May 13, 2006-Calling in the Faithful

Labuan Shipyard

From our anchorage in Labuan's Victoria Harbor, in Sabah, Borneo, we can hear the mullahs calling the faithful to prayers at mosques on both sides of the harbor, even behind the shipyard. At 18:30 we can hear four of them competing with each other for the faithful.

Judy says we should catch a photo of the water village nearest us with the mosque's minaret and dome poking up above the stilt houses. I think we should go visit the village and see what it looks like up close. Anyhow, they have a good PA system; their mullah is loud and clear.

Labuan: a place of contrasts. We see water villages and mosques. We also see shipyards and oil rig tender vessels. We see ferry docks for fast ferries which arrive every half hour from places unknown, and we see water taxi's speeding past in every direction, it is a busy place.

Ashore it is not so busy.

There we find a quiet central business district with cobble stone streets and veiled women. There are the normal shops, and there are the "duty free" stores for which people come to Labuan. Liquor here is minus the heavy taxes found elsewhere in Malaysia and that's where a lot of the business is in Labuan. People come here by ferries to stock up. We came by boat. This place definitely does not adhere to a strict Moslem rule, despite the many mosques and loud mullahs.

The harbor and Lubuan town are interesting, but we won't stay long. We're here to buy some liquor, check out of Malaysia with the authorities and head to Brunei.

Duty Free Stock Up

Click here for more Labuan Images

and here for more shipyard images.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Labuan

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May 9, 2006-Pretty Good Day in KK

Girls at the Mosque

These girls have nothing to do with the story below, but I liked the shot, and a lot of the other ones I've taken in Kota Kinabalu, so I'm putting it in. Also the one of the mosque where I photographed them (at the bottom of this story)

I'm having a happy day.

Judy says the reason I like everything tonight is the scotch I'm drinking, “It's just the alcohol.” She said. It’s true, the scotch Andy brought me has got my head spinning a little, but never mind that, today has been a really good day.

First of all we got the bloody leaking water tank out of the boat without any drama. That in itself is cause for celebration, although having a leaking tank, a new one at that, is not. Anyhow, this water tank has broken for a second time and that sucks. But we found a guy here in KK who will fix it, no problem (have you heard that one before?) and today we took it out of the boat so the welder could pick it up and take it to his shop…in two hours flat. BANG! Beat that! And neither of us hurt ourselves. Terrific!

Then we went to town for our regular shopping trip and scored some really cheap wine. Not just cheap, but good. Australian good. Now, that might not be cause for celebration to most of you, but to us here in Muslim Malaysia, it is a true score. Islamic countries don’t feature too many sales on wine, but on Wings, not a dry ship, we need it, so finding some is a major deal. Now…we’re fixed.

Then, the fish we bought at the market turned out perfectly when we grilled it. Together with that wine we spoke of just previously, it made for a great dinner.

Finally, I have been reviewing the photos we got here, and we have some really good ones. So, I am happy, really happy.

I invite you to link to our photo site, here,
here,
here,
and here,

or just go to the month of May on the Images site, and browse Wingssail Images.blogspot.com-May 2006, and take a look at Kota Kinabalu.

Sabah State Mosque



Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Kota Kinabalu

May 7, 2006-Sabah Fest

We Stumbled onto a Treasure in Kota Kinabalu

Malay Girl

It’s just one of those things: “We fell up out of a hole”, as Jim Watson would say.

It happened like this:

Judy was over at the hotel next door on Friday to check out some craft exhibits and she saw a sign about a presentation that night that included some dance groups. So she mentioned it to me.

“OK, I’m up for it, whatever it is, let’s go.” We had a bite aboard Wings and I grabbed my camera and off we went to the Magellan Hotel.

Good move.

When we arrived there was some sort of a queue forming up and people herded us into it. Turns out it was for the local dignitaries and we were mistaken of being part of that group. They rolled out the red carpet for us dignitaries. There were a few hundred kids in local get-up lined up for us on each side of the grand stairwell as we walked down to the grand ball room. (Is this us, or what?)

