Tag: Cruising

THE NINIGO ISLANDS ARE WONDERFUL

Manaus, Fisherman and his children came to visit. Photo Ray Penson

The overnight sail to the Hermits was beautiful, clear skies, millions of stars and a steady light breeze pushing us along nicely over calm seas.  The next morning we entered the lagoon surrounding the Hermits and lost the wind in the lee of the islands.  On went the motor and soon we were safely anchored.  Then the weather turned nasty again with rain squalls and a nasty chop bouncing us around.  The entry in the log book reads “A shitty windy and wet day”.  That was it, no canoes came to visit, no fresh fruit to trade and no shore leave for the Truce crew.

0

A VERY CHALLENGING SAIL

The makings of a perfect meal, everything fresh. Photo Ray Penson

The sail from Biak to the Ninigo Islands looked, on paper, to be a perfect sail.  The seasonal winds were predicted to be favourable with a current behind us of 0.6 knots.  I was really looking forward to an easy trip of about six or seven days.  The distance was just less than 500 miles.  The reality turned out to be much different, an exhausting mammoth effort to reach the Ninigo Islands after sixteen days and over a thousand miles of sailing. 

0

BIAK AND MORE MAINTENANCE

Biak Cave system, 3,000 Japanese soldiers are claimed to have died here. Photo Ray Penson

Once again, I have maintenance jobs mounting up.  This light weather sailing with frequent squalls is taking its toll on the gear, sails and running rigging.  Biak is a good place to do this, the anchorage for the most part is fairly calm and only transient squalls upset the equilibrium. 

0

IS THE BASILAN STRAIT SAFE?

Chatting with local fishermen in the Celebes Sea. Photo Ray Penson

The plan now is to sail via the Basilan Strait, past Zamboanga and into the Celebes sea and then down to Biak in Indonesia where I can do a final reprovision before heading to Papua New Guinea.  This route will give us a far better wind angle and cut the corner saving us a hard slog and many miles. When I informed my cruising friends of my intentions they all threw up their hands in horror and reeled off numerous stories of piracy and kidnapping around southern Mindanao.

2

CROSSING THE SULU SEA TWICE

Shite Hawk, snuck onboard when I wasn't looking. Photo Ray Penson

Six hundred miles and across the Sulu Sea twice to end up where I started. An unusual trip. I departed from Puerto Princesa headed towards Bonbonon on Negros Island, a trip of about 270 miles. This was to be my stepping stone for sailing east through the Philippines and then down the East coast of Mindanao to Davao where I intended to check out of the country.

3

3GM30F FUEL INJECTOR PUMP LEAK REMEDY

New 'O' rings and bleed screw fitted, tested and leak free. Photo Ray Penson

Over the last few months I have been noticing a slight trace of diesel around the top of the injector pump where the fuel lines come out and up to the injectors.  I had that nagging feeling that something was not right.  Engine problems don’t heal themselves, they only get worse. 

2

SAILING FROM KUDAT TO PUERTO PRINCESA

Palawan Sunset. Photo Ray Penson

The next step of the journey is sailing from Kudat in Malaysia to Puerto Princesa on the island of Palawan in the Philippines. This will be my first visit to the Philippines and I am very much looking forward to it. The departure from Kudat was promising, for a while we had a tail wind until it disappeared mid morning and the sea went glassy, leaving us bobbing around going backwards slowly. The engine had to go on, otherwise we wouldn’t make any progress and the tide would take us back to Kudat. 

1

BORNEO – LABUAN TO KUDAT

Usukan Cove, a beautiful spot. Photo Ray Penson

The waiting at Labuan has been so stressful,  If the anchorage had been safe and secure I would be in a completely different state of mind.  Anyway, eager to remove myself from this place I bought a few last-minute fresh food items and without regret sailed out from Labuan.  Both Truce and I happy to be back in clean waters and heading northwards up the coast.

0

MIRI TO LABUAN AND NEAR DISASTER

Duty Free Booze. Photo Ray Penson

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.

5

PREPARING TO DEPART INDONESIA

Secluded Cove at Belitung. Photo Ray Penson

Social life on Belitung  has been good with a few hardy cruisers passing through to have drinks, food and conversations with.  The local village has an excellent coffee shop and café serving delicious Indonesian food.  The girls serving were surprised when I ordered ‘local hot’ as they are used to serving bland mild food to non-Indonesians. The staff were very kind, helpful and interested in what I was doing. They sort of adopted this old man, on one visit they made me a special soup, it was delicious. I even left a tip which is usually against my religion.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