A Day to Remember

A day to remember - 9 February 2014

It was one of those days that just kept on giving. We woke up to another beautiful sunrise, but this morning it was over a jungle covered island of Borneo. One could just imagine how, years ago, the orang-utans swung from tree to tree in this wilderness. Obviously, and sadly, they are now limited to a very small part of Borneo. We had to stop in Kota Kinabalu to refuel after the second part of our first race from Brisbane to Singapore was cancelled, and the fleet

is now motoring the rest of the way.

While waiting for the first boats to fill up, three of our boats anchored and rafted up together in a little bay just off the main centre of Kota Kinabalu. It was great to meet up with some new faces after four weeks of seeing only the same 18 other people. We exchanged stories and got an idea of what provisions they were short on, or where we fell short. We watched them have lunch and it was almost embarrassing how some of our crew mates drooled over their beetroot and tuna. We got a packet of biscuits from them - something we ran out of a week

ago. No-one had any chocolates left to share or exchange!

A few of us swam across to a beach, which was again sadly very polluted. However, it was great to get some oxygen into my lungs and do a bit of cardio exercise for a change. I really miss doing a good workout. We use a lot of upper body muscles on the boat, but we don't get any cardio exercises apart from very short spurts of grinding on the winches.

After lunch on the deck we motored into the resort area, and even though all crew were told that they were not allowed to get off the boats and venture into the resort area, we found that the crew from the other boats before us at the fuelling station had already bought some fresh produce, had some lunch and beers, and got themselves some treats. Our skipper stays well within the rules, so we were not allowed off our boat. Three of us sneaked off though to find somewhere to buy a few of our cravings such as ice cream, chocolates, drinks and tea. I

immediately took the opportunity to get off the boat and go for a little walk. It felt so strange to walk a few hundred meters after not having walked for four weeks (have you ever not walked more than 60 feet for four weeks??!!)! It was a very delighted crew when we returned with Cornettos, KitKats and Coke!

One of the crew mates knew some locals and he ordered us a few bags of fresh fruit and vegetables that were delivered to our boat - this was the greatest treat of all and he was obviously our hero of the week. We haven't had any fresh produce for two weeks, and especially the green vegetables went down incredibly well in our bean soup last night. To top it all we had water melon and papaya/paw-paw for desert!

It's the little things that make all the difference and give meaning to life. I went to my bunk a very happy little sailor!