27th June - Kota Kinabalu to Pulau Gaya - around the tip of Borneo - STORM

Friday 27^th June

Mt Kinabalu making a brief appearance

Yes I know it is Saturday 28^th… but I wrote a blogbit for Friday 27^th and will post it now; Saturday will come later in the day…

It is 7.30pm and we have just anchored, very happily, just around the northern tip of Borneo.  It is reasonably calm and sheltered and we are SO relieved…around the other side it was a maelstrom…

We left Gaya Island this morning, expecting to get to Mantonini Island by early afternoon, so that e could have a lovely Borneo Afternoon, involving snorkeling, fish, coral, maybe a soothing cup of tea, for me, and maybe a bit of reading, boatmending, and beer, for Pete.

At 1.00 I was just about to go below to heat up our leftover chicken curry when Pete glanced across at the previously peaceful horizon to see HUGE black storm clouds, heading our way very rapidly.  Action stations!  We had to pull down our poor vulnerable shade tarpaulins, furl the sail, and thrust every single moveable item off the deck and into the cabin.  Pronto!  I don’t know how long it took for the storm to pass over 2XS, but it seemed interminable, with big black waves bearing down upon us for the south west, and a fierce wind.  We looked across at our longed-for destination, with its beautiful coral reef, and shook our heads – no shelter from south west winds there… Onward!

2XS was the Hero Of The Day!  Huge waves, a significant storm, big wind…and we just bobbed along nicely…

I didn’t get photos of the big storm; couldn’t risk taking my camera outside.  But I did get some of the next, milder storm, which passed overhead. 

There are three boats in this anchorage – Out of the Blue II, Zoa, and now 2XS, while on the other side are our friends on other rally boats… I fear they will have a very uncomfortable rock & roll night…

As we left Kota Kinabalu for Pulau Gaya, only three nautical miles away, on Wednesday afternoon, I was in a mild panic.  I had just discovered (thank you for the textmessage, Tim…) that my gmail account had been hacked and that everybody on my contacts list (I collect email addresses and have HUNDREDS of contacts…) had been asked for $1500… But I did look up from my computer, where I was frantically trying to get a new gmail password, and saw – a glimpse of Gunung Kinabalu!

We had spent the morning in town, with Rob (SV Jolie Brise, Melbourne.)  He and Pete spent very happy times in Pete’s new spiritual home…

I looked at shops full of plastic flowers

while they were thrilled to bits to find a turning bolt for Rob’s boat…

HappyBoys

In the nearby big shopping centre, where Pete had to wait to pick up his new glasses from our lovely optometrist, I idly looked at the clothes shops.  Yes I do need the odd item; my sailing clothes get sadly battered and tattered…  But I did not want to dress like an Amish lady, nor like a Mormon sisterwife…

and the alternative seemed mildly skanky-ho…

and…it is MUCH too hot for me to be swathed like a Muslim lady….

But I did spend up big – a new printer/scanner/copier… Pete and I each have one , on the boat, and neither of them work… These printers are excessively cheap but…they don’t last long.  And they are a necessity – we are forever having to provide multiple photocopies of our passports, crew list, boat registration, insurance papers etc etc.  As I have said before, we are leaving a WIDE paper-trail…

I also spent up big on internet top-up in the Maxis shop.  My enthusiastic young salespeople were SO happy to be of help…

I got 100 ringgits worth of gigabytes ($34) which was apparently AWESOME!  and AMAZING!!  And there were so many variables my fillings began to throb…If I use the internet between midnight and 8am, something magic happens… and I have internet for 1 ringgit per day for 100 days but after one month something else (magic??) happens which I don’t fully I understand and there is 79 ringgits worth of something or another leftover which has to be topped up…or not….AAGGHH!  But they were so nice, so keen to help, that I stopped even trying to understand what I was buying with my 100 ringgits.

A moment to reflect upon Tilley Hats… Pete’s first hat fell apart completely and was replaced by the wonderful Tilley company.  They requested $20 for postage and a reasonable explanation of what had happened, and a shiny new hat arrived quick smart.  But Pete has held onto the remnants of the old, beloved, hat.  In his spare time he has been diligently stitching away and now…Voila! 

I am mightily impressed!  It is very hard to stitch through the many layers of tough fabric, but, with the aid of a big thimble arrangement and a ball of twine, he did it!

I think this is a lovely pic.  You can see the mended hat, the shiny new glasses, the happy man.  But Pete said, when he saw the photo…Oh no…I look thin, gaunt and old…NOTHING OF THE SORT!!