Author: paulcollister

Today started with more varnishing, I think it’s going to be difficult to do much varnishing here as the humidity and temperature are just too high.
Next we had to deal with the broken gas shut off valve. This is an electric solenoid that allows me to turn off the gas from the galley without having to pop outside to the gas locker. I had to strip it down and fix a broken wire then epoxy it back together, it now works. My problem is this boat has American systems everywhere, and the gas is all plumbed using USA fittings, which I can’t get here. I have a vague plan of taking the boat to Seattle one day and selling her there, so I would like to keep the American bits where possible. The two 5 US Gallon gas aluminium (or aluminum if your in America) tanks are especially great for cruising.
Anyway, my repair worked, and should last until replacement parts can be obtained from the states.

I took advantage of the fact that all the bits of the gas system had to come out of the gas locker to give it a good clean, this however made me realise how dirty the cockpit surround was so I then moved onto cleaning the fiberglass in the cockpit, this came up lovely and now needs to be polished to get a shiny gleam to it.

Finally with all the cleaning done it was off to town for some shopping and dinner. After dinner Tim took a cab back to the boat and I had a leisurely stroll home, taking the snaps below on my way.

It’s Tim’s last full day here tomorrow as he flies off on Monday, so I think we will go for a motor/sail around the Island.

 

Paul C

Today started with the early (8:30) arrival of Chris, the rigger. He scooted up the mast and took measurements of all the rigging, that’s the wires that hold up the mast. There’s a lot on this boat, I think 13 in all. they all need to be replaced to get insurance for the boat.

Tim worked out that we could get a ferry to Thailand and have a couple of hours there, it’s really not very far from us, 1 hour on a fast ferry and £6 each way. Also I could buy an electric sander there, as the shops are all shut here with it being a Friday. As the morning progressed we were getting more and more results coming in from the UK referendum, I was very very disappointed at how it was going. By lunchtime it was all  to clear.
It was a pleasant trip to Satun, I bought a sander and glasspaper,  I had to get some Tahi Baht from a cash machine, everything is now about 10% more expensive for me because of the leave vote, hopefully that will improve a bit.

After a couple of hours looking around the shops we got the ferry back. I think we probably spent more time queuing to get our passport stamped in Malaysia and Thailand than we did walking around the town there.

Once back at the boat we had a quick swim to cool down and met up with Touch from the marina in Penang, He drives a big 40m motor cruiser (Millionaire boat, as my kids would call it) for it’s owner and had motored to Langkawi for a couple of weeks.

We decided to cook on board, but the Gas solenoid that shuts off the gas had developed a fault and I couldn’t fix it in time for Tim’s preparation, so we fell back to a Plan B where we cook on the outside barbecue.

After a fast familiarisation course (learning how to turn it on) we were once again ‘cooking with gas’ and Tim rustled up a lovely Omelette containing all the veg we had left.

Tomorrow I might be able to sand down the rubbing strake ready for it’s first coat of varnish. Will need to buy some turps or white spirit first.

Paul C.

I started the day by removing the rubbing strake, a long steel bar on the side of the boat, used to protect the wood from collisions at the dock or alongside other boats. It was falling off, and I needed to fill the holes it was screwed into, before re-fixing it. There are four strakes, made up of 4 separate bars of half round steel. I thought I would do one now, and see how it went. I drilled out the soggy wood behind the strake, ready for filling with thickened epoxy later.

Tim had baked a lovely loaf which we had for lunch then we took a taxi up to the dinghy man’s workshop today to see how the repair was proceeding, and to drop off the rowlocks for him to glue on. It doesn’t look like we will get the dinghy back until next week, which is a pain.

After this we did a big shop and back to the boat where I mixed up some epoxy for the repairs, now I’m finding it difficult to get the epoxy to not exotherm, this is the epoxy heating up and going into an uncontrolled chemical reaction where it sets in seconds. I reduced the amount of hardener today to a 3:1 mix, and a few minutes later had a boiling hot tub of thickened epoxy, I didn’t even get a chance to use any of it. What a waste. Meanwhile Tim did a great job polishing the strakes, and I slapped some varnish on the bowsprit, three coats now, another three to go.
Once I had calmed down over the epoxy, I started again, this time with a 6:1 mix, this worked really well, I won’t be sure until tomorrow, but no exotherm, but the epoxy did start to harden after about 15 minutes, which was just long enough for me to get all the holes filled. Tomorrow I can test it and sand it down smooth. Oh how I wish I had bought an electric sander back in Penang.

