August 11   7:28 am  Monday Kota Kinabalu

Hi Everyone,

  It never fails.  I get itchy to leave, then get to know the place better, make friends, and then, just at that point, it’s time to go.  In this case, because we have signed up for Sail Indonesia we have no choice.  Actually we should have left a week ago, but computer issues that are partly resolved, got in the way.  We think we will leave tomorrow.  I am sending an excel file of our stops, but we may change that as we go.  We have several overnight passages which eliminates the need to negotiate shallow anchorages and lets us cover more ocean more quickly. 

  Our sailmail may or may not work.  Our cell phone will stop working when we leave Malaysian waters and cell towers.  So for the 2 or 3 weeks we are traveling you probably won’t hear from us.  Don’t worry.  I will joke and say our EPERB will save us if the boat sinks or in a dire emergency I guess we could stick it in water and the coast guard would come.  But that would have to be a terrible emergency and that won’t happen.  We can also speak with passing ships on our vhf.  Actually, our sailmail had stopped working between the Philippines and K K and we had no problem.  We anticipate no problems this time.  We have fuel, lots of fruit and veggies, fresh and canned, and our chart plotter and autopilot to help.  We’ll be fine.

  Our British friends Valerie and Stephen are off to Sandakan and won’t be back until we have left so we said our good-byes Saturday. Valerie, always up for an adventure, had gone with me to the other State Library and then to the Sabah Art Gallery in the museum complex where there was a small water color exhibit.  I’ll write about these adventures, but just now I’ll say that Valerie is a kindred spirit and between the 2 of us we made the only possible wrong turn walking to the gallery from the library so were driven there by a kind Chinese man.  We had stopped to ask directions from a man having his car fixed at an engine repair shop.  He was kind, told us we had gone left when we had needed to go right.  He said his car would be done in 10 minutes and he would drive us.  His car was done in 10 minutes! and he drove us to the gallery!  It was nice having someone to explore with.  Sort of like when Sallie came to visit in China.  It’s touring by luck and chance.  When we go with Carol there is planning and organization and we see way more than we would have.  If we’re lucky and get to Thailand when Carol can join us, we’ll get some great touring there too!  While we still have phone connection I will text Carol and she will email Harriet and Harriet can email all of you.  Great system in a pinch. 

  Last time I lost contact with the Red Sox they jumped in the standings.  Hopefully that will happen again.

When you look at the excel file, there is no place called Dog Nose.  It is just shaped like a dog’s nose below his ear.  The ear is near Teluk Sumangat and the nose is near Tangung Sugut.  Teluk Balesang is our first location in Indonesia.

All of this is on paper and in the chart plotter, but we might make changes on the way. 

So I’ll send this now.  I will try to send some email with photos of here before I leave. 

Ru