02/05/12 A couple of hours fitting the new ignition lamp holder achieved nothing! The ignition/charging circuit problem remains unresolved, so it's back to fault tracing - and that is proving difficult. I also have a broken battery master switch which will have to be sourced from the UK over the next day or so.
04/05/12 Another day across in Labuan with Barry and the guys onboard Fourth Dimension. On our return, Astrid was straight over in my dinghy alerting us to a problem onboard Storm Dodger - the engine room bilge was filling with water! The lads from the clubhouse had already been over and baled most of it out and partly shut off the seacock to the generator. Once I had the seacock fully closed, the water stopped coming in and we were able to pump out the rest. I stayed onboard for the night just in case there were any more problems.
05/05/12 This morning I took off the leaking raw water pump from Roger's generator, stripped it down and examined it. It's clear that whoever overhauled it last, fitted metric seals into the imperial pump body and consequently damaged the seal which then leaked and ruined the two bearings. I took the pump ashore for refurbishment before catching the bus into Bandar to sort out my cell phone registration. On returning from Bandar, some yobbo on the bus pestered me for money, eventually producing a knife and waving it toward me. I should have said, " You need to ask yourself if you feel lucky......go ahead punk, make my day," but I didn't, I just loudly told him that he had about three seconds to put it away before I shoved it up his ass. All the passengers on the bus and the driver turned around and the kid panicked and shut up. There are serious jail sentences for having a knife - and the death sentence for having a gun.
06/05/12 Happy Birthday Tracey! On Storm Dodger this morning to sort out a fresh water pressure pump problem (corroded supply wire worsened by the ingress of salt water). We were supposed to be going to the 'spit' this afternoon with either Fourth Dimension or Tarali but very low tides would have trapped us down there, so Astrid, Barry, Ranald and I just went out for a couple of hours sailing on Fourth Dimension.
11/05/12 The usual Friday run over to Labuan with Barry and Fourth Dimension. A couple of boats we know were there at anchor - PFM and Tramontana but I was unable to talk to any of them.
12/05/12 Went over to Storm Dodger this morning and re-fitted the raw water pump to the generator, ran the engine up and tested it - all OK. During the afternoon, we all drove the 60Km or so to Kuala Lurah, walked over the border into Malaysia and back again, thereby getting another 90 days on our visa's.
14/05/12 PFM arrived in the anchorage this morning and we had a chat with John and Sheila, exchanging some news.
15/05/12 As I now suspect that my ignition fault is an internal problem of the alternator, I removed it and took it ashore for checking.
16/05/12 PFM left this morning for Jerudong and Miri but we will probably see John and Sheila again later in the year as they also intend returning to the Philippines. My alternator proved to have a fault and has been repaired, I just have to collect it now and refit it to the engine.
17/05/12 Early this morning, before the sun became too hot, I refitted my alternator and tested it - all is well and the fault is no longer evident.
18/05/12 Over to Labuan for the day with the usual Friday crowd onboard Fourth Dimension. A big crowd there in Murphy's Bar today - apart from us, there was a group of pilots from RBA, over for the day on a speedboat which on return to Muara, we towed for a while.
19/05/12 'The Collective' were playing in the yacht club this evening, so we were ashore for the entertainment......until 2am!!
20/05/12 A day of rest after last night/this morning!
21/05/12 Roger returned from the UK this afternoon with Yolly (his Mum), having had a few days in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur en-route.
28/05/12 A week of catching up with the news from England, ferrying Yolly to and from the yacht club, the usual Friday visit to Labuan (this time on Paul's boat) and a Sunday run onboard Fourth Dimension to Pulau Kuruman so that Barry could clean the barnacles off the bottom - it's very clear water there. That is a job that desperately needs doing on my boat, they are thick and I expect the prop is just one big mass of them after so long at anchor.
30/05/12 Roger is planning to take his Mum sailing for a few days, visiting Labuan and the Klias Wetlands, places we have visited before but think that Yolly would enjoy. He and Astrid asked me to join them and take a few days out from Brunei.
31/05/12 Onboard Storm Dodger for our trip to Labuan and the River Klias. We slipped the mooring and made our way out to sea but not without a little hassle. Today is a public holiday and the 51st anniversary of the Brunei Military, so there was a scheduled display off the dockyard, with several warships moving slowly in line ahead from sea to the harbour. We were escorted by police launches and directed well to starboard of our normal course, passing channel markers on the wrong side and constantly watching the depth of water. Finally we were clear of the dockyard area and heading out along the extreme starboard edge of the dredged channel to sea whilst helicopters and fighter trainers flew overhead streaming smoke trails. We set course for Kuruman Island and picked up a buoy there for a few hours while Roger dived and cleaned the bottom of the boat and the propeller. Just as we were leaving, Ranald turned up in Tarali and picked up the adjacent buoy but we were unable to talk to him as we made our way toward Labuan. We anchored in Victoria Harbour around 5pm and went ashore, meeting up with Alistair and Loren for a few beers.
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