Tonight we went looking for Veena, a Thai restaurant recomended by a taxi driver, but it was closing up as we arrived, around 8:30, all the Malaysian food outlets shut around 8, but I think that’s to do with Ramadan. We ended up in a Chinese seafood place and had a lovely Tom Yum soup, and prawns.

Looking forward to the Brexit result tomorrow, I’m expecting and hoping for at least 70% remain, fingers crossed.

Paul C.

 

We had hoped to go to the “hole in the wall” restaurant/cafe today, but to do that, we must motor for 4 hours to the north east of the island then take a dinghy ride to the venue. It’s up a river near mango groves. However our dinghy is away being repaired, and it’s taking longer than we hoped for. I have been phoning the guy for a while now and finally got through today to hear it will take a few more days to repair. Not good.

So instead we headed off in that direction but stopped a quarter of the way and anchored in a secluded bay and had a swim and some cheese butties for lunch. It was most pleasant.

A very successful berthing back at the marina, I had to get it right eventually, we had very strong currents when we left, but lighter coming back. It’s a spring tide, due to the full moon, and that causes big tides and currents.
Jobs completed today, include a third coat of varnish on the end of the bowsprit, which I’m not at all happy with, and a scrubbing of the waterline all around the hull.

Paul C.

So today I collected Isaacs parcel from the marina office when I checked us in, it was great to get the bits I needed. It cost £20 to get the stuff sent out, but I saved more than that on the spares Isaac sent.
I then headed off to the post office to collect the AIS which had arrived from China, this was the start of a small trauma, the post office told me to go to a different one out of town, which I felt was wrong, as the PO box was in that post office I was in. I phoned the other office and they said they didn’t have a parcel for me, but as they didn’t know who I was, I wasn’t sure we were communicating too well. The person who phoned me to tell me they had the parcel was incapable of explaining where they where to me, so I phoned around several post offices with no success. The online DHL tracking said it was at the airport, which I hoped not to be true, as that’s at the other end of the Island. To cut a long boring story short, and miss out the taxi ride where the driver got lost, I ended up picking the parcel up from DHL on the other side of town, then I walked back to the boat.

The weather has been overcast for a few days now and the temperature has dropped a lot, it’s very pleasant indeed, I may even need to move to a thicker t-shirt soon if this carries on!

On the walk back I spotted this little chappy and video’d him, he had a friend just behind him too. I wondered if one of these guys might try to get onto midnight at some point?

Then I walked through the park, past the rundown theme park, the pic below is the entrance, I would have gone in, but I was scared the caretaker might get me (old scooby doo reference)

Beyond the park is the Eagle we saw from the sea on our way in yesterday

It’s big enough. Once back at the boat, Tim showed me all the doors and drawers he had repaired with the springs Isaac sent out. they have latches powered by sponge, the sponge had failed with old age and the drawers no longer stayed shut when you closed them and tipped the boat over, as we found out in the big sea yesterday. Now they stay shut, just as Mr Perry (the boats designer) intended.
Tim helped me install the AIS transponder, and that’s up and running, albeit with a temporary aerial. So we are broadcasting our position, but you won’t see it on the internet, as nobody here seems to be feeding it into the net. Still we are now legal to pop into Thailand anytime we like.
The last job was to replace the leaking valve on the head with the new part Isaac sent, that was a quick job and went well. All in all Sister Midnight is a better boat today than yesterday.

A great dinner at wonderland, our favourite Chinese eatery here, finished off the days activities. Tomorrow we have to chase the dinghy repair man and find out what he is doing with our dinghy.

Paul C.

Up at nine today, we had to leave Rebak Marina, nice as it is, we had done Rebak and Chenang so off to pastures new. First though I went to the marina here in search of micro-balloons,  which I got, these are clever little things, when together they look like flour, but are great for thickening epoxy, without the need to drill through your finger.
After the chandlers we had a quick stroll around the yard where Tim found his next boat. 😉

So a quick exit from Rebak, and round the corner and up North to Telaga harbour where we could get fuel. Telaga harbour has a marina and a fuel jetty, the only marina with fuel in the whole of Malaysia apparently, anyway we bought about 300 Litres of diesel for £90, pretty good really.

