Thursday 12 June Miri

We arrived at Miri in north Sarawak at 4am this morning. We'd sailed for three days, anchored for the first two nights and sailed through last night to take advantage of the breeze and to time our arrival at Miri marina for high water as the entrance is too shallow for us to cross the bar at less than half tide. With no natural harbours along this coast we'd been anchoring wherever we found ourselves at sunset, simply turning in until we came to 5m depth and dropping the hook. We were fortunate as the sea and wind conditions were calm on both nights. We arrived at the marina ahead of the first storm we've seen for days.

Miri marina is different, a DIY marina. There are no staff or office on site. The office is above shops nearly a mile away so you come in, find a spot and park yourself. We did discover the docks with the longest pontoons have the shallowest water; too shallow for us, our keel would have been sitting in the mud. The shorter pontoons at the back near the Maritime boats are deeper. Now we float at all times but our bow sticks extends beyond the pontoon.