Singapore - Part II

As mentioned in the last post, we enjoyed our visit to Singapore very much. Our primary touring day was overcast, which suited us just fine. We did the hop-on, hop-off bus tour which was really good value. The old and new sides of the city were apparent everywhere.

There was a great Chinatown, both old....

and new....

Little India was very colourful.

There were many attractions, but, we only had time for one. We chose Gardens by the Bay, two huge glass domes, one the Flower Dome...

the other the Cloud Forest dome, replete with a man-made waterfall.

One of the benefits of living on a boat is that you can't accumulate much stuff, there's no room. So, even though the shopping possibilities were endless and even we couldn't fail but to be impressed by the plethora of quality shopping malls, we didn't buy anything. Food is another matter, however. Maybe it was having been on boat rations for a while, but, the food seemed just amazing, every cuisine imaginable and there was a restaurant every few steps. We enjoyed lots of good food. We also went crazy in the Marks and Spencer food hall and stocked up on all our favourites!

One thing we didn't like about Singapore was the amount of tourists. This was the view of the famous half-lion/half-fish fountain at 9 a.m. Not much room left and we chose to just view it from a distance.

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Malacca Strait to Singapore

It wasn't without some trepidation that we headed south towards the Malacca Strait and Singapore. After all, just a few years ago, this area had a fearsome reputation for piracy. There are still commercial piracy incidents taking place regularly, but, none against a yacht for a decade. Our insurance policy actually excludes travel through the Malacca Strait, but, there's no other easy way to get through. When we got close to the start of the traffic separation scheme, we were interviewed about our boat and crew details on the VHF radio by a Malaysian warship, just routine, but, it was somewhat reassuring when they said if you have any trouble just to call them on 16.

It is the most traveled shipping strait in the world and the sheer volume of traffic could seem daunting. We've crossed the English Channel a number of times, been through the Kiel Canal and through very heavy shipping in the North Sea and this seemed comparable in terms of traffic separation zones and monitoring, so, we weren't too worried. Our plan was to cross over to the south side of the Strait at a very narrow point before we got into Singapore proper and just stay out of the way. The night before the crossing we anchored at Pulau Pisang. It was a very calm night and we enjoyed watching the endless stream of ships on the horizon as the sun set. These ships are actually spaced quite far apart, they were usually much closer together. In the morning, they were coming at us four abreast.

Our strategy went well, crossing the Strait at the requisite right angle meant it was only about 5 miles wide at our crossing point. We got across the northbound lane easily, but, then got stuck in the middle and had to wait almost an hour for a decent break in the southbound traffic to enable us to get through. This wasn't a time to be impatient, we just had to wait for the right moment. Once across, the rest of the journey was uneventful, we hugged the shipping lane without going into it and only had a few confusing encounters with tugs, high speed ferries and local fishing boats.
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The other reason for hugging the south, Indonesian side, was so that we could anchor overnight. You're not allowed to stop and anchor in Singapore waters (or sail, for that matter). We anchored and had another calm night. There was only about thirty miles to go until we reached our destination, Nongsa Point Marina, in Batam, Indonesia. From there we could catch a ferry to Singapore. It only takes an hour and is a lot more cost and time-effective than trying to take your own boat into Singapore, especially now that they are requiring yachts to hire an agent for in/outbound clearance.

Visibility from seaward wasn't great, but, the first view of Singapore was still an impressive sight.

The marina turned out to be expensive, but, rural, quiet and very nice.

We rested for a couple of days and then headed over to the glitz and glamour that awaited us just across the water. We weren't sure what to expect. We'd booked two hotel nights at the Four Points Sheraton on points (thanks once again Amex/Starwood) and couldn't wait for two air-conditioned sleeps.

Actually, we liked Singapore very much. It was a fascinating blend of the old, new and four cultures: Chinese, Indian, Malay and British. It is as spotlessly clean as everybody says it is. Everything seems new and prosperous with lots of construction and land reclamation. The old and new can clearly be seen in this juxtaposition.

The Marina Bay Sands, a multi-billion dollar development was just stunning, from every angle. The cantilevered observation deck is an engineering marvel. It was very impressive.

The landscaping was impeccable everywhere, whether at ground level, or, above.

One thing that surprised us was that Singapore is also a river city with a river (more like a canal really) running through it. From the hotel, there was an excellent, 8km walking path, lined with bars and restaurants with great buildings and street art. This bronze sculpture was stunning.

