MIRI TO LABUAN AND NEAR DISASTER

25 July 2024

The Marina at Miri was good despite poor facilities, management obviously don’t care about customers.  Toilets shitty (literally) and showers rudimentary and dirty.  On the positive side there were no busybodies patrolling the docks and trying to enforce nonsensical rules.  The tranquility and lack of bureaucracy was welcome.  To be secure alongside a dock was good with easy access to the shore and the town.

My first priority was to get the infected insect bite on my leg treated.  The doctor prescribed an antibiotic cocktail and I made sure the wound was well dressed.  After a few days the swelling had subsided and the worst was over.

I made good use of my time in Miri, ticking off maintenance items from my never ending list of things to do.  Engine oil and filter change, removing and cleaning out the exhaust elbow (nasty), emptying and cleaning the fresh water tanks, checking and adjusting the engine valve clearances, topping up fuel, cleaning, provisioning and a hundred other little jobs. 

The exhaust elbow was quite blocked with soot and carbon build up.  This was as I had expected and was leading to the higher than normal engine temperatures.  I have been running the engine at reduced revs to keep the temperature down.  Of course the reduced revs have been making the build up of carbon worse.  Anyway now it is cleaned up I hope the overheating problem will be gone for a while.  The exhaust elbow is due for replacement, its quite pitted inside although it looks new from the outside.  Another expense that I will try and put off for a while but it’s a ticking time bomb.

Miri has good hospitality with bars and resturants galore, I sampled some of the delights.  After eight days in the marina it was time to move on.  All my maintenance was done and Truce was stocked with fuel water and provisions.  No excuses to linger longer and my funds were at rock bottom.  Marinas are great but always turn out expensive.  I did my clearance out with the Harbour Master, Immigration and Customs and made an early morning departure from the marina, heading up the coast towards Labuan.

As usual for this trip the wind died and sailing was a slow slog.  In the afternoon I ran the motor for a while, at four in the afternoon closed the coast and anchored for the night.  Its quite tiring motoring and slow sailing.  The presence of logs and floating debris requires constant vigilance, also tiring.  We only made twenty miles progress for the day.

The next day was more of the same with light winds, ghosting along and then motoring, progress was a little better with forty seven miles covered before anchoring for the night.  This night I was sick.  I had a fever, headache, body ache and chills.  To cap it off I have stubbed my big toe and split the toenail which seems to have partly buried itself in the flesh of my toe.  A good excuse to have a good tot of rum.  The following morning I felt better and got underway early with light winds again and a mixture of sailing and motoring until a few miles from labuan when a large squall sent us racing into the harbour in heavy rain and poor visibility.  By three in the afternoon we were anchored off the yacht club, rolling around in blustery weather.

After an uncomfortable night, first thing in the morning we moved to the inner anchorage where there was better shelter and no swell.  The water here was horribly polluted and didn’t smell too pleasant.  Labuan is a duty free port and the prices of everything are very good.  There are excellent shops and a wonderful variety of products on sale.  The Indian restaurants are excellent.  Labuan is a major port for the offshore industry and every type of engineering service is available, a great place to stock up and get things fixed if needed. 

However there is one drawback, the lack of safe anchorage for small boats.  The marina is run down and I was advised to keep clear of it.  I had a difficult time at the anchorage with poor holding.  The bottom is severely fouled with plastic bags and sacks, these wrap around the anchor preventing it from getting a hold on the thin mud of the seabed, it just skids along collecting more plastic.   One afternoon I returned from shore to find that Truce had dragged anchor in a squall and was in danger of grounding on a lee shore at the ferry terminal.  With the aid of another sailor we were able to get Truce back to the anchorage but could not get the anchor to set.  Three times we tried but each time the anchor became fouled with plastic and skidded.  I fished out a spare anchor and a length of chain from the aft locker and attached it to the main anchor, piggyback style. With this arrangement she held, of course by now the strongest of the squall had passed. 

This incident left me battered and bruised and a little shaken (but not stirred).  This had been a very scary incident, we had come within a few meters of the shore and without the assistance of a fellow single handed sailor, could well have resulted in disaster. 

The following night, at midnight,  another squall came through and we started to drag anchor again.  I didn’t hesitate, I wanted out of here. I heaved up the main anchor but in the confined space of the port with the wind blowing I was unable to retrieve the back up anchor.  I moved off under motor into deeper water with the piggyback anchor hanging down from the bow, then, under bare poles we were blown out of the harbour.  Once clear of the harbour and anchored ships, I was able to retrieve the piggyback anchor.  Not wishing to return to the anchorage I sailed up the coast and anchored at the north end of Labuan Island in a place called Chimney Bay.  Here the weather was good and I stayed for the weekend before returning to the inner harbour.  The reason I went back was to receive a second hand sail which was arriving by courier.

I am looking forward to departing Labuan purely due to the squalls and poor holding at the anchorage.  Labuan itself is a good place, if the marina was functioning it would be a great stopover port.  Anyway, my leg is improving and the dressing is off.  My big toe is not looking too good and I visited the doctor in Labuan who said its also infected (more antibiotics) and will take time for the nail to join up and grow out.  In the meantime I take the medicine and soak it twice daily in warm water.  During the dragging anchor ordeal I also suffered some cuts and bruises that I need to dress as well to prevent infection. I am feeling a bit sorry for myself and still shaken by the dragging anchor ordeal.  

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