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October 12, 2006

Discovering Mantanani islands

We departed from Sutera Harbour Marina early in the morning to the Mantanani Islands located 40 Nautical Miles northwest from Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah (Malaysian Borneo). As we left the harbour, with the morning sun softly shining across the calm water, my mind began to fill with a sense of adventure. The beautiful wood surrounding you aboard the classic yacht Raja Laut blends with the tropical scenery, and with the water flowing across the bow and a gentle breeze cooling you, even as the day starts to warm up, a sense of peace sets in!

As Kota Kinabalu vanished in the morning jungle haze, quietly the crew began to raise the sails - all four of them. As the enormous white canvases were raised the wind too seemed to pick up, the yacht surges forward. Our guests who were aching from having climbed mount Kinabalu just 3 days previously said it was like "taking the final step into a Jacuzzi - our muscles completely relaxed".

The sail to the Mantanani islands took us about 6 hours. Upon arrival, the midday sun baking over our heads, we served a beautiful lunch, which included a special treat - a local Kadazan dish named Hinava made from a king mackerel (caught by one of the crew along the way) with fresh mangoes & lime. We could see the reef beneath us through the clear waters and we were soon gearing up our guests for an awesome afternoon dive! There was not a lot more we could have done to make this day complete other than to prepare drinks at sunset and a few more after dinner!

At the Mantanani islands you get a real sense of tropical paradise, and it feels like it's all yours because of the isolation - indeed for the time the yacht there it was hers to enjoy exclusively. After another excellent day of diving and exploring one of the uninhabited islands we enjoyed another excellent evening in much the same fashion as the first.


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