There was so much to see, I'll share more photos in the next post....

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Farewell to Malaysia

The week we spent at Telaga Harbor Marina, north Langkawi, wasn't entirely spent on boat repairs. We did a bit of tourist activity as well and were glad to finally get around the island. We visited Eagle Square, at the main town of Kuah. There were real sea eagles wheeling around the bay that put this replica one to shame, but, it's huge and a very noticeable landmark when approaching from seaward.

We travelled up the cable car, reputedly the steepest one in the world to get this view of the marina. Gjoa is in there somewhere.

Malysia, or, maybe just Langkawi, is very laid-back about some things. We were able to rent a car for  < C$30 for the whole day. We didn't have to show a driver's licence, credit card, id and didn't have to sign anything. You're just handed a key and told to put a little gas into it before bringing it back. It even had working air conditioning. There's probably no insurance either, but, we tried not to think about that. We used the car to full advantage, touring the island and stocking up on our provisions.

Ever since we started cruising, I'd been hearing about New Zealand canned butter, but, had started to think it was a sailing myth as I could never find it. They had it here and we stocked up.

Along the way, we enjoyed a delicious Chinese lunch at an open air restaurant for about C$7 for both of us, including soft drinks. Then, we hit the shops. There are a couple of western-style supermarkets here, but, for other items, it's shopping how it used to be. You go into the store and tell the person at the counter what you want and they go and retrieve it. After wandering miles around and around, frustratingly huge, home improvement stores like Bunnings, in Australia, looking for a few screws or something, it seemed refreshing.They always seemed to have what we wanted, or, if not, would happily refer us to another store where we could get it.

Although we can hardly say we saw a lot of the country, only Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi, we found that the longer we stayed, the more intrigued by it we became. Malaysia doesn't seem to have a very high profile (except when they lose a couple of airliners), but, it seems to have a lot going for it. The two large, remote, northern provinces, Sabah and Sarawak, which cover most of the northern half of the island of Borneo (Indonesia occupies the southern half and they call it Kalimantan) seemed especially intriguing with their many national parks and tropical rainforests. The wildlife sounds incredible, from the only bear species in SE Asia, the Malayan sun bear, to tigers, civet cats, leopards, many monkey species and the Borneo pygmy elephant. Birds, of course, are also there in great number and variety. There are resorts in the parks and they are fairly accessible. To go by yacht, unfortunately, requires participation in a rally that has an obligatory night curfew and a military escort through the piracy areas close to the Philippines.

Along the west coast of peninsular Malaysia, down which we'll be travelling soon, there are also a couple of highlights. Georgetown, on Penang island, is a Unesco world heritage site and Malacca, the historic fishing village located on the Malacca Strait. We had hoped to stop at these places, but, given that each would take a few days, or more, to do properly and would also complicate our boat status we'll probably just travel through.

All the locals we interacted with have been very polite, soft-spoken and somewhat self-effacing. However I think it would take a very long time, if ever, to become part of their community. On the surface, some things were very charming, like this street sign, which we're not sure what it means.

Then, there are signs like this where the picture looks like the authorities really mean business.

Google translates the words as:

"Warning

The restricted area of the intruder will be prosecuted"

When we first arrived, it was Ramadan. We were quite shocked when we went into the local McDonalds for an ice cream cone to see a large sign on the door stating:

"All Muslims are forbidden to eat at McDonalds during the fasting hours of Ramadan and can be charged by the local authorities." 

Hmmm......

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First Passage - Langkawi to Batam, Indonesia

We filled our water tank (take note of this, it becomes significant as I'll explain in a minute), topped up our diesel and left Telaga Harbor Marina for Kuah where we were going to check out of Malaysia. Checking out in Kuah meant that we would not be allowed to stop again in Malaysia and would need to travel to our next port of Batam, Indonesia (just across the Strait from Singapore). So, we planned to do a few overnight sails and anchor at a few places without going into a port, or, ashore. The nicest anchorage, by far, was this one at Pangkor Laut, where we were adjacent to a very beautiful, luxurious-looking little resort.

