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05/03/24 Tues. We've spent the last two days changing around battery cables and alternator cables, so the boat has been upside down with gear and walls propped everywhere. It's impossible to get battery cables over 1 foot long here in Malaysia, so I've had to chop and change what I had and crimp on new lug ends. Yesterday, I spent an hour or so with Richard, helping him to remove his boom and the (very heavy) motor and gearbox that drives his in-mast furling mainsail. Four more boats arrived over the last two days and the pond is now full, or at least the golf course wall is full.
07/03/24 Thurs. I have a small battery powered drill which was cheap and has served me well over the last couple of years. Yesterday, it stopped drilling when in the downward vertical position, but worked fine if held upward or horizontally. A little odd - but I suspect the clutch to have failed somehow. I decided to take it apart as it was cheap and no great loss if I ruined it! Surprisingly, there are three sets of planetary gears inside and the clutch is operated by 12 ball bearings. The upshot is, when I reassembled it, it seemed to work as it should, so a good result. However.......I intend to buy a Milwaukee when next in KK.
22/03/24 Fri. Change of heart with the Milwaukee drill - I ordered one from Lazada and it was delivered two days ago, so no need for me to worry about drilling for a while! We went to Wawasan Timber yard a week back and got a sheet of 8 X 4 plywood and some hardwood, I've spent the last few days making a new sewing machine case for Ana's Singer as the old one (made of pressed fibre) had fallen to bits. Applied the first coat of undercoat to it today. My cheapo portable inverter which I use occasionally for anything needing over 200 watts gave up the ghost today which is strange as it worked well yesterday, today it wouldn't switch on! I should really get a marine one from the UK but they are around £500 plus shipping and my 200 watt one is good enough for computers, phones, tv etc - fans, kettles, toasters, jigsaw, hoover etc, all need more power.
23/03/24 Sat. Some research into inverters turned up a few problems. I was looking at the Sterling 2200 watt models, but the dimensions are too big and the cables supplying it need to be 702 mm which is bigger than any cable on the boat. I need to drop a size and look at 1600 watt models to fit the available space.
23/3/24 Sun. Helped Ana with cutting material for a mainsail cover (for another boat), then gave Richard a hand with his furling system and boom replacement. Yesterday we suspected a big leak from our water tank and today I made an inspection under the saloon floor. There is a leak from the elbow where the pump connects to the tank, and of course it's in the most inaccessible place. The tank will have to come out for repair, I doubt very much if I will be able to source a replacement elbow, so I will have to try to repair the existing one.
26/03/24 Tues. Today would have been my brother's birthday, I hope he's having a beer or two wherever he is. We took the water tank out yesterday, took it over to the marina and washed it out. I glued and fibre glassed the cracked elbow as a 'make-do' repair and ordered a new one from the Netherlands. A further problem presented itself in that the tank support has all crumbled so that will have to be fixed somehow - not sure how I can do that at the moment given the inaccessibility of it under the saloon floor. My research into inverters goes on and the complications of that are doing my head in! I am now looking at Victron inverters which are the general yachtie favourite.
29/03/24 Fri. Having gone through a few options with the inverter choices, I was interested in the Victron 3000 - but further looking revealed that I need a battery bank of 1200 A/h to run it, so that's out!! I am now looking at the 1600 version which still requires slightly more than the size of my battery bank, but as it won't be used at full capacity, should be OK. I actually ordered one from WaveInn, in the Netherlands but they refused to add a customs label to the package, so I cancelled.
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