Survey Day

It’s a great spot here in the marina, no passing traffic, and furtherst from the shore. The only ugly bit is the concrete breakwater to our stern, but there’s loads of room to turn.

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View west from the rear of the boat

Today was survey day, John the surveyor actually had a job on the boat next to us, so he did us in the afternoon. Tim and I spent the morning cleaning up and making the boat a bit tidier. The survey went well, a few small items were marked as needing attention, but they will take me an hour to sort out or two to fix. John also provided a lot of useful tips I hadn’t known about, such as a possible way to get double the water out of our watermaker.

Later we had a lazy time around the swimming pool; well it is hard work watching a surveyor all afternoon. I was able to record four monkeys on the balcony above the pool.

Later we went to dinner at wonderland food store, which is well known in these parts as one of the best Chinese restaurants. The food was great, but my sea bass just didn’t seem at all  pleased with the setup.

something fishy

Tomorrow we are supposed to leave this marina and head off somewhere, but I have so much to organise, that we might stay another day.

I started this entry last night, but all that swimming and eating had me exhausted, so didn’t get around to it until now. Will start todays blogs later.

Lazy in Langkawi

Nice lazy day today, slept in till 9:30, Tim cooked eggs and toast for breakfast, then we went shopping at the chandlers and had a bit of a walk around. Chandelry isn’t great here, they only stock fast moving items, and stuff for local working boats. Still I got some signal halyard (small rope) which we needed after the courtesy flag halyard fell apart. We ended up in a supermarket / shopping mall and stocked up, diet coke for me, and tiger beer for Tim.

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Look at the nuts on that!

Always good fun looking at the local wares

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Lots of little fish
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Fish, too dry for me

After shopping, back to the boat for a salad lunch while we let the sun push west, then once it was cool enough I scooted up the mast and replaced the halyard. I took a few pictures while I was up there.

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The marina from aloft
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Tim below
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The shower block at RLYC

After a swim in the club pool, we headed into town for diner.
more pictures tomorrow

Paul  C

Langkawi at last

So we left the marina in Batu Uban on Penang at about midday on Saturday and headed south around Jerajak Island, then north and through the centre of the old bridge to the mainland. We had several options for the route, it wasn’t possible to complete the trip in one 12  hour stint of daylight passage, firstly because we didn’t think we could rely on any more than 5 knots for planning purposes, and also because we couldn’t time a 7:30 departure with slack water and not low water, which would put us aground. As it turned out we averaged over 6.5 knots for most of the journey, she is quite a fast boat, however I’m not sure I understand if the prop/gearing is right, as she wont go past 2200RPM in gear, but will happily rev past 3500 in neutral, this doesn’t seem right, but I need to read up on the engine and prop to understand better.
The first option was to motor to Georgetown, just 2 hours away, anchor overnight and pick up fuel there and dinghy ashore for dinner on the old Chinese jetties, the other option which we took was to plough on and do a 7 hour passage to Songsong island, anchor, have a swim and dinner there, overnight, then head of after breakfast. Pulau (Island) Songsong is forbidden for visitors, I think it might be a military place, but just looked like a lovely little forested island with a small beach. I think day trippers go out there, but it’s pretty much deserted overnight.

Pulau Songsong

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We don’t have a proper ladder
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Somethings got my leg
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better try and outswim it 😉

We had a swim, then Tim cooked up some dinner with the scraps of food we had on board, and had a relaxing evening. It was hot, no aircon, so I lay in bed sweating, but was so tired I passed out about midnight, woken about 3AM by someone screaming out on channel 16, nothing to do with us, but I think I turned the radio off, and went back to bed, did I say it was hot! While we had dinner, a couple of fishermen turned up and lay a net a few hundred meters long around the coast, quite close to us, just before I went to bed they returned, and I watched them haul in quite a few fish, they used headlights strapped to there heads, Im that has a proper name, the result was weird in the darkness, sometimes when the both looked in my direction it was like car headlights coming my way, other times there were two flashing cyclops doing a strange dance with occasional glimpses of a net with fish in it. Once they had hauled the net they then relaid it, even closer to our boat, I was a bit worried they may lay it over our anchor, but all turned out well.

dinner

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Leaving Songsong

The next morning we headed north west towards our destination of the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club,  where we will have a base for a few days. We chose to go through a group of islands on the way as it was quite direct. The main island is called Pulau Paya and is a nature reserve where anchoring is forbidden, but day tripper boats take people out. There’s lots of snorkelling there due to the very lear waters and lots of Coral.