We spent a full day and night here, but, we weren't lazing around enjoying the scenery and gorgeous little sand beach. It proved to be just another one of those places where, as sailors say, "you get to fix your boat in a lot of beautiful, exotic places"

So, once more to back up to the beginning. We left Kuah and headed south. We had been expecting to have to motor all the way to Singapore, if not all the way to where we'd jump off for Australia, due to the constant headwinds at this time of year. It's not really the "right" season to be going this way, but, luckily with our new engine in this boat, we are able to make decent progress against some chop, tidal current and headwind, which, in our previous boats, would have stopped us dead. The wind is light, only around 5-10 knots, up to 20 or so, more in the short squalls we're experiencing. Even just 20 knots though seems to set up a nasty short swell which can be 2.5/3.5 metres.

First day out, things were going fine, even though a squall was coming our way and the visibility had decreased significantly. Around noon, we had dolphins around the bow, always welcome visitors. G said I'll just pop down to make a cup of tea. All was well until he quickly came back and said there's no water? Remember we'd just filled the tank before we left, where had it gone? We opened the engine room and there it was, all 350 litres sloshing around all the running equipment. The bilge pumps in this boat also need a redesign (it's on the list). There are four pumps and many pickups, but, only one is on a float switch and it's not the lowest one in the boat. All the others need to be turned on at the panel when needed. We turned the engine room pump on and the pump that we had tested a few weeks ago decided not to work. It probably just needed priming, but, we were more concerned with just getting the water out. Luckily, we'd bought a 6L manual vacuum pump the day before we left. We stopped the boat in the pouring rain and started manually bailing. Three hours later and around sixty repeats of fill up the pump, take it up the stairs and dump overboard we had most of the water out. What had caused the problem? Take a look at this. Not one, not two, but, three hose clamps in a row had given out! Two of the three clamps are clearly marked USA, so, we can't blame poor quality Chinese steel. We're not sure how this could have happened. Were the clamps overtightened? Why were there three on that join anyway, surely two should be enough? Too much water pressure? Anyway, all hose clamps are now suspect and we've got another item for 'the list'.

We continued on our way knowing that we'd missed our window to anchor that night and would just have to keep going, like it or not. A few hours later, the next mishap occurred. This was getting tiresome. The toilet totally blocked up 100%. We've never had an electric toilet before and we'd noticed that it didn't seem to be working too well, but, weren't sure how it was supposed to work, so, had just put it on "the list'" to be looked at, either a rebuild, or, replace. Now, however, it became an immediate priority. Having to "bucket it and chuck it" isn't fun. Almost a full day was spent in the anchorage dismantling, cleaning and reinstalling the toilet. Didn't work. It had to be the hose. Marine head hoses and outlets are notorious for filling up with calcium deposits and hoses should be replaced regularly. We took this one off and because we didn't have spare hose had to lay it on deck and beat it with a hammer to break up the deposits, then, ream it out with a broomstick. After reinstallation, the toilet flushed with incredible force, obviously the way it was supposed to work. Hose replacement has now been added to "the list".

It's true that at some points during these mini-dramas (which don't seem so mini when you're living them) we were feeling very disheartened  and wondering whether a return to cruising was the right decision. It's really been just maintenance issues so far though and we will get ahead of them at some point. On the bright side, a lot of things are still working: the electronics are talking to each other, the autopilot works, the windlass works, the fridge works (freezer not so much), we've tried the watermaker, the washing machine and the shower and they all work. It feels so incredibly luxurious to be able to shower on the boat. We have tried the hot water heater, but, it's not really needed, the water at air temperature is hot enough!

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A Rocky Start and Change of Plan

This picture looks like it might be Thailand doesn't it? It's not. It's northern Langkawi, Malaysia, which is where we ended up for a week, at Telaga Harbour Marina, doing boat repairs rather than going on our planned shakedown cruise to Phuket, Thailand.

But, back to the beginning. We were excited to leave Rebak Island Marina and for the first night out headed to an anchorage just a few short miles away. It was idyllic. We sat on our sugar scoop stern and dangled our feet in the warm water. There was a light breeze blowing, picturesque fishing boats were anchored in the bay and we looked forward to our first night at anchor on our new boat.

It wasn't to be. We had three 'sumatras' blow through in the night. These are sudden, short squalls usually lasting no more than an hour, but, they can pack fierce winds, up to 50 knots. The first blew through around 8 p.m. and we watched the deluge with mild interest. Around two a.m., when the wind generator started whining like an aircraft's jet engine, we knew this squall was going to be a little different. The wind only went to about 35 knots, but, it was enough to whip up a good swell and we started to drag. If it had gone to 50 knots, we probably would have dragged right across the bay. As it was, we went about .3 of a mile. Luckily, we had the sea room. Replacing our ground tackle is near the top of our list for a number of reasons, but, this just confirmed it should be done sooner rather than later. The current primary anchor is a stainless steel CQR which must have cost a fortune, but, stainless steel or not, from past experience, the CQR design just isn't efficient. It's shaped like a plough and even though we'd set the anchor well and backed it down, when the wind picks up, a CQR just acts like the plough that it is and makes a nice furrow as it travels along the bottom.

