A Jeepney, kind of a local bus.

A typical shop on the outskirts of Puerto.

Oren and Sheva walking past a tricycle ( 100 pesos to be driven where you want for an hour!)

A pork butcher in the market- in the front you can see the lower leg with trotters, used for making pata, crispy pork leg.

An octopus stall!

A fish and seafood stall.

The Yacht Club jetty.

The bar (a quiet day…)

Kids playing near the yacht club.

Oren has started to make a wind-vane ( we got plans for one from a cruiser we met in Singapore), so keep posted for pictures of various large pieces of metal being tortured in different ways, heroic attempts to attach bolts and screws to the stern of Chasamba as she tries to sail off with her boom between her legs, and a lot of beer drinking- after all, it’s thirsty work, wind vane making, and even writing about it….

A typical outrigger, Puerto Princesa harbour.

A HUGE barracuda!

A native village, Clarendon Bay, Balabac

A duty free beer in Labuan harbour.

A great big tree trunk, lots like this float by the Borneo shore.

Filleting a Spanish mackerel.

The good thing about arriving at a place like this after being at sea for a while is that things like being able to get gas bottles refilled and go to the supermarket seem really thrilling! Puerto Princesa is a small city, or a big town, with only one supermarket, a market which we haven’t visited yet and a large amount of tiny little local shops, all selling the same selection of stuff. Alcohol is very cheap, the local Rum is about a pound a litre, and is supposed to be good, although we haven’t tried it yet. Most of the population is very poor, and the most popular item for sale is  a variety of different little tins to mix with rice. This is actually a great idea, as it makes a really cheap meal, needs no fridge and is really quick to prepare- perfect for sailing! There are really lots of kinds,meat, fish and seafood in lots of flavours, and the tins are just right for two people, about 150 grams or so. They are really cheap too, about 20p a tin. Meat here is good too, we had spare ribs for dinner and we have seen good beef too, for the first time since……and avocado too, which is wonderful.

Check in was easy and pleasant- Israelis get 59 days without a visa, which is almost unheard of for any nationality, so the contrast with Malaysia and Indonesia is extreme.

We did stop in Labuan on the way, and stocked up with tins of meat curry, clams and anchovies in sauce, rice, flour and water. Labuan is a duty free port and the centre of a thriving smuggling network between Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, but we didn’t see any of the well feared pirates we were told about- the only boat which bothered us at all was a wretched fishing boat dragging a trawling net with heavy steel cables which kept getting exactly where the wind was taking us. As this was one of the rare days when we had a fair wind, it was annoying!

The weather on the way was ok, but could have been a lot better. We had days and days of sitting in complete calm, looking at a glassy sea and waiting for the faintest breath of wind. Then a squall would come over, and within three minutes the wind would get up to 30 knots! This would either give us a push on the way, or throw us off course, depending on which direction the squall came from, and meanwhile scare us to death as we rushed to shorten sail and control the sudden rush of speed. In the middle of the night this could be a problem, so we reefed the mainsail most evenings, only leaving it full if there were no clouds at all in the sky. This reduced our speed, which most of the time was pretty slow anyway, but was worth it for the peace of mind. In the end we got fed up 70 miles from Puerto Princesa and treated ourselves to 20 hours of motoring to get in. The engine actually worked perfectly, and sounded better at the end than at the start, also was running cooler! It must have needed the practice.

We don’t have any hard and fast plans for the near future, but we do want to go out to Honda Bay at some time, so we will probably rest for a while and stock up, the head out for a week or two then back here, or up north to El Nido.

Today we have bought a huge load of potatoes and onions, garlic and cabbage to go with the pumpkins we got last week, so we are full up now. We really don’t mind a slow, gentle passage since we do have plenty of food and water- having said that it will probably be wild and wet! We have managed to get a Malaysian sim card, so with any luck we will be able to send emails in places where we have reception, but of course we don’t know where those places will be, so we will have to see.

Langkawi was next, and we recommend this stop for all aspiring alcoholics! The booze is cheap and not counterfeited, a bottle of Glenfiddich 12 years old costs around 90 shekels, a good vodka is 30 shekels and there is duty free Belgian chocolate to go with it. The anchorage off Kuah town is free and reasonable holding, and quite a few cruisers stay here indefinitely. We got a Malaysian sim card, very good value except that it stopped working in the middle of the Malacca Straits!

Then we were off up the straits, and hoping for a good wind and current. The reports we had got spoke of fishing nets, no wind, hundreds of ships and strong contrary currents, all cited as the reason why it is impossible to sail. Well, you CAN sail the straits, and we did it, all the way. There is usually a good wind, caused by the sea or land breeze, and this can get quite strong. There is a current which seems basically to set northwards, but as the tide rises the current turns southwards and sets at a rate of probably a knot or so, usually a bit towards the eastern shore for some reason. There are nets, but you can sail between the buoys holding them up, and fishermen usually keep clear, although they have an annoying habit of trying to pass across your bow as close as possible. This isn’t just because they want to test their engine speed at maximum, they have a superstition that by doing this they offload their bad luck onto the poor boat behind them! Luckily for us, they sometimes can’t manage to pass and get all the bad luck back again!

