sea state was a bit confused after several quite windy days of late. It made a nice change to have the wind behind us after the last few sailing trips where we have been heading into the trade winds. It was overcast and showery part of the way and it felt quite cool sitting out in the cockpit. I even took a polar fleece blanket to put over the top of me! We arrived at the Champagne Beach anchorage just before lunch, and you could clearly see why it has the reputation as one of the most special beaches in Vanuatu. Cruise ships make a special stop here as part of their Vanuatu tour. It has a lovely curved white sand beach, with clean and clear aquamarine sea, and bush down to the beach. We anchored in the small bay next to Champagne beach as this was less affected by the rolling swell. Another 3 yachts came in that afternoon/evening. The next morning was not really beach weather with showers of rain coming through but it cleared up late morning and we headed ashore to walk on the beach and investigate the coral/fish life on the nearby reef. A family from another yacht had already set up their picnic beach spot and advised us the custom landownership fee was 500 vatu per person. We swaped yachtie stories with this family from Hobart, Australia and then continued on our walk down the stunning beach meeting another tourist from Holland who was quite badly sunburnt and hiding in the shade of the trees reading a good book. Matt and I both commented how nice it was to virtually have this popular beach virtually to ourselves. If this beach was in the Northern Hemisphere it would be covered in beachgoers, littered with beach loungers and umbrellas, restaurants and accommodation.

The reef was quite pretty, good clear water and we even spotted a couple of small white-tipped reef sharks. We returned to Island Time for lunch and were visited by a canoe load of local children who wanted to know what fresh fruit supplies we wanted. I sent them off to get us some banana’s then headed across to the yacht we had met on the beach and gave them some information about sailing in Indonesia that they were interested in. The village children had then returned with some bananas so we gave them a tour of Island Time and exchanged some goods for the fruit, before they headed off to see what they could offer to the other yachts.

30-31^st August 2010  Anchor GPS 15.02.132S:167.04.999E

Port Orly is a pretty and sheltered little anchorage with a nice little village on the main island of Espirtu Santo and a group of small outlying islands - one of which we anchored in front of has two fresh water lakes in the middle of it. We went ashore and enjoyed a fresh water swim in one of the lakes after getting a local to show us the way - a short walk through the bush and old farmland from the days when this Island was used as a cattle farm. The lake was below a cutting of limestone cliffs and surrounded by bush. We had the whole place to ourselves as no-one lives on the island anymore, it was very peaceful with only the sound of the birds and wind rustling in the treetops.

The next day we went across to the main village which is predominately French speaking with the remains of an old missionary. We met a family strolling along the beach who came from Wellington. They were up here visiting their eldest son who is doing a 10 months VSA stint up here. We shared a drink at a newish local beach restaurant and then were joined by a well-known carver who was up here doing some work for the restaurant and the new beach bungalows they were building. He told us about the local legend of the islands here and then showed us where the village shop was. He also showed us some large Coconut crabs they have secured. I had heard stories about the enormous coconut crab that can open a coconut with its claws. Sadly they are now rare creatures as they are slow breeding and been over-exploited for eating.

30^th August – 3^rd September 2012

GPS Anchor Position:

15.22.458 S:167.11.424E

It was a short 20 nautical mile sail down the coastline to the cyclone proof anchorage of Oyster Island. We visited and enjoyed this location when we were here 10 years ago. After anchoring we went for a short ride up the nearby creek to see if the old WWII water acetifier was still operational. The concrete has disintegrated away some more, and now there is a newish petrol generator and pump with plastic hoses leading away. It is obvious it is now used as a backup water supply for some nearby farm or village perhaps. The bush beside the river is not so dense with much of the land now used for beef cattle farming.

After our dingy tour we went ashore to the resort on Oyster Island for drinks and a meal. We met a group of long term American Cruisers (3 couples), and shared experiences and stories and they are keen to access some of our information about Sailing in Indonesia and particularly the spectacular area of Raja Ampat we were so taken with for snorkelling and diving.  The next day was overcast and showery to begin with, we decided to do the 1.5 km dingy trip up the Nalaiafu River to the famous ‘Blue Hole’ spring which is at the top of the river and which we had enjoyed on our last visit here. You wind up the river with rainforest jungle down to the edges and large vines dangling from the trees that make for good swings over the water. The water is crystal clear with a blue cast to it from the dissolved calcium carbonate which makes it look like a giant freshwater aquarium.

1.8.2012

Following the recommendation of several yachties we had a fun and adventurous day trip doing the Millennium Cave tour, a tourist attraction that wasn’t available here 10 years ago. It was a full day of adventuring – starting off at 8am when we were collected by the driver in his Toyota Ute. Our seating was sitting in the tray of the ute on a cane sofa chair with no cushions! We sped along the road and had to put on our raincoats when it started to rain. As we raced past the countryside it was interesting to see the number of cattle farms on the old coconut plantations which are now predominately run by ex-pat Kiwis and Ozzies. After we left the main road we headed inland to the interior rainforest along a wet and slushy 4WD off road track, passing numerous traditional style villages with their naturally constructed bungalows and subsistence living off the land lifestyle.

The wet and slushy tracks continued after we reached the road end, but now we had to negotiate them by slipping and sliding through them on foot. Our guides were very helpful and grabbed you if it looked like you were about to fall. We were with a group of 5 yachties so we all had stories to share along the way to pass the time. The guides stopped at various places to give us samples of local bush tucker or tell us the various medicinal purposes of the plants for their custom healing. They told about plants that could cure HIV and Cancer!  We did discuss whether we should patent their ideas and tell the drug companies of these wonderful natural drugs the claimed to have!

After 1.5 hours on the bush tracks we got to the main cave. We were ceremoniously face painted with the local mud to appease the cave gods. It was a stunning climb down rope and bamboo ladders over moss strewn boulders to the entrance of the cave. The walk through the cave was in waist high water at times, with many bats, swallows and other insects and limestone formations flowing down the wall. After an hour’s walk/wade through the cave we emerged back into day light at the other end of the cave tunnel for a break for lunch on the edge of the river, with waterfalls cascading around us, and stunning verdant green bush and birdlife surrounding us.

 After lunch it was time for the canyoning part of the trip. This part was through a narrow river gorge where you swam various sections, climbed over house sized rocks at other times, in order to get to the next swimmable section. It was all very natural and primitive with just ropes or chains in the more tricky part to help you clamber over the rocks. The scenery through the gorge was stunning – it felt like you were in an Indiana Jones type movie setting! After about 1.5 hours in the gorge we had to climb back up to the muddy trail via bamboo ladders, and climbing up the rocks of a small waterfall. It was then another hour of trekking back through the slippery mud tracks to a local village to clean off some of the mud before we were taking back to town and out to Oyster Island where our yachts were all moored for a well deserved hot shower, a drink or two and a meal before collapsing into bed exhausted. It was a memorable and fun day.

2 September 2012

We had a well deserved line-in the next morning with our calf muscles feeling rather tight after the exertions of the Millennium Cave tour the day before. We headed ashore to get some washing done at Oyster Island resort and to use their internet connection to catch up on our mail. They were hosting a Father’s Day Buffet meal at lunchtime so I took the last two places and we joined a group of eight yachties who were also celebrating. Matt enjoyed his Fathers Day treat with plenty of steak and wine. After lunch while Matt had a snooze I went for a snorkel on the reef behind the resort to find the WWII Cosair Plane wreck that was located just off the beach. I found various parts of the plane scattered along the reef which are now well encrusted with coral, then I walked back across the island for a quiet evening of movies and a light meal.

3-5 September 2012

GPS Anchor Position:

 15.31.388 S : 167.09.848 E

We head back into Luganville today after a week out cruising the bays around Espiritu Santo. We enjoyed our time out and caught up with a variety of yachties who have been doing the pacific season. Matt picked up the parcel with the replacement part to fix the intermittent problem with the radar we have had over the last couple of months and is very happy to have his radar working properly again. I had a visit to a Doctor to check out the little toenail I damaged on the Millennium Cave Walk , and we are busy refuelling, watering and obtaining fresh supplies before making our way down the various other islands to the main town/port of Villa over the next couple of weeks.

  1-8 August 2012

We enjoyed our time in Honiara with the closest thing to a supermarket that we have seen in months, it has also been an opportunity for us to see some of the Olympics on the TV at the yacht club. We meet up with a group from the Island Cruising Association on our arrival and went on a tour of Honiara with them. We enjoyed their company and sharing some meals whilst here. Matt purchased a replacement Navigation computer here, as he has been having on-going issues with trying to keep our system going using the parts of about 3 different old ones over the last few months, and this simply hasn’t been reliable enough. We also did a trip out to a war relics site one day that was quite interesting.

      28 – 30 July 2012

The trip down to the Russell Island group is just over 50 nautical miles away, but as we will be heading directly into the wind again our passage making will be slow. The wind has eased off from previous days and we have around 15-17 knots most of the way. We motorsail with one reef in the mainsail. A couple of cargo ships pass us on the way and we arrive at the Nggee Bay anchorage (GPS 09.02.102 S : 159.05.370 E) around 5pm.

Matt tried to fix our Fujifilm camera on the way which had been playing up, but this time it’s buggered. Another electronic item to add to our broken/replacement list! We seem to be having a bad run of electronic gear failure lately in this harsh salt laden environment. Will have to use our cellphones for pictures now – so not the best quality.

This Nggee Bay anchorage had a wind funnel effect between the landforms so was quite breezy. We enjoyed our sundowner drinks in the cockpit and a BBQ meal, followed by an early night.

29^th July –Left Nggee Bay this morning and headed around the corner to the gap between the two main islands in this group known as the Sunshine Channel. This area has a large number of copra plantations, which were originally established by the Lever Brother Group. Hence where the “Sunshine Channel” gets its name - Sunlight Soap being one of their original products.  It was a bouncy trip out of the bay in the morning with a 3 metre swell running in against the coastline. It was peaceful again in Tillotson Cove where we anchored at lunchtime. (GPS 09.04.303 S :  159.11.880 E).  We soon had canoe loads out to visit us. The girls were talkative, but the boys more shy. We traded a bag of flour for some tomato’s and bell peppers with them.

30^th July – Today we motored out of the Sunshine Channel around the corner to the little township of Yadina. (GPS: 09.04.546 S:159.11.880 E). This town was used in WWII as a base in this area with the remains of huts and wharfs. Latterly it was used a Copra processing factory and port facility– but those facilities are all disused now as well.  It is now simply a small village with about 1000 residents. We had read in the Cruising Guide that it had a market and shops, however we were told the market only operates on Wednesday and Saturday – today is Monday. We got a few bits and pieces from the local store that operates out of the old WWII buildings. As Matt said he can’t imagine the soldiers who built these structures then, would imagine they would still be around and being used as a grocery store. They are rusty and dilapidated now, with the power and telephone communications that once ran into these buildings no longer in use.  

I had a quick snorkel on the clean and clear reef outside the collapsed wharfs that would have been in use during WWII. There were the remains of a landing craft, a mooring buoy, pipes and various bits and pieces to be seen.  After my swim we headed off to the recommended anchorage at Faila Island across the bay for the night. (GPS: 09.03.421 S: 159.15.154 E)

31^st July – When we went to pick up the anchor this morning it was well and truly secured around the coral. In the end Matt had to put on his dive gear and unwrap the anchor from the coral head before we could move on. We headed down to Lologhan Island at the southern end of the Russell Group and was recommended for snorkelling in the cruising guide. There was quite swell running into the reef and the reef can only be entered by dingy so Matt motored around the bay while I went for a snorkel on the reef. It was a great snorkel with lots of colour and coral formations and array of big fish including a number of 2.5 metre black tip reef sharks that were darting around the place. After my quick snorkel we continued onto Guadalcanal Island – the biggest island in the Solomons and where the capital of Honiara is. It was an easy trip down to there and we anchored at Tambea (GPS: 09.10.142 S:159.28.878 E). We had come to the resort here at Tambea 20 years ago on a dive trip to the Solomons and were looking forward to having a couple of resort style days here. Sadly the place was destroyed 10 years ago after ethnic fighting over land ownership. Only the concrete foundations of the buildings exist, and the swimming pool which is now a slimy bug invested pond. We enjoyed a beach walk and snorkel on the outer reef and had a peaceful night here in the bay before heading to Honiara the next day.

     25-28^th July 2012

We left Lever Harbour at 7.30am on the 25^th, with an escort of Dolphins and Swiftlets as we left the harbour. Matt is not feeling well this morning so after getting out of the harbour he went back to bed. We motor down the coast of New Georgia Island in the shelter of the island. By mid-morning the rain had settled in properly, reducing visibility and the wind had come up to 17-21 knots which we were heading straight into reducing our progress. It has been good to see much more fish life and bird life as we head further and further south. I put fishing line out today in hopes of catching something for dinner – no luck today. We entered into Marovo Lagoon via of Charapoana Passage, with dolphins yet again in the entrance to greet us. We anchored at 2pm behind the reef island of Uepi . (GPS: 08.27.059 S : 158.03.773 E)

On Uepi there is a resort run by an Australian family. We headed ashore to enquire if we could have a meal at the resort that night. Sadly they were full with in-house guests and could not feed two more people. We checked out the gift shop (this was to give us an indication of prices of products, that the various  carvers would bring out to show us while travelling in Marovo Lagoon as indicated in the Solomon Islands Cruising Guide). We went for a walk around the resort to stretch our legs, before heading back to the yacht before the next rain squall came in. It was a wet afternoon and evening so we had a relaxed time watching a movie, with no interruptions from local visitors for a change.

27^th July – A bit of a sleep in this morning, then a local carver named Lulu visited with an interesting cane he had made from Ebony wood, it had octopus and fish carved on the shaft and inlaid with mother of pearl. Lulu had spent 6 weeks in NZ on a training programme in Auckland, Wellington and Nelson in 1991, and told us he had very much enjoyed his time in NZ. He has 5 children aged 6-17 years of age. The eldest is married and he is expecting his first grandchild in September. We didn’t buy his carving, but gave him some spare medical dressings we had and some canned corned beef for his family. After signing Lulu’s visitor book we headed further down the lagoon. I did some more baking on the way and around 11.30am when the weather closed in once again making it difficult to see the reefs we stopped behind another islet for an hour while the rain front passed over. The locals all tell us the weather has been most uncharacteristic over the last month with a lot more wind and rain virtually every day. It has made the lagoon very green, when normally it is quite clear. It hasn’t been as good for snorkelling as we had hoped.