In the morning we did our usual boat checks before leaving. Part of this was checking our DC isolation switch. To our horror, instead of two pretty little red lights glowing, one was flashing on and off each time the boat rolled in the swell. This was not good. An aluminium boat, if wired properly, has a floating ground which means nothing is grounded to the hull. Two red lights are good, meaning there is a continuous circuit. One light means that something, somewhere, is shorting to the hull. Stray current corrosion like this can cause the hull to corrode very quickly with results no aluminium boat owner wants to think about.

We opened the panel to see if maybe it was just a loose wire and to our even greater horror, four wires came loose and just dropped out of their slot, number 102. We tried to put them back where we thought they came from, two wires touched and there was an arc. The first obvious result was that the battery monitor had gone dead. Then, after trying a few things, we realized that all our 12V devices did not seem to be getting the correct voltage. We traced this to our 24V-12V DC/DC converter, but, it wasn't obvious what was wrong with it. After all, it had been working fine the day before. At this point, we weren't sure what the issue was and decided, rather than risk further damage, to proceed the old-fashioned way, without electrics, until we could get to the bottom of it. Out came the paper chart and hand-bearing compass and we limped our way into Kuah Harbour. We anchored there while we tried to find a qualified marine electrician which seemed impossible in a place like this. However, we got a line on one at Telaga Harbour marina, about twelve miles to the north and we set off the next morning. We arrived Friday, they were so busy they couldn't even come to look until Tuesday. We settled in for a quiet weekend and tried not to worry. Anyway, to make a long story short, Manu and Wolfgang, from Blue Shelter - Langkawi Yacht Multi Services, very quickly got to the bottom of it. Both the 24V-12V converter and isolation switch had been wired incorrectly at some point in the past. They were able to rewire them both and check that all the voltages were ok etc. The battery monitor and converter weren't 'fried' and they both came back to life.

Then, the bad news, there really was a short to the hull and they didn't have time to find it as it could take days, so, we were left to find it ourselves. We were extremely lucky and found it right away. The start battery for the new engine had been loosely installed and with the boat rolling the connection must have come loose causing the intermittent fault.

We were thrilled when we got our two lights back!

So, it all turned out for the best even though it didn't feel like it at the time. We got a much better understanding of our electrical system which is what a shakedown cruise should be all about, this one was just a little shorter than planned.

Further research on Phuket sounded like it wasn't really our kind of place anyway. One of the popular beaches needs to have a beach traffic controller, for all the day boats disgorging tourists onto it and they were charging a landing fee for each body landed. The cruising guide descriptions for all the scenic locations mentioned lots of rolling, boat noise and wakes. We decided we'd rather spend any extra time we had in Indonesia, rather than Thailand. So, we're heading south immediately.

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Some Favourite Apps

I first started programming computers, in high school, in 1968. We started with Fortran, on an IBM 1130, in math class and moved on to COBOL (common, business-oriented, programming language, I can't believe I remember that mnemonic, it's amazing the stupid things that stick in your memory) from there. It's been a love/hate relationship with machines ever since. To be honest, it was mostly a hate relationship, but, a long business career in IT (information technology) paid the bills along the way, led to an early retirement and this cruising life.

Photo By Martin Skøtt - Flickr: IBM 1130, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16327576

Working mostly for very large, global corporations, on enterprise-wide systems meant that there certainly wasn't ever much 'fun' in the software we worked on and definitely not much personal utility either. All the early promise and hype about personal computing seemed rather hollow. Now, however, I'm starting to see some of that early promise being realized with apps that are not only 'fun', but, really useful as well. Although I'm very late to the party and still resist some aspects of social media (I'm not on Facebook or Twitter) I have taken baby steps into the iPad app market. Here are a few of the apps I'm using. They are all either free, or, are very reasonably priced. Maybe you'll find some of them useful as well. Most of them require that you have a GPS-enabled iPad.

