Yesterday started out great. The man we hired to scrape the bottom paint off showed up almost on time. Slow process with a wood chisel but he is making progress. The paint is stuck well to the hull.

I tried to get our outboard going again spraying a special starter chemical into the air filter. It would start for a second and then die again. Tommy, the man that's arranged the scraper man for us came up and looked at it but had no idea why it still won't start. He suggested the shop in town but since it's not a Yamaha, he won't even look at it. The closest place is in Kota Kinabalu, about three hours by car from here. Guess we'll be taking a trip soon. Can't really leave with out our out board running.

With Tracy being down again with a cold, we decided to pull out the air conditioner we bought back in Fiji. We've had it stored in the stern under the bunk. They have had a small fire in the back of the yard and it's been upsetting her breathing. Out it came and into the companionway doorway. We cleaned it up and fired it up. Still works great. The kids are enjoying it each taking turns sitting on the table in the main cabin. They no longer beg to get out or at least not as much. The air is getting filtered better and hopefully Tracy will be breathing better.

I hiked into town to pick up more of the sanding disks for the new electric sander I bought. Hope it speeds up the bottom work. I'd dropped off the laundry the day before and it was ready for pickup. Total of $64 ringgits($20US) for a lot of smelly laundry. Decided to stop in for lunch since I was in town. A huge plate of Chicken fried rice with two cokes(even came with ICE). All for $7.50 ringgits($2.36US). Picked up the laundry after lunch and grabbed a taxi back.

Now it was time to pull out the broken thru hull that the handle had snapped of when we were trying to close it when we were getting pulled out. I unscrewed the end and had to bang on it a bit to get it to come loose. Now we have turned this handle numerous times but I guess not as much as it needs to stay loose and open and close. It's now out and I'll be taking it to the local machine shop to see if they can fix it.

I was out showing it to one of the other cruisers at his boat and you could see that Mother Nature had a big storm coming. I just made it back to the yards machine shop/office compound when it opened up. Started just about 1445 and it poured and poured. Still raining at 1620 but was light enough that I could get back to Zephyr. I watched as the water poured out of the drains on Zephyr. Tracy had come down(with an umbrella) to see me as I had been sitting(and dozing) wait for it to stop.

With the rain stopped, it was time for my shower. I grabbed clean clothes and headed down the steps(sort of a ladder/step design) while Tracy continued to rest inside. I saw my left foot start to slip and the next thing I remember was Tracy standing over me trying to get me up. She's heard a big thump when I went down the ladder and thought is sounded a bit strange. She came out and looked over the side to see me sprawled out at the bottom of the ladder, out cold. Blood pooling beside my head from what she said. I finally came to and she helped me to the restrooms to see how bad I was. She tossed me in the shower and turned on the water. I was suddenly in a pool of red water. Not a good thing. I tried to act tough and say I was alright but she was having none of it. I was headed for the hospital and there was no discussion about it. I had scrapes all over my arms and legs too. I was a mess.

Once dried off, I called the man(Peter) that has been my taxi driver and he rushed over and took us both to the hospital, me still bleeding from my head. Luckily, I put a copy of our crew list in my wallet as they wanted my passport number. Charge at admitting--$50 ringgits($16US). I sat shivering in the waiting room as shock was setting in. Plus they had the place cold enough to keep meat. I was seen a few minutes later and was checked out and cleaned up and ended up with 20 stitches in my head(8 inside and 12 outside). The cut is in the shape of a "Y" so it looks like I hit one of the steps as I went down and then fell the rest of the way to the concrete pad. I also got a tetanus shot since it had been years since I'd had one. The doctor gave me prescriptions for the pain, an antibiotic and one for "sweating". I thanked him for the one for sweating while I had no idea why he was giving me one for that though I sweat like a pig most hot days out here. We checked when we got back to Zephyr and it's for "swelling" not "sweating". My head had a BIG goose egg on the side. It wasn't going to be a pleasant night sleep. Cost for the entire procedure-- the original $50 ringgits. Nothing more for the surgery or the prescriptions. Peter told us that a local only pays $1 ringgit for what I had received. Peter stay with us the entire time and brought us back to the boat a couple of hours later. Great guy.

The pain meds were nothing more than weak Motrin so Tracy checked our stash and came out with something more potent and I took it. Never really kicked in so the rest of the night was quite uncomfortable. Hopefully today will be better.