Week 12: Sailing.

beaca swimming in the pelumpong island

SAILING

30th October 2009, our activity was SAILING. It is interesting and we were very excited. At 6.45am all of us assemble at the parking lot at Serasa beach and everyone prepared and get ready to sail. The sailing boat which brings us sailing is the DREAM CHARTER. The captain of the boat is Captain Peter Moeller and the crew is Aideen Henry and they are husband and wife.

Few things about the DREAM CHARTER

Petima is a luxury custom built boat constructed completely of wood. She is very safe boat. Petima is 11m long and 3.6m wide and can carry a maximum of 15 guests. Aideen Hendry told us that her husband Captain Peter Moeller bought the boat from a fishermen and the name of the boat came from the name of the fishermen daughter.

Jenny is constructed of steel. She is 13m long and 3.6m wide. She weighs 18t and can carry a maximum of 25 guests.

The captain and the crew

Captain Peter Moeller is a native of Germany and a very experienced skipper. Having sails all shapes and sizes of yachts. He has spent the last 10 years sailing in the Inland Waterways of Europe, Mediterranean, Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean, West Cost of America, Canada, Mississippi, through the Panama Canal, Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Western Malaysia, Thailand and finally Borneo. Aideen Hendry is a native of Ireland has been sailing over the last decade. Mostly having sailed on Multihulls where she met Peter.

Pick up point

At 7.00am sharp, the crew arrived at the Serasa beach where we wait. Captain Peter and Aideen came at the Serasa coast with their pontoon boat and came to the Serasa parking lot and they introduce them self. After their introduction Aideen ask for 10 first volunteer to go on board on their pontoon to head for The Dream Charter boat which is situated around 1/3 kilometer from the Serasa coast, a lot of my friend raised their hand so I decided to go for the next turn. There were 8 of them who volunteer to go first (Dr Asmah, Hj Irwan, Nuh, Ayiee, Nazz, Asri, Diana and Keem). Before moving, they were asked to remove their shoes, slippers or sandals before entering the pontoon. Before entering the pontoon, they were asked to put on a life jacket, but only some of them who put on the life jacket and some didn’t put on the life jacket. Then the Unexpected Incident Happen. The captain starts the engine of the pontoon, at the beginning everything went good. The pontoon moving but about half way to the sailing boat I realized that the front of the pontoon was sinking. Suddenly it took only a few seconds for the water to fill up the pontoon. The good thing was no one was panic at that time which was a very good way to react, because if they do panic it will make the situation more difficult to deal with end they could end up with someone getting injured. The way my colleagues react, it made me proud to see on how they apply their responsibility and teamwork to each others.

The sailing plan

After what has happened, we just keep our determination to restart the sailing. The sailing plan is to stop for a swim and enjoy the view and environment at Pulau Pelumpong and then go around Pulau Muara Besar and back to where we start. The Pelumpong Island a man-made Brunei island the cut-off spit from the main Muara beach, a nice sandy beach and clear water, very natural and very interesting in view, it is a very important island for our country because it protect us from big waves and also as a protection from enemies in the past. We swam in the Pulau Pelumpong beach for half an hour. The island was very special, the blue water, the sand and the view over there, it is a wonderful place to go.

On our way back to Serasa, the crew also told us some basic term use in sailing such as BOW: the front of the boat, STERN: back of the boat, PORT: left side of the boat, SAIL: help move the boat. Mainsail, head sail, storm sail, WINCH: a metal drum used to help raise and trim the sails, ANCHOR: an object that grips the ground and makes you stay in one place and many more. Aideen also thought us how to tide a rope, one called the 'King of knots', it is one of the most useful knots to sailors. It can be made quickly and easily and will never jam and the other is square knot, best known as sailors' knot, it is useful for joining small ropes together. She also gave us some activities to fill up along our journey.

Conclusion

There is a lot of things that I’ve learn from the journey, it adds to my knowledge. On our way to the Pelumpong Island we passed a fish farming area where there is a local working to breed the fish on their own farm area. THE ENERGY USE; all the farming area required electricity; I could see that every farm has their own generator as their source of electric energy. One of the farm there were own by the aunty of Dr Irene, the farm use solar energy and a little structure like windmill to get their electrical energy. THE ECONOMY ASPECT; Dr Irene also told me that the very big boat we could see hundred km from the Pulau Muara Besar is a cargo boat. What the boat doing is that they park over there, the boat come from all around the world, the use that as an alternative to reduce their cost, it is actually a good way to reduce energy waste, instead of moving far away, all the boat just park there and waiting to load their things.

Despite being unlucky in the early, we as the BEACA students still show our determination to continue the sailing. In the end we really enjoy the journey; it gave us a lot of knowledge, experience and in fact strengthens our bond as a BEACA family. And I would like to thanks Dr Irene and Dr Asmah for giving me the opportunity to go sailing.