Mixed day (muggy, mugging and very wet)

Up early to make the most of the cool weather and I started by researching the engine wiring diagrams to understand how the panel works. After an hour all the power went down on the boat, at first I assumed my previous days work had caused a problem, but no, the whole marina was off. A trip up to the office found some guys working on the power, back in an hour they assured me. It actually took about 6 hours. All my neighbours headed off to the mall for shopping and lunch, I thought I would plow on and now would be a good time to get the boats internal Air Con working, at the same time I could find out what the problem with the hot water in the galley was as both these systems run their piping in the same under floor area. Well I was gutted to find the Aircon was 110V, I had for some reason assumed it was 12V, I mean why have 110V, in retrospect, I just made yet another bad assumption. Had I checked this earlier in the week, I would have gone with Dermot’s suggestion about keeping the boat 110V, and I would have wired in a second 240v outlet for the domestic stuff I need, however this does need some fancy switches I don’t have, and don’t know where to get right now. Also the Aircon may be faulty, so I will hot wire that onto the water heater to find out whats going on.  Then If it can be made to work, I will probably change the boat back to 110V, theres no rush or panic, I have everything I need as far as shore power supply goes.

No hot water to the galley turned out to be simple, the mixer tap is broken. So basically I need to replace it, this might have to come out from the UK.

Next the engine instrument panel, I worked out how it all works, traced some wires through, found some dodgey connections, now I have the engine stop working again, along with the temperature. The warning lights are playing up still, also the key-switch is beyond repair, it works, but has to be jiggled a bit. The reason none of the four panel lights come on, is that they are all blown! So I will pick up new bits when I can.

By now it was mid afternoon and very hot, it’s too hot to stand on anything that’s been in the sun, decks or pontoons. So a tidy up and shower then off to Tescos and the mall for some provisions.

I planned to have a Spanish dinner tonight, Tuna and Patatas Bravas, so I bought two bottles of tomato sauce , one spicy and one plain, hoping to mix them to get the right level of bravas.
It’s interesting to see the various types of veg on sale here.

I have no idea what these might be, aliens?

Lots of the malls have little stalls selling all kinds of nonsense, from time share to anti-death creams as shown below.

I got everything I needed included some electrical bits to finish off the wiring job, and off I headed home, this is where my day took a bad turn. I walked back along a unlit path that runs between the main 3 lane highway coastal road and the sea, it’s quite dark and a little uncomfortable for a long stretch, as I was in the middle of this dark bit I noticed 3 or 4 motorbikes slow down on the hard shoulder of the highway adjacent to me, one of the guys rushed down and jumped in front of me saying something I didn’t understand, I said good evening, but whatever he wanted I wasn’t interested, brushed passed him and quickened my pace. This seemed to confuse him, and me, if he was going to mug me, I would have expected a little more agression please. a few minutes later I noticed one of the other bikers had come down from the road ahead of me, and was approaching me. Now I felt rather uneasy, as he approached he shouted at me, then he took off his crash helmet and ran at me swinging it over his head and down towards mine, so in good Scouse style I did a bit of ducking and weaving, all the time thinking, I might be about to blackout any second if that thing hits me, but amazingly he missed, his helmet hit into my shopping bag, and split it open, sending the contents all over the path.  A this point I must point out that my experience of Malaysia so far has not been good in the recycled green bags, this is the second one that has ripped within a few days. I think the Spanish bags are the best, I have one that’s a few years old and still going strong. The UK ones seem to come in various strengths, but they all would probably have survived this attack better. Anyway, I heard the tomato sauce bottle smash and I was now very angry, I turned to the guy and shouted some rather rude words at him, at this point I noticed his mates where quite close, so decided my best option, as they were all on the path side of me was to run up to the highway and raise an alarm, also I didn’t think they would try anything in front of the oncoming traffic. I did this, and they didn’t follow, I tried to flag down some help on the highway, but to be fair who’s going to stop for a mad Englishman waving at them on a motorway. I noticed the muggers were getting on their bikes, and driving onto the highway, right past me, so I ran out and pretended to be running at the bike, this was mostly to show him how angry I was, I wasn’t actually going to push him over, that might have been messy for all involved, especially with all the speeding traffic, so I just ran at him and stopped short. I walked back to my shopping expecting them to have taken some of the nicer bits, but I don’t think they can like tuna, or potatoes much. In fact they didn’t take anything, and I was pleased to find I had a shopping back inside the big bag that ripped, so I repacked everything and headed off home.
Now here’s the best bit, when I got back I found my clothes covered in Tomato sauce, I must have looked quite a sight running around the highway covered in what must have looked like blood, quite funny really. But because I had wired up the hot water system yesterday, I was able to give all my clothes a good soaking in hot soapy water, I’m looking forward to seeing how that turns out in the morning when the sun dries them.
I won’t be doing any more walks down dark paths on my own anymore, it’s such a shame,  on the rest of the walk I met many kids on motor bikes / mopeds, just chilling at the side of the road, most waved and said hello to me, but now I’m just a little wary. All in all I have to say 2 out of 10 for effort on the part of the muggers, also never underestimate how scary a big Liverpudlian screaming obscenities at you (in a scouse accent) can be.

This all ended up making me rush the tuna and potatoes so much I forgot to try and make a Bravas sauce for the potatoes, maybe tomorrow. I also think a couple of the eggs I bought smashed. Still I have enough for a nice Sunday breakfast.

Not long after I hung out the clothes to dry, we had an almighty downpour. I used this to check for deck leaks and found two, both on the deck prisms, these are wedges of glass that go from the top of the deck and extend into the boat. They are a great invention, and I need to reseal them, the drips are slight, but will get worse. Next week when I get to the chandlers I can buy the necessary gunk to seal them.

Looking forward to a nice lie in tomorrow.

Paul C.