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19 April 2004
The Season was late. The blustery winds of the Southwest monsoons could not be far away. Harmony had sailed off on a different tack in the night when we finally picked up some wind after motoring through glassy calms for two days. The dawn sun revealed low lying hills emerging from a light haze at the northernmost tip of Borneo. Harmony eventually steamed past to go into Kudat first. We dropped anchor beside them and lowered the skiff to search out Customs and Immigration.
Kudat is a busy fishing port that rarely sees yachts but nonetheless the formalities her proved easy. A hundred roughly built wooden fishing trawlers crowded the waterfront. Noisy boats powered swiftly past setting up a dreadful wash. We made a beeline for the covered market which lay not far from the waterfront behind the circular fishmarket. Nearby was a large supermarket. Kudat has long been known for its fine golf club which dominates the surroundings. Certainly its park like atmosphere adds greatly to the town's appeal. So too does the new esplanade waterfront. On reclaimed land a new sports complex has been built, the golf course extended to 18 holes, and a new Marina Hotel and Golf Club built with its own adjacent protected harbor. It was the reputation of its new shipyard that had brought us here. We hoped to haul Sea Quest later in the year and perhaps leave her to sally forth to the U.S. to make a long overdue visit to our children. A trip to see the Penawasa shipyard manager confirmed that a 150 ton travel hoist could lift us, the monthly fee was reasonable, and the general area safe. Email: [email protected] or my own email for details.
Wandering the town we met up with Mr. Cheang Loh, principal of a local technical high school. His family lived in Kota Kinabalu, a 4 hour drive away, from where he commuted on weekends. Mr. Loh became a very good friend over time and did much to introduced us to some of the delights of this province of Malaysia known as Sabah. It was he that took us inland to meet Rungus people who had much in common physically with some of the Micronesian people we knew, and like them, wove on back strap looms: although these people, with better materials at their disposal, used far more complex designs.
25 April 2004
We did not linger overly long in Kudat, but headed down the coast to Kota Kinabalu, delighted as the day dawned and the highest mountain on Borneo, the Kinabalu, unveiled
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