I left the last blog update with us having just experienced a second earthquake. On the hard the boat was rocking and rolling! The quake was centered off Sumatra, Indonesia at a Richter scale of 8.2. The first was an 8.6!! These were both in the same area as the one that created the disastrous tsunami in 2004. Thankfully these quakes had horizontal not vertical movement and no tsunami was generated. In 2004 Rebak marina was destroyed. If a tsunami had occurred there was nothing we could have done other than hope that where we were located in the hardstand area was high enough and would not be affected. We did have bags packed!
Back to "Life on the Hard". We've now been out of the water for two weeks and have managed quite a lot. After prepping the bottom Kathy put two coats of anti foul paint on it and will get one more on before we are splashed. The wind vane has been removed and cleaned up ready to be taken back to California and put up for sale. There was a 4" in diameter hole in the transom from the vane. That has been filled with fiberglass and now has been painted with primer and a first coat of finish, needing two more. Kathy will then have to paint the symbol of Po oino back on the transom. The rusting exhaust fitting was also removed and sent to Thailand for a new one to be fabricated. There is no one here in Malaysia that works in the more rust resistant 316 stainless steel.
The most daunting job for me was the leaking transmission and engine seals. I am not an experienced mechanic!! Taking things apart is no problem but then getting them back together using all the parts in the correct spots and having them work is possibly another. Thanks to lots of encouragement and phone conversation help from my old Newport Harbor buddy Jack Kimble I now have the transmission out and will get the new seals and a bearings installed manana. Next will be the rear oil seal on the faithful "Miss Perky". For that Jack has promised to come by and supervise. It's quite amazing to find someone that you have known since high school out here doing the same thing, having a sister ship and he's been doing this for thirty years.
Kathy and I share the workload and little by little we make progress. Today Kathy made a trip to town to get a transmission seal and order a new bearing while I was dismantling things. Later I cleaned parts and Kathy painted them. Tomorrow for Kathy it's back to pick up the bearing. This means at least a two hour trip at a cost of $20 US for a $30 US part. I'll put another coat of finish on the transom. Doing work here is very different than in the USA; that was our reasoning for attempting to have everything needed prior to haul out but some things you just cannot plan for.
My hope is for one more week on the hard, stay tuned!!
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment