02/10/12 My 'new' laptop which I bought in Kota Kinabalu in February of this year has packed up!! It works fine on mains power but not at all on battery despite the battery showing a charge (unchanging) of 92%. So today, I went for the third time to the Asus dealership in Kiulap and complained bitterly about the service and quality of the goods. They have now sent it off to Kota Kinabalu for repair/assessment, quoting a three week turn-a-round time. As I only bought the damn thing to run navigation software as a back-up to my GPS and chartplotter I've already been somewhat peeved that the software will not run on the installed Windows 7 Operating system! Re-formatting to run Windows XP is only a short term solution because Microsoft will cease support for that in April 2014. Maybe it's time to dump Microsoft altogether and switch to Apple Mac??
09/10/12 Not much happening - the weather remains very humid and thundery and downpours are frequent. Gareth and Julie onboard Pelangi have been and gone, Alistair and Loren onboard C'est la Vie are currently in the anchorage from Labuan. Roger and Astrid are still here too, and looking forward to a visit from Graham (currently in Miri) whom we haven't seen since his horrendous motorcycle accident 2 years ago in Phuket (see log for 12/10/10). Graham should be here tomorrow, travelling up from Miri by bus to stay onboard Storm Dodger for a while.
11/10/12 Graham arrived yesterday - and left this morning onboard Storm Dodger, bound for Labuan, so I only had a short while to chat to him before they left.
12/10/12 Joined Barry, Paul, Alastair, Loren and Donald onboard Fourth Dimension for the Friday trip to Labuan, meeting up with Storm Dodger crew in Murphy's Bar. I transferred to them for the return trip to Muara but as things turned out, we didn't leave!
13/10/12 Sailed after doing some shopping and made 7.5 knots under sail alone for the duration of the trip to Muara, arriving about 4pm in the anchorage.
14/10/12 Graham left for his return bus trip to Miri.
15/10/12 I made the journey (6 buses) to Kiulap and back in order to pay for my new laptop battery, which although only seven months old, isn't covered under the global warranty.......grrrr!
21/10/12 Happy Birthday Sandra!
22/10/12 My 'new' passport arrived today but my old one has not been returned! I am hoping that it will come separately because it obviously contains all the relevant stamps from the various countries visited. However, the turn around time of three weeks was equally surprising and pleasing.
23/10/12 The old gas (cooking) problem has reared it's ugly head again. I have an empty gas bottle and one almost empty - they are UK type bottles and now very rusty. I took the empty one ashore today for sand-blasting and painting and discovered a hole in the top of the bottle, so it's no use any more. The remaining bottle is in a worse condition still, so now I have to find a solution to the problem of getting new bottles of a size that will fit the gas locker and be able to connect to the old system! I suspect this will be virtually impossible as I have tried to find suitable bottles before now but can only find big bottles in the various countries visited. When one problem is solved.....two more start up!! Collected my laptop and new battery from C F King in Kiulap.
27/10/12 My 'old' passport was returned to me today! I took my cycle ashore, along with a cordless drill in an attempt to sell the pair - the result of an after cabin sort out. I can't imagine using the bike again and I have another cordless drill, so it's pointless carrying them about. Anyway, I never even got as far as putting an advert up on the notice board as both items sold in the first few minutes.
31/10/12 Franz and Silvia have left for Bali, East Timor and the UK having sold their boat Moet to Rod, a French Canadian ex-pat here in Brunei, so we won't be seeing them anymore in the different anchorages. OK....I've placed a 14.5Kg gas bottle on the stern to replace the two 4.5Kg bottles from my very small gas locker, and adapted the piping and regulator to fit. The set-up is intended to be a temporary measure until such time as I can get two new 'small' bottles. I still need to clean the underwater areas and get my windvane back before I can move from the anchorage - and time is marching on! We all got trapped ashore this evening by torrential rain which lasted from just before 8pm until almost midnight. The dinghies were absolutely full to the brim, the swimming pool overflowed and the ground floor of the clubhouse flooded to a depth of 4 inches - another storm in paradise!
Did you enjoy your visit onboard? Please sign my Guestbook
For previous logs, click Here