The next morning we rise just prior to sunrise in order to reach the Russell group of Islands. As we leave the outer reef and cliffs of Marovo lagoon behind us we are greeted with a lovely sunrise peaking over the top of the cliffs.  Marovo lagoon is reputedly the world’s largest lagoon, we have enjoyed travelling through this area over the last few days and interacting with the local inhabitants. It has been a peaceful and sheltered waterway to transverse through.

24 July 2012

It was a drizzly morning again, I woke early and went ashore for a morning walk and to get some fresh supplies at the morning fruit and vege market while Matt got his beauty sleep. We were away by 9am heading up Hathorn Sound to the northern end of New Georgia Island, passing the village of ‘Paradise’ on the way. We can now say we have seen “Paradise”.  It was then down the coast of New Georgia to the Lever Harbour Entrance. We followed the navigation markers through the outside reef to the inner harbour.  Lever Harbour is named after the international company of Unilever who established a logging operation and town here. We were greeted on arrival by numerous locals who came and visited us offering fish, fruit, carvings and flowers in lieu of biscuits or lollies, pens and paper for the children.  

23 July 2012

It rained quite hard overnight and until mid-morning, filling up our water jerry cans on deck from the water collection system Matt has rigged to collect water off our bimini (which is a canvas structure over the steering wheel that protects you from sun & rain). I also discovered our rear guest cabin mattress was quite wet from the overnight rain. We could see water running down the inside of the hull. Matt discovered that the stern rail that holds up our 15 HP motor is loose and lifting off the deck letting water run down inside. Matt fixed this by unscrewing the bolts and put some bathroom sealant around the area and then screwing it down again. It really needs some Sikaflex marine sealant to waterproof the area. However we have not been able to source this product since running out a few months ago.

We pulled up the anchor around 11.30am and headed off through the remainder of Vona Vona lagoon to the better charted area of the Diamond Narrows. This spectacular narrow (50 metre wide), but deep channel is used by shipping to go into the shelter of Port Noro. Using the Solomon Islands cruising guide we entered through a narrow gap in the reef outside the town market and shops, then headed ashore to see if we could find a place to have lunch. Unfortunately the place listed in the guide was rundown and closed. However we did find some fresh bread at the bakery at the small supermarket, and enjoyed fresh bread sandwiches instead. Also as there was Telecom service here we replenished our internet connection, as we had used up the allowance we had purchased in Gizo on Skype calls to home & updating the website!  That afternoon I went for a snorkel on the reef and cleaned the hull. Matt did some more passage planning and navigating for the passage we are going to make down to Honiara over the next few days.

   22- 23 July 2012

We left Gizo today to head to Vona Vona lagoon and in a south easterly direction towards Honiara. Vona Vona lagoon is a large body of shallow water approx. 11 nautical miles wide and 17 nautical miles long. This large lagoon is very sheltered and studded with a myriad of islets and reefs. We used the Solomon Islands Cruising Guide with its mud maps and notes to traverse this poorly charted lagoon. It was a very interesting change of scene from ocean passages to meander through this passageway. After entering the lagoon through a gap in the outer reef, with waves crashing on either side of us, it was a relief to be in the inner sanctuary and calmness of the lagoon. Just inside the lagoon we saw a small pod of dolphins going past. We stopped at Snake Island (GPS Position 08.10.551 S : 157.02.979 E), for a swim and lunch stop. I saw a very interesting deep blue waving soft coral that I have not seen before here and baby rock lobsters. After lunch we continued on through the lagoon and the narrowing passageway anchor for the night at a small islet between Mundahite and Talisondo Islands. (GPS 08.17.304 S : 157.10.124 E)

We really enjoyed this picturesque day trip through the lagoon passing numerous villages and logging camps that were hidden amongst the trees, seeing the locals ply the sheltered waterways in their canoes, listening to the sound of parrots in the trees and we even saw a small 2 metre crocodile in the water at one point. This put me off having a swim at our anchorage that evening! 

GPS Anchor Position for Port Gizo: 08.05.914 S : 156.50.358 East

We spent 4 days in the harbour town of Gizo. It’s a small one main street town, with a number of Chinese general merchandise stores, a few hotels mostly for diving groups that come here, a reasonable fish/fruit and vege market, a jail, hospital and various Governmental Offices.

It has been quite breezy while we have been here with up to 25 knots at time so feel we are really back in the trade wind belt now. We are enjoying having more air circulation through the boat which helps us to feel cooler, and there seems to be less humidity in the air now as well. We completed our normal tasks of clearing in with officials which was quite a bit more complicated here with similar systems to Oz/NZ. We had to see Customs, immigration and Quarantine officers, and it cost us nearly $300NZ to clear into Gizo which we thought was expensive for this economy and level of service!  

As we get closer to NZ we are finding it nice that we can see NZ products on the shop shelves here – saw Anchor Cheese, butter, Tip-Top Ice-cream, Marmite, Whittakers chocolate and Weetbix which are goodies we haven’t seen in ages. The downside is that as we get closer to home the prices of things have got a lot more expensive. Diesel is much more expensive down this way as well it cost us about $2.50 (NZ) a litre - much more expensive than Indonesia/Asia.

After months of being in places that have had no internet at all, or where it did exist it was so primitive and slow it was impossible to update the website. We found Gizo had an internet cafe with 3G internet connection (if somewhat unreliable).  We spent about1 ½ days publishing our pictures and bringing it all back up to date. We enjoyed a couple of meals at the local hotel and PT109 yacht club whilst ashore doing this task.

One morning we did a little walk up the hill at the back of town. It was a great view looking out over the harbour through the channel entrance we had come through and around to the nearby lagoon that is supposed to be good for diving and snorkelling. We enjoyed chatting with the local people many who want to make a better life for themselves, but are struggling in this economy. They tell us there are big problems in the Solomon’s with land ownership and many disputes. Also that the Government that is selling off much of the best land to overseas interests, and letting the local fisheries being overfished by offshore commercial operators, leaving the locals with little.  Several of them were interested in talking to me about education when they found out I was a preschool teacher. I enjoyed answering some of their questions in this area. We also bought a couple of things from a local stone carver and will find a place to put them in our new home when we return, as a memento of our travels here.

June 21st-July 16^th

After leaving Biak on the 21^st June, we had 4 day passage (500 nautical miles) to the outer islands of Papua New Guinea. This is the longest passage we have completed in quite some time, as usually it’s been day hops or just an overnighter.  We started out in ideal conditions making use of our large Gennaker sail and some good progress. Later in the afternoon the rain came in causing us to reduce sail with many heavy rain squalls continually passing over us until the early hours of the next day when we were once again able to properly sail. Mid afternoon on the 23^rd the wind died down, it calmed off and I got out the sewing machine and repaired our BBQ and Outboard motor covers.  Sadly around 7.30pm on the 23^rd our Radar stopped working. It has been intermittently powering itself off, and slowly getting worse.

The Radar is a very useful tool when shorthanded sailing as it can be set it to have a guard zone around us that picks up virtually anything that comes in our path, not just big ships but also small local canoes that are out fishing or (sometimes in perfect conditions) even large logs that can damage your hull. This is particularly helpful at night when it is very difficult for the human eye to see these objects especially if there are any waves. It is also useful for confirming the accuracy of our position on the charts we are using, as the radar shows you exactly where the coastline is in relation to where the chart says it is. 

We had very calm easy conditions the next day (24/6/12), and so Matt spent much of the day trying to work out what the issue with the Radar was. There was some evidence of burn marks on one circuit board, but the unfortunately he was unable to come up with a definitive answer. The unit is now over 10 years old, and replacement bits difficult to source in this part of the world or even to get a new one (if we had the spare money to do so), so it looks like we will have to do without it till we get back to NZ.

  25-26^th June 2012

GPS ANCHOR POSITION: 01.17.952 S: 144.15.605 E

Just after sunrise on the 25^th June we arrived at Ninigo Atoll. This is a large coral atoll and reef (approx. 20 nautical miles across), that has a number of islands on the outside edge and within the inside that provide a sheltered anchorage from the outer sea. We located a small little uninhabited island in the middle of the atoll and spent a couple of nights here. A number of locals from nearby villages came out to see us, we were pleasantly surprised how many of them spoke very good English which makes communicating so much easier compared to our experiences throughout Indonesia. They also come out to this particular island to collect large eggs from nests on the island. They offered us some but we still had plenty in stock. Instead I gave them some small quail’s eggs which they hadn’t seen before to try and as a comparison to the large ones they had collected. One group in a speed boat who were heading to the local elections in Manus approached us with a question about the GPS they were using which they had a problem with. The issue was that they didn’t understand that their GPS was using kilometres not nautical miles to measure distance, easily fixed by Matt. Another group that had children we gave some children’s games, pens and a ball to. We enjoyed our couple of chill out days here, and took on the advice of the local people not to head to Manus Island like we had intended to officially clear into, as they reported it was not a safe place to go which backed up reports we had read on the cruising yachting website www.noonsite.com. They advised us to continue on to Kavieng which as we had had good conditions on the way down, and not used as much fuel as we feared we might with reports of strong head currents in this region, Kavieng was now a viable and safer sounding option.

27-28^th June 2012

GPS ANCHOR POSITION: 01.32.922 S : 145.00.498 E

We had left Ninigo reef around 6pm on the 26^th June expecting the passage to Hermit Reef to take around 14 hours. However the conditions were lighter than expected, but with a confused sea state and although the wind was on the nose most of the way we made good time approaching the reef just as daylight was breaking.  Matt had been keen to visit this reef for some time as there are many wrecks here and sailing stories abound of their tales. We nearly added to these tales on our approach to the reef ourselves, as the outside entry point on the chart proved to be ½ mile out and in the low light of our dawn entry this was not easy to pick this up until we could see waves breaking on the reef in front of us! If our radar had been working we would have been altered to this problem earlier... Anyway after quickly backing up we found the correct reef entry point further along, safely entered the reef and found ourselves an anchorage on the far side out of the swell coming in, in front of a small fishing village.  After a morning snooze to recover from our unsettled overnight passage we went for a snorkel on the nearby reef and investigated the fishing village but no-one was around. We enjoyed a peaceful night here and had no visitors at all during our stay here.

  28 June-6^th July 2012

Kavieng Port Anchor Position by Nusa Island: 02.35.110 S : 150.46.910 E

Matt is keen to keep moving quickly along through the Papua New Guinea group of Islands before the South Easterly seasonal currents and winds built up in intensity as the season develops. We have read and heard stories of currents running in this area against the direction we are going of up 4 knots. This would make our passage making south very difficult, slow and laborious - as our average sailing speed is about 6 knots.   

It was a four day sailing passage from Hermit Reef to Port Kavieng. We had managed to time our passage to coincide with a north westerly wind pattern and had very comfortable downwind sailing conditions for the first 1 ½ days in between 20-30 knots which meant we covered the miles quickly. On the second night the wind started to steady at 30 knots with heavy rain squalls coming through on a regular basis. As we don’t have radar now to see incoming rain squalls at night we took the precaution of reefing down our mainsail. Whilst I was up on deck bringing the mainsail down my optically correct glasses blew off my face and sunk into the arms of King Neptune – BUGGER! I am now reduced to an old pair of glasses that are being held together with Super Glue. Not much chance of getting a replacement pair until I get back to NZ.

The following day the wind dropped off to below 20 knots and we had blue sky and sunshine again, after getting well rinsed in all the rain squalls overnight, and getting our on-deck water containers filled up.  The wind continued to drop off to under 10 knots the following day, and as we weren’t going to be able to make it through complicated reef systems to Kavieng at New Ireland Island in daylight hours we made the decision to anchor for the night behind the reef in at the top of the New Hanover Island group  (GPS 02.24.078 South : 150.20.919 East). We had a peaceful sleep here in the protection of the inner reef. As the wind had come around to a head wind the next day we continued on down inside the inner reef system of New Hanover Island before crossing over to New Ireland Island. By travelling through the inner reef system we avoided being out in the open sea with head winds for so long, and it was a pretty and interesting pathway through the inner reef, making a nice change from the open sea.  On our way through the reef system we caught 1.2 metre Wahoo fish that was big enough to get 6 meals out of. “Yahoo for  Wahoo” I always say – as it is one of the nicest tasting fish in my book.

We arrived at the Port of Kavieng at New Ireland Island late afternoon on the 1^st of July.  Anchoring off from the main port area outside the little resort island of Nusa. We made contact with the resort of VHF Channel 69, having heard they were yachtie friendly and went ashore to introduce ourselves. The resort is run by an Australian brother and sister who had grown up in PNG when their parents ran a coconut plantation here. After finishing their education in Australia they decided to return to the PNG lifestyle and set up this specialist surf/dive resort. It is a small but very friendly resort with a very odd assortment of resident local dogs and birdlife. The birds included a number of indigenous Hornbills that helped themselves to leftovers out of the kitchen pots (see pic), colourful red and blue Eclectics parrots, a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo with paralysed legs that despite this seemed healthy and content in its pampered resort lifestyle and care. The most unusual guest was an Albatross!! that had landed here a couple of weeks ago, which is well off the normal flight path of these birds.  It seemed to be adapting well to its new found northerly habitat! They also had an interesting skull and vertebrae display of a whale as a garden feature.   We enjoyed the company of the resort owners and guests and a couple of meals here during our stay in Kavieng.

The port town of Kavieng itself is a small collection of about 4 streets with an odd assortment of general merchandise and grocery stores, a couple of banks & petrol stations, a small beachside local produce market and an airport. The main item for sale in this town seemed to be the local drug of choice – betel nut. Every few steps you took there were people selling these nuts, which is a mild narcotic and appears to be an essential part of their lifestyle. Their mouths are stained by the red jucie chewing this nut produces and globules of red spit are everywhere.

Our clearing in and out procedures here however were very low key and the easiest we have completed in all our travels. We simply had to find the customs office, which acted as immigration clearance as well. This did turn out to be a more difficult than usual as their offices were no longer at the main wharf as you expect but located in a  row of office building inside the Orgin Gas depot up in the town - many of the locals did not know where it was either.   

While here Matt has been working on the engine turbo as the whine it was making was getting worse and worse. The sponge air filter had disintegrated and parts of it sucked inside the engine which is not a good thing!! There was also a lot of carbon clogging things up. He has cleaned all this out and modified a car air filter to work in place of the sponge one. The motor is sounding much better now which is a big relief to him.