1. Navionics Boating App - this app, along with downloaded Navionics charts and the iPad's GPS allow you to use your iPad as a mini chartplotter. It works really well and provides a great backup to your main chartplotter system. The charts are very reasonably priced compared to charts meant for purpose-built plotters. It's also fun to use on ferries and/or cruise ships to follow along the route you're travelling.

2. SkyGuide - this app shows you a map of the night sky at your current location (or a location you choose). You can line it up with what you're looking at in the sky over your head and it will identify the stars and constellations etc.

3. maps.me - this app has proved invaluable on many occasions. Before leaving on a trip, just download the maps for areas and towns/cities you'll be visiting. Then, without needing internet access, you can use them when you arrive to find your way around. It also identifies local points of interest and shops/restaurants etc.  In all the places we've used it, even remote ones, it has been incredibly accurate and useful. Using the GPS in your iPad, you can even set it up to act like a voice navigation system, for walking, or, vehicle use. We have a primary TomTom satnav system for vehicle use, but, have found that maps.me often seems to have better low-level details on street names etc. and we find ourselves switching to use it quite often.

4. MarineTraffic - this app shows the locations of all AIS (automatic identification system)-equipped vessels worldwide. This includes large cargo ships and even sailboats like us. It will show where the boat last transmitted from and a past track. You can see the same thing on www.marinetraffic.com. Sometimes it's a little out of date, but, still fascinating. Try entering 'GJOA' and you will see our current location. It's already picked us up in Malaysia. I am still ambivalent about whether I like being tracked, but, there's no option. A lot of countries now are requiring AIS use, like Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia, with more probably to follow and I suppose it may be useful in a search and rescue scenario. On the other side, some countries have been known to levy fines on yachts, using their AIS track as evidence, when they might happen to wander back and forth across a border accidentally. People around the world are snapping and uploading photos of boats and these also get displayed. We were really surprised to see a picture of Black Sheep II, our first cruising boat, taken by somebody without our knowledge, in Gotland, Sweden, on the web site.

5. SWBC Sked - this app displays a schedule for Shortwave Broadcasts. It also shows which channels are broadcasting right now, so, you can tune in your shortwave receiver. Have just started using this and still need to figure out the channel numbering, but, it will be really useful.

6. Google Translate - this is a free download. We're heading for rural Indonesia and I don't think many people will speak English there. We downloaded the Indonesian dictionary so we could use it offline. It even has voice activation, you speak into it and it translates. This led to quite a few laughs with some of the results. Haven't tried it yet, but, you're also supposed to be able to point your iPad camera at a street sign, it will recognize it and translate it for you. Amazing....

7. Rankers Camping NZ  - This app was invaluable during our recent three month campervan tour of New Zealand. It shows all the camping options, including free ones, around your current location.

8. Camps Australia - This app wasn't quite as user-friendly as Rankers Camping NZ, but, served the same purpose and also proved invaluable for a campervan tour.

9. WikiCamps - This is also a camping app for Australia. It sometimes had different options than shown on Camps Australia, so, best to have both really.

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And we're off (again!)

Thankfully, the discovery phase on Gjoa is done. The last two months here at Rebak Island Marina in Langkawi, Malaysia have passed in a blur. We still have a huge to-do list, this is a boat after all, but, we're through the 'must-do before leaving' items and ready to be on our way. It feels good!

We finally had some time to check out the island's resort, Vivanta. I tried to take some pictures of the resort, but, the light never seemed right. Here are a few from the resort's website to give you an idea.

Our birthdays are within three weeks of each other, so, we used this as an excuse to treat ourselves to dinner at the resort restaurant, Senari. The food was excellent, definitely the best meal we've had in Malaysia so far.

If we'd really wanted to splurge, we could have hired the Moon Deck for a private dinner for two.

The resort clientele seems to vary from week-to-week, but, is mostly between large, well-to-do, Indian families escaping their even warmer climate (we overheard somebody saying it was 50C at home in India), Chinese families and younger couples from traditional Muslim countries.

One week when it was mostly Indian families, there was a sumptuous wedding that went on for three days. Everybody was walking around dressed in their finest, women in richly coloured, beautiful saris, the men in finely tailored silk 'suits' and silk shoes with turned up toes. By comparison. all of us yachties schlepping around in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops looked like a bunch of slobs.

One thing I won't miss about this marina are these fish around the boat. They may look harmless, but, they are evil. They're usually hovering around, looking for a handout, but, we never feed them. I was leaning over the side, adjusting something, and this little devil spit right in my face! From a metre away, it hit the bullseye, right into my mouth and all down my shirtfront. Needless to say, my reaction was swift, lots of spitting out and jumping around.

