Tag Archives | Selene

Impressions from a midnight watch 9pm to Midnight / Singapore – Miri (Borneo) 24. to 28.03.2012

While writing this, I am sitting underneath a breathtaking night sky somewhere between Singapore and the northwestern tip of Borneo. We’ve been on open water for more than 24 hours – maybe that accounts for all the philosophical thoughts you start to have and feel need to share on a blog. I apologize in advance….

The stars above shine so bright. They seem so close and are so many that I sit here just stunned. Venus is shining… right next to the moon and most nights she is visible as the first planet before it even gets dark. It looks like a blanket drawn over us and looking up I sense eternity; feeling small and unimportant and protected at the same time.

Being out on the water I realize how little practical knowledge I have for being on a boat. Star signs? Constellation of planets? Navigation by stars at night, without compass or radar? Not possible. But how well my western civilized knowledge still sticks after one year of being away. I can still name and draw Germany’s most important Autobahn routes and tell you how to navigate around traffic jams on the way from Frankfurt to Munich. Doesn’t help me much out here!

I am in full responsibility for the boat and its crew, Brian and Amy. Thank goodness there aren’t a lot of these little, ill-lit fishing boats. Once in a while a BIG tanker or container ship shows up on the radar, and I watch it closely and try to estimate which direction it’ll take. These guys are so big that they would never get the idea to change their course for us, a ‘small’ 50-foot boat. Oh well, I’ll change ours then – you shouldn’t discuss to long with someone being five times your size.

“Wake me before they come to close” Brian’s words are in my head. Nervously, I fiddle with the autopilot and sometimes change course miles ahead just to realize afterwards that we would have never met. Going around Singapore was a nightmare when looking at a radar screen. ‘Sleeping Giants’, as we call them, were all over the place. It was like playing one of the computer games from the 80’s with low pixel graphics and having to navigate around undefined obstacles.

Have you ever seen a sunrise on open water? I wonder if fishermen have as many words for water then people from Seattle for rain or Canadians do for snow. What number was it again? Something around forty? The ocean will come in any color from charcoal-grey early morning, just before dawn to greenish-blue and dark blue late afternoon, when the sun is up. Not even starting on the turquoise colors it’ll take around the tropical reefs. And then, just when you think nothing can top this sunrise, a school of dolphins begin to dance at the bow. The three of us stand there, amazed, shouting of joy, all excited and emotional. Suddenly, the dolphins decide to skip away, and just like that they are gone. Left behind, we are all still excited and deeply touched… as happy as you can only be on a boat. And for moments like these, we know exactly why we are travelling.

Happy travels to all of you, Marina

We left Brunei and came to the Malaysian port of Labuan which is well known for being a duty free island. A quick one night stop, check in to Malaysia, in and out of Labuan, the girls buy a bit of wine and away we go. Next stop is Tiga Island, about 35 miles up the coast. Tiga Island was “put on the map” as the site of the first Survivor episodes. All that remains of the glory are two small resorts and a large unused park.

Diving is the driver to come here, we finally see clear clean water and read the rave reviews of the dive sites. The anchorage is great, all alone and quiet at last. Amy and I do a fast dive under the boat but find only mud. The next day after a wonderful morning and breakfast we head around the reef to find some underwater treasures. Real live, colorful and full of life coral at last.

After the dive a big squall comes in with a torrential down poor, so we have a matinee. A friend gave me a bunch of movies in Phuket, some of my favorite musicals. I had not had the chance to see them so here it was. I clicked on one of my all time favorites, Oliver. The girls endured my exuberant love of musicals and got a chuckle watching me watch the flick. I do love my musicals.  Oliver has some catchy tunes and we all spent the next day singing, “Consider yourself a friend” and “I’d do anything for you” ahhhh they just do not make them like they used to.

We arose and prepared for the day in the warm sun and calm water. There is a reef a mile away and it is marked by a navigation buoy. We head to the reef and find the local dive boat already tied to the buoy—ya in Malaysia you can tie your boat to a aids to navigation—they friendly skipper gives us some information and we drop in the water. This is a spectacular diving with stunning coral and abundant fish. We all pop up with big smiles.

After the dive the girls prepare a picnic lunch and we head to the white sandy beach in front of the boat.  We have a scrumptious lunch of Pad Thai, pasta salad and cookies and chocolate for desert. We are all alone on a tropical beach with clear emerald water lapping at its shore and along comes a monkey out of the jungle to check us out. He is very shy and makes a brief visit.

Next we head to the center of the island, still singing Oliver songs, to find the famous volcanic mud baths. A 1.4 click walk and we arrive at the scene. Two holes filled with grey thick oozing mud that burps up bubbles from deep below. We crawl in the mud and find that we all float like bobbers. We float laying back, sitting up and even kneeling, it is amazing. The mud is warmed by the deep volcanic action and is so soothing it is just wonderful. We crawl out of the mud like primeval beings walking on two legs for the first time. There are no facilities to clean off so we take the long walk back as the mud dries on our skin. We run to the sea and begin scrapping off the mud laughing so hard it is difficult to stand.

What we learn is the daily routine another squall passes by but not with as much liquid and the day before. A quiet night and up to hit the dive site again. The sun is shining as we make our way back to the same reef. This time we explore the perimeter. We love this place so much, it is why we did the mad rush so we could have extra time here so we decide to stay another day.  Another day in paradise is always nice.  

The small country of Brunei is tucked into the middle of the north coast of Borneo, it is the only country to be solely in Borneo as Malaysia and Indonesia take up the rest of the island. When the Malaysian government was formed the Sultan of Brunei kept independent, an apparently good move. At one time this was the center of a large dynasty that reached into the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, now it is only a few hundred square miles.

