An early morning start was required on the morning of the passage race to Labuan in the Borneo International Yachting Challenge, due to the depth of water in the channel to Miri Marina.
We motored out into the dawn and once clear of the channel hoisted the sails for the first time to findout how Sarawak Seahorse perfomed. Our scratch crew cosisted of two experienced sailors plus three others with little or no experience, so it was going to be short but sharp learning curve. We did a few tacks and gybes so that everyone had an idea as to what to do.
The wind was fairly light and I misjudged the time to reach the start line, so that we missed the class start and narrowly avoided being classified as DNS as we dipped back acroos the line with seconds to spare, just ahead of the next class.
The wind gods did not favour the race and a few miles from the start the fleet was becalmed. One by one the cruising boats started their engines leaving us in their wake. Gradually the wind filled in and we reached down the coast heasing for the oil fields, where we decided to take the inshore route. we had some good sailing catching and passing a few of the cruising boats. we divided into two watches putting the novice sailors on the helm as the night wore on.
Dawn saw us of the coast of Brunei with a fair breeze and sails on the horizon infront of us, we slowwly closed the gap and then approaching Labaun fell into a wind hole and began to be pushed backwards by the current. We crept close to some rocky outcrops to avoid the current until the wind filled in allowing us to romp home to Labuan.
Unfortuantly we were classified as DNF due to time limit and were too late to protest ene, althuogh in previuos years are position would have counted.
David Ogden
Pirates Of Borneo
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