by Judy Handley | Nov 8, 2009 | Malaysia, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 8, Year 5: Things Never Go As Planned
Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Weather: Hot and Sunny, Late Afternoon Deluge
Location: Rebak Marina, Pulau Rebak, Langkawi, Malaysia
Before I get to the real story of today, I must explain why I have titled this log Year 5, Day 7. All of the logs from last year’s season were titled Year 3, but just about the time we reached Singapore, we really started Year 4 of the Voyage of Windbird. As I have explained before, cruising seasons and calendar years really don’t match up, but I have decided to go back and rename all of the logs from the time we left Singapore as Year 4 and that now brings us to the beginning of our fifth year of cruising. So that’s the quick explanation if I’ve confused you with the Year 5 title.
Now to today’s story. We did the Dash from our slip on Dock E to the slipway to be hauled out. Gerry of Scot Free II was back to help us and he took our dinghy to be able to push us if we had trouble backing into the slipway. Sailboats just don’t back easily, so it is always nice to have a little help. But when we tried to drive forward out of our slip, we even had trouble doing that. Obviously the prop was so covered with barnacles that it was having trouble driving us forward. But slowly we made our way to slipway and with Gerry’s help backed right in. By 11:30 am we were on the hard and ready to replace the through-hull. Mazrizal, the marina manager, said we could have until 4 pm before we had to Splash, so we figured we would have time to clean the prop as well as replace the through-hull. When Mazrizal asked if we would be done by 4:00 pm, Mark immediately replied by saying that of course we would be done by that time, no problem. Mazrizal immediately stopped him and said it was never a good idea to be so sure, and Mazrizal was right on this one. Mark and Gerry worked on getting the old through-hull out. We had to use Gerry’s grinder to actually cut the old valve off and then knock out the through-hull so we could replace the whole unit. Our old through-hull was beveled, but the new one is straight, so I was concerned about filling the gap. We used 5200 caulk which should have filled the gap and dried quickly never to be removed, but that didn’t happen. The 5200 was very soft, probably because of the heat, and really didn’t dry at all. It is supposed to be able to cure underwater, but when we did the Splash, there was a leak, so we were out of the water immediately. Mark tried a quick fix with epoxy, but on the second Splash, there was still a trickle leak and the decision was made that we would spend the night on the hard, fix the problem in the morning, and go back in the water late tomorrow afternoon. And of course, just as we were being brought back into the hard stand area by the travel lift, the heavens opened up and we had a tropical deluge for about half an hour. And that revealed another problem. We have water coming into the main cabin from the mast. It is probably coming from the top of the mast, which we thought we had caulked completed, but obviously not. Once we are back in the water, we’ll have to check that out. So goes the cruising life. There is a definite cost to living on your boat in paradise, but it is manageable and doable as long as you are a patient.
The highlight of today was talking on the phone to Heather, Sam and Jonah. It was almost bedtime for Sam and Jed was at a meeting so we didn’t get to talk to him, but we got hellos and goodbyes from Sam and we got to hear Jonah in the background. We’ll try to call Justin and Jo tomorrow and see if can hear Ziggy. He always squeals and giggles and that is such a delight to our ears. But now we will call it a night and start again fresh tomorrow. Hopefully things will work better than today and by this time tomorrow night we will be tucked into our slip with no leaks. That is the hope.
by Judy Handley | Nov 3, 2009 | Malaysia, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 7, Year 5: A River Runs Through It
Date: Monday, November 2, 2009
Weather: Still Hot and Sunny
Location: Rebak Marina, Pulau Rebak, Langkawi, Malaysia
Things went a little pear-shaped today. Everything had gone so smoothly since our return that I suppose it was time for a little challenge, and so it was. The story began yesterday when we tried to open the valve to let water into the forward toilet. We’ve never had a problem with it before, but this time when Mark turned the valve we got no water. It appeared that the handle delaminated where it is connected to the valve. The only solution was to do as we did with the forward head valve and replace it. Since Mark was so successful with the first replacement while in the water, he thought he’d try it again. But this time it didn’t work. In order to remove the old valve he turned it once, twice, and then the third time he could feel the whole through-hull turning and we had a nice little river of water flowing into the bilge from the front of the boat to the back. In the engine room, it sounded like river was flowing but thankfully we have two bilge pumps and both were working nicely. One pumps 2,000 gallons of water an hour, so no worries about sinking. But then the hard work began. Mark got out the dive gear and went down to try and see what he could do to hold the through-hull in place while someone else would turn the valve to remove it. He came up with a plan and just about that time our friends Donna and Gerry of Scot Free II arrived in the Rebak Marina. Mark went over to help them dock and then they came to help us with our little dilemma. Gerry worked in the boat and Mark tried every tool imaginable to keep the through-hull from turning with no luck. He finally gave up and wrapped a piece of twine around the base of the valve where the river of water was flowing in. This stemmed the flow to that of a small stream so all should be fine overnight. At the end of the day, we made the decision to have the boat lifted out of the water tomorrow to do the job. We are doing what they call a Splash and Dash where they lift us out of the water and leave us in the slings during the lunch break. This costs less than being taken out of the water and put in a cradle for a few days. When lunch break is over, we go back into the water. So hopefully we can get the old valve removed and the new one in place in that amount of time. We’ll also try to get the bottom power washed to remove the lovely green growth covering the bottom paint and we’ll clean off the prop. Getting hauled out is expensive, but we have no choice this time. Let’s just hope things go smoothly and we get the job done. We’ll let you know tomorrow how things go.
