DANGA BAY BOAT WORK

Danga Bay Marina, Johor Bahru, Malaysia


For us cruising boat owner's we seem to have a never ending list of necessary projects. It matters not that we spent the month of April hauled out for work ,it just never ends. This is especially true when we are secure in a marina with water and power. We're now in the marina just over two weeks and it's been BUSY!

The first order of business was to get hooked up with electricity. Sounds simple, not! Being a US vessel all our power stuff is 110 volts where most of the rest of the world is 240 volts. Our old step down transformer had died so I had to locate a new one. Thanks to the internet I found an expats blog giving me the address of a store here in Johor Bahru where I was able to purchase a new one. We can now power our battery charger and other electrical appliances.

Kathy was due to fly back to the states to visit grand babies on 5 June but there were a number of things that needed her special talents before leaving.

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 First some repair to the head of the staysail. Next it was finishing sewing on our newly constructed shades along with some other repair work.

 Kathy especially likes "water jobs" We removed the staysail and it was given a good scrubbing of the"Danga Dirt" that had accumulated from our last visit here. It was during this time that we discovered the need for some sewing repair too. Next on the list was re-bedding the glass on our 14 poutlights. This was last done 2004.

REMOVING OLD COMPOUND

NEW SEALANT

LOTS OF PIECES AND TOOLS

 Next was a bit of refurbishing of our canvas dodger. Back in 2006 we were expierencing leaks thru the sumbrella material. At that time we glued vinyl to the top of the dodger and were once again rain repellent. It was time to strip the old vinyl off add replkace with new.



NOTHING LIKE CONTACT CEMENT

We spent the last few days before Kathy's departure getting bags packed. The big item was our wind vane steering system. We had removed this when on the hard in Rebak and Kathy was transporting it back to the states to sell. We never really used it in the 8 years it was installed so perhaps we can recoup some of it's original cost.

5 June we taxied to Changi airport in Singapore for Kathy's flight home. 3 hours to Manilla, Philipines and then 14 hours to LA. I then spent the afternoon shopping in  the ship chandleries in  Singapore.

Now back on the boat without my "lifesaver" who keeps me fed and cleans up after the messes I make it's back to the never ending list of boat jobs. First it's back to being a mechanic! The oil seal repair that was made in Langkawi did not work and needs to be redone. Our faithful engine has also developed a leak from in the cooling system, so those are my immediate jobs. When here last year we started rebedding the face frames for the portlights. We got four done so I need to finish the other ten

No this lifestyle is not kicked back sailing in tradwind breezes with a margarita fresh from the blender but it is great fun and with that I'll have another sip of rum.