Author: paulcollister

Yesterday morning started well, a power cut, which caused one of our neighbours to get cross with another boat owner over tripping the power. When there is an electrical fault a circuit breaker kills all the power to all the boats.
Well 30 minutes later Kathy made some toast and as she pushed the toast into the machine the power went off and Kathy screeched a bit saying that there where sparks inside the toaster. I presumed it was probably not a big deal and that the power problem was related to the other boat. however after I had a look at the toaster I found she had been trying to toast a bulldog clip

I popped outside to check, and we had indeed tripped the whole marina, but worse our neighbour was now storming over to the other boat to give them hell for tripping again, I tired to stop him, but he was convinced it was their fault, so off he went.
Kathy doesn’t keep the clips on a hook just above the toaster anymore 🙂

The rest of the day was spent sanding and filling holes, I scraped out all of the dead black wood in the cap rail, and made up some teak coloured epoxy filler, however, the colour went black at the last minute, I don’t know why, but I had had enough so I filled the holes with the black filler, It doesn’t look as bad as it was, but I’m going to cut it all out at a later date and put teak in, probably when I get to Thailand and can get some good quality teak for a decent price. I might replace the whole rail then. For now I wanted to get on with the varnishing and get the rail watertight. After I had got a ‘primer’ coat of varnish on, I put my brush in a jar of turps in the cockpit and jumped ashore to get a shower with the pontoon hose, after the shower I threw my shoes back onto the boat and was very pleased that I was able to get them into the cockpit from about 5 metres, I expect you have guessed the rest, a perfect hit, turps everywhere!

Today I was up early, we had a massive squall in the night and a huge amount of rain. I dried the woodwork with a towel, had a coffee, then got the second coat of varnish down. It’s looking good now, I had hoped to get 4 coats of varnish on the cap rail and bow sprit by Saturday, and I’m on target for that.
Kathy and I got off into town at lunch time, we have found out that we can summon an Uber taxi that takes us from the marina into Georgetown for about 9MYR, which is under £2, it costs four times as much for a regular taxi, and they cant find us.

I found a source for a water pump for the air-con, so I’m hoping to fit that in the next few days and if it works, I can lose the window mounted unit and get the deck clear. I also found some very long 5mm wood drills for a £1 each which I’m going to use to drill a few inspection holes in the bowsprit, I need to know how bad the rot is there.

After the hardware shopping we joined the backpackers and walked the streets looking at the street art and took in an exhibition of art/photography where the artist had chopped the pictures up a reassembled them in an interesting way.

We ended the day with a meal in our favourite Indian restaurant, I made a classic mistake of ordering a tandoori chicken and saying I didn’t want it too hot, so he went off with order, “Tandoori chicken, no hot”, It took a while, I presumed because they were cooking it without the spices just for me, but instead I realised when I bit into a cold lump of chicken, that blew my head off with spices, that the delay must have been while they shoved my chicken in the freezer. Note to self, use the word spicy, not hot. A bas ride home was quick, and an early night, hoping to get coat 3 of the varnish on tomorrow early and then more boat jobs.

Some pics from the day:

Paul C

I started on the bowsprit early because the epoxy was taking to long to get hard and sandable on the cap rail repairs, so rather than finish that I jumped into the stripping the bowsprit. This required removing the anchor, then it’s chain, as I thought this would be a good time to inspect it all and check out what the little cable ties signified. The PO used an interesting system. After the first ten metres of chain goes out there are 5 cable ties over a few chain links, or at least there would be if one hadn’t broken off at some point. These 5 mean that there are another 50 metres of chain available. Then after another 10 metres has gone out there are 4 cable ties, indicating that there are 40 metres of chain left. This continues to near the end of the chain, where there is one cable tie on the chain, indicating 10 metres left, which in fact is more like 5. I like to work out how much chain I need to put out, so say I’m anchoring in 4 metres of water, I want 5 times as much chain, that’s called a scope of 5:1, so I put 20 metres out, I think that is the same as saying I have 40 metres left, not the most intuitive system.   I have some lovely bright Day-Glo fluorescent cable ties I will add to the chain, 1 for 10 metres out, 2, for 20 etc etc.

