Phuket, Thailand

On 11th March 2013, we picked up a mooring in Ao Chalong, Phuket. It was a 3 day sail from Port Dickson, covering 350 nautical miles. Unfortunately we had no wind and the sea was flat so we had to motor about a third of the way. 
 
We love Thailand. You can get almost anything here (much like Malaysia). Food is good and cheap. People are friendly. We spent almost 2 weeks here, repaired our dinghy and made a new cover for our sail drive at Cholomark which cost us $530 AUD. A little pricey but the workmanship was pretty good.

We finally departed Phuket for Maldives on 23rd March.

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Port Dickson, Malaysia

We departed Kuala Belait, Brunei on 18th February 2013 after servicing our engine and installing a new fibreglass leg for our sail drive. We had fabricated 2 new ones (a fibreglass and an aluminium) in Melbourne. 

Our 792 nautical mile passage from Brunei to Port Dickson was generally peaceful except for one rough night when we passed Singapore where we had winds gusting up to 28 kts. 

Singapore up ahead

My second home - Singapore!

We were happy that our new fibreglass leg held well.
  
We tied up at berth no. C31 (N 02.28.654 E 101.50.559) at Admiral Marina, Port Dickson on 25th February and left Raptor here with our crew for several days while we went back to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to see our family & friends as well as to run some errands.  

My mum very kindly drove us back to Port Dickson from Kuala Lumpur. She also drove all of us (crew included) back and forth twice to the Immigration Office in order for us to clear out. Thanks Mum!

Full crew at P.D Immigration

We departed for Phuket, Thailand on 8th March.
 

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2nd Time in Kuala Belait, Brunei

5 days, 427 nautical miles with just the two of us onboard. By the time we arrived in Kuala Belait on 9th January 2013, I was an absolute zombie. 

My body was functioning but my mind was not. I was on autopilot mode. With a 2 hour on and 2 hour off shift, 24 hours for 5 days straight, it was really hard for either of us to get any proper rest. I don't know how the solo sailors do it but I definitely have a new found respect for them. 

I know you might be wondering why 2 hours per shift? Why didn't we make the shifts longer so that we could both have more time to rest? Well, 2 hours was just about as long as I could keep watch without dozing off or feeling seasick.

We didn't get much wind on this passage, so we had to motor most of the way. It was no fun breathing in gear box oil fumes the whole way.

Our initial heading was towards Miri, unfortunately our sail drive failed again. 

We anchored (N 04.34.540 E 114.11.784) in the Belait River just opposite the Kuala Belait Boat Club and subsequently moored Raptor right next to the jetty, opposite the playground where we left her for almost a month, to attend a friend's wedding in Melbourne, Australia.

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Palawan Island, Philippines

Puerto Princesa Bay

Departed Sandakan bound for Puerto Princesa, Palawan on 10th December 2012. The sail drive leg repair failed midway. Fortunately, it was not a long passage, only 291 nautical miles. We had to sail half way into 20-25kts of headwind. Arrived on 13th December, anchored in the Puerto Princesa bay (N 09.46.029 E 118.43.862).

There's a small yacht club called Abanico. The people there were friendly & helpful, food was good and laundry services were available. We spent a week working on the sail drive repairs (again!).

View of the bay from the Abanico Yacht Club

On Christmas day, we had a nice buffet lunch at the Abanico Yacht Club before setting off in the evening bound for El Nido. It was a tough night. We had 25-32kts of wind. A strap at the top of the storm jib tore and a wire for the leg support broke. 

My lunch did not sit well (even though it should've been digested by then) everything came out that night. Imagine me at the helm with a puke bucket in one hand, and holding on tightly onto the arm rest of the helms chair with the other, trying to keep calm and keep watch in terrible weather. It was a horrible sight, and an even worse feeling. But I had to suck it up and pull myself together because it was just Alex & I on this trip. That taught me to never have such a big meal before a passage ever again. 

The next day, we anchored between Verde Islands (N 10.05.488 E 119.13.499) and continued with repairs.

On the evening of 28th December, we headed for an anchorage in Dumaran. 46 nautical miles later, we anchored in Cynthia Bay (N 10.32.756 E 119.58.944), Dumaran in 6m of water. The charts were inaccurate plus it was a choppy anchorage.