Once seated in the ballroom we were able to watch the annual Festival of Sabah; and we didn’t even know it was going to happen that night. Yeah, there were some speeches, but soon a dozen or so dance groups got on stage and stunned us with their well rehearsed performances: we enjoyed every minute of it.

Grand Finale

Click here for more images from Sabah Fest

and here, to see more crafts

So how do we get so lucky? I don’t know, but is it good. Maybe all cruisers get their share of these things, I know we do.


Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Kota Kinabalu

May 1, 2006-Kota Kinabalu & The Mountain in the Clouds

Kota Kinabalu

We are still in Borneo, in KK (Kota Kinabalu), the booming capital of the Malaysian state of Sabah. We last wrote to you from Kudat, also in Sabah.

We left Kudat one morning, headed for KK.

It is calm, no wind, and we are motoring north to the “Tip of Borneo” where we can turn south towards KK. Just before we arrive there the wind comes up, a nice NE breeze of 15 knots. The sky is blue and the water sparkles. This is going to be a nice day of sailing.

The “Tip of Borneo” is not one of the world’s great capes, but it is a scenic landmark never the less. We want to sail past. We hoist the main and cut the engine, and head for a gap between the cape and an off lying island, intending to round inside the island, close to the surge and swell breaking on the point. The wind is blowing and we’re sailing fast. It is exciting, and maybe a little dangerous. At first there appears to be breaking waves and shallows stretching across the whole gap, but the chart shows deep water. As we get closer the passage opens up, just like the chart said it would.

We fly through and jibe to the south.

With a good following breeze we are making great time down the coast but too soon the breeze starts to falter. There are still whitecaps behind us and more whitecaps farther out, but where we are there are none. We are almost becalmed.

We jibe back and try to head out. Soon we have more wind and are moving again, but the breeze proves to be elusive.

For the rest of the day we chase the wind and sailing becomes hard work. We head out, then back in trying to find some pressure, trying to keep our speed up. The wind stays steady for couple of hours once and we are hopeful, only to watch it die again. Always we can see stronger wind behind us and we think maybe it will reach us, but instead the trend is lighter and lighter. We consider setting the spinnaker, but we suspect it would just have to come down right away if the wind quits altogether.

At about 17:00 we are approaching to the bay we have selected as a likely anchoring spot, and just then the wind switches to the west and fills in, making our chosen anchorage, which is open to the ocean, into a lee shore.

With a little disappointment we decide that we must carry on towards Kota Kinabalu. There are few anchorages with protection from the west along this coast, and it will soon be dark. We can’t go into any place on this coast in the dark.

So we sail on through the night, the westerly breeze holding, past several anchorages we might have stopped in other conditions, but don’t because of the wind direction and darkness. This is OK; we are now looking forward to getting to KK in the morning with its promise of civilization, not the least of which is a berth in a nice new marina and a swimming pool.


We arrive in KK at noon the next day, and soon are tied to the dock and hooked up to electrical power. We head off to the pool for a dip and a cool drink.

Fellow cruisers in KK party on WINGS


The Mountain in the Clouds:

Mount Kinabalu

Andy and Nita have flown down from Hong Kong for a short holiday. It is great to have good friends visit. We rent a car and head off to tropical rain forest and Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain here in Borneo, and a World Heritage Site.

We leave the humid coastal plain and head up the winding roads into jungle and rain. The air becomes cool. We catch occasional glimpses of the base of Mount Kinabalu, but the top remains shrouded in clouds. We arrive at Mesilau Nature Reserve base camp, where big boned, healthy looking men in slickers and hiking boots are staging their two day ascents to the top. Andy studies the trail map carefully but the peak is more than 7000 feet above the 6000’ level of our base camp and Judy and I know we don’t have the time or physique for this climb. We check into a lodge for the night, settling for the hope of a better view of Mount Kinabalu in the morning.