So today and yesterday was all about preparing the bowsprit for varnish, Kathy stayed indoors mostly enjoying the cooler climate, and helping with jobs below. There was fun last night when the power went to the pontoons, and when we yachties tried to reset it the master trip kept blowing, so we ended up disconnecting boats to find the offender, which we did in the end, but not before we had upset one of the residents here, but that’s another story.

Tomorrow I hope to get the first coat of varnish on the rail and bowsprit, but first we have to clean out the chain locker while the chain and rope are out. That should be fun, I believe it contains several inches of sea bed samples (mud) from everywhere between Hawaii and Penang, and who knows what might be in that mud. You can take it as read that Kathy wont be digging through the mud 😉

Hoping to do some more sightseeing on Tuesday, perhaps a trip to the big park / funicular railway up the hill.

Paul C.

 

Kathy wanted me to blog these pictures from Thursday

And just one of the bowsprit for good measure

 

Paul C.

I finished sanding down the starboard side today, there’s a lot of rot around some of the bolts holding the rail down. However it doesn’t extend very far and doesn’t affect the strength of the fastenings, so I’m cutting / scraping out the rot and either filling with thickened epoxy or adding wooden insets.
I think I went a bit far on reducing the amount of hardener in the epoxy today as it’s taking a long time to go off, and consequently I can’t move onto the next stage. This forced me to start on the bowsprit.

I removed the pulpit, and tomorrow I will remove the platform to get full access to the sprit, I don’t think it’s been properly varnished since new. I’m also going to go in search of a carpenter to make me a new platform, this one is now quite thin and split in places.
In order to get the platform off, I had to get the anchor off, so thought this would be an ideal time to get all the chain out, check it, and push Kathy into the chain locker to give it a good scrubbing up, I would do it myself, except I’m too big, and we don’t have any victorian chimney sweep boys available.

I took the picture above, the guy on the left is Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and that’s me on the right. I think you have to agree the likeness is uncanny!  And we are both working on great engineering projects, him on the launch of the SS Great Britain, and me doing the same for the SV Sister Midnight. If you don’t know who ISB is, then don’t worry, but you should probably read more about engineering (Thanks to Tony Wilson for that line).

As you might have seen from Kathy’s post, Bandanas are all the rage on Sister Midnight today. I need one to stop the sweat dripping down onto my varnishing as I work, Kathy has one just to look cool.

Paul C.

So the elements laid on a good sunset for our last night in Langkawi, I meant to put this picture up the other day, the beams of light must be caused by the mountain tops illuminating a strata of cloud. Quite fascinating, at least to me.

Now we are boaty tourists, the plan is to work hard on the boat with frequent breaks sightseeing. Our first trip into Penang was a bit rushed but we did get to see an interesting exhibition of old photographs of Penang, Kathy is reading up on the history of the place, and guess what, the Brits don’t come out of it too well, surprise surprise.

I think I’m a bit used to SE Asia now, but I forget how strange it must all be for Kathy having never been east of Kalamos in Greece.

Spotted some kittens playing, Kathy wanted one, and of course I would love to have obliged, but the thought of splitting them up seemed so unfair 😉

 

Back at the boat I have started on the starboard side cap rail and coaming. This side has more damage, but I think I can repair the wood sufficiently.

One day I might replace the whole rail, but there are other priorities right now.
Since we arrived I have checked off quite a few tasks, we have a new mixer tap in the galley, so now we have hot water for doing the dishes. I have stowed the old CQR anchor in the lazarette and also re-organised the stowage, there’s a chance the fenders will all fit into the locker, which would be amazing.

The best bit was connecting the boats internal Air-Con into a supply of tap water from the pontoon, as it’s own sea water cooling pump has failed. This worked, which proved the refrigerator part of the AC is working, so I can now hunt down a water pump in Penang, the challenge is to find a pump that works with salt water, runs continuously, is quiet, and not too expensive.

