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Last night we had a tremendous downpour with lightning & thunder, the noise on the roof of the hotel was deafening, I think this is what’s in store for a while now.

I moved onto the boat this morning, had a great taxi driver, I learnt a lot from him, included the best place for a certain type of fish head meal, although it might be a while before I try that.

The cutless bearing proved quite a match for the guys here, they spent all day working on it. I’m not sure where we are at, I didn’t pay too much attention because the bow thruster was more important. The wiring was completed and I had the yard fabricate a stainless bracket for the control joystick which is mounted on the pedestal, by the wheel. All is working, but the propellors aren’t fitted yet as they have to be anti-fouled, and we are a couple of days away from that. The main thing was the wiring was done so I could clean up the v-berth and get my bed sorted out. I must say, she scrubs up well, the V-Berth looks gorgeous now, the wood really glows and there is just so much stowage there.

It’s also great to have the mattress out of the main cabin however, it’s still a mess, but getting better.

I managed to get the galley surfaces looking good, and one of the galley lockers cleaned up great, so I have somewhere to stow my food. Tomorrow I will clean up the rest of the galley, while I wait for them to finish the gutless bearing. Cleaning is a bit drawn out because I can’t use the sink, in case water drains out over the paint jobs being done below.

I can’t get into the quarter berth as thats the main access point for the prop shaft and is full of workers tools right now, so it’s mattress still lives in the main cabin.

Outside, the barrier coat is being applied, both sides have had one coat and all the port side a second. The hull looks like a real boat now.

Finally I got the wifi working, but at a slow rate, I may hold off on the pictures until I get a better signal.

The boat is remarkably cool now, but I don’t know if the mossy who was here earlier has left, and if so, was it just to return later with his extended family!

So now the pictures have uploaded (10 minutes later), I can confirm I have at least one mosquito to keep me company tonight!

Paul C.

Tonight (Friday) is my last night in the hotel, and Im moving on board tomorrow. I’m doing this as it will force me to get real with the chores, it’s too easy to find excuses not to work in this heat, but now I really need to get stuck in.
I called into the supermarket and loaded up on basics today, I think the diet for the next few days may be omelette and stale bread, with some fruit. It’s so hot I may find I have hard boiled eggs by the time I open them.
When I arrived at the boat, I found it crawling with workers, two wiring up the bow thruster and two working on the prop shaft.

I’m having the gutless bearing replaced, there’s a bit of play in it, and although it wouldn’t worry me the surveyor pointed out that there won’t be a better time to change it, so off we went. I’m so glad they took it on, as I hate that business of crawling around behind the engine trying to release bolts that are as determined to stay in place as the Greenham Common CND protesters (note to self, work on your analogies Paul). It took them hours to release the last two bolts.
Now the prop shaft is out, the next job is to get the bearing out, A job I particularly hate, having done it twice on Stardust, perhaps they know a clever way.

While they were running cables for the Bow Thruster, one of the guys pointed out a very flattened, dead cockroach near the V-Berth, I was wondering when I was going to have to deal with them, only ever had one on Stardust, and he quietly wandered into a roach hotel and that was ‘job done’. Hope I’m as lucky this time. there is a suspicion amongst cruisers that they lay eggs in corrugated cardboard, inside the tubes, and the workers at the yard have brought lots of cardboard onboard to protect the wood surfaces, perhaps it’s true.

I sat on the foredeck for a while enjoying the breeze and making lists wile they all busied themselves below.

I took a picture of a bungee cord strap I bought new in January, after just 3 months, it’s destroyed.

Later when everyone had left, I started cleaning the v-berth, where I will sleep from now on, it took ages to get all the fibreglass dust out, however on the plus side, I found two new big lockers, with two big sails in them. I didn’t have room to get them out, so I have no idea what they are, but they looked in very good condition, almost new! so every cloud…
I also found a hat, at least I think it’s a hat, but it could be one of those things for keeping the bread warm

So the bow thruster is almost complete, the wiring should finish tomorrow, a lot of the staff leave for prayers on Friday, so it’s a short day. Being a muslim country, I also get a lovely wake up call every morning, about 5AM I think.

May not have internet from the boat yard, or if I do it will be 3g data so updates will be brief I expect, I plan to install the Ubiquity wifi antenna tomorrow, so who knows.

