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Anchored 06°41'48" N 099°38'32"E

After eight months we are once again back in Thai waters as we head north from Langkawi, Malaysia to Phuket, Thailand. We arrived in Bass Harbour the town of Kuah on Langkawi island on the 4th of December. I made a couple of attempts to update the blog but we seemed to have an extremely slow internet connection. Just before leaving we found the solution but I guess you'll just have to wait for any photos.

Our time anchored off Kuah was busy! There were several last minute jobs for me to finish before heading off again. The main one to install the new membranes in the water maker and get it running once again. We are very tired of schlepping water. After several days of the water maker unit on the saloon table it was finally finished and making fresh water once again.

Now with room in the saloon, Kathy was ready to get to her sewing projects. We had brought new material for lots of the canvas and also new slip covers for the interior cushions. Hey, the machine seems to be stuck on zig-zag! Next thing we knew on trying to loosen a screw a piece broke. So no sewing. We called the machine distributor and they were able to help some, the part got ordered, a video emailed concerning the repair and more sewing supplies ordered. Our friend Connie is coming to visit just after Christmas so she will once again be the "pack mule" bringing us necessary things.

In Langkawi we did manage to finish most of the other small jobs. We restocked with wine and beer and chocolate at the duty free shops. Filled our fuel tanks and then yesterday checked out of Malaysia. We then moved to another anchorage to make today's trip a bit shorter.

Today, Friday, the 16th we got underway at 0730 toward our intended destination of Koh Tarutao. We had stayed there on our way last year. It was a mixed bag of traveling today as the wind was changeable from 5kts. to 25kts. We did some sailing and as always around here some motor sailing. Once again we found another rip in our old and tired main sail. We're quite happy that soon we will have a new main. After our arrival in the anchorage I once again managed to make repairs.

A nice thing about this spot as it's part of a national park they have several mooring buoys. Another boat arrived just ahead of us and picked up one and we did the same. Looking at the mooring line all appeared fine. It was 1 1/4" poly line passed through the buoy with a nice eye spliced in the end. We were secure. As is our habit I set the anchor alarm and we did a bit of clean up after the passage. Kathy was reading and I napping when she said we're adrift just as the anchor alarm sounded. The mooring line had parted just where it passed through the bottom of the buoy. This all happening at 3 in the afternoon was lots nicer than 3 am. We started "Miss Perky" moved off a bit and are now anchored. In the past I usually dive in and look at the quality of the mooring hardware, I did not today but will go back to that practice.

We'll be off again tomorrow. We hope to arrive in Ao Chalong, Phuket for our check in to the country on the 20th.

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REST DAYS

TURTLE ROCK ANCHORAGE, PANGKOR ISLAND

We sit right under the small box mid screen where the notation is E 100° 33' 04. No we're not in the picture but that is our location. See now Mel you won't even have to cut and paste.

°°We arrived here on Sunday the 27 th and will depart tomorrow morning for Penang Island approximately 70 miles to the northwest. After traveling six days in a row,it has been a nice break!

Sunday afternoon we launched our dinghy and provided transportation to Mark and Heather, of "Ajax" who have been traveling with us, to go to shore for a dinner out. It was Heather's birthday. After six days moving it was nice to stop and go to shore.

It was so relaxing we decided to make it a two day layover. Monday after a few early boat jobs it was off to shore to visit Pangkor town on the other side of the island. Taxi fare for the four of us for the short three mile trip was 10RM or about $3.30 US. Pangkor town has lots of small tourist shops along with local style markets for fruits and veggies. The girls were able to find some fresh produce and the guys located some "boat" stuff at some of the small hardware stores. Mark found hose clamps that he had paid $18 NZ for $15 RM,a saving of about $10 US. Are you confused yet? Lunch was at a local spot and then a taxi back to where we had left our dinghy.  Since the water here is quite nice, 85° and fairly clear, ten foot of visibility, we had a nice float in the afternoon.

Today, the 29 th, we have been busy catching up on lots of little ongoing boat jobs. Kathy did the "big" one of scrubbing the water line. We are now rid of the green slime and mud that had accumulated over the seven months in Danga Bay.

Tomorrow, we're off at 0445 for the seventy mile trip to Penang island. We'll also spend a couple of days there to secure our long term visa for Thailand. It will then be off to our last stop in Malaysia, Langkawi.

THE MIDDLE OF ????

