LWH - Week 8 : Tawau - Lokadada Bay

Sat 25 August Tawau - Pulau Bunyu
03 30.985N / 117 51.522E
We could smell the town this morning - its like a burnt molasses kind of smell. All the big cats and monos left at sparrows probably to try to make it through to Tarakan in one day. We left at 6.30am and motored out. It was a long day of motoring. We had current with us for a time then it turned against us. When we turned the point to come into the anchorage we had some good wind and got in at 5.30pm. We just anchored off the beach with around nine other boats but at 12.30am we went side on to the swell and had a very rolly night.
37 years today since Dad died -s till miss him.
Miles: 51 TTT: 697

Sun 26 August - Palau Bunya - day/night 1 Celebes Sea crossing
Happy Birthday Mum - would have been 88 today
We left at 6.30am just after most of the others. It was overcast and rainy and we were unsure whether to go or not but it was not tenable to stay at the anchorage so the skipper checked the grib (weather) files again (which we do over the HF radio) and it looked ok so we decided to go. We had a bit of water in the bilge (oh no!) but it was fresh water so we figured a bit sloshed out of the tank with all the rolling. We are very sad that we are doing this crossing on our own but at last it feels like we are heading home. We have tried to go a bit further south than the people last year to miss all the large torpedo buoys which we know are there (used for fishing boats to tie up on and in extremely deep water). Of course we don't know if there are any further south. They do show up on radar. Already we are dodging a few nets between flags and fishing boats. The rain stopped around 9.30 but we are motoring with no wind and the seas are fairly flat. Saw a school of dolphins but they are very shy of the boat. The sky cleared and it turned into the most beautiful day. About six miles to our starboard we can see marked on the chart a square which says 'explosives dumping area' in over 2km of water. We presume it is from the Second World War. We zigzagged through a current line which had nipah palms and logs and other natural rubbish. Sat at the pointy end of the boat late in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day with flat seas and nothing for miles. The depth of the water is 2 - 3 km. We went into the night with the moon up which gave some visibility. We passed the known torpedo buoys 25km to the south and didn't see any (that is of course no guarantee that they are not there but we are pretty sure not). We checked the radar every ten minutes scanning - saw a couple of tugs but nothing else. We both got some shut eye down below (took it in turns) but the crew accidentally knocked the accelerator and nothing brings a skipper up faster than the change in the engine tone!! We used the new mp3 player for the first time and it was amazing how much more quickly that made the time pass. We lost the moon at 2am and it was pretty dark after that but we didn't hit anything (that we know of) and had a good night.

Mon 27 August - Celebes crossing day/night 2
I awoke to the skipper dodging big cargo ships as we crossed an enormous shipping channel. We turned the motor off at 10am and sailed off course. We have had to be going really slow as we don't want to arrive at our destination in the dark. We sailed till 1.30pm when we found ourselves off course and just sitting in the doldrums! We started the motor and slowly headed back on course. The sea is very calm and we took turns catching up on some sleep. Saw something in the water and couldn't make it out and thought it was something in the current line so went twenty degrees to port then we thought it was a heap of dolphins playing. Turned out to be a tree trunk a s long as our boat! Then we saw something leap out of the water and it was a manta ray and then we could see small dolphins and rays jumping and playing then five dolphins came and swam at the front of the boat The water was so crystal clear we could see them perfectly. A magic moment. We have seen quite a few big pieces of wood floating around and the water has been so calm so we have been able to see them which isn't the case at night. And wood does not show up on the radar - 4,100m deep! Well there we were in the evening both sitting on the deck about to watch the sun go down motoring along in the calmest conditions when a terrifying thing happened. The autohelm took a sharp turn to the left - we corrected it and it took another sharp turn and the chart plotter turned and told us we were going back the way we ha d come. We knew this wasn't the case because we had had the sun at our backs and it was just going below the horizon. The chart plotter came back the right way for a minute and we put the autohelm back on then it took such a sharp turn left that the arm went all the way in. The compass reversed by 180 degrees and was telling the auto pilot to do the same. Our heading was 140 degrees but the compass suddenly changed to 320 degrees, so did the GPS heading on the chart plotter. The crew took the helm while the skipper got the handheld GPS. It also went nuts and told us we were at ten degrees north (thats the Philippines!!!). The compass for the autopilot is independent from the chart plotter but the Chart plotter also shows us going 180 degrees in the wrong direction. We put the computer on with C-map - backup number 2- but the GPS wouldn't work. By this time the crew is steering by the moon. The skipper reset our chart plotter but still it showed us going in the wrong direction. We are in the middle of the ocean and thank goodness we could still see a bit of red where the sun went down. This went on for about half an hour when suddenly the chart plotter corrected, C-map started working and it all looked good. We put the autohelm back on and it worked. We had been just coming up on the 4,000m depth contour line from 4800 m and just about to go from two degrees into the one degrees latitude (before 01?59.098N / 120?07.206E) when it happened. We didn't know if the satellites had been turned off, there had been another earthquake in Sulawesi or we had found the Bermuda Triangle of the Celebes Sea. We suspect the latter but if any of you out there have any logical explanation we would love to hear from you!!! At about this time we picked up a little (we suspect rather large) friend under the boat. The depth sounder doesn't show depths like 4km but it regularly showed depths ranging from 9m - 1.2m which meant there was something under there. It wasn't a dolphin - we suspect a shark. It stayed with us all night until we came to 20m and then he left us. We motored through the night at 3.5 knots (we had 1.5 of current with us) for two reasons - 1 - we did not wish to hit anything at speed and 2 - we did not want to get in too early as we knew we had to negotiate reef. The moon went behind clouds at about 3am and it was very dark and we could see lightning in the distance and storms began showing up on the radar. It rained about 4am but we had no lightning and the seas remained calm. A perfect crossing really except for our Bermuda Triangle moment!!!
Miles: 236 TTT: 933

