Wednesday, June 29, 2011

WEEK 10 - Pulau Satang Besar to Santubong River

Tuesday 21 June - Pulau Satang Besar to Santubong River
01°42.920N / 110°19.453E
We had sundowners pn the beach last night. Most of the boats left in the morning to catch the rising tide to get into the Santubong river. We cleaned up and had a lazy day and were the last boat to leave at 3pm to catch the afternoon rising tide. We motored very slowly and went over the shallows at 5pm and up the river with a sharp turn left and we could see all the yachts anchored. We went past the first boat which was Single Malt so we anchored just behind them. Cilantro and Braveheart went right up the other end. We have to anchor to the side of the river to give barges room to negotiate. We are quite close to the dinghy jetty which is privately owned but the owner allows us to use it and walk through his property. A quiet night on board.
Miles:12 TTT: 1547

Wednesday 22 June - Santubong River
We are anchored under the Santubong mountain. Braveheart called up Cilantro to tell them there was a 4m croc between their boats. The skipper who had been in his dinghy with legs dangling over cleaning the side of his boat abandoned the chore!! Our skipper went up the mast to rethread the halyard for the headsail. At 1pm we met Cilanto, Braveheart and Single Malt and walked to the village of Santubong and had lunch at a little local eating place - was a lovely meal. In the evening we all met Sasli (Sail Malaysia) ashore and had a few byo drinks while he advised of our agenda. We then went back to our boat for a lovely feed of fish!

Thursday 23 June - Santubong River
The crew awoke at 4.30 - boat felt funny and thought I could hear anchor chain going over itself but we are anchored in mud. Went to the back bunk to read and looked out the window a couple of times. Could see a buoy outside with flashing lights indicating the end of a fishing net. It was just on daylight when I heard a noise and looked up at the window to see three men there - I thought we were being boarded and let out a scream which frightened the life out of the skipper who awoke to find me not in bed. He flew up on deck and found three fishermen holding their boat off ours whilst trying to retrieve their fishing net which was wrapped around our boat. Think they must have been trying to unravel it for ages. They were very apologetic but couldn't get all the net and ended up cutting it. The problem now is we are hoping it is just wrapped around our anchor chain and not around the prop as obviously we cant dive on it here to clear it because of the crocs!! We wont know till its time to go. We had booked a minibus for 9am for the last four boats to go to the Harbour Master, Immigration and Customs. We would never have found them on our own. We collected some charts which the other boats had ordered, had lunch and were back at the boats by 2.30. At 5pm we all boarded the buses and were taken to the Borneo Convention Centre which is huge and fantastic architecture - a very impressive building - much better than Brisbane's. It is only two years old. We were given a talk by Sarawak Tourism and a short video on the place. Then we ate at the restaurant there - absolute five star dining and they had the most magnificent buffet - amazing food and amazing surrounds. We had fun with the chocolate fountain. After a wonderful evening the buses delivered us back to our boats.

Friday 24 June - Santubong River
We left on the bus at 7am to go to the Orangutang Sanctuary. The feeding time was at 9am. The Sanctuary is on the outskirts of Kuching with a 15 min walk up a road then 5 minutes into the jungle. The alpha male - Richie - came in first. It was lovely to see them but we had been spoilt at Kumai!!! We then headed to a couple of souvenir type shops and then were dropping into Kuching town. Kuching means cat in Malay. It seems to be a very nice very spread out city. The Muslims live on one side of town and the Chinese on the other- pretty big flash houses. We went to the Tourist Bureau, had lunch at a local Chinese eatery, had haircuts and walked along the river and decided to catch a local bus home. We got to the bus station at 4.30pm, the bus came at 5.30 and left at 5.40. We found the wild man of Borneo on the bus! One of the local lads (whose tattoos looked infected) obviously had too much ganga - his eyes were glazed and positively scary. First he threw up all over the backsteps of the bus and then was swaying all over the place and punched the wall. His mates sat him down and all the young girls vacated their seats around him. Suffice to say it was not a pleasant journey. Saw where the not rich people live and there was a lot of rubbish around. We finally got back at 7pm then went to the Chinese restaurant which wasn't impressive.

Saturday 25 June - Santubong River
Met Cilantro ashore at 9.30 and walked 4 - 5 km to the Rainforest Cultural Centre which is a living museum. It is also where the Rainforest Music Festival will be held. It has seven examples of different tribes' housing - longhouses etc and a really good dance theatre which was really entertaining. The fellow with the blow pipe was hilarious and had us in stitches but still managed to convey how deadly the blowpipes are. We had a go of one a bit later and you just give a little puff and the arrow shoots out - amazing. We finished with lunch then walked back getting back around 4pm.

We had originally thought we would stay here for the Rainforest Music Festival but it is two weeks away and we have to be in Miri (300 miles away) by the 15th so we will sail up there and leave the boat in the marina and then come back. Seems a bit silly but otherwise we would fall behind the rally. For those worried about the fishing net around our boat - never fear we are again on the move.

Missing everyone so much.
Fair winds and calm seas
Dell and Peter

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