ANCHORED 03°38.173'N 100°58.169'E

Another travel day making about 45 miles. We are anchored in a bay off a fishing village at the above location. Those of you with google earth can enter those coordinates to see exactly where.

Last night after I had updated things we had several hours of very heavy rain with lots of accompanying thunder and lightening. The bonus was we were able to fill our water tanks along with a couple of gallons put into jugs for drinking water.

Another 0645 departure with this location as our hoped for stop. On arrival it looked OK, so down went the anchor. It was a strict motor today with no wind. No big ship traffic today but lots of fishing boats. The fishermen continue to go buy either on their way in or out. They always come very close to wave and smile. Some pull out their cell phone and take our photo.

S/V Ajax who have been traveling with us had a mechanical difficulty today, a leaking seal on their engines raw water pump, so they were happy it was our normal 45+/- mile day. We too had a problem. Another tear in our ancient main sail. We're staring to think there is more sticky back repair material on the sail than sail cloth. The good news is we are in the process of ordering a new one. Hopefully this one will last a few more months.

Tomorrow is another day with the same general plan. Our intended anchorage is Turtle Rock at the south end of Pangkor Island. Depending on arrival time we hope to launch dink and go a Chinese restaurant ashore that we have visited before. Kathy is ready for a night off from cooking.

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DAY FOUR

 PORT KLANG 02° 59' 30" N  101° 19' 40"

Today was our fourth underway covering about 40 miles from our anchorage last night near a power plant just north of Port Dickson. Tonight we are anchored across from the cruise ship terminal in the middle of a very busy industrial port.

Once again today was a motor, though yesterday we did have some nice wind on the beam and actually got to sail a bit.

Arriving here in Port Klang was thrilling as you need to dodge the shipping traffic moving around. We were fortunate and had a favorable current and at times were making 9 knots  while under power. This is an anchorage we have not used before but it seems OK.

Tomorrow we exit the north channel of Port  Klang and our plan is to make about 45 miles and find an anchorage spot. It's about 85 miles to Pangkor Island and an anchorage we are familiar with, that's just to far for one day. We have been told it's possible to get close to shore in a depth you are comfortable with and anchor. Tomorrow night that's our plan.

AT LAST

Palau Basar 02°06'37" N 102°20'27"

We finally departed Danga Bay Marina on Tuesday 22 Nov. We left with the tide at 0700 and had an uneventful 40 mile motor sail to Palau Pisang. Tuesday was a Malaysian holiday, we were told the Sultans birthday and made for less traffic as we crossed the entry channel for the cargo ships coming to port. Usually you need to wait at one of the channel markers and then like crossing a freeway make a mad dash between incoming and outgoing ships. We had no ships moving and later as we proceeded up the Malacca straits not many fishing boats to contend with either.

Today was a long 67 miles to the anchorage here at Palau Basar. We awoke at 0400 and were underway about 0450. We managed to get the anchor down and settled at 1740. The trip along the west coast of Malaysia is busy with the north and southbound shipping traffic in the Malacca straits and the local fishing fleet with their gill nets set everywhere. The route is also subject to lots of tidal current. It's either with or against you so our speed varied from 4 knots to 7 knots. As normal here the wind was from on the nose to a very close reach so Miss Perky was in service all day. We had winds from 5 to 25 knots.

Weather permitting we will continue to move daily toward toward the island of Penang where we will stop for a couple of days to secure our visa's for Thailand. Then on to Langkawi our last stop in Malaysia, before making our way to Thailand.

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Bright and Shiney Light

DANGA BAY 01° 28' 20.22" N 103° 43' 26.4"

OK, to you followers of the blog you may or most likely won't notice a position change but we're still here in Danga Bay marina. No we did not change slips but my "old" lifeguard buddy Mel Tubbs brought to my attention that I had made an error, possibly only the third of my life but I'll admit it. So if you use "google earth" and zoom in it shows the marina but their photo was taken at a time when we were not here.

There is now a shinning bright light light at the end of the tunnel. We will be moving shortly.

Today was very busy. First the portlights were finished. I got started working on another patch for our well used dinghy. Kathy helped with the clean-up of the bedding compound on the portlights and did her daily laundry. Remember she has no washing machine and laundry is done in a bucket then wrung out by hand and dried by "Mother Nature".