Anchorage at Dumaran

Dumaran

Dumaran - Nice walk on the beach, lot of seashells and seaweed

We set off again for El Nido on 30th December. 86 nautical miles of very rough seas. 16-20kts of wind from the Northeast.  We anchored in Corong Corong (N 11.09.942 E 119.23.615) the next evening. It was too late for us to go ashore, so we spent New Year's onboard and set off some old flares as "fireworks". Happy New Year! Corong Corong was a nice anchorage, we managed to explore a little but there was no proper place for us to tie the dinghy securely.

Nice anchorage at Corong Corong

On 2nd January 2013, we departed Corong Corong for Puerta Princesa (on the West side) to clear out. 54 nautical miles later, we anchored in Sabang (Underground River),(N 10.12.147 E 118.53.768). We decided that I will stay on board while Alex goes ashore to clear us out.

What a terrible decision that was! As the day progressed, the weather turned. It started to pour, the wind was blowing hard and waves were building. Raptor was like a gorilla trying to break free from its chains! I was so worried that our anchor chain would break. It was rough. Trust me, because the steering wheel fell off!  

Bad weather

Day turned into night, Alex still had not returned. I had no way of contacting him. At this point, I was a nervous wreck. Thinking of all sorts of scenarios of what I should do, could do in case something else happens. If I could see myself in the mirror, I know I would've looked like I'd seen a ghost! But all I could do was curl up on the sofa, hope and pray that Alex would be back soon.. 

Around 8pm, just as I popped an anti seasick pill into my mouth, I saw some flashing lights!

"Alex! Is that you?", I yelled. 

-- Nothing. I could hardly see or hear anything in the dark with all the rain, wind and waves.

My heart started racing as I saw a shadow on the port side of the transom. I grabbed a torch to shine the light toward the transom and with a sigh of relief, it was Alex coming up from the water, onto the transom, all wet. He had swam over from the local fishing boat in which he had hitched a ride from. That very same boat then threw his backpack into our dinghy.

 "What happened?", I asked.

According to Alex, they had tried to drop him off, but the waves were too rough, he could see our rudders jumping in and out of the water! It was impossible to get close. In the midst of all the attempts, the bowsprit of the wooden fishing boat punctured our dinghy. And so, Alex decided the best way for him to get on was to swim and climb onboard. 

What a day! We weren't happy about what happened with our dinghy (one more repair on our never ending to do list), but I was glad Alex was back and we were both safe and sound. 

Map of Palawan

We departed Sabang for Malaysia the next day. 

   

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Back Again in Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia

156 nautical miles from Mabul, we arrived back in Sandakan and anchored off the Sandakan Yacht Club (N 05.50.400 E 118.07.441) on 25th October 2012.

We spent another month and a half here working on the engine.

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Bongao Island, Philippines to Mabul, Malaysia

All smiles departing Sandakan, Malaysia

18th October 2012, en-route from Sandakan to Papua New Guinea, a day after we departed, we discovered the mount on the sail drive was broken. We were pointing 30 degrees off course and the autopilot was working hard to compensate it. 

The engine was vibrating badly but we weren't sure of the cause. We suspected that something in the upper gearbox housing may have been damaged due to the broken mount. There was also strong "clunking" noise when engaging in the forward and reverse gear. 

The next day, the engine vibration did not improve. We tried to re-align the alternator belt and changed the prop but the engine was still vibrating when in gear. Sadly, we decided to cancel our plans to PNG and return to Sandakan via Bongao island instead.

Bongoa island

138 nautical miles from Sandakan, we anchored off Bongoa island (N 05.02.355 E 119.46.540) in 10m of water. The anchor held well.

Bongao island is the capital of the Tawi Tawi province which is the southernmost province in  Philippines. It is located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. A little worried at first when a local wooden boat rowed under us and refused to go, but it turned out they were just curious and left after a while.

We departed Bongao island 2 days later and headed for Mabul, Malaysia which was 61 nautical miles away. We only stayed a day in Mabul as there was no fresh water available and no one was keen to dive. One of our crew was down with fever and another had cut his hand with a knife so deep that it required stitches. So, on 24th October, we departed Mabul for Sandakan.

Mabul Oil Rig

Philippe entertaining us with his ukelele

Very disappointed we did not make it to Papua New Guinea, but thankful we realised the problem sooner rather than later, all safe and grateful to our crew for being so understanding.

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