    6-14^th July 2012

RABAUL HARBOUR ANCHOR POSITION, OUTSIDE YACHT CLUB: 04.12.427 S : 152.10.650 E

On leaving Kavieng we went out through Albatross Passage where the locals from Kavieng often go to hunt crocodiles. It was a narrow, but deep little passage which was quite picturesque to travel through. It also made a good short cut out into the ocean. We didn’t see any crocodiles on the way but the local villagers were intrigued to see a yacht coming through this way.

Once out in the open waters of the Gazelle channel we had a good afternoon sail on a beam reach down to Djaul Island. We anchored for the night in Fischer Harbour (GPS 02.58.264 South 150.57.81 East). Fischer harbour is quite a large and deep natural harbour. We had to come in quite close to the internal reef to find an anchorage, finally anchoring on the edge of a sloping coral outcrop in about 30 metres with space to swing around (just). We were soon inundated with visitors from the local villages who were very friendly, interactive and interested in our yachting lifestyle and the various boat systems such as the wind generator and solar panels. They told us there were 7 different villages in this harbour, and they recognised our New Zealand silver fern flag and told us how much they liked NZ. I can’t imagine any of them had actually been there, but they seemed to have a positive image of the place. At nightfall  we thought they would go back to their villages, but they still hung around. We felt a bit exposed and uncomfortable with this audience of local villages while we were eating our dinner and watching a movie on the computer in the cockpit so we eventually went below in order to get some privacy.

The next morning just after dawn we were awoken to the call of “Hello Island Time”, as yet another load of villagers in their canoes came visiting. I spent some time that morning chatting with some them who spoke English about our travels, and showed them on an atlas where we had been. We had a request for books, so gave away the ones that we have recently read and finished with, and also for some fishing line which we were able to help with. Matt and I then decided to go for a snorkel on the nearby reef, and even then we were accompanied but the villagers in their outrigger canoes! When we got back to Island Time we gave a hull a quick wipe down and then said our farewells to the locals before heading off again towards Rabaul.

The second part of the trip to Rabaul weather conditions were a bit more on the nose, so we had to motor sail to make headway. We reached the harbour port of Rabaul mid-afternoon passing the still active volcano of. In 1994 this volcano suddenly erupted devastating the old town of Rabaul. It is quite an impressive sight going past this active volcano, with the smell of sulphur in the air for several miles out to sea, and seeing the flowing levels of lava that step down into the sea. 

The inner harbour is littered along it shoreline with abandoned vessels from WWII and the eruption- it would make a good junk metal yard!, As we arrived in the sheltered harbour we were called up on the VHF radio by an Australian called Steve on the yacht Viking May, welcomed to the local yacht club and told to make use the moorings outside the yacht club/ local drinking club. It all seems quite low key and friendly here with the locals were making the most of the beautiful clear blue sky day with walks along the black volcanic beach and swimming off the wharf outside the yacht club.

We went ashore at sunset to check out the yacht club and see if we could get a meal, but meals were only served on Friday nights. We meet Ron the skipper of the motor launch Barbarian tied up at the wharf. He is an ex-pat Aussie, but has lived in Rabaul for the past 20 years. He does a lot of diving and charters on his boat. Apparently he is a world expert on aircraft wreck location and diving, and his services have been in demand around the world in this area. He was very obliging and helpful in providing information about Rabaul and the local area, and gave us advice on where to find things and what to see.  He had some advanced towed array sonar to help locate aircraft, and some interesting sonar pics of various aircraft including zeros, b25’s etc.

Matt and I celebrated our birthdays here in Rabaul – Matt his 50th and me 49! It was a pretty low key affair for us both this year. Matt’s celebration is really about being out here sailing the seas at this time of his life - making a dream adventure a reality.  In our travels we have met a number of retired cruisers who have commented they wish they had started their journey earlier in life when fitter and without so many health concerns. It was one of the reasons we have taken a couple of years out of our careers to do this trip now -you never know what tomorrow will bring or if you may even have long enough to fulfil your dreams.  We did have a celebratory meal at the local hotel one evening (about the only thing that resembles a restaurant here!), to honour the occasion. The hotel was virtually totally destroyed in the volcanic eruption here in 1994 so there were some interesting pictures on the walls to see of the volcanic eruption and the devastation it caused to the town as a result.

On my bday we went out to visit the remains of an underground hospital the Japanese built here in WWII and a big tunnel they constructed to house 7 landing craft barges in a hillside beside the sea so they would not be seen by the allies.  Also Ron from the motor launch let me use his small washing machine – this was a real treat not having to do handwashing! I made the most of the opportunity getting our outside squab covers washed which were overdue for a cleanup and look much brighter again.

While at Rabaul we did a walk up behind the town to the Japanese Peace gardens and lookout point, which gave you a great overview of the harbour, and view of the destruction to ‘old Rabaul’ by the volcano over to the newly built area  of the town. We also did a trip down Kokopo about 20 kms away, which is the township and government centre that was built after the eruption to replace Rabaul. Matt was keen to find a computer/electronic store that might have some shielded data cable. He has spent some more time the last few days working on our radar issue and now thinks the faulty issue is mainly to do with the cabling. He didn’t quite what he wanted but got something that he thought might do, and did manage to get the radar working again for a short while. However it won’t stay powered on for a reliable period of timing and keeps switching off. At least we again have something to use to check chart accuracy if we are uncertain about an area. 

By the 14^th of July the forecast indicated the conditions for the next few days would be a weather calm window opened up that would suit our onwards passage to the Solomon Islands. We were ready to leave behind the sleepy harbour of Rabaul and the fine volcanic ash that still covers it, and now our boat as well. We refuelled and stocked up on fresh supplies, and completed the official clearing out documentation for Papua New Guinea, which was once again was a very easy and quick process.

   14-17^th July 2012

The sky that evening as we passed small islands with breaking surf on the reefs around them. As indicated by the weather forecast, on our first day out after leaving Rabaul we had reasonably light winds with a slight sea state. Our planned course took us across the narrow gap of the Solomon Sea from New Britain Island to the bottom of New Ireland Island. This meant we were heading into the prevailing wind in this area, and with the light conditions we could still make good progress motor-sailing along the coastline without using a lot of fuel. Matt was pleased to get through this area which is known for currents flowing against you of up to 4 knots at times. Late afternoon we found a delightful anchorage spot in sand near the beach in the passage behind Lombom Island (GPS  04.47.882 South  152.51.507 East). This area is quite cultivated, well-maintained and populated settlement. The locals called out friendly greetings to us, and we soon had visitors in their local dugout canoes. One elderly man called William told us how he had made a very a good New Zealand friend when working as a mechanic alongside him in the Papua New Guinea mines. He introduced us to his sons and grandson who had also come out to visit us and told us we were most welcome to stay, and would be very safe here. He asked if we had any spare fishing hooks, which we supplied him with along with some fishing line.

We left at sunrise the next morning and got some tidal assistance out of the passage with a nice 12 knot breeze from behind to help us sail along. Unfortunately the breeze did not last and came down to 2 knots, so it was time to start the motor yet again so we could continue our progress. The wind came around to head on later in the morning day with a 1.5 metre wave chop, and overcast squally conditions slowed out progress further. We pulled in behind Torakina Island to anchor (GPS 06.14.501 South 155.01.827 East) for the night and got out of the sloppy sea state. I had a quick snorkel along the reef beside the island before sunset and we had visitor from a nearby village in his newly made outrigger canoe who was interested in the concept of sailing, sharing that he had a dream to sail beyond the confines of his local village and reef system to faraway lands. We found a piece of fabric from the dingy cover we don’t use and gave this to him saying he could make a sail out of it like we had seen many Indonesians use to save paddling. He also enquired if we had a spare generator! We don’t even have our own generator onboard like some yachts as we make our power by running engine or through our solar panels or wind generator. He was very keen for us to tell other yachties coming through the area to bring a generator that the local village would be happy to pay for. I’m not sure how we could assist the logistics of this wish without an upfront payment and contact details. Matt stated later that he has been quite surprised about the requests for items from local the local Papua New Guinea people. We have also had requests for snorkel gear and GPS, solar panels, binoculars, outboards etc. They obviously see us as potential goods suppliers.  

It has been a feature of our passages thorough PNG waterways that we have seen very little other boating traffic of any kind. After the busy waterways of Indonesia and Malaysia it has seemed quite desolate. However as we entered the channel between PNG and the Solomon’s we did see some shipping and fishing vessels. Around 2am the conditions calmed off and at 4am when I came on watch I witnessed an unusual sight of the moon rising in the sky, followed about 15 mins later with the breaking of the dawn sky.  

Our final approach to reach the Port of Gizo Island, in the Solomon’s continued to be slow work into the prevailing wind and seas. In an effort to make our arrival before dark we ended up pushing the engine revs and sucking through our fuel in to get into the harbour. Just as we arrived at the entrance through the reef for the harbour entrance it started to pour with rain making it very difficult to see the entrance. The chart for this area turned out to be off in position by 1/3 mile making it difficult to navigate in the narrow entrance. We wished the radar still worked properly again! However we safely arrived and anchored inside the port beside two other yachts at around 3pm. We were no sooner anchored than we were approached by locals wanting to sell us wood and stone carvings that they are renowned for in this area. We tell them we want to quickly head into town to catch the port officials before they go home. The carvers show us where to go, but we had forgotten that we have moved forward one hour in time zones and they are all ready gone for the day. We went back to the dingy dock at the yacht club and enjoyed a drink, and meal of fish and chips.

During the 9-10^th June we completed an overnight passage across the Halamahera Sea to the Island of Pef in the group of Islands west of Papua known as Raja Ampat. It was the first passage we have made in months where we actually got to sail for several hours without using the motor and had whitecaps– a real novelty after the last few months of calm and windless conditions. In the wee hours of the morning we had a small problem with the hydraulic steering system when one of the main steering bolts came loose which meant the autopilot was unable to hold its course. Matt was able to easily remedy this problem by retightening the bolt that after months of use works its way loose.

10-14^th June 2010

PEF ISLAND GPS POSITION 0.26.523 S : 130.26.612 E

Having received a strong recommendation about this place via another yacht that were very keen divers, we approached the beach side of the island but found it was too deep and steep-to to anchor in this location. The owner of the resort, a Swiss lady named Meya, came aboard and gave us directions to a very sheltered anchorage around the back of the island that we would never have found by ourselves. You entered between two large rock formations, which then opened up into a very sheltered lagoon with branches of waterways coming off it in numerous directions. We anchored in 25metres at the head of the bay close to the jetty and boardwalk, which meanders through the mangroves up to the beach front resort location.

Once Jim and Joy from the Yacht Kelaran were safely anchored in here as well, Joy and I were eager to explore this environment and check out the snorkelling which we had heard such positive reports about. The Raja Ampat islands and West Papua region is very isolated and unpopulated which has left the environment largely untainted by civilisation. Local tribes are still living off the land, and the natural biodiversity of the sea and landscape is claimed to be one of the most diverse and fascinating in the world. There is a careful conservation and education management plan in place that works with the local inhabitants to maintain and preserve this special area with its unprecedented variety of marine habitat. It forms part of the coral triangle and is endowed with nourishing ocean currents that transverse the region, causing the area to flourish as an abundant incubator for the huge variety of species you can find here.  The underwater world is certainly the most impressive we have seen in all our travels and lives up to its reputation as a premier dive location. You feel like you are swimming through the pages of photographic dive book-it’s so good.

 This small eco-resort at Pef Island ( www.raja4divers.com) was officially closed while we were here however Meya and staff still welcomed us and were most obliging and made us feel at home. They certainly live up to their moto of “arrive as a guest, live like a king, leave as a friend”. The resort building and bungalows are constructed out of natural/local materials and tastefully and aesthetically scattered throughout. They also have a dedicated camera studio for hiring underwater camera gear and processing you pictures, a petanque, volleyball, giant chess set, a small library and games area in the dining room along with a resident local carver who helps repair/maintain the resort buildings and has a studio with interesting carvings for sale. Matt and Jim from Kalaren worked on the resort ham radio that they use to talk with their dive boats with and had been having issues with. They left them with some ideas for sorting out the problems.  

It was a superb tropical paradise, just like you dream about finding in your travels. The above water environment is also amazing. The flora, birdlife and fauna are unique in this region with one side of an island having a Asian influence the other a pacific flavour to the environment. Both Matt and I highly rate this place as a destination, especially if you enjoy the underwater world. It was hard to leave and we are keen to revisit and further explore this area at some later stage.

14-21^st June2012

From the Raja4divers resort of Island of Pef we made our way down the coast of West Papua to our clearing our port for Indonesia at the island of Biak in a series of day/overnight hops. We had some lovely sunrises and sunsets to begin and end our days and a mix of sailing and motorsailing in reasonably light easy passage making conditions.

Shortly after leaving the resort island of Pef the autopilot broke again, so we returned to the anchorage where Matt replaced a broken brush spring. Getting going again the next problem was the old navigation computer failing yet again due to overheating issues. Matt replaced this to his personal one but it doesn’t connect properly to our cockpit monitor due to a faulty external monitor port. When we got to our first anchorage at the island of Batanta, Matt attempted to repair the navigation/outdoor monitor interface, but instead only succeeded in killing the outdoor monitor due to a reversed polarity issue with his multi-meter. He was not a happy chappy! I did try to get him to come and have a snorkel with me and cool off first!

Our next stop was at the Island of Amsterdam that was listed in the dive location book as “The Junkyard”. The next morning I went for a quick snorkel to view the scuttled landing craft that is located just off the beach before we headed across to our next destination Numfoor Island in the middle of Cenderwasih Bay. We headed ashore the next morning to Numfoor Island and were assisted by a tribe of local children to get our dingy over the shallow mudflats and safely up to the village. They then gave us a tour of their village, past the local fresh water swimming/clothes washing hole (which we enjoyed a swim in), past the old school and over a hill to the next village. One of the older children spoke quite good English, whilst the rest simply enjoyed practicing the words they did know or repeating the words we used. They also sang various English songs they knew as we traipsed along the paths. We passed on some clothing and some pens and paper to the village elders in appreciation of our visit.