Thanks for reading,

Paul

Back to Sister Midnight

Tuesday morning I headed off to Manchester airport on the train from Liverpool, for the start of the long trek to Malaysia. I dumped my car at the garage/breakers yard on the way, the £200 I got for the old banger will cover the cost of a hire car for the few weeks that I will be back in the UK this year. Also the annual bill for road tax/MOT/insurance and servicing due in November, will more than cover the costs for 2017, as I believe we will start our trip around this globe in earnest as soon as we get christmas out of the way.
The trip to Penang, via Istanbul and Kuala Lumpa was very smooth. It was great to see Jodrell Bank Observatory gleaming out from the plains of Cheshire as we rose up from Manchester. Jodrell Bank has played a major role in space exploration and discovery and was always a place I was captivated by from childhood, shame that when I took my kids, the ice cream shop was the only thing that excited them.

Erik, my trusty Finnish friend who has been keeping an eye on the boat kindly met me at the airport and drove me to my hotel, which looks grand, but is really quite basic. All of the hotels are booked up, something to do with the Chinese holiday season just starting, which confuses me, as it seems we only just had the new year.
The hotel is situated right in the heart of the touristy bit, Im surrounded by loads of foreigners from Europe, they’re the worst kind. I don’t count myself as one of course. However the area has a lot of attractive ladies calling me over from darkened doorways, promising me a good time, Erik tells me I might be in for a shock if I follow them, as some of them may not be all they’re dressed up to be….

So up early Thursday morning and off to the boat, some trepidation as I heard they had messed up on the epoxy application over the repairs. The epoxy had bubbled, and was not going to be acceptable to me.
On arrival, I found they had sanded the epoxy right back and re-applied the epoxy, this time with more care, and had achieved a good result.
On the picture above you can see all of the fiberglass repairs where there had been blisters, and the shiny epoxy coating over it.

Below there is a picture of the other side where the epoxy has been lightly sanded back to give a key for the two coats of barrier epoxy which will be applied next

The bow thruster is fitted, but not wired in yet, this picture doesn’t do it justice, but it looks very smooth in real life.

Inside is a disaster, looking aft to the galley …  Mess

Looking across at the main cabin table… Mess

and more mess heading to the V Berth

I managed to get some mains wired up in an ad-hoc sort of way, I have a problem using the boats supply right now, but I have the air-con running and the battery charger, so I can keep the fridge running cold, and that’s enough to be getting on with. Priorities for tomorrow are to complete the bow thruster wiring, so I can get the mattresses off the main table and into the v-berth and make a bed there. As soon as the sanding is finished, I’m going to get the sails bagged and stowed away on deck. Once I have the wiring issue solved, I can get the quarter berth back into use, and then I will have some decent space to work in. Aiming to do all this by Saturday when I move onboard.

From Saturday, this will be my main home for the next 4 years, at least.
So in the spirit of getting down and out in Penang, I skipped the taxi and took the bus back to the hotel, 50p versus £10 for the taxi, and much more fun!!

I will try to update as often as I have wifi access

Paul C

Well after much deliberation, and derision from my friends, I have decided to rename Wanderlust as ‘Sister Midnight’.

Sister Midnight is the name of a song from Iggy Pop’s Album ‘The Idiot’. The song was co-written with David Bowie, who also gave me the name ‘Lady Stardust’ for my last Baba, so I have some continuity. Youtube Link

I have been a big fan of Iggy Pop since I was a young teenager, and found an album of his in my older brother’s record collection, alongside Bowie, The Velvets, Eno and a whole eclectic selection of music. For the early seventies, my brother was way ahead of the pack, for which I will always be grateful.

Another nice touch is the main line in the song is “Calling Sister Midnight…” which I may well here the coastguard or another ship say at some point, and even if I’m boarding my deflating liferaft at that point, it will still bring a smile to my face.

I’m planning to return to Midnight on the 3rd May and launch shortly afterwards, when the blog will continue.

Thanks for reading

 

Paul C.

 

 

I guess you worked that out, as you’re here.
I’m back in the UK now, the boat is being worked on in Penang, and Erik is keeping an eye on it for me.
Can’t work out what to do with the boats name, I was going to get svwanderlust.com as a Website name, but it’s already taken, by another yachtie blogger, so I went for paulsbaba.com until I get a real name for this boat. My problem is to change the name, I need to update the registration, which involves a change of owner, which might be difficult as it’s a US registered vessel and I’m not an American. I could make it a EU registered vessel, but then I get hit with 21% VAT or more when I enter Europe, and as the boat is passing through Europe and may end up being sold outside of Europe, that tax would be wasted. Not to mention the hassles of getting RCD in Europe (A boat safety certificate, generally only provided for newer boats by their makers). I’m looking into Malaysian registration, at least until I leave the EU’s waters.
The boat is getting the hull fixed up, a bow thruster fitted and the topsides tarted up. The rest of the jobs will be done when I return in April/May and move the boat North to Langkawi.

