After two weeks on the Path of Least Resistance, I was on my way back to Langkawi with a new take on life and decided it was time to end my chapter on SV Millennium. It had already been almost three months since coming to Malaysia and knew that working in a shipyard felt like more resistance than ease. I didn’t know what my next chapter would be but I needed to close this one and trust the universe would guide me to something more aligned.
As I sat in the airport in Singapore, I wrote down my manifestation list for what I wanted my next step to be. I joined Expedition Drenched with the hopes of building my underwater photography and videography stills and still had this goal but I also needed a mentor with some professional skills. Since I expected to be on SV Millennium for 6 months or more, I wasn’t exactly traveling light and had a lot of stuff including a wetsuit and dive gear so, ideally, I needed a place where I could stay for at least a month. To top it off, I also really wanted to do something related to conservation work and feel like I’m helping a greater purpose. Finally, since my passport was getting full and I had just renewed my Malaysian visa, I preferred to stay in Malaysia.
During the layover, I did some searching online to see if anything fit the list and sent off a few emails. I considered a Dive Master program but didn’t have enough dives to qualify and most programs were focused on teaching to take people fun diving which didn’t sound very fun to me. Most conservation volunteering programs were either completely booked up for months or were ridiculously expensive. Finally, I found an underwater photography internship in Thailand which sounded perfect until I learned the instructor recently got into an accident and couldn’t dive any time soon. In my gut, I knew that I wouldn’t find the right opportunity until I told Nate I was leaving.
One by one, the SV Millennium crew arrived in Langkawi and met up at our favorite restaurant for dinner, some fresh coconuts, and a few games of bocce ball. It felt so good to be back with these strangers that had become family and each person shared stories of their time off the boat and I began second-guessing my decision to leave. What if we can splash the boat in two weeks? Is working in the shipyard really that bad? To top it off, it felt like my decision to stay or leave also factored into other’s decisions as well and I didn’t want to be the Jenga piece that toppled the tower.
The next day, I knew it was time to talk to Nate about my decision and shared my concerns. Although I mention my gut being the deciding factor, my reasons to leave were steeped in logic and experience. The longer we stayed in the shipyard, the more pressure it put on us to get to Australia by the timeframe Nate set to meet other commitments. The schedule he laid out was starting to feel more like a delivery than cruising and being in a rush with a newly refit boat exposed us to a lot of risk.
Without much of a sea trial, trying to have anything replaced or fixed in rural Indonesia sounded near impossible. We were also at the start of the southwest monsoon season and the trade winds will come from the south meaning that we would be completely reliant on the motor to bash us into the wind. To top it off, any and all of the safety equipment I found onboard including the life raft and EPIRB were long expired and wouldn’t be recertified/renewed until Australia.
I began to worry that instead of things getting fixed properly, the priority was to do a temporary fix to splash the boat and worry about it later. We spent months removing and treating rust on the outside of the boat and SV Millennium was looking great compared to when she first entered the shipyard. As I helped to clean and tidy the engine room, I saw extensive rust, especially around the through hulls, the most likely failure point. Even though Nate mentioned, several times, that steel boats will rust from the inside out, not the outside in, nothing was being done to treat it.
I shared my concerns with Nate, who understood to an extent but tried to convince me otherwise. Then, I shared the news with the rest of the crew and sure enough, the tower began to fall. One by one, everyone else began making plans to leave. When I told Jules of my plan to leave, she mentioned that she had met a couple of underwater photographers during her time in the Philippines and one was on her way to Malaysia and I should reach out.
So, I sent Megan a message on Instagram and learned she was planning to volunteer at a conservation program at the Tropical Research and Conservation Center (TRACC) in Borneo, Malaysia, and would be flying out in a week. Having researched marine conservation programs in Southeast Asia, I was surprised that I hadn’t heard of TRACC before and quickly scanned their website. It was almost everything on my list: marine conservation, in Malaysia, and unlimited diving but given the price, I thought it must be booked out.
I sent them an e-mail and followed up with a message to their Instagram and WhatsApp inquiring about short-term availability. As it turns out, their e-mail system wasn’t working, potentially causing a shortage of volunteer applications, and they had availability for me to come on the same dates as Megan, what luck! I booked my flights and hoped that Megan could serve as the photography mentor I was hoping to manifest. Little did I know, she would become much more than that!
