Tuesday 12 August Final rally dinner

Polly the cat needs to go to the vet for her final vaccination shot. Finding a vet in Tawau is not easy. With the help of internet and the secretary in the yacht club we were able to find the address of the government veterinary office 3 miles out of town but not to reach them by phone. There's a thought they only open in the morning. We'll wait until we can discover their opening hours before taking Polly ashore.

We've had time to walk around town now the shops are open. It's still a traditional town, less impinged with high rise modern buildings than the oil rich towns we've seen on our way here. It's mostly two storey wooden buildings, probably post war, warrens of Chinese emporiums selling everything from sofas to children's bicycles.

All rally boats are now here, a total of 16 boats out of the 28 who left Johor Bahru in May. Some continued north to Thailand from Terangganu, others stopped short due to engine problems, a handful returned to Kudat after the Kinabatangan river to leave their boats before flying home. Tonight the 16 crews enjoyed one last sponsored dinner; venue end of the yacht club jetty with food provided by an Indian restaurant in town. Our hosts are the Ministry of Tourism. It was a good night, short speeches, good food and good company which was cut short by the alarming news a handful of boats had been burgled. One boatie had noticed his headsail had unfurled. On investigation it was found their head sail furling line had had a length cut out of it. Four other boats had the same theft or damage; 6mm head sail furling lines had had lengths slashed out of them, or just cut. A local canoe style fishing boat was seen alongside one of the boats and the cruiser who saw them shoe a light and shouted before the offenders leisurely moved away.

We all went ashore with high hopes for a fun evening and returned disheartened. We were one of the fortunate ones and still felt let down. We would have to assume the thieves knew we were going to be off our boats. The big question was where was our promised security patrol?