Trip to Kuching

Tuesday afternoon Morning Light finally left the protection of Marina Bay Marina. For the last time I had coffee with Sytske and Adri of Marida, did the last jobs to get the boat ready and somewhere before 14:00 the lines were off.

There was a good breeze as soon as I rounded the sea horse at the harbor entrance, and within 15 minutes I had the sails up and we were under way doing a good 6-7 knots. There were some squalls during the night and after one squall the next morning the wind shifted and it was time to gibe.

Somewhere during the 2nd day the halyard from the genoa came off, it was tied using a new type of knot, well, quess it did not work for me. It was too rough to fold up the sail neatly, so I pushed the whole sail into the fore cabin. In Miri I reshuffled most the halyards since some of them where starting to wear, but there was still a space one available, be it a little thin and short. So got the small yankee out and hoisted it on the spare halyard.

At the end of the 2nd day I was north of the entrance of the river to Sibu, this meant there was a lot of traffic during the first part of the evening. Things got lighter later during the night.

Things were looking good and I was expecting to be able to sail up the river to Santubong before dark. But the wind started to dwindle and eventually left me. So the last 30 miles had to be motored in, but, thanks to the new tiller pilot (steering via the Aries wind vane) that was not too much effort. Once the swell had gone it was actually a good ride in, the river mouth is wide and with few hazards. The tide was with me so things were smooth and had the anchor down just after 1700.

It feels good to be back on the move after many months in the marina. This morning I did some tidying up, including putting the genoa away. After lunch I took the mini bus into Kuching, it is about a one hour drive. Kuching is the capitol of Sarawak, located on the Sarawak river, with a historic city centre (well, compared to Miri most city centres will look historic). Walked around all afternoon, saw lots of things but no internet cafe yet.

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