Tuesday 15 July The fleet sails to Sandakan

Following a stormy evening at Silingan island the fleet mostly motored in light airs to Sandakan town twenty miles south. Sandakan was the capital of Sabah before WW2. At the end of the war the Japanese burned what the allies planes hadn't bombed and the new capital was established in Kota Kinabalu.

The view as we entered the large river mouth this morning was dominated by a modern mosque close to the fishing village and further up river the new multi storey Sheraton Four Points hotel in the centre of the town. In between these two are the yacht club, maritime police, a modern complex of multi storey car park and the wet market.

Our small fleet of 17 boats joined together at the river mouth for a sweeping entrance in to the bay, al that was missing was a stirring anthem by Hans Zimmer. The Out of the Blue II had the VIPs and a press person on board to record the moments as the rest of the fleet jostled for position – we all wanted to anchor in the same spot in front of the yacht club. He who arrived first and could drop anchor would win the day in a river with turning tidal streams and counter currents. If two boats end up anchored too close it is the unwritten rule the last to arrive should re-anchor. We hesitated and ended up anchoring on the outside of the pack. In past years yachts in Sandakan have 'lost' items, a couple of dinghies were stolen and a boat broken into while the owners were ashore. For us the maritime police were going to be patrolling at night and we have permission to leave our dinghies at the yacht club jetty.

We went into the Sandakan yacht club late afternoon and received a very warm welcome, they charged each of us a Rm50 (£9)for temporary membership which was use of the secure jetty, bar and restaurant. If we wanted to use the swimming pool it was Rm10 (£2) per day.