The Big Smoke

Our arrival into the Santubong River was heralded by the smoke-laden atmosphere which became evident at least 50NM out as we approached the NW cape of Borneo, Tanjung Datu. Not only could we smell it in the air but we had to turn off our running lights on the bow as they were reflecting too much light off the smoke particles making visibility difficult in the almost total darkness. The half moon was hidden behind cloud but a thunderstorm over the land was flashing away giving some relief to the black night. We arrived at the approaches to the river at about 8.30 and finally caught sight of Mount Santubong, almost hidden by low cloud and covered in smoke haze. The smoke is from fires out of control in the Indonesian state of Kalimantan on southern Borneo. It has been reported that a severe El Nino has created extremely dry conditions on the entire island.

We entered the estuary, crossed the bar and dropped the anchor in the calm waters of the river. As the tide commenced its runout we dropped into bed and slept until early afternoon. Today we are totally refreshed from our 3-day passage from Tioman Island and decided to take a walk through the local village of Santubong. It is now Ramadan and most of the locals are fasting during the day and several villagers had food stalls set up for the Muslims to buy their food to break their fast - in Santubong this would be about 6.45. They encouraged us to buy some of the sweets and also to eat as they wanted to know what we thought of it. They weren't too worried that we could eat but they couldn't. The sweets were delicious and the fish cooking on the barbecue looked very inviting but we didn't try it - we would wait for dinner.

Day Four

Had a pretty good run yesterday, sailing the whole day again, which makes a nice change. Conditions varied with a comfortable southerly getting us along at more than 6 knots interspersed with rain and wind squalls at 20-25 knots. One particular passing squall decided to come from the SSE which made our intended track unattainable so we changed tack and went west and south of a group of shoals rather than north and east. This worked out well and the first part of the night we were honking along at 7+ knots with a favourable current. Once we came inside the NW cape on Borneo, Tanjung Datu, the breeze started to drop and we have been going flat out with sails and engine to try and make the Santubong River entrance just before the 9:04 high tide.

At 0600 our position was 01deg 54.970N, 109deg 32.928E, wind was about 5 knots from the south and our speed was 5.8 knots. We should arrive in the anchorage at Santubong about 0930. Distance travelled will be 398 nautical miles in 72 hours.

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Day Three

Continued to have good wind all day with about 12-18 knots from the SSE giving us good speed. Once we came past Pulau Bawah the current was not so strong against us. Towards the end of the day we started seeing shipping traffic along a NE-SW track. Our AIS has made identifying the speed and direction of the ships much easier than just relying on radar and guesswork. From about 0400 the wind has been southerly at about 20 knots so have made good time despite a double reef in the main and reefed headsail.

At 0700 our position was 02deg 24.990N, 107deg 55.032E, wind is 15-28 knots from the south and our speed is 5.8 knots. We are sailing under double-reefed main and staysail. The reef will come out shortly.

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Day Two

After yesterday's slow start, we are moving along nicely this morning. We had a busy time with crossing the shipping lanes up until about midnight when almost every ship going north or south crossed our track within less than two miles of us. We were able to sail from just after midnight and the wind increased to 10-15 knots from the SE. A line of thunderstorms slowly drew closer behind us with some fantastic flashes but it never quite caught us before giving up. At 0720 our position is 02deg 32.977N, 105deg 45.474E, wind is 12-15 knots and our speed is 6.2 knots.

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Day One

It has been a slow day after a slow start. We were finally wedged out of our berth when one of the catamarans left about 9:00. There was a nice wind blowing but by the time we cleared the island the wind had already started to drop plus it was from the stern so not much pushing happening. We tried sailing until about 12:00 when we turned on the engine and have been motoring ever since. The sloppy seas have calmed down and we have a swell from the south making the boat roll a bit, otherwise all is well. Position at 1800: 02deg 48.180N, 104deg 40.405E. Distance so far: 36NM.

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Will We Ever Get Out of Here?

The day of departure arrives and the little marina is absolutely jam-packed. We are sandwiched in with two charter catamarans rafted up behind us with two large ferries rafted the other side of them!! Maybe they will all wake up soon and leave. Tweed's grey hull can just be glimpsed behind the left hand catamaran.

