Jumped the Pond

Alishan arrived this morning in Santubong, on the outskirts of Kuching, Borneo. Position: 1 degree 42 N 110 degree 19 E Our departure from Danga Bay was delayed with a few extra days due to Jetty Party Times. Yes indeed we had so much fun with the our cruising family out there. And of course Nori and Wakame enjoyed their walks and close encounters with the dogs off 2 of the other boats. So, last week Saturday we finally left to Sail around Singapore. Hmm, but somehow somebody somewhat made a calculation error and we did have the tide against us the whole way. (okay it is not easy as Singapore Straits has 10 hours this way and 2 hours that way currents ;-). Guess!! By the end of the afternoon we were tired and decided to drop the anchor near the river to Sebana Cove, on the eastside of the S Strait ( we had stopped here once before). There we spent an extra day relaxing before taking off for Borneo. Monday morning "early up we rises, set some sail and motor around the corner".....you know that song... Hmm, but only 2 hours later we were back at starting-point as we noticed very dirty diesel fuel in the filter. Blahhh, what to do? Okay, we just cleaned the filter and fuel lines as good as possible, we would see, and off we went again. All went well across the busybusy shipping lane and the first miles into the South China Sea. But 6 hours later, with little wind, not good enough for plain-sailing so Yanmar had to help us again . That went not so good as there it was again: dirty fuel!. So from then on, after about every 6 hours of engine use the filter had to be cleaned... I got pretty fast at it! Yes we do have a tank problem, grgrgr. But the radar worked fine ;-)) Beside 1 afternoon and night with serious thunder+lightning, heavy rain and strong winds, it was a slow boat trip to Borneo. Anyway, we are happy to be here! Of course we'll have to take care of that fuel problem but in the mean time we gonna enjoy this place as well. Oh and did you know: the Rain Forest Festival is coming up soon...tell you more later. Salute