I’m back on Penang island now, after a lovely day on Langkawi. Yesterday I checked out the luxury marina on Rebak island, and today I travelled to the north west of the island to check out Telaga harbour and met up with some resident marine professionals, a surveyor and a rigger. Telaga harbour was basic, but enough for my needs, perhaps a little isolated, but a lovely beach and anchorage

Before I left Telaga, I managed to get a swim in the sea, very nice too, probably the hottest water I ever swam in.

After a long taxi ride back to the main ferry port, I visited the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club (RYLC), which is adjacent, and does suffer a little from the ferry wash.

The yacht club is nearing the end of a complete refurbishment, and is looking good, I had been told it was a difficult place to enter, as it’s tidal, but it looked like a doddle to me, perhaps my experience on the river Mersey & Dee has toughened me up a bit, but I couldn’t see an issue, wide berths, long fingers and plenty of turning room. I would probably wait for slack water for my first attempt though.

Looking around the marina, I spotted a few more Perry designed boats, Is there a big Perry magnet under Malaysia that draws the boats here and keeps them here, This boat below, which looks like a Baba 40, similar to Wanderlust, has more teak on it than any Baba I have seen before, a quick google tells me this is a baba 40 from 1980, so quite an early one.

So out of the three marinas, Rebak was the prettiest, and most relaxing and chilled, Telaga was good, but full for the foreseeable future and RLYC, which seems just fine.

The ferry ride back was fun, I got a window seat on the top deck and got a great view of the islands along the way

Im spending tomorrow putting the boat to bed, as much as I can, then going straight from the boatyard to the airport and flying home, I’m going to have to shower and change with a hose pipe under the boat, before heading to my flight, not exactly how I would have liked things to be, but I’m sure it will be fine. More worried about keeping the boat fresh for the very hot months ahead.

I don’t expect to post again until my next trip back here in April, when hopefully the hull will be looking like new, with a bow thruster fitted.

In the meantime, enjoy a bit more Malay simplified English, from the ferry terminal.

Today I set off at 06:30 in search of a home for Wanderlust, at least until Jan 2017, when I plan to sail her back to Barcelona. The early start was needed to get across the main area, Georgetown, before the jams started. The fast ferry sped at 25knots for nearly 3 hours north, before arriving at the Island of Langkawi (lang as in language, and Kawi, as in to be a bit like a cow, cow-ee) .

I checked out the main chandlery in the ferry port, not much in stock, not even rope, he just orders it in when you need it, so no fun there. then off to the hotel to check in. I picked one near a beach, just in case I got the chance to have a swim, which I didn’t.

From The hotel I took a short cab ride to the jetty, for the private motor launch that takes you out to Rebak Island, now this is a select 5 start private resort, on its own tropical paradise island, complete with rain forest, monkeys, coconuts, the lot. You can only go there if you’re a paying guest, or if you keep your boat in the marina there.  It’s actually cheaper to keep a boat there than in Liverpool, or even the cheaper marinas in Spain, plus you get to enjoy the 5* facilities of the resort. So it’s definitely a contender.

The Island is lovely, very relaxing

The marina looks perfect.

The best bit about the Marina, is that there’s about 6 Bob Perry designed boats here, 7 if I bring Wanderlust.

Back in my hotel chalet you can see how English works so much better if you simplify it

Im running out of battery and didn’t bring the charger, so the rest will have to wait, below is tonights sunset over Rebak island

Had a bad night again, so took it easy today, Eric came over, we strolled along the local shops, more like roadside shacks looking for some rope to tie my new tarps down with, could only find very basic cheap polyprop stuff, but I expect it will last till April when I get back. Zainol, my taxi driver who offered to be my driver for a week, if I paid him up front, a discounted price, took us down to the boat. The discounted price is actually about 30% more than I was paying him, but it’s all peanuts anyway, and he he practically destroyed his car getting me through the building site twice a day.

The really rough road we used to travel along has been replaced overnight with an adjacent road they carved out of the hill. the old road now has a crane some several hundred metres long, in sections, lying on it, waiting to be hoisted into place. They really don’t waste time in construction. Zainol tells me the Bangladeshi workers got 80 MYR a day, about £13, which he thinks is way too much for an unskilled person. I think the boatyard workers get less, perhaps you can see why I’m getting the work done here, rather than pay artisan prices back in Barcelona.

This is the works canteen in the yard, pretty basic, but Erik tells me the food is really nice, I buy him lunch each time he comes over to help me, usually comes to just under £2 with lots of ice tea and coffee.

And this is one of the canteen cats

I managed to get all the sails down and stowed below deck, so they wont rot in the sun, but may get destroyed by mildew. Saturday will be all about wrapping the boat up so it has ventilation and is dry.

