Greetings to Sandakan Yacht Club.

We had a very warm welcome at Sandakan Yacht Club on New Year’s Eve; we arrived the same day in the afternoon from Kudat.

A friendly place that makes you feels at home.

Thank you to Edmond and all the people we met for your kindness, and your help.

Sandakan is a very active city and nice places of interests can be seen. The trip to Sukau going up Kinabatangan River was unforgettable.

If you have any electronics’ problems, we can recommend Luis Fiel 019 843 67 43 he is very competent and efficient.

One month is gone and it’s time for us to leave and discover new horizons. Earth is round and small for those who travel; we’ll see you next time around.

Bernard from Switzerland and Pui from Thailand.
On SY Salulami

Salulami is the French phonetic writing of salut l’ami that means “hello my friend”.


Sandakan Yacht Club
P.O. Box 476
90705 Sandakan, Sabah
Tel: 089 212 518
Fax: 089 215 542
Email: syc14jln@tm.net.my

Borneo 2009 Sabah P. Turtle Island

January 28, we went together with Helena zwo to Turtle Island, it’22 NM from Sandakan. Helena zwo was on her way back to Kudat. We anchored at Silingaan Island .

Pos: 06°10.234N; 118°03.521E.


Every night turtles come ashore to lay eggs. The next day these eggs are collected by the park staff and putted in the hatchery. They follow the hatching and put the baby turtles back in the water.




This day they collected over 900 eggs.












Turtle eggs are a delicacy, that’s why they are protected . . .



What we like to do before starting a passage after a long stay, is to head to a quite place and relax. It’s also good to check that every thing works well on board.





Yachties, skip the next paragraph you know what it is about.

For my friends, they have to now that living on a yacht is to live with an ongoing working list. Nature is tuff to yachts. You cross lines on the top of the list and add other ones on the bottom. If one day you catch up, then something is wrong.

Trying sailmail through my HF communication system, no power output!


We said goodbye to Bruno and Helen, and made our way back to Sandakan.

Luis who fixed my HF to one third of the price of a new one came on board to help me troubleshooting the problem. Yes the HF who got hit by the lightning in Sibu and nobody wanted to repair; too old they said.

Everything was ok! on the HF side. The problem was on the 12V power side. It came out that the power output bolt (B+) on the case of the alternator was loose giving false contact. It was also not loading properly the batteries. One spanner turn later every thing was back to normal.


Find out if you are relaxed.



You will be relaxed when on the picture left you see the chicken shouting the bear.

Borneo2009 Sabah P. Kinabatangan River

Kinabatangan River,

January 8, together with Helena zwo we went for 10 days up the Kinabatangan River. The yacht club has a CD with a file of the track made by a previous yacht that can be displayed on MaxSea.




This track is a “shortcut” to the river. It’s ok! Keep in mind that there is a sandbar before the entrance. We passed with a minimum of 2.3m on a rising tide at 1.1m, current was reasonable.

Ones in the river the navigation is the same described in the Sibu strip. The only traffic will be local ferries and Tugs with barges caring palm oil. The oil is produced on site and brought by truck to the river and loaded on the barges.

This trip brings you in the jungle. One evening we saw how an orangutan made his nest on the top of a tree. He grabbed the top branches of two trees and plaits them together. After several cracks the nest was ready and lady orangutan joined him. We didn’t hear them snoring. Considering that they sleep every night elsewhere it’s quite destructive.

During the day birds could de seen. Monkeys were shy; it’s also to say that we had quite rainy conditions.

One morning just after living the anchor place to make the way up, suddenly my exhaust sounds dry. It must be dirt in the filter. Nope! I close the seacock, get a jar of water and put it in the filter and see the level decreasing slowly. The impeller id dead! We quickly anchored the yacht.
After some contortions and swearing the new impeller was in place and journey ready to be continued. Looking at the RTFM this impeller still had 250 hours to go before inspection!


One evening we anchored with Helena zwo on a side river bringing to a lake. In the morning an Island of vegetation got stocked in my rudder. We had some gardening to do. We also met Mr. Crocodile.






One night close to were we were anchored we heard the elephants. We just saw the head of one behind the bush looking at us.





We stopped our trip at Sukau. A power line crosses the river and it’s not easy to estimate the height. My experience from Sibu was enough, not interested to play sound and lights again.

There is some ecotourism going around. Nice resorts integrated in the nature offers accommodations.

We went one river up and could se birds and monkey. They are quick and not easy to picture.

On the way out after the river mouth we had to face a strong NE Wind building up big waves in the shallow water. This time we had to push hard the engine. Suddenly my engine decides to stop. He mates! I say, that not the place and not the time to do so! I rolled the Genoa out to keep the yacht moving on port side. Unfortunately she was heading on an unsurveyed zone, so we tacked to get out in free waters. Pui was not comfortable.

