Underway again-finally
06 December 2013 | Off north Borneo
Bill
After getting launched on Thursday, we anchored off Kudat and tried to head in for errands on Friday. We launched Puff and then lowered our outboard. She still had a problem running. She would start and run for a short time and then cut off. start-Stop, over and over. It took a while but we made it to shore and tied up the the stone walls. We took off for the Jabatan Laut--Harbor Master to get checked out. Tracy stopped at the grocery store while I headed for the office. Ran into Tallie off "Oryan"., We'd spent a good bit of time together in the boat yard. They had launched several days before us and were now ready to head off for Palawan in the Philippines. I saw that the office was to close at 1130 as Muslims start the weekend early for prayers. Once done with the Harbor Master, I rushed to the Customs office to get checked out there. I got there just after 1130 but they were helping Tallie so they helped me too. If I'd been late, we would have been delayed till Monday to set off. We got all signed sealed and checked out. I headed back to collect Tracy at the grocery store. Apparently from what she said, it was a zoo and she bought nothing.
Once we had taken care of these small errands, we tried to fined a small blinking light we could wire into our systems so people could better see us at night. We've seen them on numerous fishing boats. No one appeared to have them. Off we went(getting a taxi) back to Penuwasa Boat Yard. I needed our small computer looked at. When they made it, they split the hard drive into two partitions--one with just 40 gigs and the other with 180. I wanted them combined. Lionel(another cruiser) would know how to do it and he did. Took a bit of time and effort but he got it done for us. Off we went back to our favorite restaurant for one last Chicken Curry and one Sweet and Sour Chicken meal. It was great as always.
We grabbed another public taxi for the way back and I got new gasoline for the outboard. Still no good so we got as far off shore as the motor would let us and then grabbed the oars. About 50 yards into it, one of the aluminum oars broke. Tracy started to paddled with it. while I rowed with the other. It took a good half hour, but we got back to Zephyr. As we are now heading for Kota Kinabalu, the outboard will be heading back to the repair shop/dealer for more repairs. I'll also be looking for a new set of oars. Guess we will be staying at the marina in KK for a few days till we get everything taken care of. It's more of a resort than a marina so it should be fun. We figure to take a few days to get there but should be there by Thursday. We have to be out of Malaysia by January 4th and the time is running out.
Shortly after taking off, I was down below checking out the engine and found that the bolt that holds on the alternator had come loose and needed to be tightened. We stopped the engine when we were clear and while Tracy rolled out the genoa sail, I headed into the engine room to get it reattached. After running for a while, I was quite hot. I touched it very carefully and after about 20 minutes, got it reattached. All seems fine and we even started the water maker to replenish some of our supplies. We didn't put any in while we were in the boat yard as we were not sure of the quality. Better safe than sorry. We're down to about half tanks so it will take a while to get them filled but we will be in the marina soon and can get them topped up there so it's not a problem.