2.44S 111.44E

27th September, 2011

Arrived in Borneo after 3 days at sea, after the initial breakages, the generator impeller only took 3 hours to replace. The guys who ‘design’ impeller housings must have fingers like ET with the strength of the Incredible Hulk.

Those of us of a certain age recall Borneo as a place of World Heritage pedigree where Richard Attenborough (when he’d finished making gangster or war movies) crouched in the undergrowth and whispered inviting us to watch a large animal eating a smaller animal or perhaps copulating.

This place is quite difficult to get into and we expected a Safari Park-like establishment at the head of the river. In fact it’s a major seaport with dozens of sea-going barges and ships waiting for loading and so forth. The river is about ¼ mile wide and full of big ships, small powered canoes, and skiffs which whizz by at 20+ knots with a lot of noise, but thankfully almost no wash!

We’ve yet to go ashore but the place looks OK, behind the wharfs and warehouses there might even be a restaurant, or dare I say it, a chandlery.

K

Very tired. I hadn’t realised that ocean sailing is a doddle compared with this offshore stuff. My particularly hate is (? Fishing platforms) that have very bright lights and suddenly go black. Anyway we have got here safely in daylight and I even double guessed the tide right.

Having not gone ashore yet, I am not sure but I suspect that there is no sand. In Bali the dinghy landing was on the beach. Sounds very romantic but actually means that half the beach is in the dinghy and the other half is in our bed. Ugh

Looking forward to the big monkeys.

C