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Pulau Paya

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hotel

 

Lots of fishing boats around all the time, much bigger ones as we got further north.

fishing boat

We arrived at the marina around 15:00, but the tidal flow was meant to be at it’s worst at that time, so we motored around the harbour taking in the views for an hour while we leisurely rigged the boat for the marina and tried to see how fast the tide was flowing. being in a marina being dragged one way by a 4 knot current can be quite trying. As it stands we are on Neap tides which are quite gentle, so we decided to pop our bow into the marina and see how it was. We were given a berth with lots of turning room and the whole operation went off very well, didn’t even get to use the bow thruster. The biggest problem was a lack of cleats on the pontoon.

All in all it was a good trip, however the winds were too light to do much sailing, we got the main up for a bit, but realised we dont have a kicking strap. I looked at our documentation for the dutchman gybe preventer, which shows it acting as a kicking strap, and assumed that needed to be set up, but it turns out we have a different model. So the kicking strap is missing, and whats worse I can’t see any attachment points on mast or boom.
The engine performed very well, very quite and quite fuel efficient. Much as I’m grateful to be here in the marina with the Aircon keeping us cool, I hate traveling with one on the coach roof strapped down, make me feel like I’m in an old RV, not a glorious yacht.
Radar and SSB worked well, as did the navtex, the Autopilot did most of the steering, and besides it overcompensating slighty, i.e, it was driving like it had a g&t too many, it was very simple to setup and use.
Realised we don’t have a ball and cone, legal requirements for motor sailing and being at anchor, I’m sure I can pick them up here.

More to follow, need to sleep now in the lovely cool bunk.

 

Paul C.

Last night in Penang (at least for a few weeks)

We put the mainsail up today, I wanted to check it was ok, water seems to collect in it, in the bag, but it was all ok.

We also lost the ugly tarp and put a sun bleached, weakened canopy up, looks better but may shred in the first gust.
Next we headed off into town for a lovely Indian lunch and a walk around some sights.

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Tim getting material for his blog

Tim2

We had a look at the jetties, trying to spot the fuel barge and a spot to anchor tomorrow night.
Jeti
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Lots of cats around the jetties.
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Cats2
Taxi back to the boat, and a shower on the pontoon, we have water restored to the marina now, then off to supertanker for some lovely Chinese food.
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In the morning we will check the tides, if I have things right, I think we can leave soon after low water and either anchor off georgetown, in the Junk anchorage, or motor direct to some islands a few hours further on. We will then anchor overnight and on Sunday push onto Langkawi

Paul C.

Tim’s first day on the boat

Got a taxi into town to collect Tim this morning and we came back to the boat, I also picked up some sikaflex, in particular a tube of 290 for the decks, I hate this stuff, but there are a few bits of planking in the cockpit need touching up.

Tim seemed suitably impressed with the boat. We walked down the coast to the Queensbay mall for some provisions, came back and started to make some plans, Tim had a nap while I investigated the self deflating dinghy, I think it may be a lost cause, air hissing out of several seams.
Later we popped out to the local Malaysian restaurant had a nice dinner.

So a not too busy day really.

Took a few pictures

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Buoys assembled on deck (arty pic)
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I know where to get a sewing machine fixed now
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A cat for Yaz

Paul C

Ready to go

Tim is here and the boats ready to go.

I fixed the last of the leaks this morning, it’s good for now, but will redo it when I have more time. Went to the shops and stocked up on drinking water and booze for Tim. I’m having the odd Shandy (1% alcohol) which is the closest I can get to non alcoholic beer.
Later I gave the boat a thorough tidy up, put all the tools away, now she’s looking finished. There’s still a stack of things to do, like sort out the water maker and the self steering, but these can be done at leisure from a nice spot somewhere else. We have everything we need now to get going.

So off to the airport to get Tim this evening, that all went well with the exception of our taxi driver getting pulled over for infringing some taxi rule. It seems he was able to pay an on the spot fine here, and there was no need for any paperwork, the local police can be very helpful at times.

So Tim and I went for some food in a local Chinese restaurant, fish noodle soup type thing. Very nice, then dropped Tim back at the hotel so he can get a decent nights sleep after a very long journey.

It was great to see Tim here, and I don’t know why I didn’t take any pictures of him arriving, I expect there will be plenty to follow.

Back at the marina, they have been loading up one of the Jabatan Laut ships with new buoys ready to be planted out there somewhere in Malaysian waters.

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Special mark buoys ?

Paul C.

More leaks but no water:-(

Woke to find a note that the water was being shut off in the marina because of a leak, but they had already shut it off by then. Im not sure why they did it this way, I think it had been leaking for ages, so a little bit more notice so we could all fill our water tanks would have helped. Still I have enough in the tanks for what I need, just can’t take showers on the pontoon, or hose the deck down, will have to resort to heaving buckets of sea water up.

