01/10/14  Ordered a new air filter assembly to be delivered from the UK and am now thinking how I can reposition it away from the deck hatch, which sometimes allows salt water onto it and causes the corrosion.  The ideal solution would be to seal the hatch properly but I am unable to do that with any degree of success due to the design of the hatch and the lack of suitable sealing materials.

02/10/14  My next door neighbour Joe, returned from the UK so Luna the cat has her 'Dad' back but is still living on my boat - probably in a huff at being left!

05/10/14  0520hrs...coffee in the cockpit while watching the International Space Station going overhead.  Skies clouded over not long after that and it rained for most of the day!

07/10/14  Still raining heavily.  Joe moved boat over to Penuwasa shipyard for haul out, so no more cat under my feet now......and she had made herself quite at home onboard Rhumb Do!

08/10/14  Nothing but wind and rain for the last few days!  Missed the lunar eclipse tonight because of total cloud cover and heavy rain.  No work being done onboard.

09/10/14  The LED navigation bulbs that I ordered at the end of last month arrived today, so that's another job that I can do once this awful weather system has cleared off. My instruments registered 45 knots of wind this afternoon, which because it is on the starboard side, causes the boat to heel over considerably.

10/10/14  Periods of dry weather today!  I took the opportunity to fit the new LED bulbs to port, starboard and stern lights - impressive brightness!  They should be visible now at 6 miles, well above the 2 miles required by Colregs for my boat length.  Power consumption is down too, 5.7 amps with the old filament bulbs, 1.1 amps with the LED's.

11/10/14  Town for essential shopping today, then up to the cafe to watch the qualifying sessions for tomorrow's Grand Prix in Russia.

12/10/14  More rain!  I need some dry and calm weather to get my mainsail back on, and to empty the after cabin again so that the woodwork can be varnished.  Watched the Russian Grand Prix in the evening with the predicted result of 'whoever leads into the first corner will win.'  Hamilton wins!

13/10/14  Cooking gas is becoming an issue now; my present bottle is almost empty and it used to be possible to go to the supermarket here and buy a full bottle, but not anymore!  They, and all the other outlets will now, for some reason, only exchange bottles - very odd!  I should explain that I cannot exchange my bottle because it is from Brunei and not Malaysia, and it has different fitting and regulator to boot.  So now begins the hunt to find someone locally with an empty bottle to sell, so that I can take it and exchange it for a full one.

14/10/14  Sunny and light breeze - perfect!  With Al's help, I got the mainsail on and sorted out the reefing lines and lazy jacks.  I just hope I've got it right as I have had to make alterations at sea in the past after this job.  Emptied the after cabin again and stored most of the stuff (junk?) in the forward cabin while Al sanded the woodwork down in preparation for varnishing.

15/10/14  I have had a visit from the boat gremlins!  For a week or two now, I've been wondering where two items are - a boxed Dremel and a Bosch orbital sander - and I have searched the after cabin previously.  Now I KNOW the Dremel was stored in a locker on the stbd side of the aft cabin, so today I again emptied every locker in that cabin, all ten of them - port and stbd sides and under the berth cushions, but no Dremel.  So......the gremlins have been onboard!  The orbital sander was used almost every day when I was out of the water in Penuwasa Shipyard and didn't yet have a 'home' for storage, so was left out by the chart table when I returned to the UK.  But it's not there now, or anywhere else for that matter, nor have I had sight of it since my return.  How can things disappear in an total area of 35 feet by 9 feet??

16/10/14  With all the woodwork in the aft cabin now varnished with two coats, I replaced all the boxes containing clothes, electrical bits and so forth, looking in each box for the gremlins hiding place, but no luck on that front; it remains a mystery that I find myself pondering over on a daily basis.

17/10/14  OK, tackle the watermaker today and do the modification which should have been done in Egypt!  Emptied the lockers above and below the galley sink, disconnected all the pipework and removed the membrane unit into the cockpit.  Cleaned and painted the now empty lockers.  Dismantled the watermaker and replaced the pistons, sleeves and push rod with the modified items, along with dozens of 'O' rings, then re-assembled it ready for installation in the locker.  I had some difficulty with the high pressure hose connection at this point and decided to leave it until the morning - more light and less tired then!  The two German yotties, Stephan Viktor Okonek and Heriken Diesen, taken by the Abu Sayyaf rebels off Palawan in April, were today released - excellent news!  The Philippine army continue to track and eliminate the rebel camps. 

18/10/14  Completed the watermaker installation and ran it to check for leaks - all OK, but there is a leak from the pump in the fwd cabin which will now have to be removed for repair.......another job!  Also, there appears to be no suction from the onboard tank for flushing the watermaker after use, so that will have to be sorted out as well.  Inflated the dinghy and sat in it while replacing the bottom end of the windvane at the stern.  On the good news front.....Al has found someone who has an extra gas bottle for sale, so he got it for me and exchanged it in town for a full one.

