Hello boys and girls; once again I'm writing to you from (the Golden Prince Hotel in )Dou Men, China, across the river from the Seahorse Marine boat factory.  My friend David C and I are here to take delivery of his new Diesel Duck 462; but first he/we have the opportunity to go through the boat and have access to the folks who built it, so we might ask questions: "where is..." "how does this work..." "where does this wire/pipe/cable go/come from" "what is..." "how can I fix..."  The folks here are quite skilled, build a great boat and have evolved/improved since I first saw their work in '03, but they are also human, this is not an assembly line turning out thousands or hundreds of thousands of identical units and there are always things issues to identify and correct before leaving the boatyard, if possible.

These boats are complicated machines with multiple systems, capable of producing electricity, motive power, freshwater from seawater, communicate with the outside world via several sophisticated technologies, navigate safely around the world and much more. 

 We departed SFO mid-day on the 17th, arriving HKG evening of the 18th (local time).  It was a non-stop flight and we did in 13 hrs what took months summer '09 as MV DavidEllis crossed the North Pacific following pretty much the same "great circle" route as UA869. Are economy class airplane seats getting smaller, or am I just less tolerant of sitting in one, hour after hour...

After a relatively sleepless first night in Hong Kong, David and I did a little shopping for local SIM cards rather than pay crazy-expensive roaming fees.  We picked up "dual" SIM cards, having a local HK number, and a local mainland China number at a 7-11 shop (yes, they're everywhere).  David had what was supposed to be an "unlocked" smart phone, but apparently not unlocked enough, so we also got a cheap ($30 USD) mobile.  These SIMs are pay-as-you-go, and make the whole process of staying connected simple, once you get the system worked out.  When living here (SE Asia) 06-09, we juggled USA, HK, Philippine and Malaysia SIM cards depending where we were. 

We also went out to Sham Wan in the Aberdeen Typhoon Shelter and met with James Lai who was the landlord for DE's mooring there in 08-09 and Berry and Denny at Skywave (marine electronics and communications).  

Another night in HK and onto the morning ferry across the Pearl River entrance to Macau, around the backside and up the river to Dou Men port; through CN Customs and Immigration, met by Ah Guang (aka "driver-boy"), a short drive and "Wah", here we are at Seahorse Marine once again.  The usual suspects are here:  Bill and Stella Kimley owners, their son Fido and daughter Natalie and the rest of the Seahorse gang.  

So we've started the process of going thru the boat and it's systems.  David is trying to learn them; I'm trying to explain them, checking out what's changed, and also looking at what improvements I might retro-fit to DE.  We're staying at a hotel in Dou Men (I always forget how hard the beds are!)  

Wi-fi is available at the yard, and I am in touch with the world by email, but cannot get FaceBook in China.  I will experiment with sending some photos to Dorothy back on DE and have her post them to the  "DavidEllis Nagle Boat" FB page  It is  very, very hot here; we are melting.
I'm  not sure when we'll get away from the yard.  David is still trying to work out insurance / flag and so on.  Lots of things to check before we get underway; Ray, the Lloyds surveyor most of the DDs have used, wont be able to come over from PI -- some kind of visa difficulties stemming from China's conflict with PI over islands (and oil) in the South China Sea.

We've been watching Passageweather.com, and there's a low pressure system in the South China Sea predicted to head for HK.  So far, it's not strong enough to be classified as a TS (tropical storm) or typhoon.  Typical southwest monsoon weather for this part of the world.  We'll continue to monitor weather in the So CN Sea for the rest of our time here, as we're hoping to cross to Subic, once David has taken delivery, and we have fully prepared the boat for a blue-water crossing in HK.  

Saturday, 21 July:  Tarzan-hot today.  Many workers at Seahorse seem to find an excuse to come by to David's boat to bask in the aircon for a while.  Things are moving along slowly; there are several items we've found so far, which Seahorse should address and it's early days.  

Some readers of this blog may recall the local policeman we met (in Dou Men) in December 08.  If you check out 15 Feb 09,  16 Mar 09 blogs, there are stories of Zhou Jo and his daughter Yuki.  Today, Zhou Jo stopped by the boatyard to catch up and invite us to his home for dinner.  

In the 3 years since meeting Zhou Jo, he has built a new home, a 6-story building just outside DouMen.  They live on the top 2 floors, storage on the ground floor, and in between they rent out space to high school students, from far away, who come at/after lunch and nap, before returning to school -- a kind of Chinese siesta or reposo (Italian version of siesta). The land immediately surrounding Zhou Jo's house is mostly truck garden. Kind of the perfect place for a hyper vigilant cop (pretty much an unavoidable occupational hazard)-- up 6 floors, 360 degree view; owns the whole building; separate locked ground floor security door to the stairway which goes only to the top floor. Kinda like my retired former colleague who has hermit-ed himself at the top of a mountain, or this other guy I know who lives on a boat and can cut ties with civilization by untying the dock lines. 