Mesilau Forest Santuary

We have some time before dinner so we drive down into the valley to Poring Hot Springs for a soak in the sulfur water. Starting back up the mountain it is dark and raining; we can’t see a thing. To add to our misery, fog sets in. Big trucks are coming down hill and their fog lights appear out of the gloom and temporarily blind us. The drive is slow and nerve wracking. We get lost; our navigation on land isn’t much better than it is at sea. The drive turns into something like a night passage on Wings, or a bad dream.

Finally we arrive back at Mesilau just in time for a drink before dinner. Outside our lodge the rain continues to pour down and a stream thunders somewhere nearby in the forest. It is cold up here in the mountains and we pile on the blankets before going to sleep.

Rain Forest


Dining at Mesilau

In the morning the sky clears briefly. I catch a glimpse of the granite peak glowing in the morning sun. I grab my camera, but the mountain is gone back into the clouds. No matter, it is a nice stay in the rain forest for us anyhow. We take some walks and enjoy the wilderness setting.

Driving down that day we discover that this area is a big farming region, and we find fruit and vegetable stands filled with local produce. Also some craft shops. By the time we get back to Kota Kinabalu we have a trunk filled with purchases from the Mountain in the Clouds.

Fruit Market

Andy and Nita return to Hong Kong and the other cruising boats in the marina have started to start leave as well, heading south, but Judy and I like the modern and bustling town of Kota Kinabalu, and we decide we will hang around here for a few more days… or maybe weeks.

Cruising lets you do that.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Kota Kinabalu

April 10, 2006-Night Sail to Kudat.

In The Basin
Wings is rocking gently in the remnants of ocean waves which roll around the point and into the small basin where we are anchored in Kudat, Malaysia. We are close to the ocean, only a few hundred yards, and the wind blows over the land between us and the sea, and we can hear the low roar of the waves outside this basin, but here we are secure. We like this anchorage place, it is safe and protected, yet we can hear and feel the wild ocean so nearby.

Kudat Resort

In the pool, Aaron & Sarah


There is a resort here, and a pool. We hang out and the two American crew members from Willow are there and they hold their breaths on the bottom of the pool.

Kudat is in Sabah, in the Malaysian part of the Island of Borneo.

Malaysia is a new country for us, and the first time in a Muslim land, but it is good. The people are friendly and helpful, and so sorry when their Muslim traditions cause us some inconvenience, like when we ask if we can have wine or beer with dinner in the hotel where we are having our meal, and "No, I am so sorry sir, we have no alcohol in this restaurant." They have coffee. We drink coffee.

Kudat Town


People ask where we are from, and we answer, "America." or "USA’, and they say, "Oh, America", or, "Oh, USA." Maybe a little wonderment in their voices but no one says it in a disdainful way or in any way which would indicate dislike, Mostly they simply start to tell us about some other American they know, or a relative who lives in Chicago or Florida, or some where else in land of the Great Satan.

Actually, they pretty much ignore us; they are used to tourists here. We walk unmolested through the shops and into the restaurants to check out the menus, and on the road back to the marina people stop to give us a ride.

We sailed to Kudat from the Philippines in a two-day passage, which also means two nights.

It was the night sailing which made an impression on me.

There was good sailing on those two nights, and some mysterious happenings as well.

Leaving Ulagan Bay on Palawan, we round Northwest Point and, under power, we head for the deep water off the Palawan shelf. The wind is light Nor’Easterly, but it soon rises to 9 knots and we set sail. With the big jib poled out on the port side and the main held in place with a preventer on the starboard, we make steady progress, wing on wing, through the day, It is thirty seven miles until the last of the shallows are behind us and the soundings disappear, but we are there before nightfall, and we turn south.

I drop the pole and shift the jib to the same side as the main and the wind is now up to eleven knots I set the windvane and we are soon sailing in the sixes.

