March 23 arrived in Kuala Belait

Wanted to leave at dawn but anchor was all snarled up in an abandoned anchor and other crap. Took hours to free up. Most work I ever did in bringing an anchor up. My Rockna is close to 45lbs, 3/8″ chain is heavy but then this nasty wrapped up old anchor around 40lbs was almost more then I could handle. Wondered why the boat held so well all week in very weird winds & tides. If crocs were not the problem i would have got into this murky water to clear it. I am afraid of prehistoric animals.
Very long run over 70 Nmiles. It was full moon so decided to sail all the way to Kuala Belait over 70 Nmiles. My longest run yet. Don’t run at night but I love moon light sailing and see nearly as well and don’t get sunburnt. Had some good sail winds on beam reach making 4-6 knots at times. No good places to stop along the way anyway. I anchored just outside the river at around 9PM, nice to have moonlight. Incoming swells made for a bumpy night but so tired it did not matter to me. I was NOT going to go 2-3 miles up the river with all the oil patch work boats moving in the night.

Got going at first light and got anchored across from the old Kuala Belait Boat Club. It was closed down. Drat! supposed to be showers and good eats there. Did head for shore for food but with Ramadan here nothing opens until after sundown. Got some junk to eat from a small store and holed up on the boat. Boring Sunday listening night & day to the loud diesel boats churning up & down the river. Huge industry supplying the oil patch here. Water nasty, muddy like most rivers. Hot as hell but won’t get into the water to cool off because of the crocodile danger here.