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01/11/23 Weds. Slipped at 0600 and made our way to Pulau Tiga. I noticed that my No. 2 injector is leaking around the base so will have to keep a close watch on that. Lionel has broken two bones and may need a small op. so he has decided to return to Miri rather than go on to KK - a wise decision! Our weather was OK, and we decided it would be reasonably safe to anchor in Tiga rather than Kuala Penyu.
02/11/23 Thurs. A short squall passed through during the night and we had rain and a bit of rolling around. Weighed anchor at 0500 and continued northward past Kota Kinabalu, Gaya Island and on toward Telek Ambong. I had to make a large change of course to starboard north of Gaya, to avoid a submarine which was cruising around on the surface. I believe it was a Scorpene Class boat belonging to the Malaysian Navy and running out ot Sepanggar, probably on a crew training operation. Ambong proved to be a calm anchorage for a change and we spent a pleasant night there.
03/11/23 Fri. We were to go again early this morning but decided to stay another day which was a lucky decision. I did engine checks during the morning and found that the alternator bottom bolts had worked loose, the nuts had fallen off and the alternator was swinging in the breeze! The injector leak is worsening and I couldn't do anything about it as I could not find my 27mm deep socket to remove the injector. This trip has been a nightmare throughout, not a day has passed that I have not had to repair something - autopilot, depth sounder, gps, alternator belt tension, alternator itself, the list goes on. We've had fouled anchor chain in Brunei, rough weather in all anchorages except this time and I'll be glad to get back to Kudat - if we make it!
04/11/23 Sat. Up and about at 0300 and after a coffee we weighed anchor and made our way out of the bay....70 miles to go. It was a calm day with a slight following breeze for the most part and we rounded the tip of Borneo about 1400, arriving in the pond at Kudat at 1615 and rafting up to Shelley again.
05/11/23 Sun. Spent 4 hours today removing all the fuel pipes and governor vacuum pipe before removing the offending injector. I removed all the others while I was at it!
07/11/23 Tues. Drove down to KK, took Terry and Jennifer with us as they wanted a day out. I took my injectors into MKH Enterprises for servicing and all were good save for putting new shims in. Went to some other shops for materials and multitool saw blades and drove back to Kudat in the afternoon.
09/11/23 Thurs. Spent the whole day trying various methods to turn the engine by hand in order to check valve clearances whilst the injectors are out. It's an impossible task as I have found out before.
12/11/23 Sun. The weekend has been taken up with cutting a hole in the fwd engine bay bulkhead - from the saloon side. A difficult job as the access is via the companionway steps, so there is little room to use any tools.
13/11/23 Mon. With the hole cut, I am now able to access the crankshaft pulley nut, so Ana used the socket and extension bar to turn the engine over while I checked and reset the tappets. Most were still within tolerance but a couple were out a few thou.
14/11/23 Tues. Overnight, I had a sudden thought - I had set the valve clearances wrongly! That's the trouble when you are thinking in both metric and imperial measurements, and somehow I had got the two interchanged. No problem, just do them all again today!
15/11/23 Weds. Inserted the injectors and reconnected all the fuel delivery pipes and the return pipe, bled the air out of the system and turned the engine over on the starter. Now I have several diesel leaks! I'm starting to wonder if the torque wrench calibration is out and that is something I will have to check at a later date. Stripped down the fuel system again, cleaned everything, checked all joints and torqued the injectors down a few Nm higher than they should be.
16/11/23 Thurs. Bled the air from the system again and started the engine, ran it for 10-15 minutes and no visible signs of any leaks. Will try again in a day or two.
17/11/23 Fri. Further problems, Around 3am this morning the low battery alarm went off and the house bank was showing 10.6 volts. I ran the engine for an hour to charge them up again.
19/11/23 Sun. Once again the battery alarm went off in the early hours of the morning. One or more of the house batteries must be age defective and as all are 3 years old or more, it is time to change them.
20/11/23 Mon. We went into town this morning and bought 4 new batteries and spent the rest of the day taking out the old and replacing them with the new. This has thrown out the Smartbank memory and as it has been raining for a few days the solar panels are not charging, so the Smartbank cannot reset it's memory.
22/11/23 Weds. The rain continues and the solar panels remain unproductive!
26/11/23 Sun. The problems continue. My new NASA depth sounder is not working again, I've checked the supplied voltage and it's 13.6v. I've fitted the old one for the time being and will have to write to Cactus Navigation and tell them about the faulty one. I changed the LED's in the main saloon light which has made it brighter and this morning the one in cockpit gave up the ghost!
27/11/23 Mon. Took the cockpit light apart this morning and changed it from 240vac to 12vdc, fitting new LED's, it's not as bright as it was but it will do fine.
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