7 December 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
It took me an hour to remove the carburettor and get our small outboard running properly. The carburettor was flooding with petrol, so I cleaned it all out again and adjusted the float, which seemed to do the job. I then lifted the dinghy out of the water and did a couple of small maintenance jobs.
In the afternoon, we went to Gurnsey Plaza mall to watch a movie and then did a bit of shopping. We bought a new smart phone with a modern operating system. It only cost £120 and will be good enough to act as a back-up chart plotter as well as being useful for daily tasks. We then went to a £1 store and bought a few things to give away or trade with islanders when we get cruising again - stuff like screwdrivers and a dozen wind-up torches, which were a big hit in Papua New Guinea. After clearing out our lockers a couple of weeks ago, we’re now filling them up again.
8 December 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
I consolidated all my “To Buy” and “To Do Lists” and then we caught the bus into town. Our first stop was in Little India, where we had a slap-up curry at Sri Ananda Bahwan. Glenys wandered off to do some shopping, while I went to do interesting stuff like buying fishing gear and parts for the boat.
I found a really good fishing tackle shop on the corner of Beach St and Armenian St. They had lead weights, stainless steel leader wire and hooks, but no large rubber squid lures - these seem to another thing that’s hard to find in South-east Asia. I wandered around Georgetown, which has lots of small shops packed with stuff, including the interesting Hardware Alley, where you can buy a huge range of hand tools, but I struggled to find anything from my list. I did manage to find some engine coolant, but it was in a dodgy looking can, so I’m not sure if it’s the correct stuff.
Other cruisers have waxed lyrical about the Chemical Man, so I stopped by his shop at 22 Jalan Pintal Tali. From the outside, it’s a very non-descript place which looks more like an office than a shop, but once inside there are shelves loaded with laboratory glassware, bunsen burners and a plethora of chemicals. Mr Ong looks to be about 90 years old, but spoke excellent English and soon had his assistant preparing things from my list. I bought a litre of Ethylene Glycol (prevents wood rot), a kilogram of Sodium Metabisulphite (for pickling the water maker) and 250G of Tri Sodium Phosphate (cleans teak decks and prevents mildew). The whole lot cost £5.
9 December 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
For the past year, I’ve noticed some dark staining on the teak around some of the wooden plugs on our teak toe rail. A few days ago, I popped off a couple of the wooden plugs and found that there was a small amount of dry, black, powdery wood inside the holes, which I could scrape out with a screwdriver.
Wood rot is unusual in teak, and there’s only a small amount, so I suspect that it’s a combination of mildew and a small amount of wood rot - basically, a fungal attack that needs to be stopped. I did some reading on the internet and found that Ethylene Glycol (as used in Antifreeze) is a cheap effective fungicide that soaks into wood very well, so I bought some yesterday from the Chemical Man.
I removed half a dozen of the worst affected plugs, dug out any rot that I could find and then flooded the holes & surrounding wood with Ethylene Glycol. I let it soak in for a few hours then soaked up the surplus. I’ll let it dry out over the next couple of days and then put in new teak plugs with epoxy.
We’ve had some persistent leaks from some of our portholes, which I tracked down to a leak in a 2mm wide gap in the opening window frame. I “fixed” the problem a few months ago by simply sticking masking tape over the gap, which has worked well, but it was time to sort the problem properly. I removed the dried-on masking tape, removed the old sealant from the gap and re-sealed with marine silicone sealant.
It was so hot that I couldn’t sit on the bare deck, but had to put a thick towel down to protect me from the heat, so after lunch, I decided to do a few jobs down below. I topped up the coolant in the generator and tried to start it, but no joy.
This was strange - the generator had run fine a month ago and all I’d done was to replace the exhaust elbow and replace the seal on the fresh water header tank. Diesel engines are rather simple things all they need is air and fuel to run and I hadn’t touched either of those areas. The next few hours were hell, checking the fuel system and all of the various safety sensors on the generator - everything seemed to be working, but it wouldn’t start. Suspecting back pressure on the exhaust system, I even removed the sea water outlet pipe from the exhaust elbow, but all to no avail.