 As we're ready to leave it was time to clean the bottom of the boat. The good news, I have dove in worse conditions in my past life working for the Sheriff's Harbor patrol, but not many. Visibility was about ten inches and on getting out of the water I was covered with sea lice, thank God for a lycra skin suit. We do have some otters that live here in the area and at least I had no face to face expierences today. Having been here and not moving we had quite a large growth on the bottom. If in California I might have had to file an environmental impact statement but there are some nice things about emerging third world countries.

The next couple of days will be busy but soon we'll actually be "cruising" again.

LIGHT

DANGA BAY  01° 23' N  103° 43' E

There is LIGHT at the end of the tunnel!!

The varnish and paint brushes have been cleaned and put away. The roller for the new non-skid too.

We're still using lots of blue tape as today was spent working on portlight  leaks

                                 

Today was "eggs to lay and chickens to hatch" as Don Stewart would say. We are into the local rainy season, work needs to be finished by about 3 pm as that's when the cats and dogs normally start falling out of the sky in the form of raindrops. 

This morning at 0830 after getting a few more things re-installed in the cockpit it was back to taking portlights apart to solve the leaking problem. Water dripping onto the electrical panel is never a good thing. We have also suffered some discoloration of interior wood. Frames were pulled off and old bedding compound removed. As usual several screws broke off causing more drilling and filling. Lots of epoxy was injected. Finally about 2 pm temporary plastic was put on. As you would expect there was no rain today.

There is still another day of applying epoxy to go then the frames can be re-installed and hopefully that will end the leakage in that area. Also that only leaves 10 more portlights to redo.

Today I kept Kathy busy assisting me mixing epoxy, the last several days she has been busy loading up the computer with music to be played through our IPOD.

There is still a bunch to finish up with before we can get underway north but there is definitely LIGHT!!

KEEPING BUSY

DANGA BAY  01° 23 N  103°43 E

No we're not planning on dying here in Danga Bay but I have thought of establishing a retirement village for senile sailors.

We're still busy with the work that has been deferred for quite some time but we are moving along. We even

now once again like a boat. The anchor rollers and other hardware back in place. Those anchor's look to have never been used since they have been re-galvinized. The other projects are coming together too.






Kathy is trying to finish her varnish project but first more repair work to the cabin sole. Through the years the underlying plywood has become a bit rotten. Once again it's the epoxy injection trick. Thinned epoxy is smeared along the cracks, allowed to penetrate through and after drying the floor is solid again. Next sanding and varnish.

Kathy has also been busy with some exterior work. No we do not plan on bringing the outside trim back to varnish. Gray teak is just fine but after several years of scrubbing it's time to do a bit of sanding to even out the grain and test out the new sander.

Previous blogs have lately dealt with our outside deck and cabintop painting, along with a leaking portlight. Water leaks have not been the only leak lately. Our auxillary engine, "Miss Perky" has also had some issues too. Shortly after changing out the oil and transmission fluid lines I began to notice more then normal oil in the bilge. Now "Miss Perky" is a tractor engine made by Perkins and they have always been known to leak a bit of oil but not as much as what was showing up in the bilge. Since this began after the installation of the new oil lines that was my first clue. I kept looking but was unable to discover the cause.

After a through bilge cleaning and then placing oil absorbant pads in a number of locations "Miss Perky" was started and let to idle. Lying atop the engine I finally managed to see a slight drip of oil coming from the base of one of the oil lines. It was not a loose connection but rather a buggered fitting

                                                                                       

The dimple in the top of the cone caused a bad seal. The next step was trying to remove the fitting. It would not budge. So the entire assembly had to be taken off before I managed to get the fitting out and a new one installed.

                                                                                                      

This was my work area. Hey compared to lots of other boats this is very roomey. It took a bit of time but no more oil leakage.

A SQUALL APPROACHING

RAIN

Remember that I said we had fixed one of the leaking portlights, well with the dogs and cats once again falling from the sky another has begun leaking. I guess I'll always have something to keep busy.

KATHY keeping in touch with HOME







YES, I'm ALIVE



As I normally start my day at 6 am with coffee and a check of the internet for news and sports then begin on the boat projects about 8, after lunch it's siesta time. The floor always makes my back feel better, the BEER helps too..

Today was the first coat of finish paint in the cockpit, it's white but somewhat resembles having been applied by a wisk broom. No worries tomorrow it will be sanded and with luck the next coat will be better. Soon we hope to be on the move again and out enjoying this crazy cruising lifestyle.