There didn't seem to be many species of birds on the island, but, there were quite a few of these large hornbills, probably the most exotic-looking wild birds we've ever seen.

There are some nature trails on the island and on one evening walk, we came upon a large family of monkeys. There were lots of young ones who seemed as curious about us as we were about them. They came very close to us and we contemplated each other for a long time. They were fascinating to see up close in their native habitat. However, as jungle 'newbies' we were probably a little naive. We later heard that monkeys, especially the large males, can be very aggressive and bite. A bite results in an immediate trip to a hospital for a rabies shot. We were advised to carry a stick with us next time.

The current plan is to leave Rebak and head north for a mini shakedown cruise to Phuket, Thailand before turning south, back through Malaysia/Indonesia and then on to Western Australia.

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Road to Departure - a few stumbles

On the road towards departure, there had to be a few "stumbles" and there were. One that almost derailed our departure plans for the end of July was our Aquadrive installation.

An "Aquadrive" is a unit that joins an engine to its driveshaft. It acts sort of like a hip joint and allows movement between the two without them having to be perfectly aligned. A thrust bearing (on the right in the above photo) transfers the thrust from the propeller to a structural support. Then, two constant velocity (CV) joints, full of bearings and grease, transfer movement to the engine's gearbox.

A casual conversation, here at the marina, with the mechanic that installed the new engine and gearbox on the boat led to the question: "have you done your CV joints yet"? What? This vastly experienced mechanic warned us not to leave on any long trips without replacing them. After some further research, we learned that these units only have a lifespan of about 3,000 hours. The old engine in this boat had done almost 5,000, so, they were well past their lifespan and needed to be replaced.

That realization led us to a multi-continental, five country, two week search for replacement CV joints. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about makes and models of Aquadrive. Our unit turned out to be a 6070008, an obscure, short-shaft model that was only in production for a short time. Most dealers had never even heard of it. We were offered all kinds of "maybe" solutions to the problem, but, nobody had any parts in stock anyway. It seemed hopeless. Then, I contacted Halyard, the UK Aquadrive distributor. After listening to our problem (refreshing in itself), they referred me to a dealer that they said had a stock of old parts. Well, it seemed most unlikely, but, after contacting Steve at TW Marine, in the most unlikely place for a marine store, the Peaks District in the UK, it only took him five minutes to confirm that he had one, actually more than one, in stock! He said we were the first people to buy one in the 15-20 years they'd been sitting on his shelf. The price was very reasonable and we received the unit in less than a week. It was an easy replacement install, just three hours of installation time and we were done, just a few days before we planned to leave. We heaved a huge sigh of relief.

While waiting for the Aquadrive to get fixed we continued with other items, like checking out the SSB (single sideband radio). Powering it up brought more bad news. The Pactor modem wouldn't self-initialize and we confirmed with a dealer that it is dead and not worth repairing. A new one is at least C$2,000. Maybe we can pick up a used one. We'll leave the decision until later. We're using our Iridium satphone anyway to receive email and weather information at sea.

Next, we started route planning for our upcoming cruise to Australia. Charts, or, rather lack of charts, quickly became another big issue. On the boat, we found very few paper charts, all copies, so old and illegible that we had to throw them out. Luckily, a boat neighbour here in the marina is giving up sailing and sold us about 250 paper charts covering the area of our upcoming cruise. Then, we looked at the electronic charts. I had thought that the chip in the plotter had AU and the Pacific on it as there was an invoice onboard for one. Closer inspection revealed it didn't. There was absolutely nothing for Australia. As our departure date was getting close, this led to a mad rush to try and get electronic charts. Navionics for Australia seemed to be only sold on a regional basis and would be around A$2-3,000 to buy complete, so, we weren't going there. CMAP (whose charts I prefer anyway) had a Continental chip for all of AU/NZ for around A$320. Sounded great, however, we were unable to download the charts online due to residency, billing and payment issues (I should write a post (rant) sometime about how hard international shopping has become), so, had to get a physical chip delivered. In addition, for backup, I still wanted to update our iPad Boating App with the cheaper version of Navionics charts, but, was blocked again due to shopping restrictions. Still don't have a workaround for that obstacle.

Today, as I write this, everything has almost come together. We are only waiting for that final chart chip to be delivered and then we will be off on the next adventure.

