June 2024
Due to unforeseen complications and rescheduled flights for our crew, they arrived at different times on the first of this month. Zonda was first to arrive at around 10am and the 3 of us did the majority of the shopping before meeting Kirsten and Steve mid afternoon. We all returned to Imagination and had a lovely evening getting to know each other once the orientation, unpacking and putting away of groceries had been done. Toward the end of last month, Ally and Shawn had tried to get the ball rolling with the local clearance out of Semporna as there were public holidays coming up both sides of the weekend meaning that we would be stuck there until at least the 4th. The Marine Department and Customs cleared us in advance, but Immigration wanted to see everyone with their original passports, not just the copies we had provided, which is fair enough I guess. We explained that we really wanted to leave the area as soon as possible and not wait until the 4th as we would already have been there for a week in a rather unpleasant anchorage. The Officer very kindly agreed to meet us at 9am on Sunday the 2nd so that we could be on our way. We were very grateful to him for taking time out of his his weekend off, so we made sure everyone was up and ready to get to the meeting point in plenty of time. He was there ready and waiting for us and once he had seen all of the passports, he handed us the stamped, dated and signed paperwork we had prepared on our previous visit . We completed our provisioning before returning to Imagination for the remainder of the day. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a mishap with one of the toilets and it had to be dismantled for a blockage to be removed which took most of the afternoon for Shawn and Steve, with a little bit of help every now and then from Kirsten and Ally. Once it was sorted, it was time to relax with a drink or two ( although a drink or two may already have been consumed by a few 😉 ) before dinner. It’s weird that we had no ( manmade) toilet blockages at all during our 11 years chartering, but have had 3 since starting this adventure….all caused by men, which is also weird?!
On Monday the 3rd, we were on our way to Mabul ( a return visit for Ally and Shawn) arriving at lunchtime. It was fun to relax on noodles off the back of Imagination, chatting, listening to music and enjoying a few drinks together ( there may have been some dancing, too) before going ashore later that afternoon so that Kirsten and Steve could organise diving. We went to the bar for a drink before returning to Imagination in time for Zonda to prepare dinner. The 4th was a quiet day – Steve and Kirsten went diving and Zonda remained onboard while Ally and Shawn went for a lovely snorkel. Shawn cooked dinner which even included a very good dessert. It was Ally’s birthday and he thought he’d make a cake but rather than read the instructions on the packaging, he ended up putting the sachet of icing sugar meant for the top, into the cake mix. The batter was poured over pineapple rings and we weren’t sure quite what we would be ending up with but it came out of the oven golden, light and crispy edged and was made even more delicious by lashings of custard! The 5th was another lovely, relaxed day. Everyone remained on board, except Shawn who went diving in Sipidan. He thoroughly enjoyed his 3 dives and once he had returned and showered, we all went back over to the dive resort where he, Ally and Zonda enjoyed a couple of drinks while Kirsten and Steve did a twilight/night dive. We ate together at the “all you can eat” buffet at the resort before heading back to Imagination for the rest of the evening.
On the 6th, we all went for a fabulous snorkel on the reef just off of the small patch of remaining beach near the dive resorts. It was so pretty and teeming with life in all colours, shapes and forms including several species of anemonefish and bright yellow trumpetfish. For our next destination, Shawn had tried to arrange a Marine Park permit through email and phone with the Sabah Parks office, but they were rather unhelpful, in that they couldn’t issue permits or take payment online or over the phone. Unfortunately, that meant we had to return to Semporna on the 7th to visit the office in person. Shawn and Ally arrived at the door at 1pm and they were just closing for the day! Thankfully they let us in to complete the permit application form so that we could return early in the morning. Everyone else was doing their own shopping etc, so we had lunch before trying to locate some high pressure hose for the dive compressor and then meeting up with the others. At 07.30 the following morning, Ally and Shawn were back at the office to make payment and pick up the approved permits and we were off to Tun Sakaran Marine Park as soon as we got back to Imagination.