BIAK PORT

Our next stop was the busy little island port town of Biak where we were required by the rally organisers to officially clear out of Indonesian waters from prior to our passage into Papua New Guinea waters. We spent a couple of days dealing with the paperwork requirements of the various officials, and obtaining fuel and fresh supplies - including some of the nicest bread we have had in some time. The fresh market was full healthy looking produce which was a bonus as our supplies were getting very low at this stage.  The locals here have all been very helpful in assisting us to find our way around the town or wanting to know where we have come from.

_____________________________________________________________________ 

8-12^th May 2012

Following a two day/overnight passage we reached the next rally destination of Morotai, at the Northern end of the Maluku Island Group of Indonesia. I hadn’t been much assistance on the way over as I suffered from some sort of 24 hour vomiting and diarrhoea bug that laid me low, but fortunately the conditions were smooth and easy.

Overall our stay in Morotai was somewhat disappointing we had been led to believe from prior promotional brochures that Morotai was a remote destination that offered superb aquatic diving/snorkelling opportunities.  The reality proved to be far from what the publicity and promotion of the place warranted in our view. The town and anchorage was dirty with rubbish lying/floating everywhere. The only outing the rally guides took us to, view the underwater world was to a nearby island which they rave about for seeing coral. Unfortunately the beach area was very disappointing as there was no coral to be seen just sea grass! I guess this is partially to do with the local tourism office guides provided for the rally here not being confident swimmers with an interest in diving or snorkelling (they were however great singers and dancers and encouraged us to do Karaoke type stuff all the time which wasn’t quite this rally groups scene!)  Perhaps a specialist travel agent/operator would have been able to show us these supposedly pristine dive/snorkel sites.  Despite not seeing coral it was a pleasant relaxing afternoon with a number of the yachties spending time with the guides, sharing our snorkel gear with them and giving them some snorkelling/swimming lessons. The guides had lots of fun with this, and it was lovely to share our equipment and swimming knowledge with them as they had all been so friendly, generous and helpful towards us during our time here.

The Morotai Island welcome ceremony however was something a little different from the normal ones we have witnessed throughout Indonesia with some really interesting homemade instruments that resembled Tubas (see pic), flutes and horns. At various stages throughout our stay here we were shown a number of local cultural dances with their always stunning costumes.

The yachties were encouraged to participate in and learn these dances, which caused much hilarity amongst the locals! Other trips around the island included a visit to a local village that made a type of Ketchup which they showed us how they make from some local ingredients (see pic below). We were also taken on a number of tours of WWII relics, as Morotai was a significant airfield base during WWII when the USA and allied forces were attempting to overturn the invasion of the Japanese invasion into the pacific region.  The remaining relics have that have not stood up well to the test of time and while significant during their time, are now beyond redemption and of not much value or interest to most of us in their current state nearly 70 years on.

Morotai is possibly one of the poorest areas we have visited in our travels with a very low subsistence standard of living. Much of the housing was with dirt floors, with thatched roofs and fencing made from old iron sand ladders from the WWII military installations that had been on this island. There was little or no drainage or sanitation services in most places, however we did see drainage work was being completed in much of the main street during our stay which will help with the environment and health of the people considerably.  The local government is valiantly trying to improve the situation here, and to also make inroads for Morotai as a tourism destination. They have a long way to go in this direction I feel.  However as always seems to be the way, the people with least seem to have the most generous and open of hearts as they welcome and share their lives with us. The local guides here were friendly and fun, trying to assist in whatever way they could and enjoyed practicing their English with us. When we left they presented with bracelets and dog tag WWII type necklaces made by a local from stainless steel. This was quite unnecessary as their hospitality was quite overwhelming and quite humbling when you see the living conditions and lack of facilities they have to contend with.  The yachtie rally group did put together a small but well deserved tip to go some way towards showing our appreciation for their eagerness and helpfulness in this remote and poor area.

13-20^th May 2012

It was a two day sail with mixed weather down from Morotai to Jailolo, with stops at a bay/fishing village at the top of Halamera, and then the stunning Loloda bay with its backdrop of volcano’s and waterfalls tumbling down hillsides straight into the sea along with a lovely assortment and variety of coloured coral to view in the water. It was rather a special location and a shame we didn’t have time to stay here longer and investigate it all further before we had to head off to our Jailolo rally stop.

We are in Jailolo as part of a special annual festival they have to celebrate and showcase the local culture, history and foods of this area. The anchorage is

very sheltered but very shallow and surrounded by coral shelves with not a lot of room for anchoring so we ended up rafting up as a group of seven boats to fit in. A raft-up makes for very social living conditions so we enjoyed sunset drinks on deck most evenings on one of the larger yachts “Ingrid of the Isles.” Our yachts act as part of the backdrop to the main stage for the festival, and so we got to hear the celebrations taking part on the stage behind us each evening until the shutdown at midnight each night and then when they restarted again around 6.30-7am in the morning!

The water was pretty clear all around us so we were able to have swims and snorkels to the nearby coral off the back of the boats in the heat/siesta time of the afternoons which was great. During our time here we were taken on tours of local villages, beaches, clovTe and nutmeg plantation and hot water springs. Part of the festival also included a six kilometre fish BBQ where 10 Tonnes of fish was cooked along the sides of the streets, also a decorated OX and Cart parade displaying the produce of the local farmers.  The closing ceremony of the festival included a show named “Cabaret of the Sea”, which was a stunning array of creatively designed costumes and makeup that portrays the story of the historic arrival of Europeans to these waters known as the Spice Islands, to obtain the culinary delights of Nutmeg and Cloves which at one time were worth more than the price of gold!. It was a dramatic and well put together production by the local community that everyone enjoyed.

21-25 May 2012

Just a short afternoon day sail of 20 nautical miles took us from Jailolo to the next rally stop of Ternate. Ternate is the main city and transportation hub for this region, and is picturesquely surrounded by a ring of perfectly shaped volcanic islands (see pics), that make for a stunning backdrop. Our stay here was well organised by the local guides/tourism office, and it was also where we had to complete the necessary documentation to obtain an extension for our Indonesian visas for one more month.

During our time here we were taken on tours around this volcanic island to view the remains of Dutch and Portuguese fortresses built here during the 1500-1600’s. Got to visit the local Sultan’s Palace that was built in 1796,  and were generously hosted by the regions Governor at various local restaurants to sample local dishes. He also organised a speed boat trip, along with an escort of four security policemen on jet-skis to his residence across the bay for afternoon tea, and then to see the stunning sunset view from his deck! This was all part of a media publicity event, to showcase the “Sail to Indonesia Rally” visit to the region, for which we had to endure numerous photo shoots along and video recorders documenting our thoughts and impressions of our trip – a small price to pay for the generous hospitality we have enjoyed.

Other outings included a visit to a lava/volcanic rock flow that in the most recent eruption in 1994, had wiped out numerous homes and killed a number of people.  We had a snorkelling trip to a local beach which had a lovely clear blue water bay and lagoon, where freshwater poured water out of the hillside. The coral and fishlife were quite good to swim around in. We also got to see some interesting inland sunken volcano crater lakes that are now used by local people for recreation and fresh fishing farms. The local tourism office did a great job here of showcasing many of the areas highlights for us, and were well organised, flexible to the yachties needs and as efficient as the Indonesian concept of “Rubber Time” allows!

Ternate also had a recently built “shopping mall”, with a good supermarket which enabled us to top up supplies, including a bakery with decent wholemeal bread which is a rare community in Indonesia.  The mall also had a great Pizza outlet that we enjoyed a couple of meals out at, and a good coffee shop. We also found a restaurant that served lamb and steak which is a rare find in this area. It was nice treat for our taste buds to have some western style food again, as we were getting rather tired of local cuisine by this stage in our travels. The big local fruit and vege market had a good range of produce as well to resupply with before we headed off again.

Whilst we were here in Ternate, Matt received the Volvo fresh water engine pump that had been flown in from New Zealand, along with some parts for our 15 horse dingy outboard motor. He was now able to properly replace the pump (after making a temporary engine modification to allow a salt water cooling back in Manado a few weeks ago). He was very pleased to have the engine running on fresh water again, and it is good to have our larger dingy motor going again as well.

26^th May-2^nd June 2012

The rally timetable over this week, allowed for some well needed quiet rest and relaxation stops in the south Malaka/Halmahera area, away from the rally obligations and organisation of the last few weeks. Our first stop was the pretty little island of Gura Ici.  Just before we arrived at Gura Ici we crossed over the equator and passed back into the Southern Hemisphere.

At Guri Ici we anchored over the coral reef in sand, and enjoyed snorkelling the reef from our yachts. Ashore was a small village that gave us a welcome ceremony, showed us their weaving talents and cooked a meal for us on the beach.

 The local tourism minister (daughter of the Governor) has constructed a small resort here, unfortunately it is run-down and unkempt, and only used by local travellers. No funding was budgeted for publicity or upkeep of the place – which the termites are now taking over! It was a sad example of a failed tourism initiative in this area, and wasted funding.

One morning an outing was organised for us on the Tourism Department speed boat to see the Manta rays that regularly feed in a nearby bay, that we hoped to go swimming with. Unfortunately we got out there too late in the morning to catch them feeding. However we did see one large ray leap right out of the water in front of the boat which was an impressive sight.  Also whilst in this lovely location the yachting rally group took the opportunity to have a couple of “Pot Luck” beach parties that we all thoroughly enjoyed, after spending the late afternoon snorkelling. It was great to have these few much more relaxed rally event days.

After a few days at Gura Ici, we picked up our anchor and headed further along towards the next rally destination. We found a secluded little sheltered bay within a half day sail of the next rally stop. It reminded us somewhat of similar anchorages back home in the Marlborough Sounds. Unfortunately where we located the flies were particularly bothersome and as it was so sheltered there was little airflow. The next day we headed out into the more open area of the bay to get relief from the pesky flies and to obtain some airflow through the boat. The remainder of the rally group stayed in bay, whilst we enjoyed a couple of quiet days to ourselves.  The trip down to the rally stop of Labuha was quite picturesque as we passed through narrow fiord like passageways, passing little bays with fishing villages, small islands with lush bush down to the water’s edge. 
 

 

2-7^th June 2012

We had been forewarned by another yacht that had come in ahead for a dental checkup that the official designated anchorage outside of the main township was untenable due to the current local wind and wave conditions. They had relocated to a nearby island that offered much better shelter and protection, the only issue was it was very deep up close to the island and many of the yachts carried insufficient anchor chain to stay in this location. We stayed out at the island with two other yachts and were quite comfortable, although it did require a 10 minute speed boat ride to get into town. The others took their boats in to the requested anchor point, but it was not viable to stay on onboard with their boats rolling heavily from side to side in the waves. Instead they arranged with the rally organisers to obtain rooms at a local hotel until things settled down. 

It was quite a wet week during our stay here, but we had fun and once again we were treated like royalty by the locals. Following the formal welcome ceremony we were invited to complete a tour of the city using the local form of hire transportation – bicycles that have a bench type seat and canopy at the front.

 Part of the tour included visiting a 15^th century Portuguese fort that is still in remarkably good condition. Other tours of the local environment included going out to a former rubber tree plantation that has been turned into a reserve with pathways and a number of gazebo shelter structures. Sadly while this could be a peaceful, cool and relaxing picnic type place it has not been maintained with the pathways littered and slippery with leaf debris, and most of the structures now rotted out. Other tours included a visit to the local Sultan’s residence; being hosted at the Regents office for lunch that has a superb outlook over the town and harbour, a visit to a local primary school were we were inundated with children wanting to practice their limited English with us and obtain our signatures.  We were also taken to local gemstone manufacturers that make jewellery from the local precious stone known as Bacan (which is similar to Jade or Greenstone). One afternoon we were taken to a nearby village for a delightfully refreshing swim at the local swimming hole at the Amazing River. It was a very pleasant change to swim in fresh water again, and afterwards we were supplied with fresh drinking coconuts by the locals.

During our stay in Labuha the town was busy getting geared up for their local anniversary celebrations.  A large marching competition seemed to form a big part of the event with groups from all ages represented. It is obviously a focus of the local lifestyle here. They all looked very smart in their brightly coloured uniforms as they marched through the streets.

Labuha was our last official rally stop with the group of yachts that we have been travelling with for the last few months. From here most of the group will continue through Indonesian waters to Darwin. There are 2 of us are heading up towards Papua New Guinea and back through the pacific islands then to NZ, and one boat is travelling back to America. It has been good mixing and mingling with this group of yachties, and the assistance of the rally organisation is a considerable advantage when travelling through Indonesia by yacht to ease the complex paper trail and bureaucracy.  

7-9^th June 2012

With our official rally commitments over we had a day sail further down the coast of Halamera to a sheltered little bay/anchorage stop where we intended to have a private farewell beach party with just our small group of rally yachts before we split up and headed in different directions after leaving the bottom of this Island group.   It has been fun meeting a new group of people some of who we hope will come to visit us in NZ at some stage, and some who we may at some stage see in their home ports after we have earned some money again back in NZ and can do more travels. 

The following day the majority of the group headed off early to make the most of conditions for their onwards passage towards Darwin, however just as they were leaving the bay the weather closed in and it started to pour with rain. We decided to delay our departure by a couple of hours and wait for this front to pass over. We only planned to do a short day sail down to a couple of islands at the bottom of this region, where we would wait up for the wind to turn to a better angle for sailing across to West Papua in the next day or so as was indicated in the forecast.

We found a very sheltered passage between two islands to anchor in for the night and the next morning enjoyed a snorkel along the coral reef shelf between the two islands before we headed off to meet up with the crew on the yacht Kalaren who were anchored at the next island up, and with whom we planned to travel with across to West Papua (Indonesian Iran Jaya) with. We gave the hull of Island Time a quick clean here to help make her slip through the water faster for the upcoming passage. Then in the afternoon the breeze started to fill in from the direction we wanted and was making conditions in this anchorage not so pleasant, so time to head to across towards West Papua (Indonesian Irian Jaya).

1-3 May 2012

On our way to Manado the fresh water cooling pump Matt had concerns about in Kwandang failed completely, leaving us without a useable engine. Matt with the assistance of Wayne (from the yacht Court Jester –a retired diesel  mechanic)were able, after a couple of hours work  as we bobbed around on the sea,  to modify the engine and convert it to salt water cooling system as a temporary stop-gap measure until we can get the replacement part.  The modification meant however that our alternator was now unusable until we could locate and purchase a different size belt that would work with the modification.  Therefore in the meantime we had a limited power supply for our instruments, auto-pilot and fridge/freezer unit - though we should have enough in our batteries to get us to Manado overnight.

