Well, it had to happen. I met my match in a restaurant in Kudat. The Kudat Curry Restaurant. I had to go to town today to get another sander to work on the hull. Our last one through a bearing yesterday and sounds horrible. On the way back, since it was lunch time, I stopped in at the Kudat Curry Restaurant. I'd heard some good things about what they served. I walked in and was escorted to the buffet counter. About a dozen styles of dishes were laid out in front of me. Wanting to keep it simple, I asked for Ayam Curry with Nasi. That's Chicken Curry on Rice. I was presented with a huge dinner plate covered in rice and turned loose on the buffet counter. I picked out several pieces of what looked to be good looking chicken(yes, it still had the bones attached, just like Fiji) and scooped up a good bit of the sauce for the rice. A good looking meal. I grabbed one of the tables and a can of Pepsi(a rarity in Malaysia) and took a seat. It was great curry. Just enough spice to make my mouth sit up and take notice without burning up my taste buds. Here's the strange thing. I couldn't finish it!!! Now if you have been reading our blog for a while, you know that if there is curry in any restaurant I ever visit, I will choose it every time. For the first time that I can recall, there was so much food on my plate that I couldn't finish it! I actually left some food! Never happened before. I guess there is always a first time for everything.

Work has been progressing well over the last few days. On Monday, we mixed up an epoxy filler and filled in all the shallow spots that I'd ground down where we had blisters on the hull. Only about 125 of them were shallow enough for this treatment. The other 85 or so were deep enough that they would require epoxy and fiberglass to fill them up. The first job of using the epoxy filler too all day since each batch had to be mixed(two parts of filler and one part hardener) and you can't mix to much as it starts hardening within about 10 minutes. Tuesday was spent with Juan using our Ryobi sander to take off the high spots on the filler after they hardened. He got ¾ of Zephyr done before the sander through a bearing and died. It was just before 1700, so it was the end of the day anyway.

Today, when we woke up, there was no power in the entire boat yard. That made todays decision of what to do next easy. Grab the two cans of epoxy, and the bats of fiberglass and we started in filling the serious divots in the hull that had deep blisters. We started on the starboard side and finished just about lunch time. With the two of us working together, and seeing how hard he was working, I slipped him 5 ringitts so he could get lunch at the small canteen at the yard. I, meanwhile took off for town to get another sander and some brushes for applying the fiberglass. I got lucky and a local picked me up and dropped me off at Kim Chok Hardware Store. I slipped him a couple of ringitts and he left a happy man. I now had plenty of time for my lunch of curry. I hiked back to the yard since no one stopped to give me a ride ingot back just as Juan was coming back from his lunch at 1330. They get 90 minutes for lunch out here. We pushed hard all through the afternoon because we wanted the port side done before the end of the day and with there being a 30 minute break at 1530, we didn't have a ton of time to spare and get it all done.

I started cutting the fiberglass matting to come as close to the size of the divot in the hull while Juan brushed on the epoxy. We'd made up a board on our cutting table with the numbers 1 through 12 on it. Each for for a pair of pieces of fiberglass cut to match the divots on the hull. Worked great as a batch of fiberglass glue only covers 5-6 patches before it is gone or hardened to such a state that you can no longer brush it on. We pushed and pushed and finished just a few minutes before 1700. The fiberglass patching is almost done. Tomorrow, Juan will be sanding the hull again to smooth out the places the fiberglass made a bump or a ridge around the blisters in the hull. We need them to be as smooth as we can get them for the eventual sealing of the fiberglass and the applying of our new anti foul paint. We have several more things to do before we apply the paint, but each day, we are getting closer to taking off for Bruni. Tomorrow, sand the new raised areas on the hull and apply some epoxy to the front of the rudder and the base of the keel.