Dark Days on Thyme

This post represents our darkest days aboard Thyme. Simon’s malaria had deteriorated to a point where we admitted him to hospital for treatment. We thought he was going to get additional medications… He arrived early in the morning and shortly after was given an IV of fluids, while I stood by swatting the swarms of mosquitos flying around and Simon communicated via hand signals as no one spoke English.

I waited with Simon all day as it was our wedding anniversary and also hoping the doctor would come and give him some medication. Well the day came and went and I had to return to the boat, boarding the dinghy at the public dock – alone, returning to the lone yacht off the pier. All good until just after dark when 4 men approached the boat and tried to board. I told them to leave pretending to call downstairs to Simon. After hanging on and some discussion about money, they finally left, circling the boat for a while. Near hysterical I rang my friends on Ruby and Nathalie in Malaysia. They offered good advice and support and I locked up well to wait out a sleepless night in between regular phone calls and texts – thank you!

I returned to the hospital not long after first light only to find Simon checking himself out. The doctor, who finally arrived at 7pm had the results mixed up and told him he didn’t have malaria and didn’t have a fever, despite no one taking his temperature. He had also experienced a sleepless night wondering if the electrical socket was going to fall on his head, battling with the broken air-con, working up the courage to go to his luxurious private bathroom and keeping the mosquitos at bay. He was kindly awoken when 5 Seven Day Adventists entered his room to give him a plastic rose.
Pictures of the private bathroom…

 When we returned home, Simon deteriorated rapidly to the point where I began to panic. Tired and unsure of what to do I called family & friends who got to work helping us with options of flights home, embassy assistance and most of all love and moral support. Barbara on Ruby was also hard at work, calling her high up official government friends, who then called the Harbour Master. Later that day a Navy ship anchored very close to us – a co-incidence… Our fantastic doctor in Australia, Dr Silvana was amazing making calls to us at night after reviewing Simon’s updates by email.
With Simon refusing to leave on the next flight we waited out another tense few days before he started to improve. He now has a clear malaria bill of health and is quickly developing his appetite – he needs to as he’s lost over 12kgs in the last 6 weeks of being ill. The Zero Gravity chair is getting a serious workout.

For now, we are resting in Sorong, fattening Simon up and letting him regain some of his strength before we carry on. We know our next post will be brighter with new plans and adventures! In the meantime, here is a view from our window. I really can't thank everyone enough for your help and support the past few weeks x.

Here is our route in red thru northern Indo - what an amazing place. With Simon being sick unfortunately we missed quite a bit, but what we did see was truly awesome. Red is our penciled in plan for the coming weeks...

The Chilians in Raja Ampat

Before Scotty continued West on his travels, Simon had one more treat up his sickness sleeve for us. One morning, while eating breakfast outside I saw some bright blue gelly type liquid on the deck. Curious as to what it was, I asked Scotty if he had any ideas. Also curious by nature, he got down on all fours, dipped his index finger in it and took a sniff. It’s of quite an oily consistency he says, yes I agree bending down to get a better look. We put it down to one of lifes mysteries and carry on until shortly after Simon arises from his death bed with a blue stain on his foot. Further enquiries were made and it turns out that the medicine he is taking has turned his urine bright blue.  During the night while shivering and shaking and delirious with fever he must have missed and got the rail. Gross !!!

This is Simons humour in case you can't tell and being sick I've let him have his way - he's re-created it for your viewing pleasure!

Simon’s health was up and down like a yo-yo – dying one minute and feeling ok the next. After talking to our doc in Aus, we headed to the hospital for some tests, fearing the worst. It sounds terrible, but we were almost relieved to hear he had malaria – we could put a name to it, and this is something they treat everyday, being an endemic malaria region. We were anchored right next to the ferry terminal, only a short bus ride to the hospital.

Too late to let our friends Mane and Cristian from Chile know about Simon's health, they arrived and decided to stay aboard and see what happens. With drugs in hand, we headed a short way to an island where Si could take some R&R and we could explore. Sorry Scotty, after you jumped off we seemed to hit the mackerel sweet spot and Cristian was hauling them in – his first pelagic catch!

Cristian and Mane tried Scuba for the first time in the shallows of Palau Yum, before we headed back to Sorong for some more tests.

With Si still positive for P.Vivax malaria, we stocked up on a new course of drugs – supposedly to clear the parasite from blood and the liver stages and we headed back to Waigeo to explore the narrow channel between Palau Waigeo and Gam. We thought we might snorkel the channel so did a bit of a dinghy recon one afternoon – the current was so swift we struggled to get back to the boat.

The next day we braved the current and jumped in for a snorkeling joy ride past bommies and rocks covered with soft corals and sponges, critters, turtle and fish swimming in the depths and caves to explore.

This bay was a karst island fantasy with pinnacles, islets and narrow channels to weave in and out of. Secret bays could be accessed thru small holes in rocks and caves filled with bats abound. You could explore this area for months and still not see it all!

