Back to Australia via North Borneo

By Maria Grigg

What's the best route to sail from South East Asia to Australia? And what should the timing be? Increasing numbers of Australian cruisers are asking the same question as they head north without wanting to sail right around the world.

The answer depends among other things on personal preference, seasonal or time constraints and where in Australia you're headed. Experienced cruisers suggested to us that one should do as much easting as possible in the northern hemisphere - quite possibly sound advice based on our subsequent experience.

Routes and timing
We set off in April 2007 sailing back down the Melaka (Malacca) Strait to Singapore, then via North Borneo (Sarawak, Brunei and Sabah) across to Indonesia (South Sulawesi, Flores eastwards) and East Timor reaching Darwin by early October. Tradewinds III and Gambori took much the same route as us but were about six weeks ahead and cleared out at Kupang sailing from there straight to Darwin. Annwn was about a month behind, did the Indonesian sector more quickly and didn't stop in East Timor. All had broadly similar experiences to Merlin V. I know of others who arrived back in Darwin or Gove early in the year, making use of the North Westerly Monsoon as the Makassans used to, but being careful to avoid cyclone activity.

We had quite a few squalls and rainstorms in North Borneo, nothing to worry about and the weather improved as we reached the east Sabah coast and then Indonesia. Off the South Sulawesi and Flores coasts we had some unexpected adverse land winds which slowed us down (in contrast to the near perfect conditions we'd had on the outward trip). Annwn was caught in a double-headed storm system on the way across the Strait of Makassar.

Many other routes are possible. For example:
* More or less the reverse of the standard northbound route through Indonesia via Bali, perhaps taking in anchorages you missed on the outbound trip (e.g. Kumai or Makassar). Our friends on Giddyup did this arriving safely back in Gove in February.
* Across the top of Borneo and then the top of Sulawesi to Manado and down through the S* Our alternative plan was to sail east from Makassar to Saumlaki but September wind and sea conditions made this impossible.
* A longer trip across the top of PNG and around depending on how far south you want to hit the Australian coast.
* More frills on our route such as adding Pulau Tioman on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia.

Sarawak
Our log indicates we did long stretches of sailing, saw loads of dolphins and that any storm clouds remained safely in the distance on our 420 nautical mile journey from Singapore to North Borneo. Most importantly, we'd been warned to give the Indonesian Anambas Islands a wide berth unless we had a CAIT (Indonesian sailing permit).

We reached our first Sarawak anchorage in the river opposite the village of Santubong after crossing the shallow bar at high tide late in the afternoon. This soon became one of our all-time favourite anchorages; good holding, a friendly village, convenient privately owned floating jetty for dinghy landings and cheap local busses (or easy hitch hiking) into Kuching 30 kilometres away.

Although clearing in to East Malaysia at Kuching was a long and laborious process, we loved everything else about the city - don't miss the orang-utans at Semenggoh Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre or yummy Sarawak Laksa. The museums and Cultural Village are great and souvenir shopping along the Main Bazaar is the best in North Borneo. From here you can also visit gorgeous Bako National Park. We got saturated in the little boat on the way out to the park and from then on always carried brollies and ponchos for the frequent downpours.

One day we were lucky enough to be offered a lift into Kuching by Andrew, a Chinese Malaysian who had married a local Bidayuh woman. He invited us to join his family for Hari Gawai, the annual harvest festival taking place at his longhouse deep inland that very evening. How lucky were we, the only Westerners present, to experience this local traditional event! The women, me included, all lined up with bottles of tuak (rice spirit) offering a cup of the lethal firewater to each of the men as they filed past. Gary wisely avoided disaster by filming the event with his new video camera rather than joining the queue. This was followed by copious traditional feasting, dancing and merriment.

Our next anchorage was at Pulau Lakei off Bako National Park about 20 nautical miles away. We didn't feel particularly safe or secure at this anchorage but others have reported good walks ashore in the National Park.

Much more appealing for us was the Batang Rajang, a huge river and delta system, 67 nautical miles away. Our timelines only allowed three days in the river but we could have stayed much longer and gone as far inland as Sibu. Though the vast delta area is fascinating we were disheartened to see the destruction of so much rainforest timber - watch out for logs in the water. Our C-Map NT Max chart was less accurate than usual in the river system - we often appeared to be cruising along on dry land. We day-sailed with the tides, anchoring each night at:

* 02º 07.065' N 111º 20.808' E, a quiet shallow area away from the river traffic,
* 02º 08.083' N 111º 31.553' E, in Nyalong Creek at Sandikei, an interesting village opposite the maritime police,
* 02º 30.032' N 111º 25.695' E, off Daro on the Lassa River - a remote village where we met a fluent English-speaking Pakistani man with an MBA running a Muslim dress shop.