We made up good ground on the rest of the fleet overnight getting into Manado just after sunrise. Manado is a very deep harbour, with a dramatic backdrop of volcano’s, and with the buildings of the city rising up from the waterfront and into the volcanic hills behind. It reminds us of our harbour at home in Wellington. The biggest challenge here was finding a place that was shallow enough to anchor in as most of the harbour is around 200 metres deep or more and very steeply shelving.  We eventually found a suitable ledge close to the inner city reclamation area that was feasible to use in 10-20 metres, just outside of a major shopping mall, Mc Donalds and KFC.

That afternoon I took Matt and Mako from the yacht “Viva Layla” who also has been unwell for a number of days to the local hospital to be checked out, and to get Malaria blood tests completed as recommended in our medical guide. Fortunately the blood tests showed them not to have Malaria, however they were quite keen for Matt to stay overnight with his high temperatures, but this hospital was not a place you wanted to linger! Our white faces were quite the novelty factor in this place with numerous requests for photos’ from young nursing staff (just what you want when not feeling well!), and also as this being a predominately Christian region several locals came up and offered prayers for Matt – an indication of how unwell he looked. Overall the staff were extremely helpful and obliging in trying to meet our needs.

After another days work with help from other yachties Matt managed to get our charging system working on Island Time, he also spent more time on the yacht ‘Ingrid of the Isles’ resolving the alternator and wiring issues for them. I restocked the boat – as the supermarket here was good and we got some decent bread from a Dutch Bakery.

Following the advice of one of the locals I took the opportunity to view the coral on the reclamation boulders behind where our yachts were anchored.  It was a healthy sign to see coral growing in this location right on the edge of a main town. With boat jobs completed it was time to head north to the resort island of Bangka at the top of Sulawesi for a well overdue recreational break before our next passage up to the Maluku Group of Islands. It was an easy ½ day trip up to here, passing by a number of small islands and volcano’s rising straight out of the sea on our way up the coastline. After anchoring in the strong current running round the island we went ashore and spent a lazy afternoon by the pool. I enjoyed a massage early evening and this was followed by a very enjoyable but somewhat late dinner at the resort to finish the day off with. The following day we begin our passage over to the Maluku Group of Islands.

23-30 April 2012

We left Tarakan, Kalimantan, Indonesia to head across the Makassar Strait to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.  This trip over the last week has been with incredibly easy conditions - calm seas, blue skies and starry nights.

After leaving the big rivers of Kalimantan with the debris of rubbish, trees and logs it has been a pleasure to be back to ‘blue water’ sailing. However due to the lack of wind as we are in the ‘doldrums’ territory just a few degrees North of the equator, we have only had a couple of hours of true sailing in the last week. It has mostly been motor assisted sailing, with the engine ticking over on low revs.  The seasonal current running along the coast gives us up to 1.5 knots of assistance at times, which is an added bonus.

Being in the deeper clean waters off Sulawesi we have seen much more marine life again, with pods of dolphins, and even a sperm whale that was lying on the surface directly in our path. At first we thought it was a log then realised it was a whale dozing on the surface. It did not appear to be aware of our impending approach showed no signs of moving so we had to do a 90 degree sudden course to avoid a collision with this incredible 40 foot specimen.  Just at that moment it came to life just and dived down off our port side. A thrilling and scary event all at the same time!

It has been an easy and comfortable life on board in these flat calm conditions. We have kept busy with numerous little jobs such as sewing up a new cover for the small 2.5 horse power dingy outboard we purchased in Tarakan, to replace our old and much abused 15 horse motor that has become unreliable in recent weeks.  The new one is so much easier to lift up and down and with only the two of us and not a whole family using the dingy these days the smaller motor is quite suitable for our current needs whilst also being much more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly.  Matt has modified the outboard so it has a tilt and lock mechanism for lifting the motor over shallow coral reefs, a feature the bigger outboards come with.

We are enjoying the company of the 5 other rally boats we are currently in convoy with. It is interesting to meet new people, hear new stories and ideas as well as viewing other boats. We’ve had a mix of overnight passages and day sails with some stunning sunsets to watch as we end each day.

I have enjoyed spending time in the galley (Kitchen) cooking, baking, making stews and pies.  We have tended to eat out a lot when close to land as it saves heating up the boat, is social and so very cheap in this region. 

Halfway along the coast of Sulawesi we stopped at the port of Kwandang to refuel. The rally organiser Raymond Lesmana had arranged a contact to meet us here to assist with our refuelling needs. On arrival here we learnt that the local service station was out of fuel and was awaiting delivery of fresh supplies that day. They were also a little surprised that 6 sailing yachts would require the quantities of fuel we were after (1200 litres between the 6 vessels). The local contacts had arrived at the port with only a car and a couple of motorcycle taxis for refuelling purposes. They soon realised a small truck would be required and so organised this to transport the jerry cans in, but even so two trips were still necessary and it took the rest of the day to complete the task.

Everyone was feeling rather exhausted and tired from the constant travels and overnighters so a decision was made to have a lay day here in the picturesque bay of Kwandang before moving on again. The next morning Matt did an engine room check and discovered our freshwater engine circulation pump has begun to fail. He took it apart but there is little that can be done. It will have to be replaced. It is the only pump on board that Matt doesn’t have a replacement for! We hope it will hang in there until we can sort a replacement.  Another yacht in the fleet “Ingrid of the Isles”, a 46 foot Halberg Rassey , also had some issues which  Matt helped with – a problem with their Autopilot system that they wanted resolved before heading to sea again,  along with a alternator and charging system that was not working. The Autopilot issue was easily fixed enabling them to get underway again. The charging system however proved more complex, and after working on it all afternoon with no success the decision was made to do some more work on it when we arrived at Manado, which is the main town of Northern Sulawesi  that we are headed to next.

 Matt was shattered and exhausted after a full day in the heat of engine rooms  and being a dirty, greasy, sweaty engine bilge rat! That evening he was suffering from flu like symptoms, with a high temperature fever, cold shivers and aches and pains.  Although we thought it was probably a bout of the flu that is currently doing the rounds of the boats we took the added precaution of starting him on some anti-malarial medication as suggested in our Ship Doctors guide, until we can get him properly tested when we get to Manado.  Malaria and flu/cold like symptoms are very similar but it is simply not worth the risk of delaying treatment when you have these symptoms, especially as he is so prone to getting bites.  Matt was still not well enough for travelling the next day, and so had a rest/recovery day.  I went ashore with some of the other yachties and we explored the local village and markets to obtain some fresh fruit and vege supplies that we were running short of by this stage. Our looks and presence is quite unusual in this part of the world, they are particularly intrigued with our long noses, compared to their squat ones. We had lots of requests for photo stops and with the use of a phrase book and the assistance of some locals who spoke a little English we managed to make ourselves understood.  Everyone was so friendly helpful and accommodating.  The next morning Matt was feeling considerably better and so at sunrise the fleet headed off towards Manado –another overnight sailing passage.

   18-22^nd April 2012

Hello from Tarakan, our first official “Downunder Rally” stop. Tarakan is small oil rich border town, the seascape is dotted with oil rigs, and on land small “donkey style “oil pumps appear everywhere.  We arrived late afternoon but had to wait for all the officials to come and clear our boat – 12 people in total on our little boat clambering everywhere! We had forgotten what a novelty we are as “white faced yachties” to the locals and they all wanted photos of us and the boat. Our “Downunder Rally” organizer had everything sorted for us with officialdom so no problems there and when we got ashore nibbles and drinks provided as we were all hot and tired in this doldrums area.

I have been feeling extremely hot and bothered the last couple of days, and a bit run down I think with an ear infection,  on top of this I came out in a sweat rash/prickly heat, and ulcers all over my tongue. The last few stops in Malaysia had been rushed stops with lots of heavy lifting of fuel and water/groceries onto the boat my shoulders and neck sore were aching as well.  Matt has been having haemorrhoid issues again, is itchy from bites and had lots of boat jobs to do again recently in the heat - so we were both feeling a bit irritated with each other. Anyway I read up my Ships Doctors book about prickly heat which recommended “removing patient to an air-conditioned room”, and for my arthritic neck and shoulder rest so decided that when we arrived here it was time for a “boat holiday” and some down time in the cool of a hotel along with a visit to a Doctor. The sailing rally organizer (Raymond Lesmana) sorted a hotel for us. Very comfortable -big bed, cool room, nice food and I had a massage the 1st night so slept much better. We went to the Doctor the next morning, both of us coming away with medication. He recommended I will need to see an ear specialist again when we get back to NZ, as I have been having lots of on-going issues in this department in recent months. Another night here in the hotel and perhaps we will be both feeling happier.

We came briefly back out to the boat last night to get some things, only to discover the freezer did not work! (The electric one is OK, it is the engine driven one again) Matt stayed behind from the group dinner (BBQ fish) and removed the expansion valve (whatever that is!) cleaned it, re-gassed the unit, and seems all well again. That is good, but we did not need this in the heat here, with the freezer jam-packed with goodies to get us back to NZ.  It is up to 35 in the day, and thirty at night, and very humid. It is almost too hot to do anything! Anyway, we had another night in the hotel - somewhat shorter, due to Matt’s late night working on the freezer!

We joined the rally group the following day for a tour of the highlights of Tarakan. First stop was the inner city Mangrove and Proboscis Monkey reserve, which is an oasis for the monkeys, crabs, tree snakes and ‘Ikan Temakul” a fish exclusive to the Kalimantan area that crawls over mudflats on its fins.

We then did the WWII museum housed in a disused Australian Army bunker (see pic).  It housed a small but interesting display of memorabilia, and historic photograph display of the development of Tarakan as an oil town

Whilst we were here the skies opened up and it poured with rain, it was decided a stop at a local Kopi (coffee) house was in order before we headed off to the next destination. We enjoyed some good hot coffee here and a variety of steamed buns.

The rain eased and we continued our travels to a replica traditional style village with representatives from the local tribe, along with a Sanpan boat moored in the manmade lake.

Following this visit the bus took us out past the new mosque under construction to the WWII gun emplacements with a pretty view out over the sea. Then this was followed with a few stops to pick up supplies (beer and groceries) and more money for our on-going travels– you can easily go through a million rupiah in a day ($150NZD), and most ATM's only issue a maximum of 1.25million rupiah at a time.

That evening the Sail to Indonesia group were hosted by the Major of Tarakan to a meal, cultural show and song and dance evening. The food was good, speeches not too long and translated into both languages – it was a fun night out and not too late.

Our last day was spent picking up our fuel supplies, fresh fruit and vege, laundry, port clearance documents, and for Matt and I some time at an internet hotspot updating the website. Our final meal here was a renowned crab restaurant where we ate our fill of crab served in a variety of styles. We enjoyed our 4 day/5 night stop here in Tarakan, Indonesia . Although we don’t speak much Indonesian the locals have bent over backwards to help and accommodate us making us feel most welcome. They are intrigued and interested in our lifestyle – they have been incredibly hospitable.   It has been great to have the rally organising team here sorting our documentation, fuel, water, laundry, shopping taking us on guided tours and out to the best local eateries, or sorting whatever our needs are. It takes so much hassle out. The last couple of weeks getting here have been rushed to make the deadline with the pressure on to keep moving along. It’s been nice to have been in one place for more than a couple of days, and the hotel stay was just what we needed – a holiday from the boat!!!

10^th-12^th April 2012

Sandakan (population 470,000 approx.) harbor is at the end of another large river delta so the water is dirty and brown. We could smell the pollution, and see the rubbish floating out from the harbor and river delta for miles before we arrived! It seems the harbor is used as the local tip, even though the city streets themselves were clean and tidy. If you ignored the rubbish, our arrival up the river and into this port city was quite picturesque as you sailed past a large rocky island that was formerly a leper colony/WWII Prisoner of War Camp with the city emerging behind it as you went further into the harbour.  Matt said the rock “reminded him of Ayers Rock in Australia.” Both the yacht Gypsy Rose and ourselves both had issues with sucking up rubbish into our engine water intakes, which required changing water pump impellers and a swim over the side – in the filthy water - not pleasant!

On arrival we anchored outside the Sandakan Yacht Club, as there are no marina facilities here. It is a local drinking spot/club for this predominately Muslim area where alcohol is forbidden. It has a nice little swimming pool, ablutions block, restaurant, and is very cruiser friendly. For a small fee ($30 NZ for the year), we were granted free use of the facilities along with a free club hat and polo shirt. The staff were most helpful and attentive. This is also the only recommended secure anchorage here in Sandakan, as it is right beside the marine police base. Never the less, a yacht was robbed here last week!  The waterways are frantic with a variety of vessels from large ships, fishing vessels coming in at all hours of the day and night along with local fishermen from the nearby fishing villages and the nearby Philippines. It is renowned for being rife with opportunist petty thieves (see above) who will stealthily climb aboard your boat at night when you are sound asleep and take what they can find, especially electronic goods. Thankfully the police and yacht club security staff keep an eye out for you and your belongings.

Unfortunately with the pressure on to meet the start of the “Downunder Rally” date in Indonesia mid-April it is a very quick 2 night stop here to refuel and get fresh supplies before the next leg down to Tawau.  Sadly not much extra time for sightseeing , however we did manage part of a historic walking city tour , and visited the historic Agnes Keith House with English style restaurant and gardens that overlook the city. Agnes Keith was an American who came to Sandakan in the 1930’s and wrote 3 books about her and her husbands’

experiences here in the early 1930’s as the first Forest Conservator for Borneo, their years as POW’s during WWII, and their return to and rebuilding of their lives and house following the devastation of WWII. The two story-wooden villa has now been renovated as a tourist attraction with Museum, and English style restaurant with the waitresses wearing colonial style serving staff uniforms.

Ivan and Cheryl from the yacht Thumbs Up have purchased all 3 books and are sharing them around the 4 boats we are now travelling with to the “Downunder” Indonesian Rally start.

