16th July - Turtle Islands to Sandakan

Wednesday 16^th July

People are friendly, and very keen to be photographed, doing the peace sign

We are now in Sandakan, with the whole rally fleet anchored outside the yacht club, which is smack bang next door to a very large police station.  Army, navy and coastguard vessels zoom in between the 18 yachts, with cheery young chaps, some of them wearing scary black balaclavas, riding high and providing for our safety.

The turtle watching event didn’t take place, in the end.  There was a mighty storm; we all stayed anxiously on our boats, trying to make sure we weren’t dragging our anchors.  About half of the boats did in fact drag, and there were slightly frantic radio calls across Channel 72, as people tried not to panic.  No damage was done but nerves were frayed…  The arrangement for the event was a movable feast.  First we were told we had to get onto the beach for a midnight-1am viewing of the turtles laying vast quantities of eggs.  Then it was 7.30pm, a much more civilised time.  One of the big boats from the research station would come around to all of us to pick us up.  Lovely!  At 7.30 we got a radio call from Sazli – it would now be 9pm.  And then it was changed to 10pm… And at 10pm, poor Sazli put out another call: all cancelled, another storm possibly brewing so it wasn’t safe to pick us all up.

And apparently it was a bumper turtle landing – at least 50 large females s lumbered up onto the beach, dug their nest, laid copious eggs.  As well as that, over 1000 hatchlings hatched and were released into the warm dark sea.  Never mind!  Pete and I did see turtle tracks on the beach, and we also saw two dear little babies swimming frantically towards the open sea; they must have got away before the mass release later on.

no not a turtle...but a very nice big Sandakan water monitor!

It is a very busy harbour.  LOTS of big fishing boats and ferries zoom across, hither and yon.  Pete and I, from the cool, breezy deck of the yacht club, idly admired the newly-gathered rally fleet, bobbing peacefully on the sea.  Pete said, “Well the big boats won’t charge through here now, will they?  They will go right on the outskirts of the boats.”  No sooner than these words left his mouth than…two large boats went this way and that way, on either side of 2XS…

I don't know how to edit photos on this computer so maybe this isn't as clear as I would like...

A few things are WRONG on 2XS…

The battery problem is getting worse and poor Pete is being very stoic and patient but it is driving him crazy.  John and Catherine Miedecke are arriving tomorrow, for a three week stay, and we are just a bit worried how we are going to look after them, and ourselves, with the power supply forever running out for no reason at all.  So frustrating; Pete has spent many many hours, and many thousands of dollars, fixing this problem, as we had thought for good and all.  But…no.  He just has to keep priming up the little generator to charge up the batteries.  Again and again…

The poor little dinghy is looking very sad and flat.  We have to pump it up every time we get into it…

The water pump isn’t working properly so we have to leave it turned off.  This is a teensy it wearing; every time I want to wash the dishes, I have to trot off to turn the pump on, then rush back to turn it off before it burns out.  I fill the kettle and a bottle of drinking water, but it is just a bit inconvenient.  John is bringing a new pump from Hobart, so this should be easily fixable, unlike the battery issue.

My woes are small in comparison but…annoying enough.  My computer battery charger is kaput.  Yes I did have a spare, but it fused itself months ago.  I should have had a spare for the spare… John (trusty John) is bringing me a new charger so tomorrow I will be re-connected with My Precious.  But now I am using Pete’s very nice new computer, which is NOT my friend.  Normally I would enjoy learning about its little quirks and differences, but at the moment…my head is not working properly.

 I have something called tropical ear, which is very unpleasant (NOT life threatening, just slightly ghastly.)  Both of my eardrums are itchy and painful, and my head feels as if it is blocked with cottonwool.  When we got to Sanadakan we went straight to a farmasi.  Pharmacists in Malaysia are all wonderfully well-educated and English-speaking.  (Thank God!)  My new Best Friend in the nearest pharmacy was very concerned, and asked lots of questions.  Had I been sticking sharp objects inside my ears?  No?  Did I have a temperature?  I looked at him a bit desperately, and said, "In this heat, how would you ever know if you had a temperature or not?"  He acknowledged this truth, and trotted off to get me some painkillers, and some antibiotic eardrops.  He was very interested in our travels thus far, but a bit dubious when I told him where we were going next.  When I explained we were in a heavily escorted rally, he smiled with great relief and said, “Oh good! I didn’t think of you guys sailing off on your own!”

On a cheerier note...We had a most delicious (and cheap…) lunch in a Malaysian curry house.  Hardly any food places were open, because of Ramadan, so we were very happy to find this place just opening.  A very nice Chinese man was in there, wreathed in smiles.  He helped us with our menu selection – noodles with vegetables and seafood, all fresh and just wonderful – and sat with us while we ate and sipped iced lemon tea.  He is a civil engineer and has just returned from four years in Australia, working on the Hume Highway.  

We spent a bit of time exploring our provisioning options.  There is a large supermarket which should meet most of our needs (no cheese…) and a large covered market selling lots of vegetables and LOTS of dried fish, in amongst clothes, and knickknacks. 

 I imagine the clothes would forever smell of dried fish… Everyone was very friendly; lots of people were…fast asleep…

I have no idea whether I will succeed in putting up this blog, with photos…But I will try!