With Si’s health heading downhill despite the new drugs we decided to return to Sorong. Cristian and Mane jumped off and returned to Bali before heading for Chile. It was such a shame their visit co-incided with Simon being unwell – but we still managed to show them some of the beauty of Raja Ampat and even squeezed in some sailing, Cristian taking on role of skipper and Mane first mate. Unsure what to do next we returned to the hospital with Si where we decided to admit him for 3-4 days of treatment.

Just in case you have no idea where we are - that's us on the right hand side of the screen.

Wonderful Waigeo - Raja Ampat

Our stop at the equator involved more diving. This time some high adrenaline dives with swift currents and some big fish – we even managed to spot the Raja Ampat walking shark. Out of the marine park the boys couldn’t wait to get out the spear gun and catch some crays for dinner.

Instead of fireworks, our equator party included a call from Daryl on Metana advising that he had to administer CPR to Toni after she had suffered some kind of fit and could we get some assistance on the radio. Thru the trusty HF, we put out a PAN PAN and got NZ radio, who called Australia, who called Indonesia who sent out their Sea Air Rescue boat to assist. Nice to know someone is out there in emergencies.

Setting sail for Aus, we farewelled Metana and Gadfly for the last time and headed for a leisurely tour of Alyui Bay, sailing between a narrow karst cliff lined channel, diving with hundreds of solar powered nidibranchs at the White Arrow dive, visiting the local pearl farm, navigating through the mangroves to fresh water streams, collecting fresh oysters and checking out ancient rock art. We even squeezed in listening to the Sydney Swans win the grand final on the HF radio.

After a hot tip from the Pearl Farm and keen for some land adventures, we headed further into the bay for a walk up a mountain. We were surprised to find pitcher plants.

Unexpectedly, we've not seen a store now for about 2 weeks. Fresh veges were becoming a memory, lucky we like coleslaw and baking was becoming our favourite past time, homemade crumpets were a hit one morning. We were even resorting to desperate measure with the coconuts – taking from fallen trees!

With Simon suffering from the mystery illness again we made a push for Sorong.  At one point his fever reached 39.8 and he was delirious and shaking. Thank goodness Scotty was aboard, his calming influence was greatly appreciated – Simon spent 3 days in bed, arising only for entering or exiting anchorages or winching the tricky dinghy up before returning to his death bed. Simon awoke on day 4 with no idea as to where the boat was or how we got there! While you were sleeping, we saw no reason not to mix travel and nursing with exploring – Scotty and I dived in mangrove lined reefs, drift dived narrow channels with names like Citrus Ridge & Palau Yum where I spotted a huge sleeping Wobbygong, enjoyed bird watching and forest walking and visited a small island which resembled the south pacific more than Indonesia. Wish we could share the amazing diving but with no underwater camera – you’ll just have to come and see it yourself to believe it!

Jungles of Gaya to bright lights of Labuan

After stopping for a few supplies, and all the luxuries of the Sutra Harbor marina (shhh, we sneaked in for a swim) we headed out to Gaya where despite the best attempts by the staff at the Police Beach resort to turn us away due to dangers in the jungle we managed to find the elusive & exclusive canopy walk.

We also found the start of the national parks walk which is what we were really looking for. Some of the wildlife was trickier to spot then others however we weren’t attacked by bearded pigs and green vipers which is what the resort management lead us to believe.

Our next stop saw Amanda kicking a sharp stick and by the time we got to Snake Island she was pretty well boat bound. The fishermen were asking for water which made a nice change from beer.

I did manage to convince A to take Sloop for a walk while Maria learnt the fine art of Oyster collection. Don’t step on the puffer fish.

After  a big 4 mile day we anchored off  Tiga where a survivor series was filmed and you can swim in the mud pools. With more than enough entertainment provided by the locals, there was little need for me to get covered in the sticky mud and walk 2.5km back through the steamy jungle!

At the north end of Labuan it’s possible to walk to the bird park and one of Labuan’s big attractions the chimney. I’m still mystified as to why it’s such a big hit as nobody knows what it was built for, by whom or when exactly? Maybe that’s it.

After some duty free shopping and more supplies we headed over the  Klais river in search of the rumored Proboscis Monkeys and hornbills.

Danger in Cuyo

We arrived in Cuyo for the end of holy week (Easter) and with no motorbikes available for hire, checked out the town. At the church built in 1630, the stilts used in the traditional races were laying out leaving me no option but to impress Amanda with some of my childhood skills. Both hers and Michelle’s attempts didn’t really get off the ground.

After returning to Thyme we witnessed the departure of boats filled with holiday makers. The Navy ship giving free passage for 1,500 holidaying Palwanians loaded for 15hrs. The travellers erected tents, hammocks and various other shelters for the trip back to Puerto Princessa.

I wish we had the camera out to catch to goat that was hoisted up before some late arriving passengers.

