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03/06/17 Sat. Had some inclement weather over last few days, it's rained during the nights and blown hard enough to make the boat roll considerably. Paul has gone to KK with his injection pump, to get Caterpillar to calibrate it - was just impossible without the right equipment. I took my wheelpilot apart, greased the bearing groove in the aluminium and put a new belt on. Still needs to be fitted to the steering wheel.
05/06/17 Mon. So this morning, the boat is rolling around quite a lot.......then it started to feel odd and I knew something was amiss. Quickly put some shorts on and went out into the dark, wind and rain......boat was at a different angle because two fenders had fallen off and the finger pontoon was breaking away! I retrieved my fenders and tied them (properly) then ripped up the boards where the finger joins the main pontoon. I found two of the securing bolts had come adrift and the nuts were lying on top of the floats. I banged the bolts in again with a club hammer and replaced the nuts, tightening ALL the bolts again. Then I retrieved the rubber edging strip which had also come off the pontoon, and replaced that. Then........a coffee.....and still only 5am!
07/06/17 Weds. Ana is at the airport now (9.45pm) and they will not let her board with the small empty tank which is in her hold luggage! This is about 12" long and 3" diameter with a handle - a bit like a small fire extinguisher. Basically an empty tube! They told her it was "dangerous goods"..........HOW? An email of complaint to them has already gone off.
08/06/17 Thurs. No immigration problems for Ana at KK airport, but her Grandmother was unwell when she arrived in the early hours, so she will stay there with her tonight until care can be arranged.
09/06/17 Fri. Ana caught a bus from KK just after 8am this morning and I met her from the Menumbok ferry around lunchtime. Later in the day we went to Financial Park for some provisions. Cebu Pacific answered my e-mail saying that no metal goods were allowed in carry-on luggage but may be allowed in checked bags, so of course I have written again stating that is was NOT in her carry-on luggage but in her checked bags. Ana told me they also confiscated a partially used roll of masking tape from her hand luggage! What? Oh, I see, she could have used it to hog-tie the aircraft crew and fly it to North Korea! However, she was allowed to board with a pair of 12" dressmakers scissors in her hand luggage - work that one out!
11/06/17 Sun. The very hot, humid weather continues! Cebu Pacific tell me you are not allowed to carry sticky tape onto an aircraft because it could be used to assemble something harmful to the crew or passengers. So watch out guys, you're next .....no neckties, belts, shoelaces! Their customer service representative is just following a script and is evading my original query regarding the small fridge tank, and is not commenting on the scissors which Ana carried onboard.
15/06/17 Thurs. I should have gone to Brunei on the ferry today to renew my visa........but I was up half the night being sick! I had eaten a ham and cheese sandwich around 7pm and obviously the ham is the main suspect (Ana didn't have one and was OK). Anyway, I didn't go and spent most of the day trying to sleep off the effects.
16/026/17 Fri. Feeling a lot better today but giving it another day before going on the ferry! Walked miles today in search of 3mm stainless steel safety cable and swages, finally finding some in Leyden Engineering out of town. I bought 16 feet to make a dinghy 'sling' so I can hoist the rubber duck out of the water on a halyard when at anchor - save barnacles growing on the bottom!
17/06/17 Sat. On the 9am ferry to Muara, arrived at 10am, sat around for a couple of hours and caught the 1pm ferry back!
18/06/17 Sun. Made up the dinghy sling today..........and was 4 inches short on my guess of length, so will have to go back and buy some more, which is no problem as some spare would be nice for other things, and I also want to take my fire extinguishers for service and refilling at Motorship, which is in the same area.
19/06/17 Mon. Put the wheelpilot back on today and tested it. It powered around OK, but I'm not sure about it's accuracy of course holding until we next go out, and I may have to recalibrate it then.
20/06/17 Tues. Hmmm, another birthday! And it rained most of the day! Went next door to Viajero in the evening for snacks and a few drinks.
21/06/17 Weds. We went to Motorship and Leyden Engineering again and I bought some more SS cable and swages. At Motorship, the cost of testing and refilling fire extinguishers was almost the same as buying new ones, only £8 difference for two. A no-brainer really, so now I have two new large ones and one new small extinguisher. We came back to the boat and I completed the sling for the dinghy.
22/06/17 Thurs. Fitted the new brackets for the fire extinguishers and installed those.
28/06/17 Weds. The last few days I have been full of a cold, and in temps of 38o that is no fun! Feeling a little better this morning.
29/06/17 Thurs. On the 23rd, I ordered and paid for the new C-Map chart for the new chartplotter. Ever since then, I have been trying to download the chart to a micro sd card without any success! The site Go Free Marine is really crap and I have had many issues with the download, I have e-mailed them three times - all of which they chose to ignore and this morning I rang the office in Australia just to listen to an indecipherable woman rattling on about press number 1,2, 3 or whatever to reach the right operator. Then I was told "there are no calls in front of you" before the pre-recording switched to a long diatribe about various makes of chartplotter........so long that I eventually hung up! So, still no chart, and I'm beginning to lose it.
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