An average day and a GREAT day!
05 September 2014 | Puteri Harbour Marina
cloudy with some wind
The small jobs have been continuing on Zephyr. We emptied what we call the "garage" on the stern. It's a big storage area that lets us store tons of stuff we don't want inside--all the polishes, oils, stern anchor,etc. We've had an old battery box inside the "garage" trying to keep some things dry. Instead, what we found when we lifted the lid to the garage, most things were fine as water off the deck keeps washing over them every time it rains as the seals are gone. When we opened the box, inside was a mess. Lots of mold and dirt. If any thing, it was far worse inside the box than out. We pulled the box out and took everything to the faucet on the dock and with a scrub brush got most of it cleaned. We pulled everything out of the "garage" and went through it all with a critical eye. What did we really need? First of all, the box went. One of the other cruisers is going to use it for a tool box. Other items we left of the dock next to the trash can were gone by this morning. "One mans trash is anthers treasure" is the rule out here. A messy job is done.
While reading the local news paper, The New Straits Times about what is recommended at a day full of meals. You start out with a breakfast of a tuna sandwich at 0730. At 1030, it's time for a midmorning snack of fruit and yogurt. At 1330, you get a lunch of Chicken & Vegetables with rice. A "tea time" snack at 1600 of dried fruit and nuts. Dinner isn't till 1930 when they recommend Seafood Noodles. But we're not done yet. They have a "night snack" of High Fiber crackers and milk. Not a Big Mac to be seen.
Let's fast forward to today. It's been a GREAT DAY!! We bought an old style window air conditioner back when we were in Fiji, several years ago. It's had a good bit of use over the last few years and the bearings inside the motor were starting to sound like it. We'd taken the cover off before to clean it but this time, we went deeper in the unit. We scraped dirt and I'm sure mold off the blower blades as well as on the bottom of the pan. All kinds of gunk came flying out when we started the unit. It still sounded bad, really bad. We sprayed WD 40 in as many places as we could find and still the grinding continued. I looked inside the case and saw what looked like a piece of foam around the shaft leading to the blower blade. I stuck my fingers in and slowly pealed it back. Voila--there was the drive shaft that lead to the motor. Tracy grabbed the WD40 and with me holding the foam back, she let loose with a bunch of the stuff. We plugged in the a/c and turned it on. It was QUIET!!! Low or high, it was quiet. Eureka!! We had found the bad bearing and now, with a bunch of WD40 on it, it was much better. We put the cover back on, rearranged the supports it sits on in the cockpit and we can now talk inside with out yelling. We will be able to hear the TV tonight without the volume on HIGH.
Tracy suggested I try and fix one of our computers as my next project. Several months ago, on the advice of a tech at a company back in the US, I made some changes to the wiring on a 12 volt charger for the computer and fried the logic board. I ended up sending the computer back to them as no Apple store would even look at it as it's considered a "vintage" computer. This translates to "Hey, why would we want to fix it when we actually want you to buy a new one". The company replaced the logic board but the computer was just fried I guess. In the end, I told them to rip out the old hard drive and ship it back to me out here in Malaysia. While I was back in the US, I bought an old MacBook that was just about identical to what had gotten fried. After much though and deliberation, I figured that if I took the old hard drive from the burn out computer and stuck it in the "new" one, it just might work as it was already formatted as a mac hard drive. Off came the cover and out came the hard drive. I slid in the "new" one from the old fried computer and crossed my fingers and hit the "on" button. A minute or so later, I was greeted by my old startup screen!!! I had my old friend back!! This computer had all my photos and music and just about everything we had done since leaving the US years ago. I was so happy I danced around the cabin with a big smile on my face. See, I'm the kind of guy who knows just enough about computers to get really messed up and not knowing how to fix what I screwed up. Well, this time, IT WORKED! I'm now sitting in the chart room at the club house getting all our Ipods and our new Ipad synced with the new and improved computer. OH, it's a great day!!!