The sun goes down and there is a bright moon already high in the sky. The stars come our. Judy and I take turns on watch. Life is good.

On my midnight to three I am sitting in the cockpit in my deck chair, which is possible only when, like tonight, the sea is flat and the deck steady, and I cannot see the compass, so I am steering, like the ancient ones, by the Southern Cross, which I watch over my left shoulder, next to the port shroud. I can also see Orion, the Big Dipper, and the Pole star, and a million others, but only the Southern Cross is in the right place to steer by, and it is my friend.

By 01:00 the moon has set and it is now totally dark. The wind picks up and shifts slightly to the southeast now coming from 100 degrees. We are sailing faster, into the darkness. Something bothers me, but I don’t know what. Maybe it is that the stars now come and go behind unseen clouds. I’ve just lost the Southern Cross! No, there it is, right where I looked a second ago and it was not there.

Suddenly a wave rocks the boat violently and throws me out of my deck chair. The sails fly back and forth across the boat and crack the air. Then it is still again Judy sticks her head up, out of the hatch, to see what the commotion is all about, I shrug; I am baffled.. The boat resumes sailing. Judy returns to her bunk.

What was that? It unsettles me.

I have other issues to attend to. The wind begins swinging to new a new direction. Soon it is blowing from 130 degrees. I adjust the windvane and the sails. Then a further shift occurs. Now it is 148 degrees. I adjust again. But the wind continues to move around the compass and I can’t keep up, it keeps turning us; we are constantly off our course. I stay busy making all the corrections.

Within an hour and a half the wind has shifted to 182 degrees and we have to be close hauled, or nearly so, to make good our course of 230.

Because there is no moon I cannot see the sky and I wonder what is up there. Is it a storm coming? But the sea is still flat.

I know that off to my right is a large area of the ocean filled with reefs and shoals called the Dangerous Ground. It may be miles away, but I cannot see in the darkness, and I don’t like the fact that we keep turning towards it.

Judy’s watch, I go below, but I cannot sleep. Before dawn I am back on deck, napping in a corner of the cockpit, but we are both tense, waiting for something to happen. We are wondering what is going on with the weather and we are both wishing for sun to rise. There have been a couple other sudden wave strikes, but for her entire watch the wind has remained steady, thankfully.

The sun comes up and the sky is non-threatening, There are no angry clouds on the horizon; the ocean is serene. Whatever malevolent presence which might have been there during the night has slipped away with the darkness. The wind even returns to the east. We ease the sheets.

The day passes uneventfully except that, once, in the bright sunlight and clear air we spot breaking waves up to weather. With binoculars we can see a brown rock sticking up with white surf around it. The chart shows shoals there, but no island. So there are dangers on both sides.

On the second night we experience a repeat of the previous night with the rapid shift of the wind to the south, only this time the wind rises and the seas become choppy. We change to the jib, and we reef the main. The speeds are up in the sevens.

We hit our turning point off the Balabac Islands and now we have to sail close hauled, hard on the wind, and still, since the turning mark, we are not able to make our new course. Only a few degrees off, we hold on and hope for a favorable shift in the morning.

Nice Day to Sail

Dawn comes on the third day and the sky is clear, the sea blue and occasional whitecaps show themselves. We sail towards Borneo as best we can, but the wind stays out of the south. We will have to beat to get to Kudat. With long port tacks and short hitches to starboard we make our way into Maruda Bay. This place was a notorious hideout for pirates 200 years ago, but now it is home only to fishermen and a few smugglers.

We know we are in Malaysia, if for no other reason than that the fishing boats are not bancas; they do not have the narrow hulls and wide outriggers that are universal to vessels in the Philippines. They have their own characteristic shape: Malaysian.

The town of Kudat comes into view, and the gold dome of a mosque. We hoist our Malasian courtesy flag, and our own national ensign, the stars and stripes, flies from our backstay.

We enter a new country, and a new adventure.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Kudat
06deg 53.5 N, 116deg 51.5E