Tues 28 August - Tanjung Laulalang
01 19.649N / 120 55.341E
Three years today since we lost our little Maties dog Jack
It was a little bit overcast but we sighted land at daybreak - thank goodness - a lingering doubt about the chart plotter - and we zigzagged through the reef around 10.45am using Mark 1 eyeball as the charts were out by about half to three quarters of a mile (C-map and Navionics) and came into anchor where the guys from last year had in the most gorgeous scenic little bay behind a sandspit between a Muslim village and Christian village. We anchored at 11.15am and were so happy to be here. A Muslim man was trying to get us to anchor a bit further in but we were close enough. We dropped in 22m but later when we swang towards the beach we were in 15.5m. We are just off the Muslim village and the Christian village is across the small bay. A Muslim man swam out to visit us and a Christian man turned up in his boat. Think he wanted us to go and anchor off his village! Maman (the Muslim) who only had jocks on sat in ULewis' (the Christian man) boat pointing at Ulewis and making actions like opening a can and drinking it and being drunk - he was really funny. ULewis told us Maman was mute. ULewis was very curious and wanted to see over the boat. We told them we would visit both their villages tomorrow and they left and we fell into bed for a couple of hours. Got up around 5 and four Muslim men came to visit and have a chat. The skipper is getting better at communicating and had English-Indo and Indo-English dictionaries handy. They wanted our lure as they cant get them here so the skipper showed them how to make one using silver paper or an empty wine bladder which we rinsed out for them - told them it had had water in it - they knew it hadn't! Gave them some fishing lines and hooks and they were very curious as to the technology on the boat and amazed that it is just the two of us. One of the daughters came out and wanted bread but we said we didn't have any. They left on dark and we had a restful evening and then the best sleep.

Wed 29 August - Tg Laulalong
We went ashore at 10am and were met by a few people including Umbra who was really excited to know that we know Bernie off Single Malt who came through here last year. She invited us into her home which had no furniture in the lounge room. We took some photos of her baby daughter Apeecka and they presented us with some mangoes. Its mango season! Maman then escorted us around the village. The village has 500 people as does the Christian village across the way. It has an Elementary School and a High School and hospital. Some of the houses look poor but we don't really think its a poor village. Everyone greeted us as we went round and offered us mangoes! They all wanted their photos taken with us and one man in uniform chased us down - just to have his photo taken with us! The nurses came and the schoolmaster came as we walked around to have photos taken. Maman found us a store where we got a sim card for the phone. We got back to Umbra's around lunchtime, collected our mangoes and went back to the boat. Maman (being mute is the best mime!) and his friend Udin came out and spent the afternoon. They are both divorced. I made some muffins while the skipper spent his time talking to Udin and Maman. I pretty much burnt the first batch of muffins so made another lot. During the afternoon the Christian kids came aboard quite out of control - the boys running up the boat and he girls standing at the back making a huge racket - it was all a bit much so the skipper got rid of them. I was working on the computer printing off the photos and looked up and there was one still onboard!!! We put five muffins on four plates and took them in for Seir (the young lady who wanted bread), Umbra, Maman and Udin. Seir and Umbra took theirs home while Maman and Udin shared theirs with all the people who had been waiting to greet us. One woman asked if they were halal. I hadn't even thought about cakes and muffins being halal!!! Thought that was just meat! Anyway they really appreciated it. We also gave Umbra a large photo of her baby. We had thought we were going to watch them play soccer with Maman but no one was moving and it was threatening rain so we went back to the boat. We had dinner and were relaxing when about 7.30 a canoe turned up in the dark. It was Seir (25 & married and wears a scarf) and Adrea and Idha (two sisters aged 21 and 26). So they came on board and we sat below chatting for quite some time and they were really fun. Ahdria and Eda had a little bit of English. When it was time for them to leave Seir realised her oar had been knocked overboard (probably by Bob) and was lost. So funny! So we lent them an oar to get home. Quite a day!!