It has been a very overcast day, and consequently the temperature is most pleasant. This image is of Telaga harbour/marina as seen from the far western side where Tim and I went to have lunch, of Tapas. I almost walked out in disgust at the outrageous prices they were charging. I’m not surprised the restaurant was empty. In the picture you can just make out Sister Midnight on the fuel dock to the right.

They have a yacht preserved here on display, much like the Gypsy Moth used to be in Greenwich, I believe the yacht was used by the first Malaysian to sail solo around the world.

After lunch we hit the waves, lumpy ones too, as we are exposed to the Malacca straits here and travelled back to Kuah and the Langkawi yacht club, I phoned up and asked for our old berth, which they were very happy to give us. This is the track of our trip back which took about 4 hours.

When we arrived back, we had a leisurely cruise amongst all the boats at anchor in the bay here, something I expect to be doing myself at some point as it’s free and an easy dinghy ride to the shore.
You can see the eagle in this picture, Langkawi means eagle, and I guess that’s why they made this one, however you just need to look upwards and there’s always eagles above you, big things too.

Heres one on top of the Grimsby boat

Once in our berth, which once again I messed up, thought I was too close to the finger, but was actually a metre away, and while trying to throw ropes ashore, didn’t realise I had left her in reverse. It was all done very slowly, so nothing hit anything, just looked bad, will get there in the end. Perhaps I need to practise patting my head while rubbing my tummy more.
My AIS has arrived at the post office, and the Parcel Isaac sent is also waiting at the yacht club, so tomorrow will be like christmas here.

Paul C.

Today I had my longest lie in yet, the temperature has dropped a little over the last few days so I think that helps. Also we had no deadlines to worry about today, there’s nothing here on the Island to do other than holiday stuff, so when I eventually rose, Tim and I had some toast and cheese for breakfast, then I got stuck into some maintenance jobs. First off was to plug the holes I had made in the cap rail for the brass rubbing streak. I made up some epoxy and drilled some teak to get some sawdust to thicken the epoxy. All went well except for the drill slipping into my finger. At this rate there wont be much of me left to sail around the world. Anyway, this time I managed to plug the holes without the epoxy going off.

The next job was to sand the bowsprit down. I only did the bit in front of the cranse Iron, thats the metal band at the front, I really just wanted to see how the teak would come up before getting stuck into the rest. Also I don’t have a power sander, so it was all done by hand, in a very hot sun. I got the teak looking ok, and applied a thinned out coat of varnish, which hadn’t dried many hours later. I am hoping this is to do with the humidity. With these sort of temperatures in Spain the varnish would be dry in a couple of hours.

So at 3 o’clock we got the fast boat over to the Chenang jeti. Chenang is a bit of a touristy destination, full of bars, restaurants and souvenir shops. Not my kind of place at all

We had a walk along the beach, then dinner at a fish restaurant, Tim had scallops and I had sea bass steamed in ginger, very tasty, and very fresh.

Then we jumped into a cab to get back to the jeti for the 7pm boat back to the island, it’s a very fast motor launch that screams along, too fast for me, like being on a jet ski. Before we boarded I took this picture of some local boats that moor near the jeti. I say jeti, but I mean jetty, of course.

As we arrived back at the island resort I snapped this picture of the boat from the launch, It’s great to finally not be the smallest boat in town, or to have an inferiority complex about the size of my mast. (Stop sniggering you people with warped minds)

 

Tomorrow we should be leaving, but we have no dinghy as I sent it away for repairs and we don’t know what is happening with it yet. Without the dinghy, we can only go to one of the two marinas we have already done in Langkawi as we have no way to get ashore. We will probably go to Telaga harbour and get fuel if nothing else.

 

Paul C.

Up early today to head off for Rebak, this is a luxury holiday resort set on a small island off the western side of the island of Langkawi, it’s all about islands around here. The island resort has a hotel, and lots of stand alone apartments in tasteful buildings around the island. It has a lovely pool, beach, bar and restaurant. The main thing is, it has a good Marina, I suspect it was added to give the resort some glitz, i.e. perhaps Roman Abromavitch might pop in on one of his yachts, instead it ends up being full of yachty hobos.

So at 11:00 Tim expertly reversed us out of our berth, well at least on the second attempt after I had removed the hidden bow line 🙁 and we made the short 3 hour trip around the corner of the island.

