LWH – Week 4 : Kudat- Sungai Tadian

Saturday 28 July Kudat
Thoughts with Amy and Pete today for their gig at the Tivoli.
Went to town for my haircut. Had the hair wash and they do a most amazing head massage – so worth it. Then the most meticulous hair cut I have ever had – turned out very well. The weather was getting quite windy and we were warned that it was going to blow up.

Sunday 29 July – Kudat
Very blowy – forecast 3m seas around the tip and 30 – 35 knots of wind. All the fishing boats have come in so we are now pinned down by the weather. One fishing boat had just been put back into the water and as he went past us he was throwing all his rubbish overboard – we were not impressed. We have all our chain out and feel quite safe here. A huge wind with blinding rain came up about 5.30 – one of the boats further in dragged and had to reanchor. We were pretty snug.

Monday 30 July – Kudat
We had a bit of a swell throwing back off one of the breakwalls this morning and it is still terribly windy. Dont want to leave the boat while this weather persists so filling in time. Hoping to get away Thursday or Friday at the latest. Rubicon Star came over to visit.

Tuesday 31 July – Kudat
Blew all day and we stayed on board. The skipper doing sudokos, me Jewel Quest – very addictive!

Wednesday 1 August – Kudat
The skipper went to the market at 8am and got meat and fruit and by 10.30 it was blowing hard again. Dropped off a bit in the afternoon and Kind of Blue came to visit and Haven said hullo in passing. About 5.30 Rubicon Star called up and invited us over for sundowners and the sun went down very late that night!!!

Thursday 2 August – Kudat – Pulau Banggi
07⁰06.803N / 117⁰05.376E
A fishing boat went past us with a rooster standing up the back of the boat crowing. Checked the weather and it seems to be on the improve so we left at 8am (Haven had already left) and motor sailed to Pulau Molleangan Besar (07⁰05.054N/ 117⁰03.818E) and anchored. As we approached Molleagan Island it got really rough and we were surfing down waves – seemed to be wind against tide – didn’t last for long and it was really odd. The beach looked lovely and there were tourists on the beach. The only trouble for them was that it was an extremely high tide and there was hardly any beach and the trees had thorns on them. We took Bob ashore just as they were leaving. Tim off Rubicon Star had told us about Basheer who is the tour operator who brings the tourists out and he drops them on the beach and goes fishing then picks them up later in the day. Basheer introduced himself and told us to come to the town. It was getting windy again so we just had a swim then went back to the boat. There was a swell coming in and it was getting rolly so we decided to go down and anchor off the town. The town is a Muslim village – lots of stilt houses over the water, a big mosque and some large flash buildings up the hill The people are very friendly. It was pretty blowy but at least here we are facing into the swell but we have reef directly behind us. Brother Wind cam in and anchored nearby. We had a huge wind storm 40 knots with little rain but it died down eventually and we had a quiet uneventful night. So interesting to watch a village at work. A very low tide so children exploring and playing in the shallows and stacks of monkeys looking for food where the tide had gone out. Some houses haul their boats out of the water and hang them under their houses. A big fish leapt out of the water just beside the boat.
Miles: 18 TTT: 300

Friday 3 August – Pulau Banggi – Sungai Tadian
06⁰32.969N / 117⁰36.329E
Call to prayer was at 4.30am. Left at 6.30 and got out past the reef and the chartplotter stopped working. Luckily (or unluckily depending how you look at it) we had this problem last year so the skipper did a factory reset and back it came – minus all the waypoints we had put in to come home! Motor sailed for a while then just motoring following the shipping channel through the reefs, shallows and islands. A lovely day with calm sea but a long day of motor sailing. Took our shortcut through the reef but it was awfully rough going up to the channel and it takes ages to get in and out so we went a bit further up the coast and anchored about two miles off shore. We dropped anchor and the boat didn’t know which way to go so we dropped again and we eventually came around to face the wind and the chop. A while later we were sitting on the deck looking at the shore when the skipper went to turn the chart plotter off and realised that we had dragged 0.6 of a mile!! So we went up and reanchored and this time we stayed put.
Miles: 54 TTT: 354

Well it seems that we are on our way. Tomorrow we head south and stay that way till we get home.

Love to you all – thinking of you, especially Maureen.

Fair Winds and Calm Seas
Dell and Peter