12-15^th April 2012

After leaving Sandakan we were soon back in cleaner waters so decided to put out a fishing lines like all the local boats around us. Around mid-morning we caught the first fish we have caught (on a line) since leaving New Zealand 2 years ago! There was enough fish to offer to feed the group of 4 yachts we are travelling with along this coast. (10 people)!

n a lagoon at the Mouth of the Kanabatangan River at top North Western point of Kalimantan, Malaysia (old Borneo), where you can apparently  see Pygmy elephants, Rhinos, crocodiles, monitor lizards, otters, many tropical birds and even orangutans and Proboscis Monkey’s  that come out of the jungle and along to the river around dawn and dusk.  We anchored in the swiftly moving river, and were about to launch our dingy and head to the yacht Thumbs Up which was the designated “Party Boat” that night for the fish BBQ, when down the river we observed a small floating island of palm fronds coming down the river aiming directly at us!  (see pic opposite) Thankfully it missed all four yachts and happily continued its way out to sea. We did see a number of these in the river, and out at sea along this coast.  

Our next stop was into a quiet little bay called “Dent Haven”, which hooks into the mainland. We anchored under a cell phone tower and managed to get internet and catch up on our mail. The following day we headed down to Gaya Island, which is part of the Marine Reserve area around the world famous dive area of Semporna, and the outlying island of Sipadan. Gaya is a pretty turquoise coloured  reef with high rocky bush clad hills coming right out of the sea in a horse shoe shape. We enjoyed a cool night here with a good breeze flowing through the boat , making sleeping much easier.

The next day was interesting weaving through the narrow passage between the mainland of Malaysian Kalimantan, the fishing village of Semporna, and various island and coral cays in the National Marine Park area.

After passing through this channel we ended up anchoring off in the shelter of a submerged reef. Following  being checked out by the local marine Police boat,  Matt and I enjoyed a snorkel to the reef and viewing a wide variety of colored coral. Then we came back to Island Time and gave her a clean and polish of the hull which had become discolored after staying in the dirty waters at Sandakan. We ended the day with sunset drinks onboard the yacht ‘Gypsy Rose’.

15-17 April 2012

On again down the coast on the morning of the 15^th in very light conditions. It certainly feels like we are sailing in the “land below the wind”, as they say -blue skies, calm seas and very light breezes.  An interesting sight was passing a group of fishing/squid boats anchored miles off the coast over a low lying coral bommie. After a night of fishing that they were anchored at this location in the middle of the day getting their sleep before heading out again for more squid again at night.

The sailing in this region has been in flat calm conditions with very little wind (under 5 knots) and so to cover the distances we need to travel it has been mostly motorsailing. We have undertaken lots of repair work and cleaning jobs while we have been going along in the cool of our self made breeze and feel Island Time is Ship shape and organized for her return down under.

Tawau is our last Malaysian port before we head across the border to Tarakan, on the Indonesian side of Borneo (approx. 82 nautical miles away).  The yacht club here (no marina again but an idyllic sheltered anchoring spot), is the local drinking hole for the mainly Chinese people in this town. The club is super organized, clean and tidy with a full bar, internet, gym, sauna, steam room, pool, pool table and tennis courts, along with a yummy cheap Chinese restaurant. The yacht club committee, management and the youth training squad (racing optimists, lasers and 420's) were all incredibly friendly, helpful and informative. We thoroughly enjoyed our very brief stay here while we resupplied before crossing the border to Indonesia. The town is also clean, tidy, well laid out and organized so easy to find your way around and not too far to walk from the centrally located yacht club. Tawau is recognized as the “Cocoa Capital of Asia”, and has a big Cocoa factory which I was hoping to see but we didn’t get time to do (when I learned from the locals that it only produces Cocoa Powder and not chocolate I wasn’t so disappointed!). On our last night at the yacht club I was plied with several offers of drinks by the locals at the bar so went to bed very relaxed and happy!!!

7-9 April 2012

Our 3 day and 2 night coastal passage to Sandakan was a very easy motor sail in flat, calm conditions with very little wind, but just enough to keep you cool. Having spent the last few weeks a bit marina/land bound sailing up the East side of Malaysian Borneo where there are many large rivers that are full of lots of tree debris and brown silted water from the deforestation that stain and litter the sea with rubbish for quite a few miles off the coast, so not very inviting to swim in.   It was fabulous to be back in clean, clear waters again weaving our way in and out of the numerous little islands and coral reefs. I enjoyed some snorkelling and saw a beautiful coral garden and tropical fish life at the anchorage stops. Matt spent one afternoon re-plumbing one of our toilet breather lines – the vented loop on the outflow pipe was leaking bad odours into the boat. It now breathes through a through hull fitting, so that any odours released go outside!  

28^th March -7^th April 2012

It was a 2 day coastal passage from Kota Kinabalu to the top of Borneo and around to Kudat, with an overnight stop at the offshore island of Mantanani. We hoped to get a nice island anchorage here after being marina bound for the last couple of weeks. When we arrived at this island mid afternoon we found it difficult to find a sheltered anchorage due the wind conditions, sea state. The next location for a possible anchorage was back inwards the main coast of Borneo several hours away. We eventually found a location off the long coral reef at the end of the Island. It was a bit roly at first in the afternoon breeze, but it did settle down overnight.  We had a swim and gave the bottom of the boat a bit of a wipe down of underwater growth after it had sat in the marina at Kota Kinabalu for a couple of weeks. That evening we enjoyed a very enjoyable BBQ meal in the fading light of a glorious sunset, and then enjoyed an outdoor movie on our computer in the comfort and cool breeze in the cockpit – a lovely way to end a day sail.

The next day we headed around the top most northern point of Borneo. We sailed through a passage between a nearby outlying island (Kalampunian) and the main coast of Borneo to the little town of Kudat. Kudat has a very secure and sheltered anchorage called the “Duck Pond” that we have been told about by other yachties. That afternoon as we sailed along the coast we sailed through several torrential afternoon heat rainstorms that reduced visibility to 100metres at times. It did however fill up our spare water cans on the deck from the improvised rain collection system Matt made which is a good thing.  

By the time we needed to anchcor in the Duck Pond” at Kudat the weather had cleared up.

The “Duck Pond” is a very sheltered anchorage/proposed marina location at Kudat. Yachts simply tie up stern to the sea wall at this stage, and at present there are currently no other facilities available. However they are currently driving in the pile moorings for the marina berths, so there was lots of large banging noises and vibration going on with this process.  Because it is so sheltered there is very little airflow here, especially mid morning before the sea breeze starts. It is fortunate the hotel next door is very yachtie friendly and happy for us to use their pool; we support them of course by buying food and drink. Have been spending large parts of the day poolside to escape the heat (35 deg C + in the day, around 30 at night, very high humidity). The hotel manager is involved with the local Tai Chi and Yoga classes and we have participated in those, as we have both feeling our flexibility is much reduced with our current cruising lifestyle.

Kudat is a very small town (you can walk the old and new town sections in about 10 mins each!), with not many local attractions/sightseeing available unless you like golf. There is a very pretty but quite a challenging golf course that backs onto the marina and hotel complex. Whilst we were here filling in time before we had to drive back to attend a meeting in Kota Kinabalu about the Indonesian Sailing Rally we are doing from mid-April to July, Matt did some work on our refrigeration system which has had a few glitches lately – mostly just being low on gas again - thankfully he now seems to have this sorted. With our freezer now jammed packed with 

food to get us through our sailing passage in the upcoming months through Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon’s where supplies will be hard to source it would be very sad and expensive to lose/replace all this food.

On the 5-6^th April we had an enjoyable overnight trip back to Kota Kinabalu for the Indonesian sailing rally meeting. As you couldn’t hire a car directly in Kudat we hired a taxi mini van and driver to get the group of 8 of us from 4 different yachts that are doing the rally and are currently in Kudat to get us there. It was a 3 hour trip with the road rather washed out in places as they try to repair damage from the last wet season in time for the next! They don’t have precast concrete culverts etc to use here so are having to use manual labour, using shutters and making up iron reinforced bar frames before pouring in concrete to form them so the repair job is a long slow process.

Disappointingly the meeting in Kota Kinabalu turned out to be an organisational flop (not that this was totally unexpected from our previous organisational experiences of Sail Indonesia we must say). When we arrived at the hotel we asked about location of meeting, having previously been informed of a time to be there but not a meeting room location. The hotel staff knew nothing about it! When we got hold of the organiser he informed us the meeting had been postponed from 2.30pm till 5pm, and to gather at hotel restaurant. Matt headed out to the marina office to pick up his new electronic chart update software package that had been delivered there, and then enjoyed some air-con time in the comfort of the hotel room updating his computer while I enjoyed the hotel pool facilities. Late afternoon we dressed up for the meeting having been told that a number of dignitaries/Minister of Tourism etc were going to be in attendance.  However in the end only the organiser and one minister came to the so called technical/publicity briefing. The meeting itself was a very casual and short update, question and answer session of the rally event before the minister and organiser went off to another meeting with other local dignitaries for later in the evening! Most of our meeting could have been covered by email without the expense for many of us coming back to Kota Kinabalu or held at Tarakan where all the yachties will be present prior to leaving mid April. On the plus side we enjoyed the break from sweltering Kudat, the luxury of hotel accommodation along with a fabulous buffet breakfast with a large and varied selection of foods from Asia, Indian and western countries. We made the most of the decent free internet coverage as well updating our computers and having skype catchups with various family and friends. We also treated ourselves to another lovely meal at our favourite Italian restaurant here in Kota Kinabalu. Before heading back to Kudat we filled the mini van up fresh groceries ready for our next passage - to Sandakan.

18-28^th March 2012

Kota Kinabalu is our last major city and marina stop before we head off to the more remote locations/countries that we will be travelling through over the next 6 months or so. Our main priority here is to ensure we have all the goodies and things we need before we leave for more barren destinations. Kota Kinabalu, the capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah, was prior to WWII known as Jesseltown. It was completely destroyed except for one building during the Japanese occupation in WWII. As a result it is now quite a modern city but is somewhat lacking in character with a haphazard and uncoordinated design and layout from its rapid rebuild after WWII.

The marina here is a high end resort, and country club facility. It has numerous pools to chose from, a gym, sauna, cinema room, spa facility, badminton and tennis courts, a bowling alley, numerous restaurants, karaoke, a variety of speed boat water sports that you can do along with a top class golf course –in fact whatever you want they can organise! That being said it is all pretty pricey for our budget, and the food is not particularly startling for the money. All the same we did enjoy the upmarket location and made good use of the pools with the free unlimited free water supply, Island Time got a good cleanup while we were here.

 On arrival here we found ourselves berthed beside the catamaran Orono 1, which belonged to a family we had known through the Sail Indonesia Rally in 2010. They are now living here in Kota Kinabalu, and have put their two children into school.  When we caught up with them they offered to take us round town and show us the better shopping places, which was very useful. They also offered to pay Matt for doing some work on their boat computer system so this kept him busy for a few days and put of extra cash into our pockets :-)

While here we took a day trip out to Mount Kinabalu -the highest mountain in Malaysia. We did a circuit trip there and back managing to catch glimpses of the Mountain in the morning as it peaked out of the clouds, before it was totally shrouded in a layer of cloud by the afternoon. It was dramatic but stark vista, but also seemed to be somewhat menacing in its appearance.

At the National Park Headquarters we did a couple of easy walks around the base of the mountain. Sadly in typical Malaysian style with nothing ever maintained once it is completed and so the place was pretty rundown, with neglected tracks, poor signposting, map layouts and with no information centre.  Really it quite disappointing as it has so much potential with its designation as a world heritage site. However that being said the walk we did was incredibly green and mossy with great biodiversity of plant life, and enjoyed the cooler climate. The drive through the mountains took us through interesting local habitats and market gardens terraced on the hillsides. We purchased some fresh produce from the roadside stalls which was beautifully presented and very tasty.

 On our way back we eventually found the memorial site and gardens at Kundasang. This was one end of the Sandakan Death Marches during WWII. This site had been recommended to us by other yachties as well worth a visit.

Towards the end of WWII the British and Australian POW’s were forced by the Japanese to do these long marches under atrocious conditions, and when they were already in poor health after their time already spent in the POW camps. Out of 2400 men only 6 survived, due to the fact that they successfully escaped, and were hidden by local Malay families until the final surrender of the Japanese.  In recent times it has been lovingly restored as a memorial site with 3 uniquely planted and themed gardens to represent the British, Australian POW’s, and Malay families that assisted the escapees. There was also a room with an interesting documentary video giving an overview of what happened, along with detailed information boards. It was a surprisingly emotional and stirring site to visit. A very bad time for the mainly Ausy soldiers, being their worst military losses ever. 99.7 percent. A real black mark in Japanese history.

 

Our return trip back we drove over a windy and at times narrow, poorly maintained road with patches of low cloud and rain that at one stage that made driving very treacherous. Finally on our safe arrival back in Kota Kinabalu we found a fabulously delicious Italian restaurant for a meal that was a real treat - with the best fresh bread we have tasted in a long, long time.  This has become our favourite eating place in Kota Kinabalu. (Its called Little Italy)

Another day trip experience we had in during our time here was to the nearby Ko Lawi wildlife park. It looked quite impressive on the outside with a flash entrance ticketing, carpark, shop/gift area. However once inside we found many of the main animal enclosures could have done with upgrading and given larger spaces for the captive animals to roam in. Perhaps the whole place is slowly being upgraded from the entrance first, but it would have been good to see the animal areas done before the people places in our view. That being said the staff were very friendly and seemed to be genuinely interested in the animals. The wildlife/bird show was quite entertaining and well put together.  I got selected to participate in the show with the Macaw parrots which I’m sure my parrot mad daughter Sue at home in NZ would have been pleased to see.

15-18^th March 2012

After the uncomfortable conditions of the previous day, it was a pleasant ½ day up to the Island of Labuan (just off the coast of Brunei). This is another Malaysian duty free Island that we wanted to make the most of for replenishing our alcohol supplies. Being a largely Muslim region getting alcohol is generally not easy to source and usually very expensive, so worthwhile stocking up when you can. We had to anchor in the busy port area as the marina here is closed and under repair. There is lots of traffic as the port is used as a service port and shipyard for the large oil well industry in this area. Also there are numerous ferries coming in from Brunei and Malaysia to obtain duty free supplies, cruise ships and many small local fishing vessels from nearby fishing village (where they have their houses built on silts over the water).

We did hire a car from a local for the day to enable us to tour around the islands highlights (there are no hire cars on this small island only taxis). Our only request was that it have airconditioning however when it arrived it turned out to be a bit of a wreck, and although it did have airconditioning like we had specifically asked one of the windows wouldn’t windup, so it wasn’t terribly effective. Also the suspension was broken making for a rather uncomfortable ride with 4 of us in it. However there weren’t many options so we made the most of having it.

