North to Tablas

Our first stop was the small town of Santa Fe where Marc perfected his bomb on behalf of Germany. He actually came up with 2, the flying air guitar and the Kusseler roll.

The plan was to head from here to Looc stopping at Looc’s fish protection zone and reef along the way for a snorkel. All was going well until an official came out and asked if we had registered. Of course the answer was no but we will do it when we arrive in town AFTER our snorkel. This got him all upset and he raced back to get the big boss who came out in the big boat and escorted us to the shore to the awaiting police one of which told me he had killed 27 political extremists in a gun battle in southern Mindanao some years ago before he was wounded. After having the charges read to us while being recorded and photographed I managed to get our fine reduced from $46 to $9.30. The police kindly gave us a ride to town once all was settled.

Our next town up the west coast of Tablas was San Andres where a family took us under their wing taking us the waterfall in the rain.

The track was washed out in a lot of places but after a successful trip they kindly made us lunch accompanied by Tuba? their wine from the coconut tree.

After Tablas the island of Romblon, home of marble was our destination. Here we hired motorbikes. Our trusty machine turned out not to be so trusty with 2 puncture repairs needing to be attended to under burning pistons and running out of petrol on the way home. Lucky for Amanda it was dark so less people noticed her pushing me to the closest coke bottle filled with fuel. Which turned out to be not so far.

Christmas in Port Barton

Leaving Oyster Inlet we found an anchorage further north of the underground river for the night and after visiting the village headed around the following morning. Getting ashore was a problem because of the surf on the beach so after one successful attempt we hired a spider boat to take the rest of us. Our cave guide paddled us into the cave and explained what vegetable different rock formations looked like between giving Pontus confusing directions on where to point the spot light.

Arriving back at the boat around lunch still gave us plenty of time to get to Jimboom Bay where the guys in the village taught us to play 61, a form of Billiards. The next morning upon departure Robin informed us of good fishing feeling he had… sure enough an hour later he landed a Tuna.

Our plan upon arriving at Port Barton was to travel to Puerto Princessa by motorbike to do some shopping for Christmas. Things didn’t start out well with Andy locking his motorbike keys under the seat at the petrol station.

An hour later we hit the road or more accurately the mud. The locals weren’t joking about the condition of the road. I had so much mud stuck to the front tire the wheel stopped turning making the bike steer more like a snow mobile.

6 hours later we arrived in the big smoke and went to the fanciest restaurant in town to celebrate our good luck in arriving without serious injury. The trip back was not as bad with the weather gods smiling down on us.

While we were away the swell had crept into our anchorage so first thing Christmas morning we upped anchor and moved to a small island 2 miles away where the water was flat. Robin and Pontus demonstrated the Swedish bomb known as the flying Otter or maybe in Pontus’s case the falling Otter.

Not having turkey, ham etc we settled for spit roasted chicken for Christmas lunch after the present opening. Sloop was more impressed with the wrapping paper than the boots he received. After too many beers we headed over to the Island to find the Karaoke bar we could hear and pumped out a few tunes, me not included.

Back tracking... heading to Sandakan

After weaving around the floating fish traps, we made our way out of Lahad Datu towards our first anchorage. Bombing again was on the menu.

Trevor attempted the NZ staple unsupervised and without sufficient training almost ending in tears when he hit the water face first.

As a joke I volunteered his services to do a talk at the local school in Tambisan. Before I knew it we had all been recruited, donning our most respectable clothes we headed over, guitar in hand to the school. Malaysia has implemented a 33-minute compulsory English reading program for kids in all schools, I think every week. Video is taken and sent to the education department to prove participation and we were lucky enough to be part of the launch.

After this the kids were invited out to the boat for a look-see. They were very impressed and we had a great morning - thanks Tambisan!

The boy’s turn to visit was a little less calm than the girls which did not impress Sloop who is used to a quieter lifestyle.

Andele Andele... south we sail

After picking up crew Christian and Mane from Chile we headed south with Semporna being our final destination.

Our first stop was the southern entrance to the Kinabatangan. Here we found Proboscis monkeys up a creek side by side with an army base. In the wee hours of 3am two large fishing boats that had dragged anchor with their 8 dory’s tangled around the front of Thyme. How rude… Christian summed it well by responding to Mane when asked, “What’s happening?” and he said something that sounded like cagsacaraga and means in English “big shit.”
The fishing crew managed to get 1 boat off and cut the anchor line on the other to free it before sending over their English speaker to give us a bucket of crabs and apologize.

Tigabu was our next stop where we demonstrated the art of washing in the rain to save water. We went ashore and tried to get the kids to climb a tree to get a drinking coconut for us. We were told to help yourself. Lucky for us some contractors came by with an extension ladder. Problem solved.


On the far side of the island while looking for a snorkeling spot we found some locals cutting planks from driftwood. And we thought planking was so yesterday…



Another overnight stop was made at Dent Haven before crossing Darvel Bay. With no wind the decision was made to stop so Christian could demonstrate the Chilean Banana bomb. Mane’s contribution was the monkey jump.


10 points for enthusiasm, 2 for splash. Amanda needn’t have moved so far away from the drop zone. The weather being as settled as it was we did a change of course and headed to Richards Reef for an overnight snorkeling stop.

It was still another 3 days before Amanda’s parents were due to arrive so with previous crewmember Josh and his friend Ben in the neighborhood the plan to head out for some diving was hatched.


While to four of us were diving the sound of boats could be heard above us and after surfacing we discovered Trevor from Gadfly, Darryl from Matana and Dave from Mirage were anchored in the next bay. As we hadn’t seen Trevor for 4 months beers seemed like a good idea. This of course led to a bombing competition with moves like the Flying Wombat, Star Horsey, Staple and the Layback all being demonstrated.



Trevor managed to lose his sunnies but with the assistance of dive gear recovered them after a 15 min search.


That night we had a fire on the beach with marshmallows before heading from Gaya around to Edgell Patches the following morning. The plan was to do the open sea dive before the wind came up but conditions weren’t great so we dropped Josh and Amanda off and returned to the general area ½ an hour later. I kept thinking if the GPS was to lose the waypoint or there was a strong current below the surface how would we find them? None of these things happened so alls well that ends well.
With the arrival of Amanda’s parents we hit the Tourist trail heading over to Poring hot springs.

They also have a rain forest canopy walk, which consists of Aluminum ladders bolted together, overlaid with planks and hung in the treetops.



Town also had its sights such as 6-foot long Monitor lizards living in the street drains and some pretty interesting cuisine being live stonefish at 10 RM per 100 grams.



After a few days I was pretty much touristed out so moved onto boat jobs giving Amanda, Derek and Janet some time alone to visit the wild life park, Islands etc. They got a good taste of local safety on the boat trip having to wear kids life jackets that won’t do up and a life ring that’s going to the bottom of the sea with the boat if it sinks.



Amanda says – I had an absolute ball with my parents here – 8 days was too short! Wildlife spotting, mountain and jungle walks, hot springs, islands – we enjoyed it all. I hope you come back to visit soon – miss you already.

Koh Lipe - Thailand

We crossed the border into crystal clear waters under a clear blue sky - welcome to Thailand. Koh Lipe was an island paradise, inhabited by sea gypsies and home to the long tails.

After discovering it was George's birthday of undisclosed vintage (SY Amable) we had an excuse for a party on Thyme. The day started with cake and ended with Trevor from Gadfly jumping from the spreaders.


Keen for a bit of exploring we headed to Pirate's Waterfall for a quick dip. Luckily we found no leeches here. There was plenty of bats along the way.