The first island we visited was Bohay Dulong Island where we dropped anchor at 11.30. This area is popular with day trippers and so when we went ashore, there were lots of tourists around and several large boats alongside the dock. There is a Giant Clam breeding program in place here as they are an endangered species – they even cultivate various algae with which to feed them. There was some interesting information in the display area, but it could do with having some money and time spent on it to refresh faded and dirty text. The water here, despite it being a marine park, is still polluted by plastic garbage and used nappies etc, but we managed to dodge the worst of it when we went for a snorkel over the most gorgeous, healthy reef area. We stayed here for the night and late morning we moved to Sibuan Island, arriving just after 2pm. Zonda stayed on board while the rest of us went for a wander around the small island. Again, there were many tourists around initially but by the time we got back to the dinghy, most had departed. This place could be spectacular if it wasn’t for all the plastic, material and bags of various descriptions washed up on the beaches – it’s hard to believe that in a marine protected area where visitors are charged a fee to visit, no money is spent or effort made to keep them clean. Armed police keep watch over the island from a platform protected with rolls of barbed wire due to it’s proximity to the Philippine border and the previous history of kidnappings of tourists and “rich” folk which was a little worrying but comforting at the same time. Again, the next morning, we all went snorkelling and found large groups of urchins and free swimming, brave anemonefish – must be breeding season. We left here at 11.20 and motored another couple of hours to the 3rd place, Mantabuan Island. Steve, Shawn and Ally went ashore to show our permit, as we had done in the other two locations and this time there were no other visitors. The snorkelling was superb here but once again was spoiled slightly by the constant flow of plastic bottles and bags floating by with the current.
Due to the potential risk of interference from the nearby Southern Philippine Islands, ESSCOM ( the department that monitors marine traffic along the top edge and East Coast of Malaysian Borneo within the state of Sabah) encourage all private vessels to keep them informed of their location and limit their movements to daylight hours ( 6am to 6pm) and so it took us 3 long days of motor sailing ( no wind at all!) to get to the town of Sandakan, arriving at the anchorage in front of the Yacht Club at 15.30 on the 13th. It’s a busy fishing port, with boats coming and going and some rather unsavoury smells as the wind direction changes and the usual garbage in the water, but it didn’t seem so bad here. On the 14th, we were all ashore to do the domestic clearance before Zonda went to do some of her own retail therapy. The town centre is bustling with shops and people and there’s a decent shopping mall too which meant Ally and Shawn were able to find and buy a couple of new induction hobs to replace the broken and damaged ones on board. Zonda did her own thing again on Saturday 15th and Steve, Kirsten, Ally and Shawn refilled the diesel/petrol jerrycans before spending the rest of the day exploring/relaxing etc.
We had organised a day trip for Sunday 16th and met our driver and guide at 8am. We had a 40 minute journey to get to our first stop, a Rainforest Discovery Centre. Our guide, Siti, told us about some of the flora and fauna as we walked the pathway through the trees and along skybridges over the forest canopy. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see much wildlife but it felt so good to be amongst nature in the lush, green forest. Our next stop was the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary where regular food is put out for orangutans not confined to enclosures, to come in and eat. They rehabilitate animals that have been injured/ made homeless due to the destruction of the rainforest and they are able to come and go as they please before some are relocated to protected areas well out of the way of developers. It’s quite a small place, but well looked after with a great viewing gallery over an area they call “ the nursery”, although I’m not sure why it has that name – I should have asked. Food had just been put out when we arrived in the viewing area and we were able to watch for about an hour as several orangutans, some with young babies, came in for lunch. Next we were off to the close by Bornean Sunbear Conservation Centre. These beautiful creatures are also known as Honey Bears due to their love of honey, and are the smallest bears in the world. They are in danger of extinction here in Borneo due to loss of habit, being captured for pets and being killed for body parts to be used in Chinese medicine and so rescued bears are nursed back to health and/or rehabilitated and eventually released back into the wilderness. Their black fur is glossy and smooth and each has a unique pattern of golden fur on their chest, visible when they stand up on their hind legs – you can see why people would want to keep them as pets. On the way back to Sandakan, we stopped at a local restaurant for a late lunch where Ally tried Malaysian Roti for the first time and it was delicious. The plain roti were like a combination of caribbean roti skins and pancakes and were served with a bowl each of curry sauce and dahl. Yum.