26^th Feb-13^th March 2012

Miri is an oil industry service town with a mix of ex-pats and locals, and large range of buildings -from simple shacks, to high rises and very salubrious homes. The marina here is secure and one of the few in Malaysia we have come across that is properly constructed. Unfortunately it seems the money for the marina development ran out before proper office and ablution blocks could be completed. The toilets and showers are in a container shed and the office is a 5 min drive away in another block of shops. There are a number of yachties here who have been here for some time - they are very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful about the area. After securing our marina berth it was a relaxed afternoon to recover from our overnight passage and drama of hitting something in the dark of night.

We organised a hire car the next day with Thumbs Up and headed into town to get our bearings, some money and a meal at a friendly outdoor cafe called Ming. (Ming was recommended in lonely Planet). The next day I did a bit of on-line research and bookings to get us organised for a trip to the World Heritage National Park of Gunning Mulu, which has been highly recommended to us. It requires flying in and out and there is very limited accommodation available at the park so you have to book ahead.

 Cheryl and I left the lads to do “boat jobs” and we headed into the local markets to get fresh fruit and vege supplies, and also found a good mall and supermarket. Matt finished off servicing the toilet pump, did Engine Oil and Refrigeration Anode changes and checked the Keel bolts. In the light of the early evening we all headed into town to have a walk around the Civic Fan gardens, which are quite interesting, having a varied formal layout and style. Following our evening stroll we went back to the Ming restaurant we had enjoyed the other day.

On the 29^th Feb we had a day’s outing into the Niah National Park and caves approximately 100kms out of Miri. This cave area is of particular interest to archaeologists, who in 1958 discovered evidence of human occupation dating back some 40,000 years.  It is dubbed as the cradle of human civilisation in the region.  The vegetation is dense with the call and sounds of the wildlife surrounding you and following your progress as you transverse the raised boardwalk.

On reaching the cave entrance you pass through what is known as the ‘Traders Cave’ where bird’s nest and guano collectors used to carry out their transactions. This is followed by the Great Cave which is 250 metres wide at the entrance and up to 60 metres high. The track meanders through the cave and past various rock formations and overhead vents where the sunlight penetrates the cave gloom. Bamboo platform constructions reach up to the ceiling that the locals use to collect Swiftlet bird nests for the Chinese delicacy ‘Birds Nest Soup’. Matt and I also headed down a rickety and very dilapidated board walk a further 1.4 kms to the painted cave, which was is a burial site with some rock drawings, and remnants of tribal boat coffins, which were used to send the spirits off in.

We had sore legs by the end of the 10k walk, which included many steps up through the caves. It’s been a while since we walked that distance in our current lifestyle. Got a freshwater tropical shower on the way out which helped clean us up from the bat and bird shit, and helped to freshen us up a bit.

Another couple of boat job days along with outings to locate various bits and pieces. We also paid a visit to the Petroleum Museum up on Canada Hill behind the town. The best part about it was the views over the countryside and coastline. The museum itself although only 7 years old and quite a grandly styled architectural structure was in true Malaysian style badly dilapidated with no upkeep. Many of the interactive exhibits did not work, and there were rain puddles on the floor- it was disappointing.

The 4^th March we headed out for another exploration of a local National Park –Lambir Hills. We did the waterfall track which was short and pretty but water conditions not particularly inviting for a swim. So we then decided to do the loop track back to the headquarters. After a climb up a path of 120 steps to the sign posted canopy tower we discovered it had been closed and partially dismantled as it was no longer safe. We completed the remaining loop track in just under 3 hours. However it was quite a walk clambering up and down hillsides, with the shallow tree roots acting as steps. The humidity was very high on this day and we certainly had quite a workout on this trail getting our heart rates up and the sweat pouring out of us. We slept well that night!

7-9^th March we flew out for our 3 day/2 night stay at the World Heritage Gunung Mulu National Park. We stayed in the park in nice bungalows and got to visit the four “show” caves. Each cave has quite unique with different features. One of the most famous and unique features is the rock formation in Deer cave which resembles the profile of the former American President - Abraham Lincoln. (see pic below). Lang Cave has numerous stalactites and stalagmites formations to admire and see different images in like the jellyfish, mushrooms, Chinese emperors.

 We had a local boat trip ride up Wind and Clearwater caves, where the rainforest drips down into the water beside you as you journeyed up the river. Clearwater cave is a large cavern that has been formed by an underwater river with crystal clear water that we got to enjoy a most refreshing and cool swim in. Another highlight of this park is the early evening bat exodus, with approx. 3 million bats leaving the cave most evenings in search of food. They look like a trail of smoke as they fly out the cave entrance in a number of wave formations. We also completed a tree canopy walk which gives you quite a different outlook and perspective. While doing this we got to see several young tree lizards and witnessed their amazing colour transformation, to suit the environment (green amongst the leaves, brown on the planks). We unfortunately missed out of doing a night walk which is the time when the wildlife comes alive, due to torrential rain. The park information centre was very well done and informative with several good video’s to watch.

We enjoyed our time in Gunung Mulu National Park. The park is managed by an Australian couple and is extremely well run, organised and maintained. It certainly stands out as an example to other Malaysian parks on how to do the job properly.

Following our return from the National Park we were just waiting for a suitable weather window to head up the coast further. We have decided to give Brunei a miss (we have already seen the highlights of here during our stopover back to NZ December 2010 anyway). Also it would avoid doing another customs and immigration procedures, and we have been advised that the opportunity to buy cheap fuel in Brunei has now become a very difficult process for non-nationals, making it not worth the effort. We finally got away on the 13^th March, planning to do an overnight sail to the duty free Island of Labuan off the coast of Brunei.

21-26^th February 2012

After a delayed start in getting away from Kuching, as Ivan from the yacht Thumbs Up couldn’t start his motor that morning – a dead solenoid. Fortunately Matt had a spare one and did a repair job for them, but it meant we arrived at the Rajang River mouth (in the dark) following a full day trip up the coast from Kuching. Not the best of scenario’s entering an unfamiliar river bar at dark, but with our forward sounding sonar we are able to accurately read the contours and depth of the sea/river bed along with radar to see the coastline and other boat traffic we were able to safely make the entrance.

 On waking the next morning it was wet with poor visibility so we decided to delay further travel and have a lazy day. However Matt ended up doing yet another toilet repair job when the seal of our rear toilet failed!  We did have a lovely BBQ meal that evening with a lovely sunset over the river mouth, and saw fireflies flitting around the boat in the night light.  This was quite exciting as I’ve never seen then before. The next day following a pleasant relaxed special breakfast to start our 27^th Wedding Anniversary day (23^rd Feb), we headed further up the river system. We passed tribal longhouses, a variety of river traffic and dodged lots of logs. Our navigation computer died 20 mins after starting the trip, so I had to drive and navigate while Matt worked on the computer to get it running again. When we got to the anchor point we had the added bonus of internet reception to pick up anniversary messages. It is amazing that even in these remote river passages we have cell phone internet coverage!  Had planned to have an el fresco cockpit meal and drink of wine to celebrate our day, but the mozzies were so fierce we had to hide below instead! 

It was the last leg of our inland river passage today. This morning we joined another river that exits out to the coast it has been interesting seeing the local boats plying the waterway, the community longhouses which have up to 100 rooms, and we have even seen some rare Irrawaddy river dolphins.  There are supposed to be croc’s in these waterways also but haven’t seen anything, perhaps because it is quite a busy river highway. The locals standing fishing in the water so can’t be too much of a problem.

Unfortunately our navigation computer packed up again this morning shortly after starting, Matt was quickly able to get one of our others connected, and once we were anchored just inside the river mouth exit he spent more time investigating the problem. It turned out that the cooling fan was overheating after a short time and stopping/slowing the computers processing. This has now been cleaned out and hopefully will continue to work properly now without stopping.  Following that he cleaned out the inlet hoses on the front toilet, which had some sort of our blockage (smelt like a dead fish!). It seems our toilet issues are never ending, and not one of Matt’s favourite jobs!

 It has been an interesting change taking Island Time up a river system, and certainly a change from doing sea coastal passages. The currents running up and down the river with the tides are quite something – up to 5 knots we have had at times. We have had to clear away river debri/logs that have piled up against our anchor chain. Back out to sea again tomorrow for an overnight passage up to Miri, the next main port.  

25 and 26 Feb, Rajang River to Miri

Left at first light in fog. Less than 100m visibility, so radar on. The tide changed as predicted and gave us a ride out to the outer bar, 16nm from the actual river mouth! That is the end of the delta and the "dangerous shallows" which can be broken water. Nothing like that today, and very light winds (again), so still motoring. We have to be at Miri between 12 and 4pm tomorrow to get in as the entry s shallow, so we have to maintain a 6.2knt average. The wind is helping, blowing first from the SE at about 4 knots, then slowly during the day moving around to be a NW! This is supposed to be the NE trade season, but as we are travelling NE, anything other than that is good! We had a good day and on into the night. The wind stayed at NW, about 8 Knots into the night. Lots of lighting, fortunately none of it close. However, at about 1am there was a great crash, quickly followed by another. We had hit some semi floating object. It was enough to temporarily slow to boat from 7 odd knots to 1!! A quick check revealed no water coming in, but on inspection of the engine bay we found a broken engine mount. Engine off, engine mount removed (after lashing the engine in place)  to discover a broken bolt. Fortunately we had a replacement, so after about an hour we were off again. Made Miri marina about 12:30 pm today.  We'll be here about a week I guess...

10-13^th Feb 2012

We had a very pleasant 3 day passage from Singapore to Kuching. We had two days of good tropical sailing conditions with 10-15 knots of wind, generally with a bit of rain. Leaving the coast of Singapore was very interesting with the city landscape and skyline as a backdrop while we weaved our way through the complex shipping channels surrounding this world shipping hub. Matt reckons we must have passed at least 1000 ships of all shapes, sizes and condition sitting at anchor while we passed along the coast.

We arrived at Kuching around midday on the 13^th, after making our way about 14 km’s up the river to the town and marina area. The river made for an interesting trip with numerous ships ploughing the waterway, industry and power stations along the riverbanks. As it is the monsoon season here at present the water is littered with logs and rubbish that is being washed out to sea. The marina which is located on the edge of town  is subject to the tidal current and river flow. During spring tides the current can run at a speed of up to 6 knots (12 Km’s), rubbish that is flowing down the river piles up around your boat, including whole palm trees with root and all as you can see in this picture on the right.

13-20^th February

We tied up safely at the marina and then located, and completed the necessary documentation with immigration, customs and the harbour master. We got caught in the afternoon tropical monsoonal downpour so had fresh water showers to clean ourselves up in.
The next day after an enjoyable sleep following our passage we arranged to hire a car through the marina manager here. Unfortunately it broke down at the service station after we filled it up with fuel– a flat battery and alternator that wouldn’t charge it. We had to then wait for another car from the hire company!.Anyway the service station attendants were very helpful and presented my friend (Cheryl from Thumbs Up another yacht that we are travelling with and sharing car hire with), and I with fancy heart shaped Valentines days balloons and took photos of us “old ladies” with them on their cellphones. White tourist faces are a bit of a novelty here!

Once we had another car sorted we headed into the centre of town and got some information from the visitor centre and had a bit of a walk around the riverfront. Then we headed out to the new mall here for dinner and some groceries. They had this cool Valentine ’s Day idea organised by a non-profit group to raise money for heart surgery for locals who can't afford it. They were selling heart cookies and cakes, t/shirts and doing romantic look photos for a small charge. I thought this was a great cause and idea for Valentine’s day and indulged in some of the baking which was delicious I must say.

The next morning we headed back into town and did the the historic inner city/waterfront walking tour outlined in the Lonely Planet guide. We also went to a very interesting Chinese museum about their integration and populating of this area. Approx ¼ of the population here in Kuching are Chinese.

 Following this we found a lovely little riverside restaurant to enjoy lunch. We planned to do a river tour mid-afternoon but it started to rain so decided to postpone that till the next day and headed to the main museum instead. This was a good place to spend a couple of hours while it absolutely poured down with monsoonal rains. It was still raining very hard at 5pm so we decided to head back out to the new shopping mall to see the Star Wars movie (Phantom Menace) that has been re-digitised in 3D

16th Feb -we picked up newly printed boat name cards (much better than our homemade ones that we have run out of). Then did the river cruise in the town centre on one of the local river boats. This was quite relaxing and gives you a different view of the inner city and variety of buildings here.

After an early lunch at a riverfront restaurant we enjoyed so much the day before we headed out to the Sarawak cultural centre.

This centre has an array of the different styles of traditional housing from the various regions, many which are still in use today in Borneo. Each house had members of the “tribe” available to talk you about their way of life, type of house and demonstrations of their art forms and culinary delights which you could buy bags to sample. They also had spear and blow pipe making, spinning top making and games that you could try, as well as local indigenous instruments. At the end there was a 45min cultural show in a lovely air-conditioned theatre which was a nice way to end the afternoon. They explained the dances and each one was nice and short and interesting dance interpretation of cultural event such as wedding/funeral/harvesting.
We returned to town and had a very enjoyable Lebanese meal at a waterfront restaurant which was a nice change in diet options and it was pretty to see the waterfront at night which is lit up with highlight lightening adding to the atmosphere and making the old castle and walkway look very striking.

17th Feb - Ivan (from the yacht Thumbs Up), and Matt want a boat maintenance day today and so Cheryl and I enjoyed a girls shopping day.

18^th Feb – Today we headed out to the Bako National Park, which is a small national park located on a jagged jade peninsula that overlooks the South China Sea only ½ hours drive from Kuching. It has a great bio-diversity and a range of trails.  You take a 20 minute small boat ride out to the park, from the nearby local fishing village passing a variety of fishing boats and net systems.

The rivers in this area are home to crocodiles, but we saw no evidence of them on the busy river highway, only some quite graphic blood and gore pictures displayed in the information centre! However like Australia the crocodiles are now protected in this region and have consequently thrived in recent times, with a rapid increase in the number of deaths in the last 10 years as a consequence.