We anchored every evening, usually at about 7 pm, just before dark. Anchoring is usually easy, mud and good holding everywhere and only a few places where the depth came up quickly. It was strange anchoring sometimes a mile or even two from the shore, but it is so shallow that that is what happens. We found that there were never any really big waves and no swell, except in the middle of squalls which passed over regularly. The usual pattern was for the morning to be fine with a good land breeze, a calm falling at mid day and a good sea breeze from about 1 pm. At about 5pm squalls would start to form and these would have an uneasy truce with the sea breeze until dusk, when the sea breeze would weaken and the squall strengthen. Usually we would be anchored before the first gusts, and the tarpaulin over the cockpit before any rain- often there was none, only wind. We made about 30 to 40 miles a day, although we did get stuck in the currents round Penang and Klang, two of the most annoying places in the world to sail, after the Gulf of Aden going east.

Singapore eventually got close enough to worry about, and as we had nearly finished our supply of tinned stewed pork we were glad. We anchored off the entrance to Johor port and had a good nights sleep before the harrowing sail round Singapore to the quarantine anchorage.

It took us 12 hours to get round Singapore, and they were not 12 easy hours. Although there is a shipping channel, many ships aren’t in it all the time, either they are coming out of port or going in, or just don’t care…it is nerve wracking to be a little yacht trying to stay out of the way and get to the right place, and we were glad it was day, good visibility and that, amazingly, our engine worked all the way. We got to the quarantine anchorage and opened a beer to celebrate, then called the authorities who actually answered after only two hours or so! A little boat came chugging up in the pouring rain of a squall and stuck out a fishing net! We had to entrust our passports to the dexterity of the mate, standing on the deck in a raincoat so big we could only see his nose, waving a stick 3 metres long in our general direction! Then we had to fill out rather wet forms which were passed over the same way, and then our passports reappeared, stamped with an entry visa for 14 days.

We weren’t going anywhere in that weather, so we got permission from the by now drenched customs officer to stay in the anchorage for the night, and next morning, with the favorable current whizzed up to Changi Sailing Club, where we are sitting now.

Changi is ok if you don’t mind sitting on a mooring where large ships go past every few minutes, giving you a good idea of what a tsunami would be like. The club itself is quite nice, wifi, swimming pool and restaurant basically, and although it is a long way outside the city there is a bus which seems quite regular and is not expensive.

Singapore is the most western and modern place we have been since we set out, and since we had a lot of things that we needed and couldn’t get anywhere else we were glad to get here. Electronics are worth buying here, and we got a depth sounder, finally, a new mini computer and a new gps since the old one had started asking us where we were. The good thing about all new electronics is that they all use much less electricity, and the depth sounder and gps together now use much less than the old gps by itself.

We also changed part of the rigging which was old and partly broken, and got a replacement for the bilge pump rubber diaphragm, repaired a sail and changed batteries of the laptop and small gps. Most of these things would be either impossible to do or more expensive in any other place so far, so although we have spent a lot of money here it is mostly on things which are worthwhile. Food is actually not too expensive, although not as good as Thai food. ( We are starting to suspect that there is no food as good as Thai food anywhere!)

Sightseeing is quite good here, we enjoyed Raffles hotel with its little museum, and the center of Singapore has lots of colonial relics, all very well preserved. Chinatown is worth a visit although nothing like the Chinatown in Bangkok which is much more lively, but the most interesting place we saw was the Changi Chapel, a replica of the chapel built by POWs in WW2 inside the Changi detention camp. This is a museum too, and it was very interesting to understand the recent history of Singapore. I had read King Rat by James Clavell, and as he was actually incarcerated here it was interesting to see the reality.

We are leaving soon, maybe next week, although the forecast doesn’t look too wonderful. Probably we will anchor off some bit of Malaysia and wait for wind, or else just tack back and forth disconsolately as usual.

Here is a link to the pictures so far from Malacca and Singapore- first time I have tried this so let’s see if it works!

http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e173/chasamba/Malacca%20to%20Singapore/

   We have been anchored off the little bay on the western side of Ko Muk for the last few days, and have had a great time.

The snorkelling and fishing is some of the best we have experienced, and we have been living off squid, sometimes three meals a day! I have just finishing cleaning five huge ones which I caught in about an hour! The name Ko Muk actually means Squid Island, and we can see why.

Today we also swam and snorkelled all along the western side of the island- there are lots of caves, arches to swim through and strange rock formations as well as lots of fish and quite good coral. It is like a divers playground, and because of the relative isolation of the islands, which are far from the nearest airport and big city, there is very little tourism. The village on the other side of the island can be reached on foot, but it is a long way, through jungle and overgrown trails, as we found out. There are basic food supplies there, but nothing western. In the jungle there are little monkeys, tropical birds and in the little ponds left from the rainy season, monitor lizards up to three feet in length, luckily they jump into the water and swim off when you get close.

On the southwest of the island is a large cave which leads 200 feet into the rock and opens out into an enclosed beach, surrounded by cliffs and thick jungle.

