Arrived in Borneo

After a 4 day, 4 night passage from Bali we are pleased to have arrived in Borneo and are now anchored up the river Kumai from where we set out tomorrow for our 2 day trip up the smaller rivers to Camp Leakey to visit the orangutans.
It was a new experience for me to be out of sight of land and often out of sight of all other boats. It was like being on a huge circular disc with the horizon to be seen all around. At night we took turns at watch - Catherine and I did 4 hr. stints together and found ourselves one night crossing a shipping line with huge ships bearing down on us in the dark and tug boats towing enormous barges which looked like islands against the night sky. Some experience! Other times there were only the lights of little fishing boats to be seen. During the day we saw fish jumping , both big and little, but in spite of having fishing lines out we caught nothing.
Once we came into sight of Borneo's, coastline we felt very excited - most of the coast line has huge trees growing right down to the sea. The delta of the river Kumai is huge and the river transports silted water very far out to sea. The town of Kumai, where we are moored with about 18 other Sail Indonesia yachts, is a typical small port town with bigger and smaller ships to transport the Palm Oil. The growing of Palm oil being the big environmental problem here as the indigenous forest is cut down to make room for this mono culture. We haven't been into the town yet, but hear there is a large fruit and vegetable market,we look forward to finding somewhere to eat tonight.