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Road to Departure - a few small successes

We're now almost through our 'must-do before leaving' task list. There have been a few small successes.

The boat has been registered and renamed. The AIS has been reprogrammed and the epirb serviced.

We examined the rigging and made a few changes. One that felt good was getting rid of a boom extension that looked like it just wouldn't be able to handle any kind of accidental gybe without a potential structural failure. It also caused the main sheet to be angled well away from the traveler which weakened the connection between the two. The extension was originally necessary because the main sheet was unable to clear the bimini frame. Our solution was to chop nine inches off the frame. Sounds simple, but, it was actually a three day job as there was stainless to cut through and we had to shorten the fabric top on the bimini requiring restitching etc..etc...

We removed lots of old wire and aerials. Removing an old, unsealed, GPS aerial from the deck resulted in a rather large hole right through to the interior . Our temporary solution was just to bung a wooden plug in it. We'll have to get it welded properly later and watch our step in the meantime.

We installed new, deck-level navigation lights. The boat actually didn't have any, which was quite surprising. We prefer using deck-level lights inshore and a tricolour at the masthead when offshore. This job also took a few days to complete as we had to run wire from stem-to-stern. The lights are temporarily mounted on wooden panels. This will need to be redone when we can weld some aluminium mounting plates and get drill bits that are up to the job to finish it properly.

We installed an external Iridium antenna and cable. How hard can that be? Well, we measured and ordered a 10m cable (all the way from Seattle). When we installed it, there were so many twists and turns necessary to get around structural items that it ended up about 1m too short. We had to order another one.

We went through every nook and cranny. There were a few surprises, like the intact Hershey chocolate bar with a best-before date of 2003 and a few other long-forgotten food and toiletry items.

The boat came with newer (2015) electronics: two Raymarine chartplotters and a new radar that were networked together with older Raymarine nav instruments and autopilots. This sounds good, but, I knew I would have difficulty with the chartplotters as they were touchscreen-only models. I find touchscreens to be incredibly frustrating to use at the best of times. A lot of our sailing seems to involve cold and wet fingers covered with gloves. They just aren't going to work with a touchscreen. Even in the Raymarine manual, they reference "Erroneous Touchscreen performance" and recommend, in wet weather, "locking the touchscreen and using the physical buttons instead". Our model of chartplotter doesn't have any physical buttons. Locking the touchscreen means making it inoperable! After some research, the solution seemed to be to get a remote keypad, so, we ordered one, at a very large price.

When the keypad arrived, it did do the job and we were pleased with our solution, but, we had created another problem. There are only two 'network' ports on the back of the chartplotters and we now had more devices than ports. The solution, buy more hardware! So, we ordered a high speed network switch (router) and connected everything through that.

We like to keep it simple, but, unfortunately, we have now ended up with our very own local area network (ethernet) to maintain. It seems to be working ok, for the moment, time will tell.

We also ordered a printed paper manual for the Raymarine plotters as I like to have one available for quick reference. The products don't come with one anymore and I can see why. It arrived at 412 pages and was the size and weight of a brick.

The Lighthouse operating system is full of "feature bloat". Documented in the manual is how to operate connected thermal cameras, fishfinders, 3d downvision sonar, wifi, audio and media player and more. Installing and operating all this "stuff" wouldn't leave much time for sailing. In reading through, though, I couldn't help but be seduced by the availability of two features that looked possibly worthwhile: sailing laylines and AIS target interception graphics. Our installed software was an older version of that documented in the manual, so, a dreaded software update was required to get the new features. Actually, surprisingly, it went off without a hitch.

Our last Raymarine purchase was their Voyage Planner software. Inexpensive, but, clunky to use. However, it allows you to quickly create routes and waypoints on your laptop. Then, the laptop can be connected directly to the router to load the information to the chartplotters.

There were, of course, also a few stumbles along the way, one of which, our Aquadrive installation, almost derailed our plans for starting our cruise at the end of July. More on the "stumbles" in the next post.

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The Discovery Phase

We've been on our new boat for a few weeks now. We're at Rebak Island Marina, in Langkawi, Malaysia. Langkawi is also an island just off the mainland peninsula of Malaysia (look for the red 'x' on the map below).