COOLERS

As we have now traveled roughly halfway around the world it's amazing to look in some of the cabinets at what has been collected. These beer coolers fit sizes from Aussie stubbies to Mexican ballena's [sp] and most any can or bottle in between.

A collection from our travels

PAINT and FUN





DANGA BAY MARINA  01° 23 N  103°43 E

Yes we're still here in Danga Bay, Malaysia and I'm trying some new format on the blog so with luck you will also see a google map, you may have to click the location  at the bottom of the posting,along with the above latitude and longitude. Trying to learn this computer stuff at an advanced age is tough. This new format also has a different method of inserting photos along with captions.  Here we go!!!!




Port side

 So I now have been trying to insert and move photos per the site help file but it's not going as planned. Here is what the paint is looking like. You'll notice that further forward only the stanchion bases are in place. We removed most all of the deck hardware to paint. It was also time to re-bed things as we were beginning to have some leaking spots. 

 

Starboard side which was finished today



  



As we had been docked port side to we turned the boat around in it's slip so after painting we would not have to walk on that part. Once the paint cured the boat was again turned around and today we put the finish coat of non-skid on the starboard side.



Kathy cleaning one one of the anchor rollers

Continuing along I seem to be making progress in figuring this format out but not sure how. It's actually now taken two days.

Our last outside paint for now will be the cockpit which we hope to get started on in the next day or so. With the deck hardware removed it was a good time for lots of cleaning and polishing. This was Kathy's job using bronze wool, brasso and lots of elbow grease. Tomorrow we will set the stanchions back in the bases on port and get the lifelines back on. The starboard will be done after another few days of paint curing.

Here on the other side of the world we see limited U.S. sports and without the internet I would know nothing of what is going on there in the land of gridiron. The normal here is "football" or as we know it soccer. Not my favorite. The big event lately has been the world cup rugby tournament with 20 nations involved. The U.S. was represented but won only one game in the group play and didn't advance. So over a three week period we watched lots of rugby at what passes for a sports bar here in the marina and we now almost understand it.



 The final match was played last Sunday between New Zealand

and France.There was a crowd of about 30 gathered for the match

which was won by the All Blacks of New Zealand. A good time was had by all.



that's a mug of beer



Kathy along with Rick and Robin
of "Enadangered Species"

 



Rick "Endangered Speciesand Dick
"Wind Pony" enjoying a beer



That wraps up this edition.

 

 









 



LEAKS

DANGA BAY MARINA 01° 23' N 103° 43' E


Here just north of the equator we get some rain most every day and sometimes it's quite heavy.
So just like a house we at times develop leaks. The other afternoon during a period of cats and dogs falling from the sky we noticed some drips in two different areas. At the time we did a bit of searching and located one that would be an easy fix but were unsure of the source of the other which was causing water to come thru the cabinet which houses all of our radios. Not good!!

The next day using a water hose I directed the stream to potential areas as Kathy watched for the leak to reappear. "Eureka"! It was a portlight, one of the fourteen that we have. It has been since 2001 since we last pulled the frames off and fixed leaks, so I guess it's time again.
This was the quick temporary fix for the day.

After ten years some of the screws broke off to be dealt with later.

Next removal of the frame.

Here's the portlight with the frame removed. Not only did I drill out the broken screws but also the holes for the others. My next step was to use epoxy and dowels to fill the holes and void areas.

The dowels were then cut off flush with the cabin top and the face frame installed again. We use a very sticky, goey material between the frame and cabin top as a barrier to keep the water out.

This isn't truely the finished product but the start of removal of the frame. Hey I just didn't manage a finish photo as I needed to move onto what I should have been spending the last few days working on. Removal of deck hardware so painting can continue. You'll see more on that in our next edition.

One other thought since this portlight had just begun to leak what do you think has been added to the TO DO list. Thirteen more to portlights to re-do!!!

PROJECTS

DANGA BAY MARINA 01° 23N 103° 43E

Hey it's a FREE marina so we continue to stay here and do projects. We have one cabinet designated as the project locker and it's full of parts already bought for the future installations. Several years ago we purchased new deck fill fittings for fuel, water and waste. The original ones were very nice and heavy brass but alas the caps were bad and we were unable to find the correct ones so we bought new ones to be installed at a later date. Now prior to finishing painting the decks this was the time.

Now things in a boat are not always the easiest to get to. To access the hoses for these deck fills first I had to empty the cookie cabinet.

