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01/06/23 Thurs. A swim under the boat to finally check for any damage caused by our recent incident with a coral reef, all is good, just a few scratches!
06/06/23 Tues. D-Day 1944, the beginning of the end for Hitler and the Nazi military. Remembering the thousands who lost their lives on the Normandy beaches. My mate Rob in UK goes into hospital today for a major operation, so my thoughts are with him and I wish him all the very best and a speedy recovery.
20/06/23 Tues. We rented a car and drove down to KK today to get some more fabric for a boat bimini top, but they had sold out. However, they said they could get more and would deliver it to Kudat for us. Did a little more shopping for various bits and pieces before driving back to Kudat.
21/06/23 Weds. Four hours stripping down the toilet pump today and unblocking it! It had blocked on Monday night but because yesterday was my birthday, I had put off that job for another day!
24/06/23 Sat. Ana's second visa extension runs out on the 11th July so our plan was to sail down to Brunei, and possibly Miri for a month or so and then come back up here. However, I don't really fancy beating against the SW winds and current for 200+ miles which means we have opted for Plan B. Plan B is to fly up to Manila for a week, Ana can see family and we can then restart the visa clock when we fly back. With that in mind, we've booked flights outward for 10th July and return 18th July.
26/06/23 Mon. A problem with electronic equipment is the failing of the LCD screens. In the tropics, this happens a lot and in my case I've had failed instruments (about 6), failed VHF radio, failed chartplotter, radar screen, GPS screen etc etc., and it makes no difference whether they are internally or externally mounted. On our way up to Puerto Princesa last year, the GPS screen (a Garmin) started showing the dreaded black spot in the centre and when I turned it on to sail back, it had completely gone and nothing was readable on it. Freestanding GPS units are no longer available as most people have changed to chartplotters, and Garmin have discontinued this particular model (the 158i). I didn't want to buy another chartplotter, so I decided to have a go at repairing the unit - it no longer works, so I have nothing to lose! I bought a couple of sheets of polarising film and set about dismantling the screen from the unit. Once out, I removed the old film from the front of the screen. Now I could see through the screen and realised that it was in fact the rear polarising film that had failed. OK, not so much of a problem, I removed the rear film. Then I cut the new film to size and stuck it on both rear and front of the screen. I re-assembled the unit and plugged it in. I honestly thought it would not work but to my surprise it came on and displayed as it should! So 1-0 to me for a change!
28/06/23 Weds. Not so lucky with the radar screen! It's a Furuno 1623 (no longer made) and the screen has the black spot syndrome. I turned it on while in the Philippines and although it came on, the display was unreadable. Today, I turned on the master switch but nothing happens to the display. I stripped it down and changed the rear polarising film anyway but still nothing happens to the display when turned on. How can something fail over a period of time when it's not even switched on? Oh, well 1-0 for Furuno.
30/06/23 Fri. Our fabric from TSM in KK arrived today, we will pick it up from the depot tomorrow.
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