By Allan Riches – Brunei Bay Radio

Since I’ve been disseminating information – including cruising notes from past yachts – about cruising the west coast of Borneo, we’ve seen a big increase in the number of cruising yachts in this region. For example, off the Royal Brunei Yacht Club here in Brunei, in 2000, we’d get about 5 cruising yachts to call in per annum. Now there are 3 to 5 cruising yachts anchored off the club for almost the entire SW monsoon season, from about March/April to October/November each year. Cruisers regularly remark how pleasant it is to cruise this area because it lacks the commercial pressure and urgency of the Singapore, Malacca Straits (Peninsula Malaysia and Thailand) region.

In the past, circumnavigating yachts principally travelled a route during July to December, from Darwin to Bali to Singapore, up the Straits of Malacca to Thailand, and pushed off to the Red Sea in January/February. They missed the vast areas of SE Asia that are less commercialised, with clear water anchorages and places where the local people still living very traditional lifestyles are equally intrigued about the cruisers as the cruisers are of them.

The development of organised rallies and yachting events has helped introduce cruisers to many more of the places people normally missed. Cruisers coming into this region can now easily allocate a couple of years to explore and enjoy the area.

A season on the west coast of Borneo can be followed by a season or two in the southern Philippines, then circumnavigate Borneo via Sulawesi and the Spice Islands in the east (lots of colonial history as well as traditional living, up-market dive islands etc. in places) and either return to Darwin or go around to Singapore and up to Thailand again, ready to depart to the Red Sea or Chagos, Seychelles and around South Africa.

A lot of Australian and New Zealand origin cruisers are now opting to cruise SE Asia rather than the South Pacific. I believe it’s related to shorter ocean passages, lots of different places to see and experience, low cost of living – especially when you explore the less commercial areas, such as Borneo, southern Philippines, Spice Islands – generally helpful and friendly people, a growing number of marinas for those times when people want to leave yachts to fly home, and a growing number of yacht service and maintenance facilities.

Plus of course, our Brunei Bay Radio HF/SSB email services – SailMail and our BBRemail – allow people to reliably and cheaply request/receive weather information, organise spare parts, get advice about mechanical problems, immigration, port procedures or venues, maintain contact with and arrange visits from friends and family, operate correspondence schooling for cruising children, and look after the investments back home that finance this beautiful cruising lifestyle.

Contact Alan at radio@bruneibay.net