Once empty the shelf and back paneling was also removed.

On inspection we found a dead unwelcomed guest.

This shows the hidden part of the locker with hoses, electrical wires and the "knee" brace with one of the chainplates bolted to it, that is part of what holds the mast up. Back in 2003 we replaced all the chainplates and had done extensive repair as the old wood which was encapsillated in the firberglass had gotten wet and rotten. All looks good now, except for some cleaning. You can see that one of the fills is no longer used and now we'll remove it and fill in the hole.

I don't think these had been removed since the boat was built in 1979 and most of the screws broke off and had to then be drilled out.

What a mess!

The unused hole has been filled with a wood plug and then fiberglassed over.

Here is the end result. These are both water fills. The outer side got the same treatment for a fuel and water fill and our other two fuel fills got changed out to. Now we can move along with the deck painting.

PAINT and VARNISH

DANGA BAY MARINA 01° 23' N 103° 43' E


A month has passed and we have continued to keep very busy. Jerry has now turned over 95% of the varnish duties to Kathy and she is doing a fine job. My only remaining jobs are any heavy sanding necessary and brush cleaning. Currently all sanding is done by hand as our two power sanders died and due to the fact that all power tools here are 240 volt we're waiting for one that we bought online to be sent by the Kids.

Kathy has masted the heat gun and scrapper. We have ten floor hatches and they were all taken down to bare wood and then 6 coats of clear varnish. Prior to varnishing I did also have to do some repair work as a number of the glue joints had come apart. More epoxy!!!

Due to the potential of rain most every day all the hatches were done inside, meaning lots of moving stuff around. Once finished Kathy covered each hatch with paper until the whole cabin sole is finished.

The guest room/v-berth looks more like a garage. Hey you have to store stuff somewhere.

As Kathy works inside, in the air conditioning, I continue painting on the outside. the deck delamination repair took lots of time but finally the decks are solid. Next it was painting on the cabin top. After filling holes it was two coats of epoxy primer and today I finished the second coat of gloss. It's WHITE and GLOSSY!! Not perfect but it does pass the ten foot away test.

We had to fashion a shade tarp for the outside work.

As Kathy finishes her varnish she then gets to start sewing new covers for the interior cushions. Another air conditioned job. Once the cabin top paint cures, seven days, we'll redo the non-skid and I get to work on the last part of the deck painting. This will be the gloss inside of the toe rail and more non-skid. In addition we will remove all the lifeline stanctions to make it easier to paint and that they need to be rebedded with new compound as some are leaking. So including the bow pulpit that eleven bases with four bolts each to be taken off and the replaced on each side. One side at a time means only 44 holes that can leak when it rains. I do have a plan for temporary plugs, we'll see how it works.

Now does anyone notice a detail that I have finally corrected? Hey there could be a valuable prize to whom ever comments about the change. Mel Tubbs, you're exempt from this one. More on that in the next edition.

PAINTING, AT LEAST IT'S WHITE

DANGA BAY MARINA 01'23N 103'43E

Back in the late 1960's while working as a seasonal lifeguard I had the opportunity to assist in the painting of the California state lifeguard rescue boat "Surf Watch". I learned a lot about painting boats, thanks Mel. The expert painters would come by and say "at least it's yellow". Well now at least it's white or gray as I embark on the painting of Po oino Roa's cabin top and decks. This will all be done by brush and with the new two part polyurathane paints. Hey we live on a fixed income, so it's do-it-yourself.

We have several power sanders aboard and then it was lots of hand sanding to prepare both the deck which would get new non-skid and the cabin top and other deck areas which get gloss.

After sanding a coat of epoxy primer and then more sanding before two finish coats of white.

Lots of masking. We removed winches and other hardware but the handrails had to stay. Working in a boatyard and havinga storage container would make things easier.

The cabin top and edges of the deck are done and better than before. Hey IT'S WHITE!!

We've now masked off the non-skid areas and are ready to paint them. This was a two person job, one to apply the paint and another to roll in the non-skid texture. As each section was completed the tape needed to be pulled off.

The cabin top was first then we moved on to the deck area.

Kathy brushing on and then I would come along with the roller.

This looks good, shiney white and a light gray for the non-skid.

Where the new meets the old. As we work along in sections we're about a quarter of the way done. Before more painting we will finish on the deck delamination repair.

Nothing like another day in paradise!!!!