From the river exit we sailed approximately 215 nautical miles to Miri Marina at 04º 23.101' N 113º 58.345' E. This fledgling marina was safe and cheap, with friendly staff, water and power available but no amenities and a longish, hot walk, taxi or bus into town. Visits from here to Niah Caves and Gunung Mulu National Park are very worthwhile. The annual Borneo Yacht Race, the one where they pay you to participate, starts at Labuan and finishes here with lots of free entertainment, beer and parties (but it was scheduled for early September, so too late for us). We cleared out here to go to Brunei.

Brunei
It's possible to day hop along the Brunei coast. After a 40 nautical mile sail we enjoyed a lovely river anchorage opposite the friendly yacht club serving good meals at Kuala Belait, 04º 34.777' N 114º 11.408' E. We cleared in to Brunei here, all the offices close together and very helpful.

Another 41 nautical mile sail took us to the Sultan's massive private marina at Jerudong, 04º 56.987' N 114º 48.589 E, a safe and secure overnight anchorage protected by a sea wall, but keep away from the Sultan's palace! Nearby is one of the biggest amusement parks in the world, the Jerudong Park Playground, a gift from the sultan to his subjects to mark his 48th birthday. Lack of maintenance meant it was closed when we were there, unfortunately a common story.

The Royal Brunei Yacht Club at Muara Serasa in Brunei Bay is an easy 27 nautical miles away at 05º 00.174' N 115º 14.283' E. Here we anchored among a handful of local yachts and enjoyed the amenities - pool, wireless internet, restaurant (quite expensive) and alcohol-free bar! But don't worry; you can BYO and use the club's cool box.

In Brunei's capital, Bandar Seri Begawan we witnessed the amazing contrast of opulence and poverty, huge grandiose buildings almost side by side with the stilt houses still using the river as garbage dump and sewer; a fascinating place, but not my favourite. We cleared out from Brunei at the ferry terminal conveniently located near the anchorage.

Sabah
Only about 20 nautical miles away we were anchored at Pulau Labuan (just to confuse us this is a federal Malaysian territory rather than a part of Sabah), 05º 16.444' N 115º 14.283' E, East Malaysia's duty free port, perfect for stocking up on beer, wine and chocolate. We visited the moving war cemetery and peace park marking the site of the Japanese surrender at the conclusion of World War II. We also cleared back in to Malaysia here.

Idyllic Pulau Tiga, 05º 43.047' N 115º 39.010' E, about 38 nautical miles away treated us to a beautiful calm night though others have found themselves on a lee shore here. I was fascinated to see the mud volcanoes and to learn that these three small islands were formed only just over 100 years ago as a result of volcanic activity. One is already disappearing back into the sea.

Possibly the best and most luxurious marina we've ever stayed in is at Sutera Harbour approximately 41 nautical miles east at 05º 58.025' N 116º 03.367' E. Flanked by a five-star hotel on either side, with several swimming pools to choose from, excellent amenities and club facilities, wireless internet, a free bus into Kota Kinabalu and extra-friendly staff this place is hard to beat. No wonder boats tend to stay once they arrive here!

Kota Kinabalu is surprisingly modern and a great centre from which to explore Sabah. A trip to Kinabalu National Park is a must for breath taking scenery, magnificent walks, a look at the mountain garden, orchids and pitcher plants and maybe even a climb to the top for those who are fit. We also paid a small fee to see a rather smelly rafflesia, the world's largest flower growing up to a metre in diameter. Wow!

>From Sutera Harbour Marina we continued our day sails across the top of Borneo and down the east coast stopping at:

* Usukan Bay, 35 nm - 06º 21.905' N 116º 20.905' E, a large bay with lots of fish traps, nets and local boats.
* Kudat Harbour, 70 nm - 06º 52.636' N 116º 51.296' E. We anchored opposite the town overnight but you can also go into the enclosed harbour and there is a well reputed haul-out facility.
* Pulau Tigabu, 54 nm - 06º 53.467' N 117º 27.882' E, a beautiful remote wooded island with sandy beaches.
* Pulau Silingaan, Turtle Island, 60 nm - 06º 10.368' N 118º 03.337' E. Unfortunately, the weather was too stormy for us to go ashore to see the turtles laying their eggs on the beach after dark, but we did see the hatchery and turtle tracks in the morning.