The motorbikes came through the next day and we left on a tour around the Island. Michelle made me real nervous with questions like where are the brakes and does it have gears??? A foreign concept to a country where everything is automatic. Slowly the road turned into the runway where Amanda thought she could safely give it a try. This of course means she can now advise me of where I am going wrong.

The road looked less and less like a road finally making us stop to check the map. We were looking for some old ruins that can apparently be found on the north side of the island

Armed with local knowledge we got lost a second time and thinking we were close ventured out on foot.

With the help of some farmers we were directed back to the road and found ourselves back at a resort under construction by an Australian guy. Later we found out they were the ruins and the Australians neighbor from Austria was the one who printed the map as a piss take. Old ruins apparently as they have been under construction for 15 years. (...as they say back in Aussie, What an arsehole!)

I would like to say we arrived back safely however this was sadly not the case. Michelle while undertaking a u turn accidently hit the gas and shot off down a bank and into a porch where an 80 year old local was quietly peeling Cashew nuts. A bunch of old ladies waiting for a bus rushed to her aid picking up the gent, his nuts, the porch and the motorbike. Michelle somehow ended up on her feet. We got the bike back on the road and pointed in the right direction we went for lunch. 2 hours later when we passed him again he was sleeping out the front, no doubt all tuckered out after his graze with death. This crash made the skidding by the well and roaring into the undergrowth look relatively harmless.

The good news is the bike was reality unscathed so we celebrated our good fortune back at the wharf over a beer and balut (no Balut for Michele.. yet...).

Cuyo is very popular with Kite boarders between November and March and after talking to the local instructor to get the low down, we are coming back for 2 weeks next year at this time to learn the sport. Can’t wait.

Jungles of Borneo - off to the Kinabatangan River

From Tegipil we carried on to Lankayan getting lost in the reef before being pointed in the direction of a mooring owned by the resort located on the island. The snorkeling here was very good; we even spotted a giant stingray.


The Turtle islands was to be our next stop however after anchoring the Park officials paddled out on their surf ski with their “talky talky” so the “big boss” could tell us to go “far far away”. Turns out we did not have a landing permit which apparently we should have got from KK. The fact we weren’t landing was beside the point. We moved far away to the next island but were again told the same thing prompting us to move far far away. During the night we had a good squall 30+ knots and Hunter reviewed his personal belief of not using insect repellant.

The yacht club in Sandakan was a good stop for more supplies, the dentist for me and a chance to watch the All Blacks flog France in the rugby. The bar staff needed a little bit of convincing to change the channel from the badminton but we got there in the finish.

Of course the rugby turned into beers and once back at the boat. Hunter after not coming up with a bomb for Canada that could rival the Aussie "Star Horsie" or the US "Flying Wombat", pulled out the beer shot gun. I must say I was impressed. Not to be attempted without adult supervision it goes something like, Step 1 pierce the can and fold in the torn aluminum. Step 2-hold hole to mouth with tear tab at highest point and open. Two - Five seconds later your no longer thirsty.

With the tides still in our favor we left Sanderkan at 4.30am to cross the Northern bar into the Kinabatangan at 8.00am. All went well and we started the slow trip up stream.

At our first anchorage I managed to get 6 large river prawns off a fisherman going past for the evening BBQ.

We also spotted our first troop of Proboscis Monkeys in the trees near the boat. A closer inspection almost got us lost.

After a night of fireflies we took the dingy to a near by lake early in the morning before heading to the metropolises of Sukau further upstream.

South from Kudat

We headed out to Banggi with Hunter only a little grazed from his Coconut climbing exposé. Can’t blame him really as they probably are pretty thin over the ground in Toronto. Our next stop was to be Tigabu however we stopped for an afternoon snorkel at some random sand hill in the middle of the Sulu sea.

Hunter in his enthusiasm to go snorkeling threw himself out of the dingy onto a sea urchin. Ouch, injury number 2. I heard they don’t do much snorkeling in Canada.


After meeting some locals on Tigabu they kindly offered us much-needed tips in collecting and opening coconuts.


Our new friend took us to town after loading our dingy with drinking coconuts and showing us around his Beche de Mare farm. (sea cucumber). Here we got invited for lunch.


Lunch rolled into a snorkeling trip where our new friend and his offsider collected various shellfish for us that we could not accept not knowning what it was or how to cook it. They did however do battle with a Cuttlefish which we ate but not before it showered the dingy and Amanda who was sitting in it with black ink.


Carrying onwards southwest, I found Hunter sleeping on the foredeck mid afternoon resulting in Injury number 3. Apparently Canada has trees to provide shade from the sun.


The small Island of Tegipil with a small army base is where Hunter perfected the art of snorkeling. Amanda offered pearls of wisdom such as “you sound like a heard of elephants” and “can you float?”. Fins also kept his feet safe. While walking on the island we admired the army’s lookout post.