WEEK 16: Telek Ambong to Sandakan

Saturday 30 July Telek Ambong to Kudat
06°56.512N / 116°50.586E (13m)
We left at 6.15 in a slight swell with the main up in the hope of some wind. We had been thinking of going out to some islands but it was still a bit swelly so decided to try to catch them on the way back. We can see five other rally boats and Braveheart and Single Malt are somewhere up ahead. It was a beautiful day and rally boats started telling jokes over the radio. We went up and around the tip of Borneo through a channel with rocks on either side. A couple of boats pulled into shore to anchor but it didn’t look as if it would be calm so we kept going down around the next point. We passed two French boats along the way one of which was Bernard who was delighted to see us and gave his big cheery wave. We came into the bay and anchored on the inside of Nimbus in 13m off the north of the town of Kudat at 5.15. There were stilt villages along the waterfront. Another lovely still night.
Miles: 59 TTT: 2,124

Sunday 31 July – Kudat – Pulau Malawali
07°01.957N / 117D21.008E (22m)
We left at 8.30 and went down to the Kudat boatyard and anchored off to see the yard and haulout facilities. The boats in the yard were held up by cement blocks and it is just gravel but would be ok for a quick haulout to antifoul. I don’t think we would leave our boat on the hard here. We then headed for an island 20 miles away intending to anchor but when we got there around 1.30ish, there was a town and even though the water was clear it was full of debris and certainly not conducive to swimming so we decided to keep going. It was getting late by the time we reached Pulau Malawali and the anchorage we had chose had depths of 22 metres. There was a reef all around and it was really too late in the arvo to see under the water. Luckily it was low tide and we could see the reef sticking out of the water. We went around a reef spit and headed in. Cilantro went suddenly from 20 to 2m and backed off so as it was 5.50pm and the sun was almost down we anchored in 22m. We could see two cats way out on a reef and when they saw us anchor they came in to join us. When we pulled up, a boat with a man and two boys came over asking for food. On the shore there are three fragile looking stilt houses – stilts are very high. They don’t speak Malay so we presume they are Fillipino. There were a lot of people gathering stuff off the exposed reefs. A very calm anchorage.
Miles: 49 TTT: 2,133

Monday 1 August – Pulau Malawali – Tanjong Sumangat
06°38.201N / 117°30.230 (5m)
Through the night we could feel the anchor pulling and knew we were caught on a bommy. In 20m of water!! We had been very lucky when we came in yesterday that it was low tide as we could see the reef. This morning it was high tide and it just looked like lovely calm water with no sight of the dangers lurking beneath. We launched Bob and went for a snorkel. The coral was quite good but we were snorkelling on a drop off and it just gave us an uncomfortable eery feeling so we didn’t stay long. We took the bathoscope and checked out the finger of reef which Cilantro had found yesterday. As we pulled up anchor we were able to manoeuvre the boat and luckily were able to get the anchor chain off the bommy. We had our whole 60m out so it could have been disastrous. We pretty much followed the shipping channel to the next island but the anchorage looked exposed so we kept going and took a shortcut through the reef. We went into the channel between an island and the mainland doing wind against tide and only doing 2.9 knots at one stage. At last we reached shallow water and anchored in 4.7m and went back to 5.5 with 20m of chain out. Through the night we had pretty strong winds and rain.
Miles: 34 TTT: 2,167

Tuesday 2 August – Tg Sumangal – Pulau Libarran
06°06.220N 118°01.139E (12m)
We awoke to find we were just floating around in the bay. Obviously we should have put out more chain so we dragged and luckily we went into deep water – 12m and not into the shallows. We left at 7am and it was a long boring day of motoring with dead flat sea. At lunch time we passed a lovely island where Baganoff was anchored. We pressed on thinking we were going to a lovely island but when we go there at 6.10pm it was an island with a dirty village and dirty water which didn’t look very appealing. We were amazed to see a herd of cows on the beach! The anchorage shoaled up a lot quicker than the chart plotter indicated and we anchored in 12m in a 2 knot current. Not ideal but too late to go elsewhere.
Miles: 55 TTT: 2,222

Wednesday 3 August – Pulau Libarran – Sandakan
05°50.496N / 118°07.737E
We awoke around 3am as the wind and tide were picking up and by 4am it was blowing really hard and we were dragging anchor. We started the motor and held the boat into the wind until the storm abated and we realised our anchor was at last holding. In the light of day we found we had dragged 130m! Cilantro left and we upanchored at 7.45 and headed towards Sandakan. We could hear snatches of conversation from the rally boats there and it sounds as though there has been a theft from a boat. We motor sailed through some huge bamboo contraptions built in the water with a little hut on each and fishing nets beneath. All the nets were out of the water so they are not being currently used. Maritime Malaysia called us up on the radio to check where we had come from and we came around the big cliff into the Harbour of Sandakan. We anchored but it didn’t hold and pulled it up and we had a big bag around the anchor. We held the second time. We are out the back of the fleet – have to anchor a long way from other boats as we all go every which way. The water is full of debris/rubbish and we are anchored beside a poor looking stilt village and a huge mosque. There are lots of fishing boats and smaller boats going back and forth so have put 6 flashing blue lights on the boat. It seems that at 2am last night two men did a raid on all the boats. A couple of the crews were up and frightened them off but three boats lost computer, phone, money, camera, credit cards etc but the really scary thing about it was that these men actually went aboard down below while people were sleeping and in one case actually entered the bedroom. The police came and took finger prints and have a suspect – they just have to find him!! The police will be patrolling our boats for the next couple of nights. They have a huge problem here with illegals from both the Philippines and Indonesia. Cilantro picked us up at 5 and we went in for a rally meeting and stayed for a very nice dinner at the Sandakan Yacht Club. We can safely leave our dinghies there. A big storm came through and we came back in sprinkling rain. We locked the boat up when we went out and when we went to bed – only the second time we have ever done that.
Miles: 23 TTT: 2,245

Thursday 4 August – Sandakan
We went ashore at 11 and caught a bus the short distance to town and then a mini bus to the Sandakan War Memorial which is built on the site of the POW camp. It is a very sad thing that only six men out of over 2,500 survived the camp and the death marches and they survived only because they escaped. It was a place of sheer horror. Very well maintained courtesy of the Commonwealth Government. We then caught the bus back and had lunch, did a bit of shopping and then got ready for the rally dinner. We were the guests of the Regent (Mayor) at his beautiful home high on the hill overlooking the harbour. It was sponsored by Carlsberg so the glasses were never empty and the ladies started with champagne and then red and white wine. The Regent could sing and so he did a couple of songs and it was all really great dance music. We had a lovely buffet and heaps of dancing and a fantastic night. When we got back to the Yacht Club we got more free drinks and good conversation and it was really late by the time we all made it back to our boats – some in better conditions than others!!

Friday 5 August – Sandakan
Peter and James went in at 8am to get fuel. I finished booking our airfares and we had an easy day. We went ashore around 5.30pm, had a rally meeting to gather information about going up the Kinabatangan River. We were then taken out to dinner by Dr Edmond and Cathy (locals) at a local restaurant. I thought I ate a small piece of fish but Dougie reckoned it was frog/toad!! Anyway it was a lovely evening and Sandakan is looking like a really nice place.


Next stop up the Kinabatangan River!

Take care all
Dell and Peter