Tonight I’m having dinner with Erik and Chang, the Chinese man, in Georgetown, they have promised to take me to a top notch eatery, then up at 6:30 am to get the ferry to the next island north, Langkawi, where I will probably keep the boat for the rest of the year, when the hull is done. I can get the rigging work done there. They have chandleries, surveyors, beaches and all the things I need, that aren’t available in Penang.

 

 

Yes, if that’s not magic, I don’t know what is. I haven’t connected the boat to shore power yet, so I’m charging the batteries from the solar panels, and I’ve have had the fridge on 24/7, and it’s now icing up inside the ice box, and that’s on its lowest setting. Just brilliant. I have read how refrigeration works, but I still can’t get my head around it. As a little boy, I had the job to lie on the floor and look under my nan’s gas fridge to see if the pilot light was still burning, still think that’s weird.

Had a long hard day on the boat today, I took the main and two headsails down and stowed them away, they were only going to continue rotting. The mainsail was in a stack-pak cover, which although the cover was starting to rot, the sail looked like new, in fact it’s not that old. The two headsails are not that good, baggy, very dirty and the sacrificial strips are toast. But sails get old, so I’m happy to buy new ones, and I’m in one of the best parts of the world to source new sails.  The largest sail loft in the world is just up the coast in Phuket.

Getting down the headsails was a little hairy; as a rule you shouldn’t have any sail up when on the hard in a cradle, just in case a blow of wind comes along, it might topple the boat. It’s worse with a furled up headsail, as you have to let the whole sail out, then drop it quickly. I went with the staysail first as this is the smaller, and it jammed, took a few tugs and eventually it came down. I took more time with the genoa, which is pretty big, and would easily pull the boat over. It took an hour before I had the rhythm of the wind gusts and subsequent calms sorted, then I went for it, I think I got the sail down in less than 3 seconds. I then looked over to see the face of the crane operator, he understood exactly the risk I took, and was grinning at me.

The grinding continues, what a job, I do feel for the guy doing it, he sits there all day with a 6″ grinder, you can see the fan that blows air on him. I expect he will finish all of one side this week.

I have seen some of the work the yard has done on other boats here and it’s of a good quality.

Erik came over today to recover his dinghy, he had brought it with us on the trip down, just in case. He decided it best to motor it back to his boat, about 5NM, however his outboard was playing up, I gave him water and fizzy drinks, and some rope for his anchor. After a first failed attempt, he set off and made it faster than wanderlust did on the trip down.

Today was very exciting, the owners of the boat next to me started to kick off with the yard workers, they were very aggressive, at one point he threw his tea pot at his cabin, before screaming at a yard worker who was antifouling another boat, he then stormed off in a big huff. No sooner had he left the yard, than 4 workers came down, put his fishing boat in slings and launched him, it looked like they were getting shut, or he had said get me out, because the work wasn’t finished on his boat, the rudder was half way through being welded, as his boat was released from the slings, with no one on board, two more big blue fishing boats came screaming over, and the fire brigade arrived. The angry skipper appeared out of nowhere, ran along the quay, jumped onto his boat and reversed out. screaming at everyone and being pursued by an office worker with a clipboard, presumably the bill!
I could sort of piece it together, except were did the fire brigade fit in? Looking out to the two other big fishing boats, I noticed one was squirting a big fountain of water over the side, just like the fire boats do when the QE2 visits liverpool, strange I thought, but then when she was pushed into the slings by the other fishing boat, I could tell she was sinking and that was an emergency pump, provided by the fire brigade doing the fountain display. She was then hauled up and the water was squirting out through planks on the port bow.

Later when they moved the boat to go in the space just vacated by Mr Angry, I suspect the weight of water inside must have sprung a plank, as it started pouring out on the starboard side, took over 30 mins to drain out, must have been a bit scary out at sea at the time. The words ‘bucket’ and ‘rust’ spring to mind when looking at these boats,

The boat’s prop was also badly fouled, I wondered if this could have been related

Tomorrow is my last day working on the boat, Thursday & Friday are going to be spent in Langkawi looking for marinas and chandleries for my next visit here. Saturday will be spent summer-ising the boat, I need to find a way to keep it from going mouldy in the humid heat that’s here.

Finally a trip to the supermarket presented me with another reminder that Chinese New Year is nearly here, Plus I have learnt to recognise the Chinese equivalent of Jingle bells, being played ceaselessly in the shops, and it’s just as annoying.

Still dinner of chicken fried rice in the local restaurant came to 90p and was very nice. I went over the top and for another pound had two glasses of fresh orange. What’s not to like !!