Staying busy
03 September 2014 | Puteri Harbour Marina
raining again.
We'd planned on heading for Singapore on Monday but we found out that Monday was the final day of a three day holiday here in Malaysia and if Malaysia celebrates, well Singapore is along for the ride. It was Independence Day, celebrating the breaking away from Great Britain back in 1959. Flag were flown and there was a big increase in locals coming to Puteri to celebrate. So instead, we tackled some more small jobs. We flipped Puff(our dinghy) so she was right side up and inflated her so her tubes were nice and hard. We've had a leak in them for years. We find one hole and patch it and still it looses air. I took soapy water and sprayed it all over the place and found nothing. No air coming out, at least not from the top side of the tubes. I filled the entire dinghy with water to see if it was coming out along the floor boards or where it's joined to the stern board. Nothing---no bubbles anywhere. Now I did find out where water was coming into the boat when she is in the water. All the patches that were put on in Fiji(hire a guy to do it--a "professional")had failed and water was flowing out past the patches as the glue had let go. If it comes out, then it must also go in(logical?) but no air came out of any of the tubes.
While I was doing that, Tracy was hard at work polishing the stainless steel bow pulpit and stanchions. She took a rag and slowly worked her way around hitting every thing that was rusty and even some that weren't that rusty. Once we had finished our jobs, we tackled the "stem fitting". That's the set of rollers at the bow that our anchor and chain go through when they are leaving the boat. It's been years since they were serviced and polished. They are beautiful pieces of bronze and very heavy. We loosened the chain from the windlass and then while Tracy pulled out more chain from the locker I pulled the anchor off the bow and set it on the dock of the marina. We undid the cotter pin that holds the nut on the big bolt the wheels rotate on and pulled the bolt out. Tracy grabbed the wheels as I pulled out the bolt. It may sound a bit unorthodox, but we use Lysol toilet bowl cleaner to clean the bronze. When we were in Port Townsend, we cleaned it with tomato ketchup as well as the Lysol. The acid in the tomatoes just ate away at the tarnish on the bronze. I smeared ketchup all over the bronze and just let it sit and sit and sit, every now and then smearing on more ketchup. Between the two, we had a beautiful pair of rollers when we left there. This time, we sat on the dock and with rubber gloves on our hands, sprayed the wheels with the Lysol and then rubbed it in with a cloth. It took a while but most of the tarnish came clean and then we put on "Penetrol", a product that coats the bronze and stops further rust and corrosion. We let it sit for a few minutes and then applied grease to the bolt, steel sleeve that the wheel rolls on as well as the inside of the wheel hub. In went the bolt and on went the wheels and nut and the job was done. Now of course, in true Hudson fashion, we made sure we did this job on the sunniest day in quite a while so we got as much heat as possible. When we stopped, the temperature was in the low 90's and the heat index(what ever that is) was 105 according to the weather sites I look at on the computer! We were both soaked in sweat and a bit dirty with Tracy having black finger nails from the rust. We retired inside Zephyr and after drying off and cooling down a bit, I headed up to Savaro for a "take away" lunch. That's "take out" for us Americans. I, of course got their Chicken Curry(best values anywhere but especially here at the marina) and Tracy had the Chicken Satay--chicken barbecued on skewers that comes with a spicy peanut sauce. Add on a Coke and a Sprite and we felt much better after lunch.
Yesterday, we took off for Singapore to track down a "fish finder". Other cruisers have them on board and love them as they will tell you quite clearly what is under your keel and exactly what the bottom is made of--mud, coral, sand, or rock. Good info to have when you are looking for a place to drop an anchor. The depth sounder we have only tells you the depth. Everywhere we checked, the price was far more than we were willing to pay so we came back empty handed. We did find more Friskies cat food while we were there. We cleaned out two Cold Storage stores at different train stations. Sure glad we brought along our grocery cart. It makes getting the heavy food back so much easier. It was a long day with us not getting back till 1800. We had a simple dinner of a fresh loaf of french bread with pepper jack cheese and several glasses of wine. A nice way to finish out the day.
When we arrived back at the boat from Singapore, we found our out board was back. The last repair job hadn't corrected the problem of the badly running engine so we had it sent back to the service man on late Sunday. This morning, we clamped it to the stern rail, stuck on the water muffs that push water into the intake slots on the engine, hooked up the fuel line and pulled the cord. It sprang to life belching out a HUGE cloud of black smoke. What now!?!?! It shook violently on the rail and the oil warning light was still glowing. I shut it off and check the oil--fine. Pulled the cord and it started but still shook on the rail. When I lowered the revs to idle, it died and refused to start. I walked up to the marina office and when the manager came out from the main office, all smiles thinking that everything was great, he was quite surprised when I told him what had happened. He shook his head as he told me that it had run perfectly when we was at the shop. Well, not any more. He's picking it up later today and taking it back to the shop--again.
We'd booked a van from the marina over to the local grocery store to start stocking up on drinks for our upcoming voyage. There wasn't a can of Coke or Sprite in the store! A couple of bottles but not a can to be seen. What grocery store doesn't carry Coke and Sprite? Guess we will just have to get them tomorrow where we are at Aeon shopping center.
When we returned, Tracy started making her Tom Kha Kai soup. Same stuff she made earlier in the week but we both love it. It's a chicken soup mixed with assorted spices and in a broth of mainly coconut milk. Tracy even added some of the small Thai chilis to mine that really gave it a hot all it's own. Wow it was spicy.
Once Lunch was done, I headed for the forward head to change out the joker valve in the head. Not a hard job but it can be a bit stinky. We have a Jabsco toilet and it eats these valve faster than you can imagine. I'd just put a fresh one in just before we got here and since we rarely use it when in the marina(can't pump what goes into the toilet in the marina water)it was still relatively unused. I did use it every week just to keep the inner working of the toilet lubed and working. Well, the joker valve failed again allowing the out going stuff to come back in. This time, I was going to use a different brand of toilets valve. We have a Raritan head in the stern head so I used one of those. I last installed a new joker valve in this head about FOUR years ago. What's wrong with the Jabsco toilet? Guess we will see how long this valve lasts.