Back to the sanding

Paul C.

It’s Saturday afternoon and we are on the arrivals pontoon in Batu Uban, on the Island of Penang, back where I started this adventure with wanderlust back in January.

We decided to leave Langkawi on Thursday as the weather was predicted to be rubbish for a week or so, slightly better to the south, and as we had planned on doing sightseeing in Langkawi, it seemed more logical to get down to Penang and enjoy the festival here then head back to Langkawi when the weather improved.

So yesterday we paid our bills and headed south, it’s a long slog (12+ hours) to do the journey in one go, especially as it’s risky sailing at night here, the risk of collision with a fishing boat/net is high as they tend not to be lit. So we broke the trip up by spending the night at anchor behind the island of SonSong. This is a lovely little spot, but before we could get there we had to deal with some big squalls, the worst occurred just as we were approaching another island called Pulau Paya, I could see it approaching, and with the help of the radar and a little bit of trigonometry I calculated that by dropping our speed to 3 knots it would pass ahead of us, which it did, which was nice. We still got soaked and rocked around a lot, but missed the worst of it. In case you don’t know, a squall is like a mini thunderstorm, you see them on the horizon as an ominous large black cloud, getting darker and bigger as it approaches. Once it gets near, the sea whips up and the rain chucks it down, and there is a very strong wind, sometimes 30-50 knots. Visibility is also very poor. They can take 30 minutes to a couple of hours to pass depending on the bigger weather picture. Most of the squalls come from the SW during this monsoon season, so we anchored on the North East side of the island at Palua Songsong.
It was a very pleasant evening, not too hot, the monsoon wind kept us cool on the boat and Kathy cooked up a lovely pasta dish for dinner.

I slept in the cockpit, we had all the windows open and the boat was lovely and fresh. Accuweather had predicted 70-80% chance of rain during the night with their prediction peaking around 2AM, which is exactly when the rain came. I was in the cockpit, and was woken by a strange sound getting louder, it was in fact heavy rain falling on the sea, and approaching, by the change in volume I could tell it would be big, and soon. I chucked my pillow and sheet down the hatch, jumped in and sprinted around the boat shutting portlights, by the time I reached the front of the cabin where Kathy was just waking, she had been drenched by rain pouring into the boat. within minutes we had the boat watertight again, and Kathy was back asleep. I couldn’t sleep, I was expecting wind to arrive with the rain, and we were very close to the shore. Also this was my first time I had used the new Spade anchor in any kind of real test, so I was worried if we had a problem we could be blown onto the beach. I was also curious as to how this would play out, I ended up watching the rain and wind from the cockpit until 4AM when I fell asleep in the rain. By morning things had improved, but it was still wet and windy. At 9AM the wind started to pick up and was now from the East, so I decided we should leave as we were now on a lee shore, meaning we were being blown towards the beach and if the anchor gave we might have problems.
Just as we got the anchor up I noticed a few fishing boats racing directly towards us, I did wonder why, one of them almost hit us, the other close behind, and I was still bringing the anchor on board, they waved and smiled but I didn’t understand what they were saying, which was a shame. We waved and headed off. We had just cleared the island when I realised that they had all been heading to our spot to take shelter from one mother fecker of a squall that was hidden from us, but heading up from the other side of the island, and I had just motored right into it. This was at least as bad as any Force 8 I had been in, thankfully we had no sails up at this point. I managed to swing the bow around and head back to the anchorage, where I waited for 30 minutes to let the worst of it pass. After that we headed onto Penang, but more squalls came and went, we were in poor vis, rain and rough seas for the next 3 hours. At least the boat held up well. I got a headsail, the Staysail, up and that pushed us along at about 6 knots, The Radar helped me see more squalls, but the AIS is of limited use around here as many commercial ships don’t seem to use it.