With a small population, 300,000 or so, and buckets of oil everyone lives well; free schooling, health care and no income tax. Fuel is subsidized for locals and about a buck a gallon—remember a buck a gallon gas? Fuel is also why I stopped by at all. After a long albeit friendly clearance process we went to the yacht club where I was told fuel could be arranged. Like Indonesia it is a bit complicated as legally I cannot buy fuel here. Locals must buy it and transport it to the boat.  The good chaps at the yacht club direct me to “the guy” and he tells me it takes a three day notice to get fuel. I must leave the next day so give up. I may return when the tanks are a bit lower and reap the benefit on a better planned stay.

I read the “whipping” part and double checked my paper work!

the Sultan of Brunei and his lovely bride.

So back to Brunei, this is another monarchy ruled benevolently buy the Sultan of Brunei. Before Bill Gates came along he was consistently listed as the richest man in the world. One website claims his wealth goes up a hundred bucks a second—not a bad wage.  The Sultan’s picture is everywhere and he seems to be well liked, not the devotion seen in Thailand but certainly not disliked.  With high wages, average income about 35k, no tax, free schools and medical expenses and a low cost of living the Sultan’s flock live well. He did go through a testy divorce recently and took a much younger movie star bride; it is good to be King. His car collection is world famous too. Mm he likes young pretty girls and fast cool cars- so it would appear that I have all the qualifications to be a Sultan too. Now all I have to do is find is a small country full of oil and loyal followers, maybe on Ebay, hahaha.

On our way to the main town we anchored in another of the Sultans projects, a massive two mile wide marina enclosed by what must be 4 miles of huge beautifully constructed breakwaters. It seems the Sultan lost interest as the whole interior of this well protected man made lagoon is empty. We were told that it is all private and secure but cruisers slip in at night, anchor and duck out in the morning unnoticed so that is what we did. Curiosity hit and I took Furthur for a bit of a tour in the early morning expecting to see a huge mega yacht facility but found nothing but a small dock and one average sized sailboat.  Now I know why this place is known as “Sutlan’s Folly”.

miles of breakwater protecting, well, absolutely nothing. a great place to anchor.

The highlight of the stay for me was finding this kid plunking at a cheap guitar at his family’s banana stand. He played a bit for me and handed me the axe, I banged out some blues and he lit up. With the knowledge that he had found a fellow bluesman he took the guitar back and prceeded to blow me away. He was lightning fast and amazing.  Then he played some classical riffs demonstrating a talent I could hardly believe. I took some video and will post it when I next get to better broadband.  Here was a diamond in the ruff.

Our one day stay in this find land ended and we did the check out process early in the morning and headed across the bay to Labuan, back in Malaysia. This is a duty free island and is a popular place for cruisers to stock up on booze and chocolate. My crew fell in line and I have chocolate smudges on my usual smile. We will stay one night here to and investigate some wreck dives in the morning then head to a small island just north where we know there is good diving.

With only ten days left for my wonderful crew I gave them the option of spending it and the sixty miles left to travel as they wished, both blurted out “diving!” so we will hit as much diving as we can before we drop them off. Marina and Amy have crew positions waiting them on an 82’ Swan headed to Japan, a trip I envy. It will be a giant change from life on Furthur and certainly more exciting and demanding yet very rewarding. I will be very interested in hearing of their adventures and hope they come back to join Furthur someday soon.

As they head to Japan I will fly back to the US for a month of speaking, renewing my Captain’s license and seeing old friends, yikes it is a high of 48 there today, 40 degrees colder than here!! I will have to wear pants! and shoes! and even socks! Horrors.  I will enjoy the trip but be very glad to get back into swim trunks and flip flops.

It is 1983 and the world shook as the unheard of happened, the USA lost the America’s Cup. Dennis Connors was defeated by a newly designed 12 meter with a winged keel. Australia II took the cup across the world to the remote city of Perth and America rallied to get it back.

At the helm of the Aussie effort was an English immigrant sign painter turned zillionaire named Allen Bond. Having seen Aussies celebrate and especially sporting events I can only imagine the revelry that swept the land. Allan Bond was named “Australian of the Year” and made a national hero, ahh but the hero takes a fall.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bond_%28businessman%29

The defense of the Cup brought out a plethora of boats competing for the right to defend the Aussie held cup. Bond built two more winged keel boats, the Australia III and IV.  After a round robbin series of races he lost the bid to defend the cup to another Australian boat, Kookara II.

In years to follow Bond would go from national hero to convicted felon and in prison.  After milking many people for millions of dollars and convicted of several accounts real bad things, he found himself, get this, teaching business management to prison inmates.  Upon his release his alleged poverty disappeared and he is again a multi millionaire.

Back to the boats, the two Bond boats then went to Japan and sat for years, then Singapore and now they rest in the back yard of Miri Marina where they have sat for at least three years. The sails were left outside in the tropical sun and rain for two years then moved somewhere, the spars lay covered in grass next to the boats. There is a spare winged keel alongside too. They are owned by a chap named Troy who dreamed of future regattas in Malaysia.

This is the site I saw as I crossed the bar entering Miri Marina, I pointed the boats out and excitedly said, “Those are 12 meters!”. I got the usual puzzled look from my young crew.  When I investigated more I saw the winged keels and knew I had stumbled on to history. A combination of Googling, Wikipedia and a long chat with two locals provided the above information.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1987_America%27s_Cup

So here in the wilds of Borneo sit some of the boats that we all huddled around the TV to watch, the boats that gave national pride to Australia and united America. Tis a sad fate for such noble vessels.  The sadder story is that of the America’s Cup itself. After this historic set of races the Cup fell victim to greed, ego and lawyers. It will never again be the premier yacht race of the world, a great loss for the us all.