The Sulu Sea lies between north east Borneo and the Philippines to the north. It is a remote area where most of the people live off the sea. This group of happy children came to see us whilst anchored in the protected bay at the island of Banggi close to Kudat. Skilfully the eldest girl paddled their heavy canoe. They spoke a local dialect so we couldn’t understand them, we gave them some biscuits and some children’s bits and pieces but their eyes darted about. The eldest spotted the items we keep on the back of the boat for our outdoor shower, “sampoo”, she said and was very pleased when she got the bottle.

They are water gypsy children, their home is the hull of a wooden fishing boat that dad was renovating. The hold was covered by a tarpaulin and mum cooked on the stern on an open fire – goodness knows how that works especially with a small child on board. The fortitude of these people is amazing. Water for a family of five is hauled from the land quite some way to their craft out in the harbour. If their boat is out of action for fishing, as theirs was, then they have to scrounge a living however they can; not much play for these children their day was ordered around the chores of subsistence.

They were clearly very poor and before we left we filled a carrier bag which gave mum some food for at least one meal also some little bars of soap which must have pleased the eldest girl as we heard her squeal with pleasure.

There are many small islands scattered offshore most of which do not provide good anchorage due to extensive shallows or reefs or waters too deep but we did manage to stop at this island with its interesting rock formations. This island is Mandidarah which was the scene of a near shipwreck for another yacht a couple of days previously of which we were quite unaware…see the next blog.

Turtle conservation is carried out on a number of small islands which are well protected; permits are required to visit them. Eggs are gathered each night and taken to large incubation pounds secured from predators and hungry locals. We managed to anchor close to one of these islands and had numbers of green turtles around us including this amorous pair who did a good deal of flipper flapping and splashing, whether anything was actually achieved we cannot say.

Many of these small islands look like the typical tropical idyll in a postcard, some are just sandy strands in a turquoise sea and others are lush green hillocks surrounded by white sand and golden reefs. Those of the Philippines are just a short sail away but that is for another day.