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Our marina’s water supply

So on testing my repair from yesterday, I found it was still leaking water, not a lot, but any is too much. I realise now that I just didn’t do the repair very well, I was running low on sealant, and spread it to thin, I did apply a generous amount of optimism, but that didn’t seem to be water resistant, I need to strip it all down again, much harder because the sealant I used will make it very difficult to disassemble. The problem stems from the piece of wood that sits on the cap rail isn’t flat, and it has to deal with the curve of the coaming, so it needs a lot of sealant, far too much actually and it might be best to file and sand down the wood until it is a snugger fit. All of this is a big job, so I very reluctantly did a bit of a bodge repair, I need to wait until the morning to fully tighten up the parts and re-test, I’m hopeful this will work for a while, but it’s staying on my todo list.

I bought 20 litres of fuel for our trip at the weekend (22p / litre), just to have some emergency fuel on board, I have half a tank which should be enough, but we will refuel from a fuel barge on the way anyway.

I re-sprayed the Icom HF SSB case as it was very rusty from the leak dripping onto the case for the last year or more. It  looks quite smart now, but then it is black and kept in a dark corner with the lights low. Under these conditions, my paint jobs are just about acceptable. So the chart table area is looking great now.  We have MF/HF SSB, VHF Radio,  Radar and NAvTex, soon to be joined by iPad chart plotter and AIS Transponder which I have ordered direct from the Chinese manufacturer.

It the start of Ramadan here, which means lots of big bangs going off all night, not really sure how that works, but it’s keeping me alert.

Tim arrives tomorrow, so I have to get the boat back into a presentable form, and buy some supplies.

I took a walk and got some nice pics in the setting sun.

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A bit like the Petronas towers, Penang style

bridgePaul C.

 

Leaks sorted

At least I hope so. I was able to re-bed the second leaking prism in next to no time. Easier now I understood the way they are fitted, but also it was overcast most of the day, and consequently a lot cooler.
Next onto the final leak in the quarter berth, squirting the hose around the deck soon produced a dribble onto the shelf inside. So down with the headlinings (Ceiling panels) and it didn’t take long to find it was coming in from the double block behind the Genoa winch

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The leaking Culprit

What was sad, was that somebody had spent time trying to stop the leak, they had identified that it was the bolts on the block that were letting water in, and had covered the heads of the bolts with sealant, and when that didn’t work, they had put gunk on the inside of the boat on the end of the bolts, all this did was cause the water to build up inside the deck area and cause crevice corrosion on the leaking bolt. I had an idea that the problem might actually be the seal between the wooden backing base and the deck, so by gently pouring water along the cap rail/deck I was able to see it dribbling into the quarter berth. So off with the block, then off with the backing block, lots of clean up and then reverse, but doing it properly this time.

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The leaking base pad

The wooden base pad is back on, and tomorrow I will refit the double block (pulleys) then hopefully that’s the leaks sorted for a while.
That was about it for the day, I have a couple of days to finish off this job, and clean up the boat before Tim arrives. I’m expecting to spend a few days exploring Penang with Tim before we head off to Langkawi, that will be the first test of the boat since I bought her. I’m looking forward to it, however getting out of the marina will probably be the hardest part.

Paul C

 

Prism Day

Sunday, so a little lie in, then onto the leaks, I decided to do the port one first, as this was easy, and I could learn what not to do one this one before I tackle the important one, which had leaked all over the SSB, fortunately only damaging the case. So I first poured water over the prism on the deck to make sure I could see the leak, and sure enough water was dripping below, I had already covered the sofa ready for the work. Sometimes where the water drips out in the boat is nowhere near where it enters, so this was a good result. I removed the fittings below and above then found the prism was very easy to prise out with a sharp blade. The prisms are like free light bulbs, they take the sunlight and retransmit it around the inside of the boat, simple, but very effective.

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End on view of Prism
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Side view

The hole / recess in the deck was full of sealing compound of some kind, but it hadn’t set very well, and it hadn’t adhered to the glass, or to the fiberglass very well, hence the leak. there’s a ragged lip that the glass sits on, it’s not a very satisfactory arrangement at all, but if the sealant adheres, it should be watertight.

hole1

hole2
The ragged lip that the glass sits on must have been damaged in the past
gunk
The sealant had no strength or adhesion

cleanhole

So I cleaned it all up, and de-greased the surfaces and the glass with acetone, filled it all with sikaflex 291, and re-bedded the glass.

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Couldn’t find any masking tape, so had to compromise with paper and selotape.
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Finished, with cover plate, shot at night

I know that in the UK, this would be bullet proof, but I’m a bit worried that the Sikaflex might struggle to set with the high temperatures here. I will test it with the hose pipe in the morning, and if it works, at least it’s better than it was. It looks awful when you look closely, but when I checked the existing prisms around the boat, they are much worse. I think I can do a better job on the next one.

