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01/10/23 Sun. Strong winds for a few days, we are getting south westerley 30 knots here in the pond, so it will be much higher outside - and we need to go to Brunei very soon as our visa's are due to expire! When I switched on the sailing instruments to see the wind speed, I noticed the first is now getting the dreaded black spot from the centre - the second instrument was much worse!! These are expensive ($500 each) Furuno instruments which I fitted in 2016 so I'm not very pleased about it. This makes 5 instruments which have failed for the same reason in the last six months.
02/10/23 Mon. Ana continues with the making of a 'pac-a-main' sail cover for Craig. The bimini cover for Pierre and Charlotte is complete and we just need to put it up for photos to send to them in France.
03/10/23 Tues. Over to Penuwasa this afternoon to put up the bimini cover, take photo's and have an ice cream! My Wise card, which should have been here by the 24th September has still not arrived.
04/10/23 Weds. Went ashore with Craig and Josephine this morning for a little shopping, collect 100 litres of diesel and visit the Post Office to see if they have my Wise card (No).
14/10/23 Sat. Wise card arrived at the Post Office a couple of days ago. Yesterday we went to Jabatan Laut, Immigration and Customs to check out, now to wait for a suitable weather window for heading south.
15/10/23 Sun. We intended slipping today and anchoring in the pond in readiness for an early start on Monday, but the winds were strong so we decided to stay put for a day or two.
16/10/23 Mon. Slipped this morning at 0700 as the weather looked as if it would be OK. Once we had rounded the Tip of Borneo, things started to change - the wind kept swapping direction entailing lots of sail configuration changes and there was an unpleasant swell running which induced heavy rolling. We arrived tired and hungry at Teluk Usukan at 1930, in the dark and the rain! The sea surface looked very flat and calm but something was happening beneath the surface and the boat rolled all night long - very uncomfortable!
17/10/23 Tues. The boat continued to roll this morning and at 0900 I decided I couldn't stand another 24 hours of this, so we weighed anchor and moved south 6 miles to Teluk Ambong which was fine until mid-afternoon when the swell from seaward crept into the bay. At least it wasn't rolling beam on, the bows just went up and down over each wave, so we sat and waited to see what would happen next. What happened next was it got worse! We weighed anchor again and moved 2 miles northward to shelter in another bay.
18/10/23 Weds. Weighed anchor at 0600, hoisted the mainsail and set off for Pulau Tiga. Throughout the day, the winds constantly changed and we were continually changing sail configuration. It was not continuous enough to stop the engine, so we had it on low revs to keep the batteries charged up. Arrived in Tiga at 1630 and initially the anchorage was fine and sheltered from the westerley wind.
19/10/23 Thurs. Happy Birthday Dad, I hope you are having a better time than me! I was woken at 0200 with strong winds blowing from the opposite direction they were supposed to be, the bow pitching up and down over each white horse. Then the heavy rains came. At 0430, things started to calm down and I went back to bed for an hour. Weighed anchor at 0630 and continued our journey. We decided to call in to Labuan marina and shelter for the night, get a decent sleep for a change, We docked there at 1400 - that's the first time the boat has touched land for 1,183 days (apart from haul out for bottom painting!)
20/10/23 Fri. An uneventful crossing to Muara this morning, just the usual dodging of oil platforms which is normal for this area. Checking into Brunei has changed a little but was fairly easy. Most of our old friends who worked here have gone home at the end of their contracts and Regie who ran the restaurant has also gone home to Manila.
23/10/23 Mon. Paul, who worked here for 35 years and has returned to sell his boat, kindly offered to run us around various places today. So we managed to get some bacon, sausages, Weetabix and other things. Also some 20mm nylon mooring rope as well as 100 litres of diesel @ 31c a litre (about 19p).
28/10/23 Sat. Our stay in Serasa has come to an end. I can't say that I like the changes that have occurred here over the last 3 years, the yacht club which used to be busy always, is now practically deserted. In our whole stay here, I only saw 3 people in the swimming pool, 2 kids getting sailing lessons and 5 people (including us) in the restaurant. We weighed anchor at 1100 to catch the ebb tide through the channel, and made our way towards Labuan, arriving there about 1500.
29/10/23 Sun. Today, I took off the Nasa Depth Sounder head which was fitted new in PP but ceased to work in Kudat. I also stripped down my old one and compared the two circuit boards in an attempt to find the problem. Eventually, when I connected it direct to the batteries.....it worked! There must have been a faulty connection somewhere along the line although I had checked the voltage at the unit before removing it. While I had the old one apart, I changed the rear polarising film and now that one works as well, so I have a spare now.
30/10/23 Mon. Heavy rain during the night tripped out the shore power connection which gave me another day of sorting out electric problems. The lead and sockets at each end were OK, so it had to be the socket on the boat. Fortunately, I had a spare onboard, so that was fitted and the connection restored, giving us a fan for the hot nights!
31/10/23 Tues. Mark and Kim (Zizi) arrived this afternoon, along with Lionel and Julie (Two Dragons), on their way from Miri, around the top of Borneo and down to Indonesia. Sadly, Lionel hurt his arm after leaving Jerudong and needed to visit the hospital here where they told him it was broken and he could not sail anymore. We wait and see if he continues to KK or returns to Miri.
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