Saturday, October 27, 2012

Up The river Without a Paddle


When I checked the blog I couldn’t believe it’s almost 3 months since I posted anything – slacker!!  I can’t even use the excuse that we’ve been cruising, out of internet coverage, living it up wildly…….  In fact our sailing season pretty much came to a standstill shortly after getting Pelangi back in the water.  We’ve been up and down the West Borneo coast on various missions to collect or fit new gear after malfunctioning equipment and purchasing up-grades.  No wonder Pelangi’s smiling she now has; 2 new hatches, 6 new jammers, a new winch and new lines, new engine mounts fitted, new autopilot control and computer (begrudgingly bought I might add!), 4 brand new new deep cycle batteries, battery generator/alternator, battery monitor, all new interior cushion covers and even more stuff to come!!

To help pay for some of this I did pick up a bit of training work for Estee Lauder which included a trip to Frankfurt (don’t EVER fly with Lufthansa unless you have to) and delivery of a training course in Singapore.  However, I did fork out a fair amount in new, grown up shoes, lippy and mascara, new pants and a cardi, so the fee didn’t go as far as it should have.  Mind you, I did get a free bottle of DKNY perfume for me and Tommy Hilfiger aftershave for G – just what you need when you’re trying to keep the mozzies at bay!  Still, it’s v. nice smellies and it was quite good to get “back into the corporate saddle” for a bit.

In between all of this activity we did manage a week away from things work related and enjoyed our first river trip with The Pangers and Dolly.  The Klias River cuts through the wetlands of Western Sabah and is home of the proboscis monkey, that’s the one with the big nose and round belly.  As with most river entrances the water level is low and shifts a lot, so you need to time entry very carefully and enter on a rising tide and even then it’s a buttock clenching 0.5 meters under the keel!  Once in the river proper it’s important to remember that the water is highest on the outer edge of the bend so you basically zigzag your way through.  We had a nice breakfast stop on the first day just inside the river proper.  The first thing we noticed was the quietness; we were the only humans there nestled into the bush enjoying bacon butties and mugs of tea.  We went about 15 miles on day 1 and the evidence of man’s destruction became clearer the further up we went.  What was once miles and miles of lush rainforest has been chopped down and replaced with palm trees for the production of palm oil.  Palm oil is now Malaysia’s number 1 income earner with these plantations popping up on every piece of spare land possible.  This means that the home and food source for the monkeys and bird life in Malaysia is disappearing at an alarming rate.  It wasn’t until day 2 when we were about 25 miles up the Klias river that we spotted our first furry family.  Our spirits were lifted by the sight of these cute and funny proboscis monkeys.  The whole family where swinging through the branches of a small patch of original forest that still exists just across from where we anchored – very cool!  We watched them for quite a few hours and just as beer o’clock was upon us half a dozen boats pulled up filled with tourists who had obviously come to see the same family at play.  Funnily enough, at the sight of us anchored and enjoying a coldie in the cockpit drew more attention than the local wildlife as cameras clicked and people waved frantically at us – 1 guy asked us to put the kettle on for him and another wanted to know what we were having for tea.  We were the Posh and Becks of River Cruising for about 20 minutes!  We were in for another treat as darkness fell; hundreds of fireflies lit up the trees like Christmas lights.  We turned off all the lights in the boat to look at them and a few actually flew into the cockpit like flecks of pixie dust floating through the air – magical!  On day 3 we took Dolly further up the river to get even closer to the riverbank.  Once again we were disappointed by the lack of animal or bird life but did get very close to a proboscis monkey enjoying his breakfast of leaves.  He didn't seem bothered at all by the sound of our outboard or us gawking at him at such close quarters, just kept on chompin!  After lunch we turned around and started to head back, the only sound coming from our engine as we puttered slowly along enjoying the serenity of our surroundings.  Day 4 saw us back at our breaki stop and we decided to stay there the night.  The tide was going out again now and we saw a group of baby Macaque monkeys playing near the water’s edge.  Very close and very cute!  Another ride on Dolly brought us closer to another group playing in a ravine before we headed back for dinner.  So after another new experience and a trip well worth the time effort despite the disappearing landscape, day 5 was a return butt clencher to the duty free island of Labuan where we could stock up on the beers we’d consumed without dipping too deeply into the disappearing maintenance budget!

Once the remainder of our new equipment has arrived and been expertly fitted by the very clever G we can continue to travel north before the north easterlies kick in back towards the Philippines and what we hope will be another 6 months of (maintenance free) beautiful cruising.  With over 7,000 islands to choose from we will be visiting some old favourites from last year – Palawan and Bususanga before continuing further north to new places such as Peurto Galera which gets rave reviews from fellow cruisers.  So, lots to look forward to including a new member joining us for 2 weeks YAY!!  Bev, G’s mum is on a mini Asian tour including Singapore and HK and is joining us in Busuanga for some R N R on the beach and sun downers on the deck!  She will get here just in time for Captn G’s 50th on 20th November.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed for light winds and sunny days in this beautiful part of the world.

In the meantime there’s a bit more hard work for G as he continues to sweat and swear his way through cutting, sawing and running cables in the least accessible parts of the boat while at anchor with the sea churning underneath us and power boats flying past every 2 minutes– not easy I can tell you!

Hope all is well with you after such a long time.  As always drop us line –it’s been a while since we heard from you too you know.

Take care and get ready for that Christmas countdown – Ouch!!
Cheers then
Captns J and G XXX