by Judy Handley | Nov 2, 2009 | Malaysia, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 6, Year 5: Day Trip to Kuah
Date: Sunday, November 1, 2009
Weather: Still Hot and Sunny with Evening Lightening
Location: Rebak Marina, Pulau Rebak, Langkawi, Malaysia
The 9:30 am ferry took us to the main island of Langkawi where we got into a rental car with Tina and Robert of Shirena. We drove to Kuah and Mark and Robert dropped Tina and I off at the Billion Shopping Center. I’ve been to the Billion supermarket before, but I had never explored the other shops. This little shopping center is out of the main part of town near the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club and it has a nice array of upscale shops. For the most part it is the same stuff you can find downtown in small shops, just more neatly displayed and at a higher price, but it does have a couple of nice sportswear shops. Tina had to go to the optician in the shopping center. She had just gotten a new pair of glasses there less than a week ago, and last night Robert took a packed suitcase off their bed and plopped it on the table-right on top of Tina’s new glasses. Thankfully Tina was able to get them repaired and then we continued to shop and explore while Mark and Robert drove to the yacht club. A guy named Paul who runs a marine consignment store and chandlery has relocated to the yacht club and Mark wanted to check in with him to see if he has been able to sell any of the items we left with him. He has sold our old dinghy lift, but not our Suzuki outboard and our Monitor windvane. We’ll lower the price and keep trying, but if the Monitor hasn’t sold by the time we have left, we’ll take it with us.
We returned to the boat in mid-afternoon and I managed to get the main cabin up to 100 degrees while cooking dinner. We took a short break and went to the pool to cool off. There were so many cruisers there and we spent our pool time talking to each other about future plans-who’s going where, how, and why. Robert and Tina joined us for dinner, but we had to eat out in the cockpit due to the heat below. Tomorrow they leave for Australia and we inherit their air conditioner. That will be most welcome.
by Judy Handley | Oct 31, 2009 | Malaysia, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 5, Year 5: The Rhythm of a Sailor
Date: Saturday, October 31, 2009
Weather: Hot and Sunny
Location: Rebak Marina, Pulau Rebak, Langkawi, Malaysia
There’s a rhythm of sorts in the life of a sailor and that rhythm is put on hold when you spend huge chunks of time on land. When a sailor returns to the sea, however, the rhythm doesn’t just begin again. It takes time to get it back. So that is what we are working on right now–regaining the rhythm. Part of the rhythm is remembering your organization system, remembering simple things like where you keep the salt, remembering which switch (which of course is not labeled) turns on the new deck light, remembering which set of lines belong where. When we left Windbird in April, everything, and I mean everything on deck was stored below. All of the lines that run through the mast and boom were removed and stored below with the sails and the jerry cans and anything else that normally sit on the deck. Linens were all taken out of their storage places and put in plastic bags. In fact, most everything was taken out of its storage place and put in plastic bags. So in other words, our world has been turned inside out and upside down and it is taking us a few days to get things back in place. The good news is that we can begin to hear the rhythm. It is the beautiful hornbills crying out at dusk and dawn. It is the realization that we are sitting in an idyllic tropical paradise. It is the realization that there is no food in the cupboard and there is no car and no store to drive to-so we need to do something about that. There’s no Family Foods down on the corner to run to when you need something. The sailor’s rhythm is planning ahead, it is the organization that keeps you sane when you live in a very small space, and it is knowing that your interactions with other sailors is much more important than whatever job you had hoped to accomplish. So plan ahead, stay organized, and put people first.
