Kuching, Sarawak to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Nearly time to change countries yet again so here is a quick update....

August 12th we will HOPEFULLY be in Sulawesi, Indonesia. We are taking part in Sail Bunaken. A seven day festival in Menado/Bitung on the NE tip of Sulawesi. Checkout http://www.sailbunaken2009.com/

We are currently in Kota Kinabalu enjoying the very luxurious Sutera Harbour Marina. Australia could learn a thing or two about how to run a marina from these guys. It is fabulous and all for 49rm bout A$17.

Included in this fee are three swimming pools to choose from, one is Olympic size, gymnasium, squash courts, tennis, table tennis, kids club, pilates, marble washrooms with complimentary towels, body wash, shampoo, moisturizer; free wifi, security day & night and free shuttle into town on the hour. It is the best!

There are two other kid boats here and Natasha has found some Australian holiday makers with a girl the same age and is having a ball. James is keeping up but only just!

We have lots of ground to cover to get to Indonesia and then internet will get harder. Amanda will be able to relay our messages when it gets difficult. We have another big leg of overnight sailing between Borneo and Sulawesi around the 6th August so would love to have texts on the iridiumhttp://messaging.iridium.com/
our number is 881631429195
don't forget your email address so we know who the text is from!

We have thoroughly enjoyed Sarawak & Sabah and still have lots of Sabah to see. The downside of Borneo for us....is the spinnaker has died, ripped across the middle and nowhere here to repair it. (Sorry Ken)! Solar strip died on current sails (tropical sunshine is the pits!) so a canvas guy here in KK(Kota Kinabalu) is fixing that up. Was hit by a corker of a squall lasting 5hours that took the 0.5m sea and 5-10knots of breeze to 3m and 25+ in seconds. Skies were blue with white puffy clouds. You couldn't tell what was about to hit. Sailed 75nm that day! Unusual in this are to sail so much. Have seen a waterspout about 2nm away from us and moving in our direction! We could see the sea being whipped up on the surface. Radical changes in course saw it eventually move away and dissipate. Too close... They say that Borneo has the most lightning strikes in Asia! Hopefully the weather will be kind to us as we move steadily east. Australia gets closer every day!

At some point I will put a selection of photos on the blog so check outhttp://bluemoonofoz.blogspot.com/
occasionally!
Sarah

Blue moon update #5

We arrived in Sarawak, Borneo safely after 2 nights and three days at sea. We had a smooth trip most of the way with squalls most nights and the odd tanker, barge or two and fishing boats to dodge. We had to cross the shipping lanes in two spots. Those for ships heading into the gulf of Thailand and those heading out into the south China Sea to Honk Kong, Vietnam, Philippines and beyond. Oil tankers are everywhere along the Borneo coast as this is one of Malaysias main sources of income along with palm oil, logging etc.

We arrived at Tanjung Datu and spent a lovely morning walking through some of the oldest rainforest in Borneo and were lucky to see a treeshrew and mouse deer. Haven't seen a rafflesia (world's largest flowere and very smelly) yet but hope to at one of the many national parks in Sarawak and Sabah. Borneo is made up of Sarawak, Brunei & Sabah along the northern edge, the rest is Kalimantan which is part of Indonesia. There are 27 native tribes living here as well as the Malays, chinese, indian and indonesian.

We hope to see the traditional Dayak tribes when we leave the Santabong river who still live in traditional longhouses with multiple families but lucky for us gave up headhunting 50 years ago. We met a chinese man who runs a fish farm and he said he was from a chinese family "Ting" who came from China to Borneo with Brooke one of the first white Rajah's. His Grandfather had his head removed as it was required as dowry for a Dayak tribe wishing to marry their son to another Dayak tribe 50 years ago. This resulted in Ting's family moving from Sibu to Kuching.

We will be sailing to the Sibu area in the next couple of days and passing through a river system still inhabited by Dayak's and hope to get some good photos. If you are luck you will get an invitiation to enter the longhouse and experience their culture! Food, dancing, music and drink their leathal rice wine! We know of some who have had the opportunity to test out blowpipes and dress in traditional costume.

Kuching and the Santabong river has been a great experience for us. We are here with about 40 yachts. Some are here for the Rainforeat festival and some are moving on like us. We have two weeks to reach Kota Kinabalu and then 2 weeks to get round the top of Sabah. We are on a mission as we have decided to do Sail Bunaken on August 12th and have 1000nm to go in 5 weeks. We have been told that at least half of this rally are looking at doing it. They are offering free CAIT's and social letters which will hopefully smooth our way into Indonesia and allow us to spend up to 6 months in Indonesia. We plan to stay in Indonesia till mid December and then sail into PNG on the north side of Irian Jaya. BUT plans can change!!

All's well here, Natasha has done lots of school work and done 2008 & 2009 Naplan year 5 testing with great results for most areas except spelling!! Jamie has his numbers to 20 and most of his letters now so will definitely be ready for school (year 1) next year. We've had the company of two other yachts and have been to see Ice Age 3 and celebrated Natasha's birthday with a trip to an Orangutan sanactuary and a visit to a pottery warehouse where Natasha tried her hand at a potter's wheel very successfully!

Have lots of photos to put on the blog so checkouthttp://bluemoonofoz.blogspot.com/
or try sending a free message to us on
http://messaging.iridium.com/
our number is 8816 314 29195
don't forget your email address.

Keep in touch, hopefully we won't loose our heads in the next week......

Sarah