From May 25, 2018 until we leave KK: We thought you might like to have a little peek at MOKEN’s new digs in Kota Kinabalu.

We’re currently based at the Sutera Harbour Marina. This is part of the much larger Sutera Harbour Resort. The grounds are extensive and we still haven’t explored all of it. Aside from the marina, there are two massive resorts, several restaurants, a 27-hole golf course, driving range, tennis courts, five pools, watersport activities and the clubhouse. In the clubhouse, there’s a gym with saunas and jacuzzis, locker rooms with showers, a laundry, a billiards room, ping pong tables, badminton courts, squash courts, a movie theatre, a bowling alley and the chart room, as well as the marina office.

Earlier this year, even before we left Subic Bay, I contacted the marina office to enquire about rates. Before they would quote these, they asked me to provide copies of our passports (for captain and crew), our boat registration and our boat insurance. Once they had this information for their records, the staff was incredibly helpful.

Of course we knew the rates would be higher than what we were used to at the Subic Bay Yacht Club, but that was in part because we were grandfathered into a corporate membership when we purchased MOKEN. With a rate increase in Subic at the start of the year, the non-member rates at both marinas are now much closer, but we sure get a lot more for our money here. Plus, Sutera’s docks, pilings, slips and cleats are in excellent condition, our power and water bills are reasonable, we’re well out of the typhoon belt, MOKEN doesn’t get covered in grime and there is a fuel dock and pump out station on site. As an added bonus, the water in the marina is usually crystal clear, so we don’t even have to hire someone to clean the bottom for us. Chris does it himself. Wish we could have said the same about Subic.

We’ve met some other cruising yachties since we’ve been here and had a few other interesting visitors on our dock (birds, bats and a monitor lizard), but we do miss our dock neighbours and network of contractors and boat suppliers from Subic.

We expect to be based here until the end of November, as we have a few friends coming to visit and we’re awaiting a shipment of new batteries for MOKEN. In the meantime, we have lots of projects on board to keep us busy and lots to explore in and around KK and beyond in Sabah. And on those days when we don’t feel like going far, there’s still much to enjoy even within the grounds of Sutera Harbour.