To make story shot, my fuel hose was pinched under the floor. Running the engine in economic mode wasn’t showing up the problem. We tacked again and made safely our way back to the yacht club. I especially enjoyed my Ricard this evening seeing Pui coming back to life.

Borneo 2009 Sabah P. Sepilok

One rainy day (it started after we left) we went to Sepilok.



It’s a rehabilitation center for orphan injured or displaced orangutans found in the jungle. Their task is to bring them back in a reserve of 4.294 hectare virgin jungle. Most of them get back; other seems to like human company. A 20 minutes video show explains very well what it is about.










This day there were more humans than orangutans to see. We had to wait for them to show up. Finally 3 of them came. They look so peaceful. We were told that a male has the power to crack an humans arm.








We met Justine and companion in town. We shared the taxi to get to the place, and spent the day together.

You can also take the local bus, and from the round about its 2.5km to walk.

She is the Director from the Alliance Française in Penang. I was happy to have some French conversation; it was long time that I didn’t speak my mother tong language.



We invited them on Salulami in the afternoon, unfortunately strong NE started to blow on our way back to town, and we had to move the yacht.

Borneo 2009 Sabah P. Sandakan

Sandakan was completely destroyed in the WWII. The city is not more than 65 years old. The traffic in the city is chaotic and has the advantage to be slow. As pedestrian you have to watch for yourself they are no crosswalks, but it’s easy to tack between the cars.




It’s the same everywhere just that in Thailand you run for your life, In Malaysia its more soft. As we were in Brunei, the cars were stopping for us on the crosswalks (like in Switzerland) and it needed adaptation, because you get used to start to move yourself as the car approaches, and now suddenly it stops and it just cuts your spring.













With Pui we went to the Chinese Buddhist temple outside town. It’s on the top of the hill and the view is fantastic. No red light globe fall this day! Looking at the picture, better not.



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Borneo 2008 Sabah P. to Sandakan

December 29 we moved together with Helena zwo to Sandakan. We stopped at Malawali Island, behind a reef. These are the waypoints to get safe there. WP1: 7°02.60 N; 117°15.52 E, WP2: 7°03.10 N; 117°15.57 E, we anchored at 7°03.15 N;
117°15.83 E.






Next stop was Lankayan, pos: 6°30.19 N; 117°54.90 E. There is a dive center there and the welcome was quit cold. They seem not to like anchors so we had to anchor in 20m of water. But they have no concern driving full speed in shallow waters thru the reef with they boats.


There is a strong current heading south in the area. We arrived December 31 at 2 o’clock PM in Sandakan and anchored in front of the Sandakan Yacht Club.




We had a nice diner buffet at the Chinese Restaurant in the round building 10 min walk away left from the yacht club. We spent New Years Eve at the yacht club. We had a warm welcome from the comity.




We Motor sailed 900 miles in 6 month thru Nortern Borneo in Malaysia.

Borneo 2008 Sabah P. Kudat

We arrived in Kudat November 8. There is a nice pool were you can anchor stern to the wall. It’s very well protected and belongs to the Golf and Marina Resort. You can tie the dingy at the military floating pontoon. Just stay outside the “parking”.

There is a swimming pool and shower can be discreetly used at the fitness and sauna place. We asked at the reception for the use of the swimming pool, it’s ok if you order a drink at the restaurant.


We hold out Salulami the 11th at Penuwasa Boatyard. It’s just opposite the pool. It’s more a commercial boatyard. They deal from A to Z with fishing boat, ferries, barges, tug boats, but yachts are welcome. There are shower facilities but water is rare. More than twenty dogs will look for your safety, watch your step.

The traveler lift is big, he can hall out up to 250T vessel.

Products on stock are for wood and steel vessels. Anodes are big. They have Jotun and International antifouling in stock. If you plan a hall out there, have what you need on board.

They have a good engineering shop.

There are many lovely places to eat in Kudat. Just keep in mind that taxi stop working at 5 o’clock PM.

You can organize transportation with the resort. Anyhow it’s a 15-20 minutes walk from the boatyard. And the place is safe.

We launched December 2, enjoying the pool, swimming pool and the company of other yachties, Ellen & Jim, Helen & Bruno, Wally & Lise, Walter & Ae, Harry & Sonia, David, Garry, Michel, Peter.

We celebrated Christmas in Kudat. Ae is from Thailand like Pui, they spent nice time together and Ae showed Pui how to make Pâté, pickled garlic, bread. Pui showed her how to make flan caramel. Pui learned how to make pizza, white bread, milk bread and flan caramel from Helen.