We had a feast for dinner:  goose, chicken, fish, what I think was okra and green beans, shrimp and enough Aussie wine to no longer care about the limited language in common.  (My friend Elek in HK says this is how he learned English, hanging out at a pub with English-speaking sailors and getting tipsy enough not to be self-conscious about his limited grasp of the language).  These situations are also made smoother I find, by hauling out the IPhone and showing pictures of things everyone can relate to, no matter the language barriers. 

Besides Zhou Jo's daughter Yuki and wife Ching, a variety of family and friends, there was a niece-in-law, Eva, who is at university in Beijing, speaks excellent English and kindly translated through the evening.  No doubt influenced by consumption of the wine, at one point late in the evening, Zhou Jo and I demonstrated on each other various police restraint techniques, pull-ups and arm-wrestling.  All while Zhou Jo's police partner Ah Fu (our non-drinking designated driver), smiled patiently and made endless small cups of tea.  

We plan a re-match for Monday evening, fueled by peejo (beer).

Sunday 22 July:  OK so it's Sunday morning, I'm at the boatyard (sober).  Continuing hot, a little breeze, and a virtual parade of China Sea fishing boats are coming upstream to shelter from the low pressure system headed this way.

We are definitely at the yard for the next two weeks though we will likely make a mental health run to HK (to receive David's shipment of tools and spares and put it in storage I guess).  

I was thinking about the various uncomfortable periods in Dorothy and my on-going boat adventure and realizing that what makes those times tolerable, often even funny, is experiencing it together.  I am very fortunate to have such a great partner. 

The boat's air con system has one large pump (of the same type as DE  --magnetic) mounted under the genset, which comes on when any of the air cons kicks in and pumps thru all 3 units.  We have 3 smaller pumps which frequently lose their prime -- giant pain in the butt;  I will check about bringing this system home to DE.

A small speedbump regards our phone service here: the dual SIM we bought in HK turns out to have an expensive IDD (International Direct Dial) rate.  I tried to check this before we bought the card, but the package materials were mainly  in Chinese characters, so I couldn't determine, and the information inside the packaging was not specific, referring only to a website. I ran out of minutes after just a couple of calls home.  

So after the boatyard today, we hunted down a China Mobile store, which wasn't too difficult, but it turns out the dual SIMs we bought in HK can't be re-loaded in mainland CN.  Maybe tomorrow we'll get new SIMs.

Monday 23 July:  Almost noon, now finally at the boatyard. Interesting morning.  Bill (Seahorse Marine owner) came over to the hotel in Dou Men and we walked down to McDonalds for breakfast.  Afterwards we checked out some televisions for David's boat, then down the street to Bank of China so I could get some local money and deal with the SIM card issue.  Long line for the ATM, and a new machine.  Only one of the four had the necessary "Plus" symbol.  I managed to get 1000 RMB (about $120 USD) from the machine without losing my card.

Then  across the street, into the closest China Mobile store where by unsuccessful pantomime and successful phone call to Stella at the boatyard, we managed to get new SIMs with a very cheap IDD rate (which requires a code to use) but, upon trying to make a test call home, I got a message that I am not registered for the service and must go to some office with my passport?!  By this time Bill, waiting patiently(?) for us, was virtually asleep, so we all came back to the yard and Stella called the phone company to find out what the deal was/is.  Apparently it has nothing to do with our passport, but anyone signing up for this service is required to provide ID.  Later this afternoon, we will get Ah Guang to take us to the office, then hopefully I will again be able to make like ET and "phone home". 

There's an almost-typhoon headed directly for the coast here.  We're getting rain and a bit of wind right now, and I'm sure it will get more interesting later.  You can easily see it on the PassageWeather.com view of the South China Sea. 

Tuesday 24 July:  Wow!  The un-named low pressure system /tropical depression morphed overnight into Category 4 (Hong Kong Signal 10) Typhoon Vincente, landed just west of where we are and made a hell of a mess!  The storm caused a surge in the river, flooding the entire boatyard, putting 3 feet of water into the offices and workshops.  Sorry to report that a number of chickens and puppies, for whom the boatyard is home are MIA, presumed KIA.  Despite doubled up dock lines and heroic efforts by boatyard workers protecting three new Diesel Ducks at the finishing dock, aft lines failed on one of the 382s which suffered some hull scratches -- very minor (and easily reparable) damage.  

As you might imagine, there's not much boat work happening at Seahorse today.  People are shoveling out their workspaces, trying to save things that got wet, attempt to dry things out while we continue getting periodic deluges, so loud on rooftops conversations are impossible.  David's boat took it's first typhoon in stride, largely because it was tied up facing downriver into the weather.  

Thursday 26 July:  no progress to report as the boatyard is entirely, understandably preoccupied with getting things dried out and back in working order.  Computers and printers trashed, files, blueprints, technical references turned to mush, vehicles damaged by falling trees and now with near continuous rain since Monday, expected to continue through next Monday, further damage is occurring as it is impossible to dry things out. Bill, David and I have been pretty much hiding out in Bill's elevated (so it won't flood) train museum, keeping out of the way of folks trying to pull things back together.  No one here was hurt, although HK and Beijing had injuries and deaths due to the storm, but it is a very big mess. 

Oh some good news, one of the puppies believed lost showed up today!