Luxury overload in KK

We ended up spending in total two weeks in Kudat, including three days in the haul out. Phil spent several days trouble shooting the engine vibrations, but in the end decided we need a forward cutlass bearing. Unfortunately they didn't have this in Kudat, and especially I was getting pretty sick of being stuck in a very hot marina, so we decided to sail onto Kota Kinabalu (KK). It's only at certain revs that the engine vibrates, so it wasn't too bad, but we actually had two and a half lovely days of sailing, only the last half day was too light to sail so we motored.

Mt Kinabalu, the biggest in SE Asia, I think, 4095 meters, it's only visible early in the morning, later on it's covered in clouds. If we were much fitter (and could afford the marina fees) we would climb it, but as things are, it's just not going to happen...

monkey on the beach!

We have how spent two days in the über posh marina, http://www.suteraharbour.com. It was actually funny, because we just came from the (free!) marina in Kudat and there Sophia was a total average boat and even on the slightly nicer side, but in KK she's a nobody, tiny and simple looking. The marina is attached to a country club of sorts and a set of swimming pools, one of them 50 meters and it's all part of the fee (NZ$ 28 a day for Sophia's 35 feet), they even give you towels! There's also a gym, tennis courts and lots of other fancy stuff. We of course tried to maximise using the pool and showers, I even got up at 6.30 every morning to swim, it was slightly cooler then, although the water was still really warm! Luckily the showers had a really cold option, super nice. 

We even managed to order a cutlass bearing from a local boat (fishing) shop, it will have to be sent from west Malaysia and they promised it would be here in 2-3 days, but we'll wait and see about that before we believe it. Because we are such cheapies we have now left the marina and have anchored just outside, because we're still waiting for our gas bottles to be returned (full ). After we get the gas bottles back (tomorrow morning hopefully) we will head out to explore some nice islands and anchorages just off KK, supposedly it's even good snorkeling! When the bearing turns up, we'll head back to the marina. As usual more photos on facebook.

Phil in the Chinese boat (fishing mostly) shop where we'll hopefully get our new bearing from in a few days