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In late June we returned to Kudat where we hauled Sea Quest out at Penawasa Shipyard. Adjacent were both the Chinese owned Marina Hotel and a new golden roofed mosque. We made arrangements for a local Filipino woman to feed Mizzen, our ten year old cat. We put our affairs in order and then set off. In 14 years this was the first time we had left the boat for an extended period.
Michael flew down to NZ to see his parents and then to escort his 90 year old mother on a visit to the States. I flew to Maui direct, where Michael eventually joined me after a month long visit with our son and his family on the mainland.
For many cruisers on tight budgets, visits "home" are rare. For people like us, with family spread from one side of the Pacific to the other, it is even trickier. This long awaited visit to family far and wide was well rewarded.
We returned to Kudat and Sea Quest in Nov 2004.
Our cat was fine, the boat a mess, and there was no putting off the work that awaited us. The propeller shaft had to be pulled and mechanical improvements made to the braking system. All the stainless stantions back aft, bent by a large wave that pooped us in the southern latitudes, had to be removed , straightened and rewelded in places. The bilge's had to be painted. In Borneo's humid climate we could not rush. The quality of local workmanship was low, so even out work required much supervision. Fortunately we felt in no hurry. Although our plan had been to sail on to Puket we were already well behind schedule. Then, on 26th Dec., the Asian tsunami struck!
We simply reeled at the devastation and had our ears glued to early H.F. radio broadcasts from the area. Although two marinas had been trashed most of the yachts suffered some damage, but few of the fleet waiting to sail across the Indian Ocean in January, were actually lost. By the grace of God we were not in harms way, but it soon became obvious that this was not the year to head west. We are reticent to sail into an area so recently devastated. People are still seeing ghosts and walk around in shock. Ports across the Indian ocean frequented by yachts are in tatters. A massive amount of basic construction work is required simply to house the homeless and set up basic amenities. It will need at least a year before ports can welcome yachts.
In January, after a solid week of rain had dampened our spirits flooded the shipyard around us, we decided to take a break to visit the area around Sandakan to the south. A plane flew us across the hills, over flat delta plains with a serpentine river winding across, then a patchwork of oil palm estates before touching down at an airport built by Allied POWs during W.W.II. This was the site from which several of the infamous Death Marches left. In 1941 Japanese forces overran Malaya, Singapore, Burma, Netherlands East Indies and other islands. More than 132,000 allied troops
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