19/10/14  My late Dad's birthday; he would have been 105 today.  I hope you're enjoying yourself Dad wherever you may be.  I emptied the lockers in the loo/shower today - unbelievable how many bottles of shampoo, cleaning stuff, shower gels and toothbrushes were in there!  Al got on with painting the inside of the lockers while I put the windvane and autohelm bits back on the steering wheel, fitted the wheel, the cockpit table and the drinks holder.  In the loo, the paint wasn't fully dry by the end of the day, so all the bottles are now cluttering up the fwd cabin and deck space until tomorrow.

20/10/14  All the stuff replaced in the lockers by 10am apart from the rubbish being thrown away.  Result....a cleaner, tidier locker space!

21/10/14  Happy Birthday Sandra!  I wonder what Nelson would think of todays modern Navy on this anniversary of Trafalgar?  In 1805, in that decisive battle, he commanded 27 warships and now we have just 19 destroyers and frigates in the entire fleet.  But not to worry, we still have 33 Admirals on £100,000 each per year, so that's OK ......isn't it?

22/10/14  Into town again today for more pills from Doc, only to find that it's a public holiday and the surgery was closed.  So was the frozen food store.  But hang on a minute.....it's an Indian public holiday, and the Doc is Chinese, and the food store is Malay?  Oh, well, at least I got my hair cut!

23/10/14  Back in the dinghy and looking into the problem of the auxiliary rudder not locking down properly.  For some reason, when the securing bolt is tightened, the whole rudder is forced downward into the release position - obviously not right!  The bolt tightens onto a tapered bushing which to me seems very odd and I can think of no logical reason why it should be designed that way.  Sent photo's and e-mail off to the manufacturer for advice.  Emptied the starboard lockers of the forward cabin and painted the insides white before going back to town and the Doc's, where I got three months supply of meds and vaccination against Hepatitis A and B.  Another visit next week for Tetanus jab!

25/10/14  A local 'sail repair man' came onboard today at my request, and measured up my outboard engine for a cover to protect against accidental scratching on future pontoons and jetties.  I also got him to measure and make a cover for my horseshoe lifebuoy, and the steering wheel as my existing one is now past it's prime!  He must be a busy man as he said delivery would be two weeks!

26/10/14  British Summer Time ended at 2am this morning, so now there is an eight hour difference between time zones.  Not doing much today, just general clearing up.

27/10/14  Took an early morning taxi down to Kota Kinabalu, a journey in which we were stopped at four police road blocks and had to produce ID.  On arrival, I booked a couple of nights at the King Park Hotel, then spent the day wandering around all the 'in town' hardware stores in search of waterproof grease, silicone grease and Malaysian flags!  Not much luck with any!  Late evening I got a taxi to the airport.

28/10/14  Midnight.....and sitting waiting for Astrid to arrive from Germany, via Seoul.  By 1am, we were sorted ...........good to see her again and I hope she enjoys her holiday on the boat!!  Back into town and sit talking for several hours before hitting the hay for what remained of the night.  Down to breakfast at 8, then caught a bus out to Inanam to have a look there for the grease needed for the stern gland packing - a moderate degree of success today.  In the afternoon we wandered around the shops of KK, buying bits and pieces.

29/10/14  Breakfast at 7, then catch the 8am bus to Kudat, arriving around 11.30am after once again having to pass through four road blocks and produce ID - this has to be connected to the ongoing rebel situation here in Sabah.  Spent the afternoon lazing and catching up on all the news, then dinner and a few beers in the marina restaurant during the evening.

30/10/14  Back to a bit of work.....Astrid had brought out two LED bulbs to replace the halogen ones in my saloon spotlights.  I had bought them from an automobile accessories supplier but neither worked in the spotlight housing.  I figured that unlike marine LED's, they may be polarity sensitive so I swopped the lamp wiring around and bingo, they worked!  My engine air filter had also arrived in the marina, so we walked over to Penuwasa shipyard to get it modified, ie a sump breather pipe welded onto the end of the casing.  Then we walked into town and did a little shopping before returning to the marina about 5pm for dinner.  E-mail from the Aries manufactuer informed me that the reason the bushing appears tapered is because of corrosion behind the stainless steel forcing it out of position.  OK, no problem, I can fix that - I chiselled out the bush, which is little more than a thick washer, cleaned out all the corrosion of the aluminium alloy, then epoxied the 'bush' back into place.  Hopefully that will be set in the morning and the problem cured.

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