As we approached Penang the squalls abated and the sea calmed, by the time we went through the old bridge it was turning into a lovely day, hard to reconcile the hot air, blinding sun with the soaking wet oilies and clothes scattered around the cockpit.

Just a word on AIS, if you are following us on AIS you need to be aware that AIS wasn’t designed for the internet, it’s really a ship to ship safety thing, so ships broadcast to each other beacon signals and it’s just like radar, but with more information like GPS Position, name, callsign, speed, course, and some physical boat details. Coast guards and harbour masters also use AIS to monitor shipping, and actually can generate fake AIS signals to simulate hazards for ships to be aware of.
We have the cheapo version AIS-B, which doesn’t give destination, or whether we are anchored/steaming etc.
Also the Internet sites like “Marine Traffic” and “vessel finder” don’t have many listening stations, if any. They rely on feeds from people who have setup AIS receivers and connected them to the internet, these are mostly hobbyists, or universities and consequently coverage can be scratchy. I think there are two different sources of AIS data for the internet in Penang, one of them can’t see me in Batu Uban, but the other can. There are sites like AISHub who merge data from various reporting sites / organisations and then syndicate it back to them
The main point here is that if you don’t see me on AIS then don’t be alarmed, it just means Im not in an area monitored by an AIS internet connected receiver (or possibly we have sunk, in which case you can be alarmed). I would expect when we hit the Pacific, you may not see another AIS signal from me again, other than the fake ones I can generate from my iPhone when I have a signal.

Tomorrow we go hunting for a berth with electricity and move the boat there, before we head off into town for Kathy to experience the joys of Penang.

Paul C.

 

Yes, up early before the heat/rain to get another coat of varnish on the port side. Im now at the bottom of the tin, and thanks to the couriers varnish detecting algorithms in their cargo handling equipment, I wont be getting a delivery anytime soon. I went to the local hardware store to find that the tin I bought a few months ago had not been replenished, and they didn’t plan to. Sometime I just don’t get how they do business here. It seems they stock the shelves randomly, and when it sells they restock with a new random selection. I did manage to get fuse holders and some LED bulbs, so back at the boat I rewired the fans with better cable and fuses in line.
The problem I had, as the surveyor pointed out, is that the previous owner had tacked lightweight cables supplying the fans into the heavy duty cabin lighting connections. Should a fault occur on the fan, like a short, the wire could catch fire before the heavy duty lighting circuit trip kicked in (or out to be precise). I have fitted fuses to two of the fans, two more to go.
Yesterday I re-routed the furling line for the genoa, this is the line you pull on to put the sail away, when I last tried it for real, it was so stiff I had to use a winch, I wasn’t sure at the time how much of this was down to my inexperience with such a huge sail, my weak shoulder, or a problem with the line. Anyway, I think it was a bit of all three, but the line now runs very free, and I have re worked the jerry cans at the side so the line doesn’t rub on them. Can’t wait to get out and try it for real.
We took a walk around Eagle Square later and Kathy took pictures of the God Eagle, I so would love to know what all the little eagles make of it.

Talking of which there where lots of Eagles and Monkeys out and about tonight.
We went into town to a street market, which was fun, lots of food vendors and the usual market stuff, but everyone seemed very happy and the overall mood here is one where everyone seems to be on prozac. Taxi drivers often burst into laughter telling us about life here.

I think tomorrow we have to make plans to get down to Penang before the arts festival there ends.

Paul C.

 

Up early, mostly due to the last of the jet-lag, and up out and varnishing. I now have it so I can get the whole of the port side varnished in under an hour.
Next up a trip downtown to show Kathy the shops, I was also able to drop off my old UK iPhone for repair. Kathy chose cutlery, crockery, sharp knives ( a bit worrying) and a plastic bread board, which was the best we could find here. I would hope a nice block of hardwood will come along at some point to replace it, after all we are in the middle of dense tropical rainforests!
From the shops we headed onto dinner at what is claimed to be one of Langkawi’s finest Indian eateries, the Hotel Malaysia, which is an altogether grander sounding name than the place appears. Still lovely food. I had a decent meal there with Tim last time we were here.

