This is an authorized translation in English of a post in French by @marc-allaria: BORNEO - Stop #6 - Kudat et l'escale technique...!

^{As my primary language is not English, there are probably some mistakes in my translation.}

Remember that the person who speaks here is NOT me, Vincent Celier (@vcelier), but Marc Allaria (@marc-allaria), a French guy.

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BORNEO

Aurora in the fairing area

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It's been two years since Aurora took me from country to country, forgiving all my mistakes as a beginner and my laxity in maintaining a boat so robust that I thought that nothing could happen to her. It is now time to stop with this lazy reasoning and make a technical stop during my trip.

Kudat is the perfect place for that. It is the point of entry of Borneo by the North and also a stopover perfectly known by the navigators to fix their boats. Two states share the island of Borneo: Indonesia for the most part and also the poorest, and Malaysia for the far north and the richest part. We should not forget either a micro-state made extremely rich by the gas it operates but will not be on my way, Brunei. But before visiting this new island, I have to take Aurora out of the water, put away my scuba tanks for a while and open my toolbox.

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So here I am, for the first time, faced with this obligatory step to any navigator: The fairing area! Here, the port is well equipped to get the boats out of the water and displays very attractive rates. You can find most of the materials needed for good maintenance and possibly a workforce at an affordable cost. My list of tasks to make Aurora ready for the next two years of navigation is not very long.

Obviously, I must proceed to the traditional renewal of the anti-fouling without forgetting to inspect the points of osmosis, always present on a boat of this age, and to treat them. Some maintenance is to be done at the level of the portholes, a maintenance of the cold group, a review of the damping by the galvanization of the chain, a little varnish always ready to fade in the face of the UV, a little sewing, inspection of the engine, a thermostat to change, in short, the list is ultimately not so short! It will take me a fortnight to settle most of the details and create a second list: those I could not handle because of lack of time, expertise or spare parts.

The technical stop is also the opportunity to resume the habits on land that I tend to quickly forget. The hustle and bustle of a city, the joy of finding plenty, the port of fishermen always full of history and surprising boats, good restaurants, are always the first good reunion with civilization. But very quickly the pollution, the expenses, and these damn mosquitoes absent in happy moorings, take over and push me to finish with the work as soon as possible.

Local trawler

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Fortunately, meetings also exist on construction sites. Some, like me, get their boat there only for a small maintenance, others embark on total restructuring of their boats. How brave! When in a few months I will be near a beautiful beach, they will probably still be in their work clothes under the hull of their boat. No, thank you ... But we talk about our travels, our lives, our problems and how to solve them. It is finally a rewarding step that allows you to take stock and to restart once again.

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With the boat ready, it is now time to leave the comfort of the presence of a city and return to the more uncomfortable isolation but in which I feel so well. Direction the islands !!

DISCOVER THE PHILIPPINES: Funny situations ...! at sea..., by @marc-allaria
DISCOVER THE PHILIPPINES: The fishing file ...!, by @marc-allaria
DISCOVER THE PHILIPPINES: The Cagayan Islands, by @marc-allaria
DISCOVER THE PHILIPPINES: Seaweed...!, by @marc-allaria
DISCOVER THE PHILIPPINES: The Bacuit Archipelago, by @marc-allaria