On the way I took this picture,

you can see a small mark, a buoy with flag. This is a fishing mark, it will have a rope and net attached to it, it might go vertically down to a lobster pot or some other kind of device, or it might go horizontally, holding a net to the boat in the distance. The net might be weighted down so it reaches the bottom of the sea, if its shallow enough, or it might be floating and drifting with the boat in the currents. It might also go off in any direction to another buoy we cant see, this is the norm. generally this is not a problem as the shape of our hull allows us to coast over the nets and ropes, but it’s always a worry we will get something wrapped around our prop, then we are in trouble.

Pushing on we arrived at the marina, we did a bit of practice manoeuvering before entering the winding river up to the pontoons.

Next after checking in we had a look around and Tim went off to watch the Rugby while I had a go at doing some repairs to the rubbing strake.

Unfortunately the epoxy resin I mixed up Exothermed, if that’s a word, i.e. it over reacted and went from liquid to red hot solid in about 3 seconds, I didn’t even get a chance to pull my mixing stick (actually Magnum ice cream stick) out of the mix before it set. This was most disappointing as I had just spent ages filing some old teak to get a handful of sawdust to mix in to the epoxy to use as a filler for some screw holes in the teak cap rail. I’m not sure why this happened, but I suspect the combination of a small mixing container and the very high temperatures here could have something to do with it. I might try again tomorrow.

So off to see how Wales or England are doing in the rugby, Seems England won, which was good. I watched a bit of archery on the way to the bar, not something I would have expected to see in Malaysia.

I also had a wander around the boatyard, it was pleasing to see most of the boats that were here in January had gone and new ones moved in. Nothing worse than boats rotting away, or just not getting attention in a yard.
This yard is so clean, I think we may haul here at some point when the antifould needs re-doing.

I left Tim to watch the end of the match and went down to the pool for a swim, It’s a tough life, but somebody’s got to do it.

Later I mentioned to Tim that people reading this might have to go to work every day

Had a very large buffet dinner, I checked that there was a good selection of veggie food for Kathy when she comes out here in August, I’m sure she will love it here.

Tomorrow is a rest day, none of this rushing around.

Paul C.

 

I had logistics to sort out yesterday (Thursday), so I spent a few hours writing emails, and researching costs. Tim took on the task of fixing the deck wash, this is a hose on the deck that can be used for various things when we are at sea, such as cleaning the mud off the deck and anchor, as well as getting a shower. It can run from the fresh water tanks or from sea water so there’s lots of valves and plumbing involved. Turning the first valve on caused it to break, so a shopping list was started. Tim dismantled all the plumbing and we checked the rest of the system and all looked good

Off down town to search for the bits, which we found in a great shop that sells lots of marine parts, very reasonably priced, but with bronze/brass/steel plumbing fittings, it’s always difficult to know what quality you are buying, so I went for the most expensive and fingers crossed it might last.
Off for a lovely Indian buffet then back to the boat to fit all the bits.
Tim finished off the work and now we have a deck wash.

A swim in the pool here finished the day, some Camembert on Tim’s home made bread, then a drink at Charlie’s bar while we watched poor Wales get beat by England.

Back at the boat, around midnight an almighty lightning storm kicked off, at times the lightening was so bright and sustained it was like daylight all around. All night it rained hard, yet the boat remained dry, except for the portlight in the head, which has a crack in the glass, and dripped a little.

This morning we woke up to rain and it has stayed wet and overcast all day, quite refreshing in a way.

We worked on the fuel and tank gauges, I am trying to understand how big the tanks are, how much fuel we use , and how that relates to the meters. We decided not to go to Rebak today, as they shut for Friday prayers at 3pm, and we would have had to rush to make it in the pouring rain.

