Week 19 -Balabac Town - Pulau Tiga

Sat 12 May - Balabac - Clarendon Bay
07°48.964N / 117°01.236E
We left at 7am and motor sailed down the coast of Balabac Island to Clarendon Bay. There were heaps of logs, branches, sticks and leaves etc and we did a fine old zigzag trying to avoid them. Couldnt avoid them all and gave one a glancing blow. We arrived at Clarendon Bay at 10.45 and Cilantro came in about an hour later. There were quite a few large turtles around. We had to avoid reef on the way in and then true to form it started pouring rain. During a break in the rain an old man came out paddling his little green canoe against the wind and he wanted to trade some bananas. It started to rain so we got him on board. He was cold and wanted something warm. We found an old long sleeve shirt, some shorts, a hat, sugar, rice and whatever else we could give him. He was 70 years old. He then went to Cilantro to get some eye drops and medicines. We had visits from two others and gave some rope for the cows and whatever else we could find. They always came with something to trade- we like the casava...The old man warned us there were large crocodiles around though they leave humans alone and only take goats and dogs! James decided not to dive on his prop! The canoes they have here are very simple with no outriggers, very low to the water and don't look terribly stable.
Miles: 15 TTT: 1758

Sun 13 May - Clarendon Bay
Happy Mother's Day
Well no internet and no phone coverage. We were hoping to get to the lighthouse on the top of the hill today. Took the dinghies down towards the mangroves where there was supposed to be a coral jetty but the only path we could see was in through the mangroves and given the crocodile situation we decided against that. Also if the tide went out we would have to pull the dinghies through mud through the mangroves. We tried to get in near the palm trees where the old man said to go but it was too shallow and the bush looked a bit thick anyway. So decided to give it a miss. Its very windy.

Mon 14 May - Clarendon Bay
It blew a gale through the night and we were hoping to leave for Borneo at 6am but there were huge seas out there and we could see the big ships going past almost disappearing in the waves. One supertanker that went past was going from Saudi Arabia to America with a load of crude oil and he had a 22 metre draft! The wind blew all day. A man with a couple of kids came out again and wanted some rope for his cow and traded some kang kong - a green leaf water plant. It took ages to wash it and look for bugs! He got some pretty good rope though. Once again it is blowing a gale and raining-I really hate the wind. In the middle of the night we heard a bang and dived out of bed and threw the spreader lights on and looked through the windows- we didn't go out. Couldnt see anything but the next day we found the bunch of bananas had fallen down and landed on the deck!!!

Tues 15 May - Clarendon Bay
The weather has finally cleared but the seas still look a bit rough so we will spend another day here. Our dear old man brought us out some large shells and wanted to sell them for money so he could buy some coffee and sugar. We gave him a little bit of coffee and 100 pesos and just took the small shell. He was insisting we take them all but we explained we couldn't bring them back to Australia.

Wed 16 May - Clarendon Bay - Malaysia
07°16.096N / 116°59.228E
At last we finally are on the way. A little bit swelly but not too bad. We motor sailed to Balambangan Island and anchored at 3pm. We thought we were clever before we left Malaysia and purchased money cards to top up our phone and internet but the sim cards have expired! We have been having a daily HF radio sked to keep in contact with other boats. We changed the courtesy flag from the Philippines to Malaysian which is pretty ragged - don't think it will last the distance.
Miles: 37 TTT: 1795

Thurs 17 May - Balambangan I to Ambong
06°18.448N / 116°18.060E
We left at 6am and headed down and past the tip of Borneo. We were going to stop at Agal Bay but we got there at lunch time and Cilantro called up and said they were going to try for Ambong as they want to get to KK asap as they have run out of cooking gas. We had an extremely long day motor sailing and running the revs at 2,500 and got to the entrance to Ambong just as the sun went down - a 12 ½ hr day! It was still light when we anchored but Cilantro came in a bit later in the dark. We are under the lee of the impressive Kota Kinabulu mountain. 4000+ m high
Miles: 76 TTT: 1871

Fri 18 May - Ambong - Pulau Tiga
5°44.951N / 115°40.768E
Started at 6am and had some good wind for a while but as we neared KK it dropped off. There is a fish up here like a pike which races along upright on its tail, flops down and then races on its tail again and it goes for quite a distance. Looks like it is walking on water - really makes us laugh. We made it to the sandspit near Tiga by 3.30 but it was a bit choppy so went around to the other side of Tiga near the resort but the yacht in there was really rolling. Choppy beats rolly any day so we went back around to the sandspit and anchored at 5.30. So we made the day a bit longer for ourselves than we needed.
Miles: 62 TTT: 1933
A lot of the Filippino people we met were extremely poor but they just seem so happy and are independent and not looking for handouts as our last experience with them showed. They are just a really gorgeous people. Their families and their religion are very important to them and it was a real pleasure to meet them and we are very grateful for their hospitality.
We will be in Miri marina in about a week and then we can look at getting my computer fixed.

Take care all
Much love
Dell and Peter

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