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01/04/26 Weds. Happy Birthday Ana! We are still in the process of getting the boat ready for sea and it's taking longer than expected as we can't find some things which are 'lost' onboard.
02/04/26 Thurs. OK, all good now, yacht club bills paid and we let the mooring buoy go at 1200 and made our way down the channel to the sea. That's where it all turned tits up! There were 2 to 3 metre swells capped by white horses and a strong stern wind with the mast swinging through an arc of about 800, a couple of hours into that and Ana became sick and an hour later so did I. That's a first for me! We did the first 25 miles before anchoring in the shelter of Malanao Island.
03/04/26 Fri. Last night wasn't brilliant as we only had partial shelter, some of the swell coming around the side of the island, so at 5am we pulled the anchor and motored 6 miles around to the other side of the island. We stayed there all day.
04/04/26 Sat. Weighed anchor at 7am for another try to head south - but just a short way. We dropped anchor behind Rasa Island at 11am, more sheltered here and neither of us was feeling much better.
05/04/26 Sun. Weighed anchor at 6am, moved out to sea and set course for San Antonio Bay. We were both getting our sea legs now and feeling much better, helped by the swell abating somewhat. Dropped anchor at 5.30pm, got a good meal and a better nights sleep.
06/04/26 Mon. Set off at 6am again for our second 'long' leg to Balabac Island, the last Philippine land. After 60 miles, we achored off the town of Balabac and settled in for the night.
07/04/26 Tues. Another fairly long leg today (about 55 miles), crossing the shipping lanes and Balabac Strait to Malaysia and Balambangan Island. This wasn't a bad passage with no incidents. However, on arrival at our usual anchorage, the wind picked up to over 20 knots as did the swell. Looking into the bay, I decided it would be an uncomfortable night if we were to stay there. I decided to continue for another 5 hours and head direct for Kudat. We entered the pond in the dark at 7pm, narrowly missing a fishing boat that was coming out with the helmsman asleep or blind. Safely moored in our usual spot alongside Shelley and had a brief catch up with Craig and Josephine.
