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01/08/16 Mon. A very noisy night with strong winds, halliards frapping, fenders and mooring ropes squeaking. I got up at 0530, peered into the darkness and thought...."that doesn't look right".......the boat opposite was very down on the stbd side. Eventually managed to wake the two local crew who were sleeping onboard (I think perhaps they should have noticed the list!) and after running around like headless chickens, they finally started to pump the stbd hull out - it took three hours before the boat was level again.
02/08/16 Tues. Congratulations....... to my big bro Clive and his wife Barbara on their wedding anniversary!
03/08/16 Weds. Several nights/days of strong winds now, removed damaged awnings from Neil's boat day before yesterday, this morning it was Bob's boat in need of awning repair - not the weather to be out at sea really!
04/08/16 Weds. One of those days when everything seems to be going wrong! Decided to do an engine oil change, so ran up the engine for 15 minutes to warm the oil.....and the pump for emptying the sump refused to work, so I removed it from the engine and of course it suddenly decided to spew black oil all over the cockpit! After replacing it and emptying the sump, I went to aft locker to get new oil, and it's full of water because of a blocked drain - cleared that out. Went to get rain catcher from shop in town, got back to boat before noticing they had left the slider part off the zip - go back to shop to retrieve that! I should have stayed in bed!
05/08/16 Fri. This catamaran arrived in Labuan for haul out in LSE - it is purportedly the largest sailing catamaran in the World, (145 feet long) and if you have USD 260,000 lying around and wondering what to do with it.....you could charter this for one week!
11/08/16 Thurs. Rented a car for a day to get fuel and gas. You are only allowed 20 litres of diesel at a time, so we went to two filling stations and came back with 40 litres. Tomorrow, we will get the other jerry can filled and exchange the gas bottle for a new one. The plan is to check out tomorrow and sail for Brunei on Sat. morning, stay there for a few days and then return here, in a effort to avoid the hassle we had with Ana's visa in Kuala Lurah last month.......we shall see!
12/08/16 Fri. We went out in the morning and exchanged our almost empty gas bottle for a full one, then to the garage for another 20 litres of diesel before returning the car and checking out with the Harbour Master, Immigration and Customs.
13/08/16 Sat. 0815 - motored out of the marina and across Victoria harbour, heading for Muara. With 15 knots of wind on the nose, and my problem with stern tube knock, it was a slow passage but we arrived safe at anchor off Serasa Yacht Club just after 1300.
19/08/16 Fri. After spending almost a week here, meeting old friends, thunder, lightening and squalls, it was time to return to Labuan, so we went back to immigration and cleared out for a 1200 departure. On lifting the anchor, it was fouled by fishing nets and another anchor........one morning at 1am we had a fishing boat alongside trying to retrieve their net and they resorted to cutting it free after keeping me awake for an hour! We motor sailed with genoa out until the UV strip on the sail ripped as we rounded the point at Labuan entrance - I have never been happy about the material Rolly Tasker used for that when they made the sail. Now back in my berth in Labuan marina.
20/08/16 Sat. After discussing my 'knock' over a few beers last night, David and Neil came over this morning and we ran the engine at 2000rpm in an effort to locate the sound and decide what it is. The knock is not as pronounced when tied alongside, but they seem to think it is the cutless bearing? I am not convinced and still think it's an alignment problem of the stern tube itself.
22/08/16 Mon. Everything seems to be going wrong just lately! First the worrying knock in the stern tube area, which no-one (David, Paul, Neil, Bill, Me) can put an explanation to, then the torn genoa sail and dead engine battery. On top of it all, Microsoft have buggered up the e-mail programme and I can no longer read or send e-mails in the usual manner but have to take a roundabout route to do so! AND....the route map on this site cannot be updated anymore because Google have decided to delete all map references from the servers, so I will no longer be able to continue that. Checked the battery today and my relatively new and expensive multimeter shows and open circuit unless switched to automatic, then it reads 13.11 volts on the dead and disconnected battery. I reconnected the battery and disconnected the domestic battery bank, and it won't even turn the engine, so I have to assume it needs replacement. Did some shopping in town, checked in with immigration, customs and harbour master and went to the dentist for Ana to have a tooth pulled.
23/08/16 Tues. Went into town again and bought a new battery - not the A/hr that I would prefer, but all that was available.
24/08/16 Weds. Took down the damaged genoa this morning and replaced it with my old one, then fitted the new battery. E-mailed a couple of sailmakers in Hong Kong to ask for rough estimate and shipping costs. Bill went diving under both his and my boat and scraped off the accumulated slime and barnacles in readiness for the trip to Kudat. In the evening we went to the marina cafe with Bill, Paul and Merissa for a few beers and a chinwag.
25/08/16 Thurs. Paul came over and while Ana went to market, we stripped out the prop shaft coupling and found a little play in the shaft flange which gave a metallic sound when rocked. Checking the securing bolts for the flange showed that the workshop in Penuwasa had in fact fitted bolts just 2 mm too short to fully engage the indents in the shaft, so we fitted new bolts, put the whole thing back together and ran the engine (in gear) at almost 3000 rpm - we could not hear the worrying knock! Maybe tomorrow I will take the boat out for a short drive around and see if we have in fact cured the problem......fingers crossed!
27/08/16 Sat. Paul and Merissa joined us and we took the boat out for a short trip around the harbour.......and the knock was still evident as soon as we hit 1500rpm, so we cured nothing. It can only be the cutless bearing that is worn through misalignment, (something that I was never happy with when done by the "mechanic" in Kudat in January 2013), so it looks like an engine out job in Kudat once again and I shall replace the whole of the stern gear assembly. Plan now is to sail up there in company with Bill on Viajero next Friday morning.
28/08/16 Sun. After a few hours on the computer this morning, I managed to fix the problem with the e-mail - a patch issued by Microsoft and not applicable to Windows 10 had been installed without my knowledge, and it was this which had screwed up the LiveMail - thanks Microsoft!!!
29/08/16 Mon. Took off the exhaust elbow this morning and Dave ran me into Elite services on the other side of town to have it cleaned and re-welded, back onboard by 12.30 and replaced it on the engine.
31/08/16 Weds. Merdeka day here in Malaysia, so most shops closed. Bill went to Brunei this morning to get his passport chopped and give him 90 days in Malaysia to do work on his boat. I packed up the damaged genoa and took it over to Neil's boat (Shelley) for him to take up to Cebu for repair. Then Ana and I covered the dinghy and got it onboard ready to tie down on Thursday evening, walked into town and rented a car for 24 hrs, drove over to Emporium supermarket and bought our heavy stuff. In the evening we went to Murphy's Bar with Bill and Neil for some grub and a couple of beers.
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