Rebak Island is a private island of 390 acres containing a five-star resort, Vivanta by Taj. Rebak Island Marina is part of the resort, but, is quite separate and feels like another world even though it's only a short walk between the two. The resort is very expensive and probably very nice. It certainly seems popular and is very busy. The marina facilities are not so nice, the toilets and showers are filthy, the hot water is intermittent and only half of the toilets and showers work. You have to watch for frogs, centipedes and small geckos that need to be shooed out before using the facilities. In spite of this, the perfectly protected marina basin is very popular.

There is no swell, or, current and only a small tidal range. The 24 hour security and water access only, from Langkawi, makes it a secure place to leave a boat either in the water, or, on the hard. Langkawi is also a duty-free zone, meaning boat parts can be ordered from abroad without duty to pay. There are lots of Brits and Aussies here, a few Germans, French and some Chinese boat owners.

As marina residents we can use some of the resort facilities, like the restaurants and pool, but, we haven't even been over there yet. This is because we've entered the twilight zone again, not the van conversion one, but, the one known as the 'new boat discovery phase'. All new boatowners are familiar with that one. It's when, after you've discovered a few faults, or, things you didn't see on your pre-purchase visit, that you curse yourself for buying this piece of c...p and paying way too much for the privilege. We've been through this before and we know that after a few weeks things will settle down and we will again appreciate the reasons that we bought this boat in the first place.

We thought the campervan conversion was difficult in the heat of Hervey Bay, Australia. We didn't know how much worse it could get.  Here in Langkawi, we are only about 350 miles north of the equator and living in a very protected basin in which there is very little wind. It just bakes, day in and day out. It's like living in a sauna smothered in a wet blanket. After ten days of no sleep, daytime misery and with thoughts of having to work inside small, hot spaces inside the boat, we couldn't cope and broke down and bought an air conditioner. We've never had a/c before and generally would prefer not to have it, but, it has been a godsend, just a small 9,000 btu 'window' unit is keeping the boat dry and around 25C. We've stuck it in a hatch on deck. It made the thought of working inside the bowels of the boat a little more palatable. It does mean that it will take even longer now to acclimatize because we've become a/c hostages and avoid going outside if we don't have to!

Our 'discovery phase' usually consists of at least the following activities:

• identify required changes (regulatory requirements etc.)
• identify desired changes
• discover and document every item of equipment on board
• locate or obtain user manuals for each item
• determine maintenance requirements for each item and make a maintenance schedule
• decide on what spares should be carried, make a list of what we've got and what we have to get
• determine what consumables are used by each item and determine quantities to be carried
• go through every nook and cranny on the boat determining where the wires and pipes go
• locate and examine all the pumps and through hulls and draw location maps
• exercise all systems and equipment on board through various scenarios
• check all safety items are in place
• make a predeparture checklist
• make a storage contents map and index
• draw plumbing, electrical and electronic schematics (including critical fuse locations)
• organize a ship's library of equipment binders and information
• make standard operating procedure, commission and decommission manuals
• prepare a logbook
• identify and list all charts, electronic and paper

Finally, after getting through the above activities, we make a to-do list, sorted into 'must-do now before leaving', 'do later' and 'nice-to-do in future'. We've given ourselves two months for the discovery phase and completion of the 'must-do now before leaving' items. It may seem a long time, but, we've been working hard at it every day and the days just fly by. We're just about half-way through the 'must-do now before leaving' items. It looks like we'll be on target to be out cruising by the end of July. We'll see...

It's been a slog so far, but, there have been some rewarding results as well. A big job was reconfiguring the electronics and navigation station. We are very happy with the result as we've restored one of the best features of this boat, its 360 degree exterior view while seated at the nav table. Now, we can see over the top again!

As part of this process we removed a lot of old equipment and wire. 'Chasing wire' as I call it, is actually a very satisfying process. It starts out as an omg! moment, when you first open it up and look into a pile of looped spaghetti. After a few days of going through it, wire-by-wire, playing detective, it starts to make some sense. There are always lots of surprises along the way: wires that have been spliced to a different colour half-way through the run, wires that lead to a dead-end, or, connect to dead equipment, wires that aren't connected, or, poorly connected, wires that have been cut-off and left hanging etc.

Generally, though, we were impressed by what we saw. This boat is built like a tank and it definitely showed everywhere we looked.

The insulation all looked extremely well done. Almost too well done, as it was impossible to run any new wire anywhere.

The discovery phase is a lot of detailed work, but, pays off in the long run. When you know your boat, its equipment and systems you start to feel somewhat confident you'll at least know where to start looking when there's a breakdown, or, systems emergency on board.

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