Sandakan Harbour, 25 nm - 05º 50.408 N 118º 07.446 E, demanded a longer stop though it was not a great anchorage and bringing the dinghy ashore wasn't easy because of the swell (I think we may have been unlucky with the weather). The yacht club was so friendly; very keen on sailing and they love meeting cruisers. Facilities were excellent and we liked the town.

From our base at Sandakan we travelled to Sepilok to see Orang-utans (not half as good as Semenggoh!) and to the Kinabatangan River where we saw a huge male orang-utan in the wild as well as dozens of proboscis monkeys. We also learned more about the horrors of World War II in Malaysia with the infamous Sandakan death marches in which 2,400 Australian and British soldiers died; only six survived.

Day hopping again, we reached the Kinabatangan River mouth, approx 48 nm - 05º 38.220 N 118º 35.842 E. With wind against tide we had a rough crossing of the shallow sand bar but once inside we enjoyed a calm and pretty anchorage. If you have more time and your mast is not too tall you can sail up this river and perhaps even see wild elephants grazing next to your boat on the riverbank like our friends aboard Moca did. >From there we stopped at:

* Pulau Tambisan, approx 40 nm - 05º 26.943' N 119º 08.461' E, a beautiful, calm, safe anchorage with good holding.
* Felda Palm Oil Plantation, approx 39 nm - 05º 04.127' N 119º 04.570 E. This is an open roadstead anchorage close to a long jetty. We had a particularly uncomfortable night, possibly due to Super-typhoon Sepat which was hovering around the Philippines at the time (that may explain all our rough anchorages on this part of the trip) and left at 0400 hrs. Others have had better experiences here.
* Semporna, approx 50 nm - 04º 14.913 N 117º 52.479' E, a good sheltered anchorage next to the hotel and a bustling, fascinating town full of colour and energy. Boats of all shapes and sizes whizzed past us, particularly just after dawn and again before dark.

Our last anchorage in East Malaysia was Tawau, 60 nautical miles away at 04º 14.913' N 117º 52.479' E where we found ourselves anchored off from the best and friendliest yacht club ever! Dinghy landing was still not that easy but what a club! There is a huge 'party jetty', the facilities are great and the club committee members just couldn't do enough for us. They explained how they would like to introduce a sailing program with the assistance of visiting yachts (average 5 per year so far!) for their young sailors to give them experience on larger boats as they only have little sailing dinghies themselves. We suggest you contact them in advance if you plan to go there. Sadly, this is where we cleared out of Malaysia ready for the next leg of our long voyage home via Indonesia and East Timor.

Borneo is fast becoming a popular cruising destination and several of our friends made the trip to Kota Kinabalu or even to Tawau and then returned to Singapore or moved on to the Philippines and beyond. Others have stayed in Borneo and I can understand why - it's a terrific cruising area, with beautiful and varied scenery and places of interest, lots to explore, wonderful people, great food and some good yachting facilities.

Cruisers are known for their generosity in sharing information and advice on route planning and anchorages to those who are about to follow their path, and none have shown more enthusiasm in my experience than our predecessors in North Borneo including Backchat, Nepanthe, Cetacean II, Moca, Tradewinds III, Gambori and Crystal Blues. I only wish that like most of them we could have stayed longer and explored more before embarking on the next leg of our return passage via Indonesia and East Timor.

Further Information
Cruising Guide to South East Asia, Volume I, Stephen Davies and Elaine Morgan, 1998
The Cruising Almanac: From Yangon to Manila Bay, 2005
Sail and Cruise: Sailing in Paradise, Tourism Malaysia, Ministry of Tourism
Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, Lonely Planet
Miri Marina: Ph: 6085 423033
Sutera Harbour Marina: Ph: 6088 252 266, sutera@suteraharbour.com.my, www.suteraharbourclub.com.my
Sandakan Yacht Club: Ph: 6089 212 518, syc14jln@tm.net.my
Tawau Yacht Club: Ph: 6089 771 104, twuyacht@tm.net.my

Following the 2006 Sail Indonesia Rally Maria and Gary sailed their Adams 40, Merlin V, as far north as Thailand. They arrived back in Australia in late 2007 after too short a season in North Borneo. Plans now are to sell Merlin V and upgrade for the next sailing adventure.