The last job of the day was to sand down the case of the SSB Radio, the leaking prism had caused rust to appear all over it, I hacked the rust off with a file in places, eventually I got a fairly smooth shiny case back. Tomorrow I plan to prime and spray the case black.  It’s only the case that saw any damage, the inside of the SSB looks like new, so it was worth a go to spruce its appearance up.
Then off to the Mall to buy some food for dinner, (Salmon, weird mushrooms, pepper, garlic, onion and spuds) and some tools, masking tape and black paint.

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Our Neighbours out fishing
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The local beach

I took the cycle path and noticed it was very busy with people down the beach, chilling or fishing, but mostly taking selfies. I am seriously concerned about the number of pictures being taken around the world 24/7, where can we keep them all, who is going to sort them, It’s a disaster waiting to happen.

beach2

Low water I guess. Was going to make a joke about Tsunamis, but this area was hit by the 2004 one, not badly, but I think lots of people where affected one way or another

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Found some veggie food for Kathy

More leak fixing tomorrow, a bit of painting, then I need to start tidying up and getting ready for Tim’s arrival. By the weekend we should be heading out to sea to do what this boat was designed for, can’t wait to try diving off the bow sprit while anchored in a quiet remote spot.

PS, theres a mosquito flying around the cabin, he looks a bit dazed, but I bet that wont stop him having his dinner 🙁

Paul C

Radar and Outboard sorted

It was overcast and quite cool when I stuck my head outside this morning about 9AM, so I thought, lets get that outboard sorted. I drained out the old fuel and put a pint of fresh stuff in. Then I decided to make a lifting strap and re-jig the block and tackle I was using to lower the engine down to the dinghy. I got it all wrong and ended up standing in the dinghy doing a juggling act with an outboard engine, while trying to hold onto the boat with my sometimes free hand. Fortunately no one else was around so dignity was maintained. I have sorted this now, and it’s a more impressive operation. Anyway, after a bit of flushing the old fuel through, the engine was running and I went for a little spin. All worked out well, but I feel the carb needs cleaning as it runs a little uneven, it feels like it might only be firing on three 😉

Next I retired below to work on the chart table electronics, and first off to fix the radar. Ron, had commented that he thought it was a high resistance, I was sure it was a fault on the earth side, as I think the earth was finding a route home via the LEDS elsewhere. Anyway, it was a high resistance on the earth wire in the switch panel, so ‘one all’ I think.
I actually love this kind of fault finding, as it is terrible logical, but can be quite complicated. Experience helps as well. So below is the Electrics switch panel, it looks mad, but is actually very well structured. Sadly, as new gear has been added the previous owners have connected to the switches, not to the connection blocks at the rear, I’m sorting this out as I go along.
panel

The main mistake somebody has made is on the negative common rail, as you can see below, in order to make several connections where there had been one before, they have made a post with a bolt through the busbar, a nut at the bottom clamps the post in place, then the connections are bolted down on top.

post

This seems like a good idea, but I spotted the problem straight away, the top nut was tight, but the bottom nut was no longer as tight as needed so all the earths (3 in total, 1 for the radar, and one of the others going to the nav lights) were joined together between the nuts, but making an intermittent connection to the bus bar, which was the true negative. So when this was not connecting the radar would try to find a negative path using the nav lights, so went up the mast, back down to the positive, where it stopped at the open switch, but had a route to the bus bar via the indicator lights on the panel. All was explained and removing one of the nuts was all that was needed to solve the problem. Radar now works fine.

I also moved the radar cables to a better spot at the back of the panel and tidied up a bit, I found this connection, not needed and rubbish anyway. I hate bad wiring.

earthSo I relocated the Navtex, which as I type I can see receiving ‘notice to mariners’ messages in the background. I love my Furuno Navtex, was gutted when the one on the baba failed. You can leave it on overnight and wake up to a complete weather forecast and any other navigational information that might be relevant in your area. Forget all that shipping forecast nonsense. Finally I wired up the Icom HF SSB radio, the mainstay of weather forecasting for offshore passages when we are beyond the range of cell phones, that’s working very well, but it’s a marine model, and I only have experience on Ham versions, so there’s some learning to do, but it sounds very lively, and I don’t hear any QRM (electrical noise) from the boat. I’m hoping to have a chat with Neil G4OAR at some point in the next few weeks, but with time differences and propagation vagaries, this might be difficult. We might have to use morse code, now that would be fun.

So at 01:30 AM, it’s definitely bedtime. Tomorrow I have to start fixing the leaks, I have 2 deck prisms to rebed, and something in the quarter berth area, which will requir me to take down all the headliners, oh what joy.

PS The baba in Spain, Lady Stardust, has had an offer made on it which I have accepted, much less than she is worth, but that’s boats for you.

Sorry to be so technical today, will try and get more pictures of the otters for tomorrow 😉

Paul C.