Once out at the national park we registered at the Headquarters, choosing to do the trail recommended in The Lonely Planet guide that would show us a good variety of plants and wildlife to see. Around the park HQ cafeteria there was a very friendly (and overfed by the tourists), bearded pig that was cruising around the grounds. From here we made our way along the mangrove boardwalk out to the start of our trail out along the peninsula. The “walk” was very interesting with a great variety of flora and fauna to observe including bull ants, swallow and bat caves, long-tailed macaques monkey’s, the rare proboscis monkey, brightly coloured dragonflies and mud crabs.

We enjoyed the exercise however it was more of what I would call a trek than a walk. The trail was only 800 metres with an estimated park walking time of 1 hour which seemed very generous for this distance. However we soon discovered that the at times quite steep rocky and tree root covered path to clamber up, and the humid conditions made for slow going. It did take us 1 hour to complete the 800 metre trail with Ivan and Cheryl (from yacht Thumbs Up), who opted to take a boat ride back to the Headquarters rather than walk back out. Matt and I however walked back completing the trail in 35mins, but we certainly got a good sweat up! We returned back to our yachts just as the late afternoon monsoon torrential downpour started. I had a rain water shower on the back deck and washed my clothes at the same time it was so heavy!

19-20^th February – These two days were spent on boat jobs by the men and shopping expeditions by us women, as well as the necessary port clear out procedures with the officals. Matt did a rigging check and readjustment, as well as checking over the steering system in the sheltered conditions of the marina, also some more repair work on our dingy. He also spent about 1 ½ days helping Ivan on Thumbs Up with various jobs. We want to ensure both boats are fully checked over and well prepared for the trip “Downunder”, as once we leave Malaysia we will be travelling in some very remote and isolated places where getting jobs done and sourcing parts will be very difficult or impossible. There will be no more supermarkets for around 4 months!!! so our boats need to be filled with the necessary food supplies to last during this time.

Kuching means “Cat” in Malay and so there were lots of kitsch style monuments around town at various locations including a Cat Museum that is devoted to all things feline!

Kuching is a historic river town with an interesting mix of old and new. This Malaysian state of Sarawak was originally under the control of the Sultan of Brunei. Following a period of history involving considerable tribal infighting the arrival of James Brooke in 1839 , in his well armed yacht ‘The Royalist’ the Sultan of Brunei asked for his assistance to settle the rebellious tribes. The spears and muskets of the local tribes were no match against James Brooke’s well armed ship and the conflicts soon ended.  As a reward for ‘bringing about the peace’, the Sultan of Brunei awarded James Brooke the status of “White Raja” of Sarawak in 1841. For generations, in fact until the invasion of the Japanese in WWII, this family strongly influenced this area, building and setting up Parliamentary and Court systems, a ship yard along with grand castles to live in.

31^st January -10^th February 2012

After negotiating the busy shipping lanes surrounding the waters of Singapore  (see insert navigation screen pic of a section of the Singapore waterways showing all the ship identification symbols), we arrived safely at the One°15 Marina at Sentosa Island that we had heard rave reports about from other yachties. We completed the necessary arrival and clearance documentation and then headed to the nearby infinity pool for a swim.

It is a very pleasant marina environment here at One°15 Marina, with a free shuttle bus that takes you across the bridge to the main part of Singapore and the shopping centres. Our days here have been spent sourcing the remaining boat parts we require before heading south to the more remote areas again. After numerous reports of burglary off boats in these areas, with opportunist thief’s stealthily coming aboard while you are asleep Matt has made up some stainless steel mesh doors for our main companionway hatch and bars for the hatch above our bed, plus have now secured our spare fuel cans and dingy with locks and wire cable to make our yacht less attractive as a target. We have caught up on some of the latest movies and I have enjoyed time poolside relaxing.

Matt and I had a day at Universal Studio’s to indulge me in my Theme Park thrills. We spent the whole day doing the rides and waiting in the queues. I must say the Los Angeles and Gold Coast Australia Universal Studios parks have much more on offer, but I enjoyed my day out.

We also took a trip to the Night Safari Zoo staying till the close at mid-night. It was interesting to see the nocturnal animals out in their environments at their awake and active time. We saw animals we have never seen before including many varieties of Cerval Cats, Sloth Bears, Pygmy Elephants, Bongo Antelope, Rhinoceros, Slow Lorus. We also paid a visit to the local maritime museum here which was interesting to view as it covered many of the ports we have visited in our travels

29-30^th January 2012

We had a couple of easy day trips with overnight stops at these islands groups. Both are very picturesque and tranquil little islands and were pleasant anchorages to break up the passage before the business of Singapore and the shipping lanes there. There were lots of fishing traps in these waters (little wooden stake structures with a shelter hut or platform on top – see pic), so you had to keep a watchful eye out for these that are scattered down the coastline and are quite difficult to spot until up close. Also there is a myriad of local fishermen out in their little boats with nets and floats strung out for quite a distance. This is one of the reasons you don’t want to sail through these waters at night, as the boats are small and unlit and a real danger to your boat to get caught up in their nets.

23-28^th January 2012

It’s a very nice facility here, as you can see by the pictures. The marina here has a properly built seawall and new docks so is very secure. The staff are all friendly, and the pool is very inviting, shady and cool.  An added bonus on our arrival here was to catch up with the crew from the yacht Whisper HR that we had spent some time with during the Sail Indonesia rally in 2010. During 2011 they did the East Malaysia rally, which is where we are heading next and so we were able to pick their brains for information on the best things to see and do.

Matt has spent time as usual doing boat maintenance including some dingy repair work using some new glue we purchased in Langkawi. Unfortunately there was a particularly potent chemical in one of the solvents that he was using to get rid of the old glue which burnt patches on his skin on his hand, back and thigh. Some of these blistered and so he has been a bit tender and sore on these spots for a few days, but is improving now. He also altered our wet weather cockpit screens so hopefully they won’t drip onto our seating anymore. Waiting for a thunderstorm to test them in now.

26th January 2012

We shared a hire car with Ivan and Cheryl from Thumbs Up for a change of scene and Cheryl was keen to revisit the town before we left this area of Malaysia. It was also a good distraction for Matt as his hand and back have blistered from the burns and so he is a bit tender and sore – he is feeling better today though.

We had a pleasant drive on the side roads from Port Dickson where we are (you get to see more of the real way of life for Malaysians than driving on the toll road) – though I must say the road was a bit beaten up and the hire car we had was a bit dilapidated with little suspension in the back with the four of us in the small car so we felt the bumps very harshly. Anyway it was supposed to be a 45min trip but we got a bit lost so ended up with a scenic detour through some local seaside villages/resort areas. Once we got to the centre of Melaka it was traffic gridlock due to the Chinese New Year celebration holidays here, and Melaka is a popular tourist destination. Anyway we eventually got a park and headed out find a place for some food. We walked along the pathway of the waterway where they have now painted the backs of all the buildings with interesting and bright murals which look great.

However as many Chinese people often take an extended 2 week holiday break during this New Year period – although the official public holiday is only 4 days many of the shops were closed as they are Chinese owned and operated L. We eventually ended up at nice restaurant  called “1673” – the oldest in Jonker Street,  for what turned out to be a very late lunch (3pm). After that we wandered down  Jonker Street some more –but it was hot packed and crowded. I did find a new top to buy however to buyJ Then found a chocolate shop where we indulged in some free tasting, and of course some delectable purchases!  There was lots of interesting signage on the walls about the health benefits of chocolate to make you feel OK about your indulgences!

After that we found a building that was originally built in the 1600’s which had been abandoned during 1990-2005, but has been recently restored. When it was abandoned the local Swiftlet (like swallows) birds started to make it their home building nests in the rafters etc. Swiftlet bird nests are a popular and expensive Asian delicacy,  and so therefore this house was restored without turning the birds away from their new abode. Instead it has been turned into a operational manufacturing and visitor information centre about the processing of the nests for the market place.

We have seen many commercially designed birds nest buildings in Asia but you are not normally allowed inside to disturb the birds as it is such a lucrative business. So it was very interesting to go through this restored house and see the birds in action in this habitat that has been carefully restored around the birds environment. In the wild they live in caves, which are very inaccessible to get to.

It was also interesting to see the very labour intensive manufacturing process to clean the birds’ nests of feathers and dirt, and then remould the remaining birds nest tissue into shape, dry it and package it for the market. We did not try any of the soup having had our fill of late lunch and chocolates and it is a very expensive dish. We then drove back to Port Dickson along the toll road so we wouldn’t get lost in the dark. I hadn’t taken my phone with the navigation maps which had been a mistake!

22^nd January 2012

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We used all the daylight hours we had today to make the long passage of 81 nautical miles from Pangkor down the coast of Malaysia towards Port Klang. The conditions were overcast with a few light showers to cool down the temperature, which made our travels quite comfortable. In the afternoon as we drew closer to the narrow coastal waterways around Port Klang we were sucked in by the tide which assisted our speed by up to two knots. Therefore we were able to anchor further down the coast than originally planned, which would make our passage the next day considerably shorter.

We anchored in the mud near the mangroves opposite the main cruise ship terminal of the port area. This is the major port for the region and has around 10 miles of fwharfs and cranes, so is very busy. It is interesting passing through this area and watching the variety of shipping and tugs in action.  

19-21^st January 2012

We ended up spending an extra night in Penang that we didn’t plan for, as Matt helped sort out a few issues out on the yacht Thumbs Up (they kindly paid for an extra night in the marina as a result.) We then headed down the coast of Penang Island and anchored at the far end ready for an early get away for the long leg down to Pangkor the following day. It was a spectacular sunrise view the next morning as we headed out past the construction of the new Penang to mainland bridge (see pic).  When completed later this year this bridge will be the longest bridge in the world.

After a long day of motor sailing we reached a very pleasant anchorage at Pangkor, pretty beach and rocks with bush down to the waterline. The next day we headed ashore for lunch enjoying stretching our legs along the sandy beach. After a tasty chinese meal we relaxed for the afternoon and shared a meal with Thumbs Up that night followed by a game of Yahtzee. As it is the Chinese New Year celebrations at present we witnessed a great display of fireworks that evening from the comfort of the cockpit.

The next morning Matt and I took the dingy around to the bay we had passed the day before that has another one of the many problematically designed and built Malaysian style marinas. Of 10 built around the coast of Malaysia in recent years only two are still operational. They have been either constructed with poorly designed seawalls that allow the wave action to surge through them breaking them apart or are located in areas that frequently silt up and which they don’t seem to dredge so that yachts are unable to enter them. It’s such a waste of money and resources. This particular one was only open a year before the pontoons had broken away.

In the afternoon we enjoyed a 1 ½ hour sail down to a nearby group of islands called the Kepulauan Sembilans and anchored just off Rumbia. This short trip and overnight stop would shorten our next leg down to the Port Klang area by 10 nautical miles making it an easier day. It was sundowners and a BBQ on board Thumbs Up this night, and another round of Yahtzee.

13-17^th January 2012

We had a pleasant day sail down from Langkawi to Straits Quay Marina at Penang Island. The day was overcast with drizzle off and on, but a good wind gave us several good hours of sailing.

 On arrival here in Penang Matt and I both went to the specialist centre here (it’s a great service – you just tell them what sort of specialist you want to see and they book you in, and you get seen the same day!) I went to a nose, ear and throat specialist as I have been quite deaf in my left ear for over a month following a head cold, but with no fever or discoloured discharges. Anyway following my check-up it was revealed I did have an infection. This was cleaned out, and now I can hear properly again. Matt got his haemorrhoids seen, and has been given a range of medicines to take when needed.

Matt worked on our steering/auto-pilot system as it started making an unhealthy noise when we were leaving Langkawi. This was the result of a magnet in the electric motor (on the hydraulic pump) coming adrift. He has fixed with some high temp epoxy, and changed the hydraulic oil.

 It is currently Chinese New Years in this part of the world at present – so lots of interesting cultural celebrations going on,   and special foods to try.  We watched a lion dance one night and Chinese acrobats another.

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9-13^th January 2012

We hired a car for a couple of days to complete the restocking of the Duty Free goodies obtainable here. We also got to pick up our new ‘Takacat’ dingy that we had arranged to have sent here from New Zealand. Our old dingy is on its last legs and constantly needing repairs, and a dingy is an essential item for our current lifestyle. We felt we couldn’t risk the old one making it back to NZ with some of the remote places we will be heading to in the next year  where it will be difficult to replace it if required.  

We had also had a replacement water pump sent for our electric fridge as this had been playing up as well.

We were also able to catch up with a number of other yachties that we haven’t seen for some time which was a bonus, and got to pass on various guides and resources for those who are heading up to Thailand now as we aren’t planning to be back that way. Next stop Penang Island.

3^rd- 9^th January 2012

After completing our clearance formalities at Chalong Bay in Phuket we made our way down the coast of Thailand stopping a several different locations that we hadn’t been to before. We had planned to get over to the Krabi Coast of mainland Thailand as we had heard this was quite spectacular and now is the season to head that coast. Unfortunately the wind conditions just weren’t co-operating so when we got to the half way point off the big island of Yao Yai we decided to stop there and review the conditions the next day. It was still no better the next day so instead we headed down to a quiet little bay at the Northern end of Phi Phi. The next day we had a pleasant sail down to Lanta Island which is renown for its long sandy stretches of beaches. We enjoyed a meal ashore that night and made the decision to stay an extra day here to explore the island by motorbike the next day.

On our tour of Lantra we first headed South to the National Park are, and then back up the coast and across the southern pass road to the old original port town for Lantra where we had lunch. We then headed up the Eastern coast road to the main village of Saladan which is the ferry access point for the island from the mainland. Then back down the western coast stopping for a swim and a drink at one of the long sandy beaches that you pass on this coast.

The next day we enjoyed another pleasant sail down to the island of Kraden which had surprising clean water to enjoy some snorkelling at. The following day it was down the coast a bit further and we made the decision to stop at the little idyllic tropical island of Bulon Le that we had enjoyed so much on our way up back in November spending the last of our Thai money on lunch at the resort of Pansand. Matt was feeling a bit under the weather that afternoon with his cold symptoms, so decided we would stay the night rather than head to Tarantao as originally planned. However late afternoon the breeze came up in the direction which would have made staying there uncomfortable so we set off for the two hour trip down to a more protected anchorage at Tarantao, anchoring in the last of the dying light. The next morning I enjoyed a walk down the isolated long beach in the hop of maybe seeing turtles which apparently reside here at this time of year – unfortunately I did not see anything, and the water here was not clear enough to swim in. It was then time to make the final hop down to Langkawi and back to Malaysia.