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01/01/21 HAPPY NEW YEAR!
08/01/21 Fri. We have been over to the yard a few times, giving help to Brent on Kaya with his steering problems. The NE monsoon gives us rain most days which has prevented me going to buy plywood to make our new galley worktop. We were planning to go to KK next week for a couple of days, mainly to search for materials and to get new rudder stocks made for Brent, but the Covid cases are once more spiralling upwards and I think that interstate travel bans will be back in force very soon - and I don't want to be trapped in KK with no way back to Kudat!
09/01/21 Sat. We have just heard (unofficially) that Sabah will go back into lockdown tomorrow night, so no travel outside Kudat district without good reason and a travel permit from the police. I've just been watching the golfers on the course which surrounds the 'pond'........it's pouring down with rain but they continue to play!
10/01/21 Sun. The rains continue and prevent any ordering of plywood or work outside being done. The Malaysian PM will make an announcement tomorrow regarding re-installation of lockdown measures.
12/01/21 Tues. 6pm and the rain has just stopped temporarily, that's almost 48 hours without a break! On Sunday night we had around 15" of rain fall, my dinghy was full to the top of the tubes, Craig's sank with the engine still attached, a couple of power boats in the marina sank and the town was under 2 feet of water. Ana and I went over to Craig's boat yesterday (in the rain of course) and gave him a hand to recover his dinghy from the seabed and bail it out. We are back in a sort of lockdown until the 26th, only 2 people allowed in a car and no inter district travel allowed.
14/01/21 Thurs. The rain finally stopped this afternoon but the skies are still very grey and threatening. However, it gave me a chance to empty the nav. berth once more and see if I could find the fault on the Smartbank charging system - I wait and see if I have cured the fault!!
16/01/21 Sat. Sunshine.....finally! A good few hours of sun today putting power in the batteries - and my Smartbank worked by connecting all the 5 batteries together, so hopefully I have cured the fault on there. We started making patterns for dinghy chaps to fit to Mark and Kim's (Zizi) rubber duck. At 5pm, the rains returned but nowhere near as heavy as we've had for the last few days.
19/01/21 Tues. Humph! The Smartbank is still not functioning as it should. With the engine running I still get an error code 11, but on solar power, I don't! Time for another wiring inspection. Been making more patterns for Zizi's dinghy chaps and the rain still continues with large areas of Sabah underwater.
21/01/21 Thurs. I have twice run the engine today to top up batteries, once this morning and once in the early evening and on both occasions, the Smartbank worked as it should. I'm totally confused now! Rained on and off all day again and we expect that to continue until mid February. Ana spent a lot of the day sewing panels together for Zizi's dinghy chaps.
22/01/21 Fri. Today was a sunny day for a change, and the Smartbank happily connected and disconnected the batteries as needed! We went over to the yard to look at plywood there, it isn't the best quality but it will probably have to do for my needs as marine ply is not available here.
23/01/21 Sat. We went to the yard, bought an 8 foot by 4 foot sheet of ply and cut it into approximate sizes to transport back by dinghy. Ana continued with the chaps for Mark and Kim's dinghy in the afternoon.
24/01/21 Sun. I spent most of the day dismantling cupboards above the worktop while Ana once more had a day of dinghy work.
27/01/21 Weds. A day in town searching for various bits and pieces for the galley cupboards and worktop, without much success. Yesterday we were over in the yard stripping down Brent's engine for oil leak repairs and head overhaul, piston ring change. Our worktop is now fully unscrewed and is ready to be lifted off for the next stage.
28/01/21 Thurs. Work on the galley worktop continues, painting of the inside of the cupboards, removing locker lid trim for sanding and varnish, making new support battens. This job started off with Ana saying the sink was leaking a little and could I put some silicone on it - haha!
30/01/21 Sat. Rain again all day but I managed to cut the lower shelf before it started - it's a long job but at least there is a little progress! Just a small note about paint fumes, sure we had some fumes because of painting the locker insides but today it was worse, and also more pronounced in the heads rather than the galley area. A search of the heads locker unearthed an old can of spray paint which was leaking and filling the place with obnoxious fumes!
31/01/21 Sun. I ordered a new mppt solar controller today in anticipation of adding another panel at a later date - it has to come from Holland, so I don't expect it for a few weeks.
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