4th Borneo International Yachting Challenge

Lat. 05deg 16.22 North, Lon. 115deg 14.92 East.

Labuan Harbour is host to almost 30 sailing boats, and we're here to celebrate with the other crews. Only 3 IRC "real racing" boats, the rest are cruisers like ourselves. We'll race around the harbour tomorrow, and the following day we set of to Miri on a 120 nautical mile passage race, overnight.

The race organisers do a great job of looking after us, with free hotel rooms here in Labuan and in Miri, a cash payment for entering the event and a whole series of dinners and parties. Its too good to miss. The weather doesn't look great - not a lot of wind - but we're sure it will be fun.

The cruisers have been preparing for the race, practicing spinnaker sets and even cleaning hulls. Our friends Janet and Joe on Tegan 1 shipped a new mainsail in for the event, and the crew of Morning Cloud had fun cleaning the hull.

In Miri we have another "round the cans" race before the final party. The Chief Minister of Sarawak is coming, along with a tribe of other VIP's. The Malaysian Maritime Department is providing security. There are lots of our cruising friends here, so the social life is sure to be intense.