 Another beach is at the top of the bay, and is one of the most beautiful we have seen. All in all, Ko Muk is the most beautiful place we have been so far ( Oren thinks Chagos was better, I don’t).

Sheva waiting to go to the beach!

Oren reading with his new goggles, sorry glasses, on.

The view from the loo!

Tomorrow we will sadly leave, as we have to keep on southwards.

It’s the last day of a good year, one in which we did all we hoped we would and experienced nearly only good experiences. After the difficulties of 2008, this year showed us the way life looks with the wind on the aft quarter! We have enjoyed every country we have visited, from Cochin, with its safe if mucky anchorage, to the Maldives where we were glad and surprised to be welcomed so warmly by wonderful people, Chagos where we met some of the most experienced cruisers in the world, Sri Lanka where we took part in their celebrations at the end of the long war, and finally Thailand, where we remembered what supermarkets look like ( and showers, and ice, and sun tan lotion, and toilet paper and..

In 2010 we will be on our way to Singapore, the Philippines and maybe Taiwan, although that is a little distant yet, the Philippines are huge and beautiful, according to what we have been told, so we will play it by ear. All we hope for is a year like this one was! We will see in the new year in Nai Harn, a well sheltered bay on the western side of Phuket. Most yachts have sailed round to Patong, only 5 miles or so away, to see the fireworks, but we really can’t be bothered- Patong is noisy at the best of times, and with over 100 yachts there it will probably be awful, with dingies buzzing all over the place, drunken parties  and people being sick! Meanwhile we will have the sunset and full moon to ourselves in a tranquil empty bay.

One of the nicest experiences we had in Phuket was hauling out in the Asian-Phuket slipway, near Ratanachai. They were professional, pleasant and much cheaper than any haul out we have done in the past. We were hauled out on a cradle, a first time for us, and everything went smoothly, actually better than a travel lift, because there are less supports bothering the painting. There is a basic shower and clean toilets in the yard, and they have wifi although we didn’t manage to get it to work for some reason, anyway we were too busy and exhausted at the end of the day, as we did all the work by ourselves. We bought antifouling and topcoat locally- Thai paint is inexpensive and good. There is also a nice local restaurant with a really good cook just outside the slipway area, and we were sorry when it was time to leave!

above the anchorage in Nai Harn

Happy New Year from Sheva!

working in the yard

Chasamba looking pretty again ( and Oren!)

beware the demon scraper!

divers guide Chasamba into the cradle

victory v!

People sometimes ask us whether we get bored not having anything to do. This just shows that many people do not have experience in trying to keep a sail boat working. It seems to me that we work much harder than we ever did, and have to learn new skills all the time. Take the example of our new alternator….

We were supposed to be going to Cambodia to renew our visas and to see Angkor Wat. A few days before we had to leave, a friend on another cruising boat passed along a tip on a good place to get a big alternator for a good price, and of course, we went right off and bought one- we have been starved of electricity just lately, with cloudy skies and often not much wind. Well, fine, we got the alternator, but it had a regulator which needed to be attached, and the fun started…we installed the alternator, with help from our friend, Bill, and tried to start the engine. No go. Unfortunately we had to leave for our flight, so Bill kindly said don’t worry, he would come over and fix it tomorrow. He was as good as his word, and got it fixed, unfortunately the switch preventing starting in gear had blown. Ok never mind… After  3 minutes running, the oil cooling housing blew up. Luckily Bill realised it wasn’t an electrical fault, and turned the engine off in time, then sent us an email explaining what had happened. Oren then spent the next week in Cambodia worrying about the engine…

We got back, and Oren took the housing to a workshop, where it fell into several smaller pieces, and he had to threaten them that he would sleep outside their shop until they fixed it. Got it back on to the engine, and put the engine on- no oil pressure. Why? The oil pressure warning switch had blown. Got it fixed, luckily Bill had a spare. Also got round to rewiring the instrument panel and discovered there was no proper ground wire…..But now everything is working ok, meanwhile, we learned quite a lot about electricity and have done a lot of improvements since- the 12v socket in the cockpit now works perfectly, the cockpit light works, there is a backup bilge pump alarm on the panel now, and Oren is now working on installing another bilge pump! So all’s well that ends well!

Cambodia was interesting, and Angkor Wat is well worth a visit, it is so big that the  days we spent cycling round it were just a drop in the ocean. Cambodia is much poorer than Thailand, and there are still many ox-carts and oxen pulling ploughs. The main crop is rice, and rice paddies line most roads. At this time of year the rice is nearly ready, and looks like corn, tall fronds waving in the wind. Apparently this year there wasn’t enough rain, and the crop will be smaller than usual, but it is hard to tell where more rice could grow!

a typical street in Cambodia

a taxi! (really!)

kids in the market, Kampot

yes, we ate here! (really!)

see?

a sugar cane press

fresh bacon?

the killing fields memorial

hmmmm......

and on to Angkor Wat

one of hundreds of faces

one of hundreds of rooms

one of hundreds of ruiny bitsone of hundreds of frescos

one of hundreds of rice paddies

a bath after the days work

kids cooling off

Our thoughts and prayers are with Rachel and Paul and their family.

A picture of Lynn Rival hauled out in Cochin.