At half past five, I gave up and opened a cold beer.
10 December 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
Glenys went to the Eye Clinic for a check-up and both eyes are stabilising well, so we can now finally escape Straits Quay marina and head up to Langkawi, where we’re booked to haul-out on the 21st December. Unfortunately, the tides are very low at the moment and we can’t get out of the shallow entrance until the 13th at the earliest.
I didn’t sleep well, worrying about the generator. After breakfast, I dragged out Nigel Calder’s Boat Maintenance book, read up on diesel engines and came up with a plan. I removed the air intake filter and disconnected the exhaust from the exhaust elbow to make sure that there was no blockage on the air going into and out of the engine. I also double checked the fuel system.
Now that I had the generator engine in its simplest configuration, I pressed the start button and it sprung to life! Thank God! It must be something to do with the exhaust or air inlet. After the exhaust fumes had cleared from the engine room, I replaced the exhaust hose - it started okay. I replaced the sea water outlet pipe onto the exhaust elbow - it started okay. I replaced the air filter - it started. Now that the generator was all reassembled, I ran it for ten minutes with no problems.
Worryingly, I don’t really know what was preventing it from starting yesterday. I strongly suspect that when I removed the old exhaust elbow, sea water has flooded the exhaust muffler, so the exhaust system was partially blocked and the back pressure was stopping it working. Having started the engine without the exhaust attached, when I re-attached it, the engine started quickly enough to blow the exhaust clear - who knows. At least it’s running now.
I tidied up and spent the afternoon doing some admin. Over the past two days, I’ve spent several hours researching how our generator works, so I wrote up some notes for myself, which I’ve put on our website. It’s very dry and technical, but if you’re interested, see Fault Finding a Generator.
11 December 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
Meilia from “Per Ardua” (along with two of her children, Sam and Aila) picked us up from the marina and took us to the Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani Temple. It’s a large Hindu temple dedicated to the god called Murugan. There are over 500 steps to climb to get to the seven-storey, 20 metre tall temple, which is apparently the largest Lord Murugan temple outside India.
We were lucky to arrive for the mid-day puja (ritual) with the priest anointing various idols accompanied by music played on traditional instruments - a nadaswaram (a kind of flute) and thavil (a drum). About 100 people, mostly Tamils, were present for the ceremony and were blessed by the priest.
To continue the Indian theme, Meilia took us into Georgetown, where we had a traditional Thali meal in Little India. It was a nice relaxing Sunday.
12 December 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
I had a lazy morning messing about in the comfort of the air-conditioning. The weather forecast is showing 10-15 knot winds from the north-west over the next three days, which will make our 70 mile trip to Langkawi very unpleasant, so we’re trapped here in Straits Quay marina for another three days. The plan is to head 25 miles to a small island to the north of here, where we’ll anchor for the night and then have a 45 mile trip up to Langkawi on Friday 16th.
In the afternoon, I helped Glenys put the sprayhood back on and then went up the mast to do a few small jobs and checked the rigging, which all looks okay. I’ll check it again before we set off from Phuket for the Andaman Islands in January.
I put epoxy and teak plugs into the holes in the toe rail and then fitted an extension to the viewfinder on my underwater camera housing. I had the stainless steel parts made back in Port Dickson and it’s worked well - I can now see the LCD screen of my camera very clearly, so I can’t wait to get back snorkelling and diving again. Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait until after Christmas when we leave Langkawi, before we’ll have clear water again.
13 December 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
With only 11 shopping days to Christmas, I braved the Gurney Plaza Mall and bought a few presents for Glenys. Rather than buying each other expensive things that aren’t really wanted, we’ve been giving ourselves a low budget and buying fun little things. This year, we’d given ourselves a budget of 50 Ringgit each (£10), but I got a little carried away and spent 70 Ringgit, but I think I’ll be forgiven.
Only two more nights and we’ll be free of this place.