After that onto the supermarket for a big shop and taxi back to the boat. All in all a boring day, but last night I did manage to wire up a lot of my NMEA signals, so now my radar knows which way we are going and can give me compass bearings for targets, and the Navtex will only report data for the local area. I had planned to feed the NMEA into the iKommunicate system, until I remembered it’s not here, at the last minute I got scared it might be seized by customs and posted it ahead with some other bits. sadly that parcel never made it out of the UK as it has been rejected by the carrier and is being returned, at a snails pace, to my UK abode. Goodness know when I will be able to get that back here.

Paul C.

Up early today for a motor around the the island. Langkawi is made up of loads of smaller islands, and just to the SW of Kuah, where we are berthed is the large island of Dayang Bunting. This in itself has scores of smaller islands off it. So we left without event, a calm slightly dull day, but a light breeze to cool us. We went anticlockwise around the island as shown below.Kathy steered us out of Kuah and soon got the hang of it. Notice the freezer bag used to protect the iPad, our main chart plotter right now.

Later Kathy put together a lovely lunch while we lay at anchor on the new Spade Anchor.

We motored up the eastern side of the island, and this time I took the inshore route, the last time with Tim we stayed offshore for safety, I realised why when I noticed a few uncharted rocks had been marked on the chart ( I know this technically makes them charted, but as they were added by users of the charts, not the makers, one has to be careful assuming how accurate they are. Also if there is one uncharted rock, there might be more! ) As it turned out we missed them all and arrived back in the marina about 5pm.
My first attempt at berthing failed, I was just a little to far off the pontoon for Kathy to feel safe stepping ashore, so like a pro I reversed back out the slip, and had another go. This time I over compensated and almost parked the boat on the pontoon finger. All was well, and thanks to the fact these pontoons have nice plastic fender strips all along the edges no harm was done, we just slid along and Kathy stepped ashore and tied us off. I need to work on this, the problem is I just cant see the pontoon finger from the helm once I get close. As Mr Wilde might have said in these circumstances, either that spray hood goes or I do.

Just realised I didn’t explain the title, I lost the bucket overboard while getting water to flush the anchor chain down. The deck wash pump didn’t seem to work, but thinking about it now, I may have turned the seacock off for it (Duh). Anyway, we set about the bucket overboard drill and due to the fact the water was calm and warm, the bucket survived, it only took 3 attempts. I wouldn’t have fancied his chances back home though.

Paul C.

Had a nice lie in today before tackling the new AIS antenna, I had to route the antenna cable through the boat to the chart table. This is not as easy as it sounds, and involves clearing out the quarter berth and also the stern lockers, and quite a bit of crawling around in confined spaces. Thankfully the job is done, but I’m unable to check it works here as there are no AIS stations collecting the data and putting it onto the net. This won’t be a problem once we travel a bit. I can see enough of the other boats in the area to make me think all is fine.

The old anchor sits on the pontoon waiting for me to find a new home for it. I’m thinking of putting it in the bottom of the stern locker, keeping the weight low is best, however it’s hard work to get into that space, and when I next need the anchor, it will be in a storm situation and probably not the best time to be emptying out lockers and hauling a huge weight around. I hadn’t appreciated how big it was until I had to manhandle it.

We are still spending lots of time stowing stuff away, Kathy has been re-arranging the galley, I have been assigned lockers on the port side of the v-berth, I have two lockers in which to keep all my clothes for the next 4 years, so that’s the first locker sorted, not sure what to keep in the other one 😉

Last night we saw a gang of monkeys traversing along some overhead power cables, I was hoping Kathy would be impressed by seeing some monkeys here, I had no idea they had planned such a turnout to welcome her. I have a bit of video below.

So todays work stopped us getting out, hopefully tomorrow we can go for a motor/sail around the islands.

Paul C.