Today we didn’t make as much progress as we had hoped, but accepting that is part of the rhythm. Tomorrow we will get on the 9:30 ferry that takes us to the main island with Tina and Robert. They have rented a car for the day to go to Kuah and have invited us to go along. It will be Sunday here and that is the first day of the work week here. So shops will be open and we will do some major grocery shopping and reacquaint ourselves with Kuah. Tomorrow night we have invited Robert and Tina here for dinner, so I’d better end this log and get this main cabin presentable for company. It’s all part of the rhythm.
by Judy Handley | Oct 31, 2009 | Malaysia, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 4, Year 5: Back Home on Windbird
Date: Friday, October 30, 2009
Weather: Hot and Sunny with Evening Rain
Location: Rebak Marina, Pulau Rebak, Langkawi, Malaysia
It was a good day, good to be back on Windbird, but she is still a mess inside with things piled everywhere. We worked all day, but we probably really only worked the equivalent of two-three hours. The heat requires that you stop every few minutes for a rest period, so progress is very slow. But one really good thing happened. After putting our boat back in the water after the two months of refit in Thailand last spring, we discovered that we had a faulty through-hull. For those of you who aren’t familiar with what a through-hull is, I’ll do a little explanation. Boats have holes in them that allow salt water to come in for flushing toilets, cooling the engine, draining sinks, etc. But you certainly want to control that flow of salt water or you’ll sink! So you put these special valves in each hole called through-hulls. This allows you to shut off the flow of water when it is not needed. It was our aft sink drain valve that was broken, so when we left the boat last April, Mark dove down and pounded a wooden peg in the hole so we wouldn’t have to worry about a leak while we were gone. We were going to have the boat hauled out of the water next week in order to safely put in the new valve without the threat of salt water flowing in while doing the repair. But this morning Mark got up and easily replaced the valve in a matter of minutes. The only tricky part was when he had to knock out the wooden peg and stem the flow of salt water while shutting off the new valve. He was ecstatic that it worked so smoothly and his half hour of work saved us a few hundred dollars in haul-out fees. I wasn’t quite as successful. I spent my day cleaning the deck of the boat. That’s something that usually takes only an hour or two, but it took me all day in the hot sun and I have a nicely burned back to prove it. We also tried to rent an air-conditioning unit from Noel, the guy who runs the little marina store and boat watches in our absence, but the unit was not working. When our friends on Shirena leave for Australia on Monday, we hope to take over their unit. We don’t mind the heat when we are out on the water, but in the protection of the marina, the air just doesn’t flow and it is stifling. Add to that the daily rains that require you to shut up the boat, and an air conditioner sounds mighty good.
Tim of Rendezvous Cay came over in the morning to welcome us back and invite us over for Happy Hour prior to the Bloody Halloween Eve dinner being put on by the marina and adjoining resort. It was great to catch up with Tim and Rose and Dave and Judy of Freebird on Rendezvous Cay and then we went to enjoy the great dinner and entertainment put on by marina and resort personnel. The couple with the best costume won a free night at the resort and that was Richard and Susan of Sea Bunny. Richard went as an exorcist and Susan as a designer bat. The hotel staffers were dressed as ghouls and put on a Michael Jackson style dance performance. It was great fun.
by Judy Handley | Oct 30, 2009 | Malaysia, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 3, Year 5: Penang to Langkawi
Date: Thursday, October 29, 2009
Weather: Malaysia Hot and Sunny
Location: Rebak Marina, Pulau Rebak, Malaysia
We made it home and everything is fine aboard Windbird, but it is HOT. There are touches of mildew here and there, but overall the boat looks great. It’s simply too hot to work at a normal pace, however, so we barely got our suitcases unpacked and the cover on the boat removed before it was time to go to dinner. Tomorrow we will clean the deck and then begin the process of taking sails and other items that belong on deck out of the boat so we can move.
We left Penang at 8:00 am on the Langkawi Ferry. I had a great conversation with a woman from Alaska who works for a cruise company and Mark talked to a family from Cochin, Inida. Before we knew it, we were at the dock in Langkawi. The skies were blue, the sun was shining, and everything looked more beautiful than we remembered. Langkawi is a very clean island and right now everything is so green. The rainy season is coming to an end so this is the perfect time to arriver here. We got a taxi to take us across the island to the Rebak ferry and by 1:00 in the afternoon we arrived in Rebak Marina. Tina and Robert on Shirena met us on the dock when we arrived. They helped us carry our bags to Windbird and invited us to dinner. Even though we did manage to get the refrigerator running, we don’t have any food. So the dinner invitation was a wonderful gift. Robert and Tina head home to Australia on Monday, so it was great to get the chance to catch up on what’s been happening in the cruising world.