We were off on another daytrip the next day ( Monday 17th), this time with Christopher, a Grab taxi driver that Zonda had used a couple of days ago. It was a 2 hour drive to get to our destination, but nice to see some of the countryside as we travelled. We arrived in Sukau where we then got into a boat to do a trip along the Kilibatangan River. Over the next 3 hours we saw a mother orangutan with her baby at a distance, many long-tailed macaques, a baby croc, several species of birds and caught a glimpse of the Pygmy Elephants as they finished crossing the river. They are called pygmy elephants but in fact, they are only slightly smaller than the Asian Elephants on the mainland which was slightly disappointing as Ally had been expecting tiny elephants haha. In reality, we were doing the trip at the wrong time of day – it was between 10.30 and 13.30, the hottest part of the day when most wildlife limits activity and stays out of the sun so as a result, we didn’t get to see as much as we would have liked, but it was still a really lovely day and Christopher was an excellent guide and his vehicle very clean, comfortable and best of all, cool.
It was time to do the outward domestic clearance on the 18th, so we all went to Immigration together before splitting up to do our own thing once again. We were all temporary members of the Sandakan Yacht Club and after hot and sticky days/errands ashore, it was a great meeting spot where we spent time in the pool before showering and returning to Imagination. The next 5 days consisted of early mornings, long motor sails ( still no wind) and random anchorages as we hopped our way around and over the top of Borneo, out of ESSCOM’s jurisdiction and down to our final destination of Kota Kinabalu. The final day of travel had been very overcast, more windy and very wet which had bought all the local fishing vessels into the large harbour to rest and shelter which made our navigation through them, sometimes 3 or 4 boats rafted together, rather stressful especially with the muddy water and inaccurate charts. We managed to hit the bottom at one point, of course with an audience of fishermen who, rather than warn us of the shallow area, just watched and waited. Thankfully it was soft silt and we were able to reverse off easily and go the other way around with the fishermen then choosing to tell us which way to go! Finally on anchor just before 4pm in front of the Oceanus Waterfront Mall, we were able to take in our surroundings. Kota Kinabalu ( aka KK) is very built up and modern in comparison to everywhere else we have been on Borneo and we were right under the flight path of the very regular planes coming in all day and all night. Who knew Borneo had so much air traffic?
On the morning of the 24th, we all got in the dinghy to go ashore to visit the authorities only to discover that there are no public docks, just a harbour wall with no steps/ladders. We went to the Sabah Parks Jetty and asked if we could tie up there so that we could clear in which they kindly agreed to, and again when we returned to refill our jerry cans several times. We had heard before arrival in Malaysia that there were restrictions on buying diesel and gasoline ( petrol), and while we were able to fill them all at the same time in Tawau and Sandakan, the rules were closely adhered to in KK which meant we could only purchase 20 litres of diesel per person per day. Of course there are ways around this as there are with the rule that foreigners are not allowed to purchase any gasoline ( petrol) at all, period. You’ve just got to be a little creative and generous. It was time for Kirsten, Steve and Zonda to leave us late morning after cleaning and Shawn dropped them ashore for their onward travels. After they had gone, Shawn and Ally returned ashore to complete refuelling and while not unpleasant, it became clear that we had overdone our uses of the jetty and so for the rest of our stay here, we had to tie up to a bollard on the harbour wall, close to the jetty and scale up and down the harbour wall using outlet pipes as footholds. At low tide, this became especially dangerous as the exposed wall was slimy and very slippery. With all the small speedboats around, we are surprised that it is so difficult to get ashore. Just a ladder up the wall here and there would make life so much easier for everyone. The shopping here is fantastic with several large shopping malls, well stocked stores and restaurants galore. We spent a fair bit of time mooching, eating and shopping over the next few days. Sunday 30th was very wet, so we were able to collect water to refill our water tank ready for the upcoming sail to the mainland. Ally had been cooking plenty for each evening meal so there was enough to go in the freezer and today she took advantage of the whole day onboard to prepare a couple more. It’s always nice to have “ready meals” when sailing long distances.
