March 27, 2007

A few days ago my old friend, and former student, Sarjit Singh came to KK on a business trip.  He is the Executive Director of the Malaysian Association of Hotels and was here to attend a meeting of the General Managers of the hotels in Sabah.

I invited him and his friends - Mohd Ilyas, the President of the association, his family, Dr. Jerry Chong, Adeline Choo and Anna Aik - to spend a day cruising KK’’s harbor.  It was a sunny day and everyone had a great time especially Fareez Ilyas who manned the helm of Alchemy for most of the time we were out on the water.

For the last few weeks our friends from Subic Bay, Sarah Hebblewhite and Clement Martinez aboard Kuro-Shio, have been tied up along side of us.  Long time readers of this blog will remember that they sailed with us from Subic to Apo Reef.  Today they are departing on a trip that will take them along the northern coast of Borneo and up the east coast of Thailand.  From there they will sail around the coasts of Cambodia, Vietnam, China and then across the straights to Taiwan and eventually up to Japan.

We wish them fair seas and good wind.  We have become good friends and hope that our sailing paths cross again soon.

Photos of Sarjit, his friends, Sarah, Clement and Kuro-Shio are posted under Blog Photos 24.

March 12, 2007

We have returned from our trip to Lebuan Island, Malaysia and the Sultanate of Brunei; officially know as Negara Brunei Darussalam, commonly known as Brunei.

The trip had three purposes; 1. To stock up on duty free items – Lebuan is a duty free island and thing are incredibly inexpensive, 2. To renew our Malaysian visas, and 3. To fill up Alchemy’s fuel tanks.

When you leave a country on a vessel like Alchemy, you have to officially clear out with the marine authorities; this is not a big problem, it just requires some paperwork.  Next you have to visit with the customs people to let them know you are not taking large sums of the local currency with you and fill out more paperwork.  And finally the immigration office to get your passport stamped.  You have you go through the same process when you arrive in a new country.  The marine officers want to see that you have officially cleared out of the last country you visited and you must register with them.  The customs officers just what to know what you are bringing into the country and immigration needs to stamp your passports.  And you thought going through this at the airport was a hassle!

We cleared out of Malaysia in Lebuan primarily because all three offices are within a block of each other.  In KK they are in different parts of the city and it takes hours to get everything done.  Checking in at Brunei is also very easy because all of the offices are in the same building.  When we began our journey home we had to go through the same process in each of the countries.

The seas on the trip over were as calm as could be.  The trip to Lebuan took a little over 10 hours.  We spent the night at anchor there after we checked in.  In the morning we made the trip to Brunei in about 3 hours.

We anchored at the Royal Brunei Yacht Club.  The folks there were really nice.  One of them took us to the port offices in his speed boat so we could check in and he picked us up when we were finished.  The club is modest, to say the least, when compared to others we have visited, but very nice.  The food in the restaurant is enough to make a stop there worth while.

Brunei is a very interesting place to visit.  It has an absolute monarch, the Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin.  The 29^th ruler in a dynasty that is over 600 years old.  It has been reported that he is the riches man in the world.  Brunei has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world – 18,000 USD a year.  Its land mass is only 2,228 sq. miles   The place is incredibly clean, well maintained and the city is beautiful.

I mentioned that one of the purposes of the trip was to fill up Alchemy’s fuel tanks.  The price of diesel in Brunei is 0.79 USD per gallon and gas is just as inexpensive.  Eat your heart out.

The trip home was another story.  We got up early and headed for the fuel depot.  When we arrived we were told that the authorities were limiting non-Brunei vessels to $150 USD worth of fuel.  We needed twice that amount but no matter how much I pleaded with the owner he would not budge.  He did, however, tell me that there was another depot about 5 miles away.  To make a long story short we purchased our limit of fuel at both places, but by the time we finished checking out with the Brunei officials and reached Lebuan to check in, all of the offices were closed.  We had to wait until the next day and they did not open until 10:00 AM because it was Sunday.  By the time we were finished checking in and had pulling up the anchor it was noon.  We knew we would be going into the wind and the seas would be rough, but it was worse than the weather web sites reported.  In all it took us 12 hours of battling 10 foot waves on our forward port bow.  We were exhausted by the time we arrived.

Despite the rough trip home I would do it again.

I’ve posted some pictures from the trip under Blog Photos 23

March 7, 2007

To those of you who log on to our site regularly, I apologize for long time between updates.  No excuses, just having too much fun enjoying the sunny weather.  It is difficult to set indoors at the computer when the sun is shinning and the cool waters of the South China Sea are calling.

As I wrote in an earlier posting, Yu-ching flew to Taiwan on the 7^th of February.  I joined her on the 15^th so we could celebrate the Chinese New Year with her family and friends.  If you have never been in Asia for a New Year’s celebration you have missed something that is truly wonderful.  The celebration lasts 5 or more days with a specific event (mainly eating) scheduled for each day.  On one day the eldest son hosts a dinner, on another the Mother and Father act as host, Yu-ching and I also hosted one.  Between the great food and meeting relatives and friends, some old and some new, we were busy 24 hours a day.  It was a great time and I looked forward to many more.

One non-New Years related activity was to visit the Botanical Gardens in Tai-chung with Dr. Chin and his family.  They had a special show of Tulips from all over the world that was beautiful to see.

I have posted some pictures we took during our stay in Blog Photos 22.

I flew back to KK on February 27^th.  Yu-ching stayed in Taiwan to spend some additional time with her parents; she will fly to KK on March 23^rd along with her two sisters, mother and a friend (Joan).  I look forward to her return.  Alchemy is just not the same without her.

When I returned I found that our old friends from Subic Bay, Sarah Hebblewhite and Clement Martinez were in the slip next to Alchemy.  As you may remember, we left Subic together and traveled as far as Apo Reef.  They stayed at the reef for a while scuba diving before returning to Subic for some repair work on their sailboat Kuro-Shio.  It was sure nice to see them again.  Yu-ching and I have missed them - they have become such good friends.  It’s amazing how often this happens.  There are three other yachts in Sutera with people we have met before in other anchorages.  Small world.

A few days ago we took another crack at fishing with Steve, Clement & Sarah, this time we went out at night in the hopes that we would have better luck with both the weather and catching fish.  The swells were as high, if not higher, than our last trip and the catch was not much better.  We managed to hook 5 small sharks on one reef and on the others we tried  not a thing despite the fact that the fish finder was showing lots of schools passing underneath the boat.  I guess they didn’t like the bait we were using.

Tomorrow, Thursday, March 8^th, we are going to take Alchemy to Brunei for the weekend.  Steve and Geraline Salter and their son, Giles, will be going with Geronimo and I.  I promise to write an update about our trip as soon as I return.