D-Day Minus 1

Tomorrow we depart Tioman Island off the east coast of Malaysia for Santubong in Sarawak. Below is a chart of our proposed route across the South China Sea, passing close by the Indonesian islands of the Anambas. The passage is about 400 NM and should take 3 days, possibly 4. Three days will put us outside the Santubong River to await the high tide in the morning when we will be able to enter the muddy waters to anchor off the small village of Santubong.

Arrival Tioman Island

Tuesday morning and similar conditions to Monday with a couple of hours of sailing as we approached the Pahang River. We anchored just north of the river where a lot of earthworks, dredging and building of a seawall is going on. Several tugs with barges were anchored off and the work continued until about 10:00 p.m. It seems another engineered river entrance is underway, creating another safe harbour for boats.

Just as we were about to drop our anchor, a swiftlet flew into the cockpit, landed on a cushion and promptly closed its eyes. We were only about half a mile offshore but maybe it had come from further out and was just too exhausted to continue. We moved it to a more protective environment and about three hours later it flew off and headed for shore. We have had birds join us before on occasion but usually further out. We once had a tern roost on our pulput on the bow and stay there all night. It didn't fly away until the sun was well and truly up.

Wednesday was our last leg to Tioman and the day we had the most wind. It was frustrating day, however, as it was just a bit tight on for our heavy boat to make the most of it. Along the way we noticed what at first we thought were just some black flags marking some fishing floats and bobbing about in the small waves. Then, they appeared to be moving. As they passed about three metres alongside us we realised it was a school of sailfish busily feeding on smaller fish!! Then we noticed there were at least six groups scattered in the vicinity all with a flock of terns circling and diving for the scraps. This was a first as we had never seen this occurrence before.

We are now in the marina at Tioman Island for a few days to replenish the ships stores and prepare for heading across the South China Sea to Sarawak. The island is duty free so we are able to top up our wine and beer. The other big draw to Tioman was to catch up with David and Kris from Taipan who have recently returned from five months in Australia where we helped celebrate their wedding in April.

Weather Fair, Sailing So-So

Two days of fair weather with not much wind has meant a lot of motoring, especially as the current has been running against us. However, we have had peaceful nights in good anchorages. Saturday night at Pulau Kapas, anchored over sand in 5 metres where we were able to have a swim and then last night at Pulau Tenggol anchored again over sand but this time in 20 metres. A calm night only to be awakened by thunder and lightning - more like an alarm really as it was very short-lived and was gone before we got the anchor up. Now we are anchored in the river at Kemerman, 04 deg. 14.510N, 103 deg. 26.742 E. The entrance was nothing like the chart and a breakwater has been installed near the entrance which was quite safe to enter with the tide still having 1 metre to fall.

The Kemerman entrance from the anchorage

There has been a stream of fishing boats coming in and now going out. Several have beached themselves on the shore near us to load up with bags of sand - not sure of the purpose - before also leaving for the night's fishing. Hope they do better than we did today.

All In All, A Good Day

We departed the marina at Terengganu yesterday about 11:00 on the high tide. We had beautiful wind from the southeast and had a good sail all of the way to Pulau Redang, 32 NM to the north. What's more we caught our first fish in a while and it was a lovely Narrow-barred mackerel - plenty for four to share for dinner on Tweed. A line of big clouds along the coastline looked threatening for a while but even they decided to leave us alone. Fresh fish on the barbecue accompanied by a delightful Thai salad a la Daun was a fitting finish to a great day.

Postcard from Terengganu

Whoa! We have been back in Terangganu since 30th July. We have now checked
out with Customs and Harbour Master and will leave tomorrow for Tioman
Island. We should arrive there in about 6 days time. Apologies about lack
of blog updates but will try and get something readable up soon!!

In the meantime here are some links to pictures from our travels:

Chiang Rai to Mae Salong

The Golden Triangle

Mekong River to Luang Prabang, Laos

Luang Prabang to Vientiane

Vientiane