Photo: My good mate Neil and his hole

I have at last come to the conclusion that my beloved Sänna is a bitch, an evil woman in disguise and, for now, I am done with her. She has tormented me and turned my head inside out for the last time, so I left her to rot in the humid tropical heat where everything else rots and ferments in the rain. Our recent infestation of cockroaches can rot too. When she's learned her lesson, we'll make friends again...

First, the autopilot refused to function and then the refrigeration unit packed up. Our windlass decided not to play ball and our frantic efforts to drop and retrieve our anchor even made the local fisherman smile. The watermaker hose split and then, to top everything, the engine died again because of our ongoing enemy - Diesel Bug! So, we decided to haul the boat out of the water in Kudat, using a jungle boatyard equipped to deal with the local Malay fishing fleet. I needed to change the rudder bearing and I'd bought a replacement out from the UK.

So we hauled out. First, we discovered that we needed to dig a hole in the ground to drop the rudder but my good friend Neil offered to help me fix up Sänna to sail again. But I'd been supplied with a rudder bearing 10mm too big by the awful Clipper Marine in the UK and I'd waited eight weeks for it. Neil got a local Malay from the diminutive Rungus tribe to machine a new collar from some salvaged stainless steel. The guy used a sixty year old machine lathe and it fitted perfectly. My new windlass got stuck in Customs and it took me two weeks to retrieve it. But Clipper Marine had not supplied the right autopilot parts either...

We hauled back into the water ten days later. But my ship's still a bitch and we are not good friends yet. The air con unit packed up, the bilge float switch isn't functioning and my new plumbing to the watermaker leaked...

I'm going to buy a bungalow in England and name it 'Dunroming'.
________________________________________________________________________________
Please visit our SV Sänna website for more details of our circumnavigation voyage from the UK. Also at www.facebook.com/SV.Sanna. Like our Facebook page if you'd like to receive more news about our sail adventure. You can contact us here.