 

 

Popped up to the marina office first thing today to extend our stay by another day, so much to do. I haven’t had a chance to relax and think about how to get all the tasks co-ordinated. The focus has been on getting the boat seaworthy, having Tim arriving on a set date, helped me get the work prioritised, then the trip to Langkawi ,so we would have  a pleasant base to cruise from. Also one of the reasons for being in Langkawi is that it’s a duty free island, I suppose a bit like the channel islands. I can buy equipment in the UK, have it shipped here without paying VAT at home, and paying no tax here. That means a 20% saving or more in some cases on boat equipment I need. I have a few ‘big ticket’ items to buy, like a liferaft, and quite a bit of electronic kit, plus lots of chandlery, that can add up, ropes, fenders, anchors, chain etc. It’s expensive shipping stuff here, so that has to be added into the calculation, also some states in the USA have problems with removing the sales tax for exports, I can also get good deals in Hong  Kong, China, Singapore and Australia, with lower shipping costs. If I am smart and get the best deal, I might save myself a few hundred pounds, so it’s worth the effort, but the research required is so boring.
Anyway, I have the survey done, and tomorrow I can post that off to my insurers and see what they will offer me in cover. I’m going to need to get the standing rigging replaced, it’s cheaper to do this in Thailand than here, but more hassle.
I contacted a local dinghy company called Swift, they manufacture dinghy’s and also repair them. They only work with hypalon, a tough kind of material, that looks like normal PVC, but is made quite differently. I don’t know much about it, but I’m pretty sure our leaking dinghy is PVC, and they thought so too, so will repair it, but without warranty. They are collecting the dinghy from the marina in the morning. They told me PVC just cant survive the weather here, makes me wonder if I need to be more thorough with the suncream, Im sure my skin isn’t as tough as PVC 😉

So while Tim popped off to get the laundry and some shopping, I got the boat ready for a day trip along the coast. Tim expertly reversed us out of the berth, and took us out of the marina, we travelled West / south west until we reached the sea, then south, circumnavigating Pulua Dayang Bunting. This large island south of the main island  of Langkawi, feels like it’s part of the main island, but it’s surrounded by lots of smaller islands, all densely covered in vegetation. We saw lots of eagles gracefully sweeping in large circles over them.

Our Route Today, about 5 hours, with a stop for a swim at point 5

 

Not far into this journey we diverted course to look at this old fashioned ship, I thought it looked interesting, however as we went round the stern I saw it was registered in Grimsby, which took some of the romance out of it. I tried to imagine there must be a grimsby in the Caribbean somewhere.

We saw lots of fish jumping out of the water in a frenzy trying to escape their attacker, so I felt I had to join in and got the fishing rod out, I didn’t see any reason to leave Langkawi off my long list of places I have fished in and caught nowt! So that went well, nothing caught and as we were approaching the end of our trip I hauled the line in. Now not having used a fishing rod on a boat before, I tried to look like the guys on the telly when they’re landing a giant tuna and I had the rod high in the air as I wound the line in, unfortunately high in the air meant right by the wind generator. Before I knew anything the wind generator had decided it could haul my line in quicker than me and the nylon line was rapidly wrapping itself around the shaft of the wind generator, so my rod was unravelling into the generator and the fish hook was rapidly approaching the boat heading to the same place. The line snapped off the rod, and the rest of the line jammed the rotor shaft on the the generator and it ground to a halt. this was all very similar to getting a floating bit of rope wrapped around the prop shaft. Bugger.
So I climbed up over the pushpit up to the generator and started to unravel the rope, I had to use some rope to tie the generator away from the wind, as its wind vane was pushing it towards me and at the wrong angle to unwind the line from its rotor axle.
Eventually with Tim tailing, I got all the line removed and recovered the fishing hook and spinner. all that was left to do now was untie the rope and let the windmill get back to making electricity. As I undid the rope, the windmill picked up the wind, start spinning and spun around, it could have been very dangerous, but fortunately, my head was handy to fit in between the rotor blades and stop the rotation dead. Bloody hell did that hurt, it “could have had my eye out”, luckily it just missed my eye and whacked me on the cheekbone, I was sure there was going to be a lot of damage and blood involved, but no, it will only be a bruise I expect. I won’t be doing that again.  That incident has pushed the bag snatch incident down to number two in my chart of bad happenings in Malaysia.

I took her back into the marina a few minutes later, as I’m still getting the feel for her, and did a great job berthing, but messed up at the last minute by jumping ashore to help Tim tie up just when a gust blew the bow down and out of reach before we had a bow line ashore. It was only a minor glitch, just disappointed that I didn’t think it through properly in advance.

Tonight we had rice and chicken in a very local Malaysian restaurant and with a few drinks the whole meal was less than £4 each.

Tomorrow we plan to head over to Rebak Island Marina if we can get everything sorted here.

 

Paul C.