Kudat Marina, Sabah, Malaysia
After deciding that we
want to be in Canada this summer, we have postponed our trip to the Kimberley
in NT, Australia for now and will head for Thailand via northern Borneo
instead. We are currently back in Marina Jetty Kudat, happy to be in familiar
territory again. We are taking some time to do boat projects and making some
eco-tourism plans where we can travel inland while the boat is in a safe place.
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| Downwind sailing on the way to Kudat along the N. Suluwesi coast |
The diving at Bunaken
Island was the highlight of our Indonesia trip, but we also tried some “muck
diving” in Lembeh Strait that was quite interesting. Before we left Liang
Beach, Bunaken, we beached the cat so Steve could do some prop shaft p-bracket and
cutlass bearing adjustments. We then headed on to Bitung Harbor in Lembeh
Strait, around the corner from the tip of Suluwesi.
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| Happy hour with Froggie's managers Abel and Lola |
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| Sunset at Bunaken Island |
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| Catamarans can be beached with a few sand bags underneath |
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| Fixing cutlass bearing with lots of help |
After checking in to Bitung, we moved
to an anchorage in front of Black Sand Dive Resort and stayed a few days to
learn about muck diving. The shores and seafloor in the area are indeed fine black
sand. But living right on top, either out in the open or on the rare coral or
anemone patch is the most interesting assemblage of unusual critters, many
being well camouflaged. We tried diving on our own, but saw more when we went
with dive guides. On one dive we saw a crocodile eel buried in the sand with
his head just poking out. When the guide lightly tapped behind him, the 6 foot
long eel swam out and then burrowed tail first at a safe distance away from us.
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| juvenile barramundi |
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| crocodile eel in in sand |
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| crocodile eel swimming away from us |
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| golden seahorse |
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| zebra lionfish |
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| moray eel with cleaner wrasse |
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| pufferfish |
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| Seahorse attached to twig debris on otherwise barren seafloor |
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| stonefish |
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| cuttlefish (cephalopod) |
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| cuttlefish next to anemone patch |
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| flying gunnard |
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| Japanese bigeye |
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| leaf fish |
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| anemone and clown fish |
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| under anemone community |
We also took a day trip
inland to Tamcoco National Park in Batuputih, Suluwesi, where we took a twilight walk to
see the local tarsier but also saw neat tropical birds (hornbills &
kingfishers) and a troop of macaques moving through the jungle. I (Pat) remembered
reading in the Lonely Planet guidebook that you should wear long pants with
socks tucked over as well as copious amounts of insect repellent due the midges
(no-see-ums) that are there. Unfortunately, I didn’t remember until we arrived,
in shorts. We had on insect repellent and all was fine until we got back to the
car and walked through a field of them, stinging away. We had red bumps on our
ankles and feet for weeks afterward.
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| macaque monkey |
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| macaque male |
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| our guide said we were very lucky to see this rare owl |
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| tarsier |
Our first anchorage
departing Lembeh was Blue Bay, Banggi Island, which has a dive resort ashore.
We met two other cruising sailboats there and had happy hour together. You meet
very few other cruisers in NE Indonesia. We traded information, including
anchorage spots on northern Suluwesi and regulations for Raja Ampat boating. We
learned that when diving in strong currents without a boatman you can “just”
tie your dingy painter around you and tow the dinghy along. One of the other couples had just finished 20
years of cruising and were returning to Australia when they lost their boat on
the reef at Tambisan Island. They had been in touch with us via another cruiser, and we were able to retrieve a couple
more items for them when we passed by the wreckage a few weeks before.
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| Dive resort |
We traveled via day hops
along the northern coast of Suluwesi, anchoring each night. The local villagers, mostly fishermen, were friendly and curious. We saw traditional fishing ranging from men in dugouts with hand nets
to mother ship trimarans loaded with smaller boats that spread out and fish all
day once they are offshore. We also saw a seiner that hand pulled in the large net.
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| hand seining in a big catch |
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| traditional fishing in dugout canoe |
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| Mother ship goes offshore where they fish from the small boats |
When anchored in Teluk
Asaan, Belonlioh village, there were groves of clove tree ashore.
The locals dried the cloves on mats in their front yards and the whole village
smelled wonderful. We walked around the narrow streets and passed out snacks to
the kids. Steve had purchased a case of snack packs with local flavors like cheese puffs, prawn chips, and chicken
crackers to give away.
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| Log sideways across both bows, one end of log seen here |
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We checked out of
Indonesia in Tarakan, an oil port off the Kalimantan (Borneo) coast. It took 4 hours to reach the anchorage, sailing
through a channel between islands and shallow waters. We anchored just past the town
in a narrow passage that had strong currents that reversed with the tides. In the morning we found a 60 ft log stretching across both bows held in tight by the
river-like current. We waited until the current reversed and pulled the log off
with ropes from the dingy. Luckily, our anchor held both us and the log.
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| Our bow log floating away after freeing it st slack tide |
On the way from Tarakan to
Tawau, we passed a line of fish trap structures that they light up at night to attract and net the fish. The guys take small boats out and spend the night on the structure. There were hundreds of these rickety structures, miles offshore,
but in less than 50 feet of water.
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| What is that on the horizon? |
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| fishing structure with sleeping shack in middle and nets below |
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| old fish trap |
In Tawau we anchored off
the Tawau Yacht Club and used their facilities- cold beers in an a/c bar and pretty good
Chinese food on the covered deck. The walk to town was only10 min. There are open storm drains adjoining the sidewalk and we saw some rats and a large monitor lizard crawling around. They drain into the ocean. That night, Steve heard a noise,
got up, and had a rat run past him and hide under the chart table. Presumably, the rat swam out to the boat and climbed on. We bought
and set up 3 live rat traps the next morning. That afternoon, the rat had
licked off the peanut butter trap bait, eaten up a pack of cheese balls, but had only taken one bite of Pat’s home-made rolls. Steve re-set the bait with peanut butter covered cheese balls. Overnight, there was a huge squall and the boat rolled and bounced around. In
the morning, the traps were not touched and there was a line of rat droppings
leading from the cockpit to the edge of the boat. We think he abandoned the
boat. We have had no sign of him since.
Heading north, we anchored
overnight at lovely Gaya Island near Semporna. Sea Gypsies paddled up, asking
for food, shampoo and toothbrushes.
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| Sea Gypsies getting a handout from sv Merkava |
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| Gaya Island - Anchorage is just inside the pass |
A day after we passed by Semporna,
there was another kidnapping of a tourist and a receptionist from a Semporna resort built over a reef. A speedboat with hooded gunmen grabbed the two women, presumably
to sell to a Philippine radical Muslim group in the Jolo Islands nearby that is
known to ransom tourists. The area is highly patrolled by police and navy boats,
and we felt safe travelling through, but there have been other kidnappings in
the past, one last November and another back in 2000. The tourists are released after ransoms are paid. We are now out of the travel alert zones and we have also purchased boat insurance.
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| Tigabu Island- We traded a ball cap for a nautilus shell with a local here |
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We have had nothing but positive experiences with the people in both Indonesia and Malaysia, but we have worried about boat theft when leaving the boat unattended. We look forward to more SE Asia trips on Silver Tern soon.