Thursday 30 August - Tj Laulalang
We watched the Christian kids paddle their canoes across to the sandspit at 7am to go to school. Umbra had asked to see the boat so the skipper went to pick her and a friend up at ten and I had made some orange juice to give them. But at 9.30 Seir and Idha turned up to return the oar and bought an obnoxious young man with them - a 21 year old medical student who spoke very good English. The girls amused themselves taking photos of themselves in my hat and sunglasses at the front of the boat while the lad says i'm hungry, do you have a snack. Where's the chocolate where's the cake - make some more, Can I see your photos and before I know it he's in my computer. Then he wanted to urinate! The skipper went to collect Umbra and came back with three women, two babies and Maman. Well, way too many people now for my small bottle of juice so they got nothing. The ladies all looked over the boat and the lad was a king size pain in the butt taking photos everywhere, taking over the conversation and generally ruining the day - it was all about him!!! The skipper took two trips to take them all ashore. We had a brief respite then went ashore and Udin and another bloke took us on the back of their motor bikes to a rumah makin (restaurant). It was very basic. A cat was on the table, the flies were in the rice and another cat was getting a fish bone from the dishes waiting to be washed. Udin chose some fish for us and we went outside to the lounging chair (wooden construction) and the skipper had a conversation with another chap. They are all mightily impressed with what we are doing. They called us when lunch was ready and the fish was delicious served up with soup and rice. Udin then took us to see the lobster farm but it was locked so we sat and talked to some students for a while. These people have seven fish farms - some fish, some lobster which they export to Korea. The surrounding hills are filled with cloves trees and there are cloves laid out drying all through the village - smells wonderful. When we went back we were invited to Ihda and Adrea's house and the lad was there to interpret. We were given a green coconut each to drink - no one else had one as they had just eaten - bit embarrassing. Anyway the whole family and friends were there and lots of photos and being interviewed by the lad. After that one of the fathers wanted to come to the boat so Maman came too. The ladies came down to say goodbye and off we went. After the skipper took the father ashore with a new pair of reading glasses he had asked for, three Christian boys turned up and dropped one off on the back of the boat and went ashore. The skipper promptly put him in Bob and took him ashore too. They returned shortly after and we told them to go away so they went to the front of the boat and climbed up the anchor chain and boarded. The skipper explained to them that this was our home. They sank their boat and mucked about -they told the next boatload of kids to go away and we gave them a packet of chips each (empty packets chucked in the water) then off they went. The skipper went and picked Udin up and we were having a farewell drink when another mate turned up, accompanied by the lad!!!! Who says he has just brought some friends to visit!. They stayed a while and looked the boat over. They left and just on dark the skipper took Maman and Udin ashore and we put Bob aboard. We really enjoyed the company of Maman and Udin - they are both fishermen. The torpedo buoys we had heard so much about and luckily didn't see are used by them to go out to fish for the big yellowfin tuna which they export to Korea. So at 7.30 just as we are relaxing out comes one of the earlier visitor with two women and six kids who were all really cold. They stayed for about half an hour and it really was time to leave!!!!! And we didn't make it to the Christian village!!!

Friday 31 August - Tj Laulalang - Lokodaka Bay
01 02.919N / 121 39.313E
We left at 6am and the skipper blew the horn to let Maman and Udin know that we were leaving and followed our track out. When we came out our friend was waiting and appeared under the boat again. We thought maybe he was a remora thinking we were a whale!! But he did not stay long. We saw dolphins as we were leaving. We had a beautiful morning and Sulawesi is so pretty. We came around the point and looked back and we couldn't see it as it was covered in rain! We had a storm pass in front and a storm pass behind and it was very overcast and windy and cold - so close to the equator! We were coming into an anchorage given by MV Solita trying to beat the rain. The chart was out - we were coming over land by the chart and then it went from 50m to 8m so we went further to starboard. Kind of scary as we couldnt see the bay and it t looked like we were heading into land. Came into the bay in very strong winds and there was a village and a jetty and we hit 5.6m and shallowing - crew panicking! And the depth sounder stops working!! But we eventually managed to anchor in 16m going back to 14m just off some cottages built over the water. There were three little girls on their verandah singing and doing a welcome dance -s o sweet!! Two boys went past rowing a canoe then came back towing some huge sticks of bamboo. The fishermen waved but no one has visited. Still cloudy and slight swell but a beautiful spot.

I am sorry this missive is so long but it really has been quite a week.

Love to you all. Take care
Calm Seas and Fair Winds
Dell and Peter

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