15 November 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
I returned to the hospital to get the results of my MRI scan and it turns out that I’ve got a bulging disk in my lower back, which is pressing on the nerves in the spinal cord. It’s all to do with my very poor posture – too many years sat at a laptop. It’s not a catastrophic problem, but very annoying because the disk won’t ever regain its shape and if I don’t sort out my posture, then it will get worse and I’ll end up with Sciatica – pain in the legs…
So I went to see a physiotherapist, who gave me some exercises to strengthen the muscles in between my shoulder blades and reverse my rounded-shoulder/head-forward posture. I spent the rest of the day on the internet, reading up on what to do about my condition.
The thing that most concerns me is that when we’re at sea, I spend all my waking hours sat in the cockpit with my head bent down, reading a book, while my whole body bounces up and down bending my lower spine and probably making the injury worse. I either need to modify our cockpit seats to have lumbar support or buy a surgical corset…
Glenys went to see a dermatologist and had several sun-damaged spots zapped with liquid nitrogen. She also went to see an optical surgeon because her vision has been getting worse over the past six months. Unfortunately, she’s been told that she has cataracts in both eyes, so she’s now trying to decide whether to leave the operation until we get to South Africa in December 2017 or get the surgery done here in Malaysia before we sail across the Indian Ocean next year.
Perhaps this long distance sailing in the tropics is starting to destroy our bodies.
16 November 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
It was an overcast morning, so a good time to go up the mast. The sheave where the genoa halyard exits the mast was faulty and I’d bought a replacement while back in England last June. It’s a relatively simple job - drill out two pop rivets, slide the old sheave box out, run the halyard through the new box, slide into place and fix with two new pop rivets.
Unfortunately, the top of the fore-stay is six inches above the sheave box, so it’s impossible to get at the pop rivets. So, we had to drop the genoa, slacken the back stay, disconnect the fore-stay at the bottom and swing it out of the way. That only took an hour, by which time the clouds had gone and we were working in the beating sun.
I removed the two pop rivets with only one swearing event when I broke a twist drill in the hole - fortunately, I was able to get the drill out without too much hassle. I tried to slide the sheave box out, but it was jamming. After a trip back down the mast to get my long crow bar, I was still unable to lever the sheave box out. I could just see that the pin through the middle of the pulley was out of place and sticking though the side of the sheave box.
After several trips up and down the steps on our 60 foot mast (a good work out), I drilled out a 20mm * 6mm slot in the mast at the side of the sheave box which, after a bit of filing, gave me enough space to wiggle the loose sheave pin and pull the sheave box out. Phew! I tidied up the slot in the mast by filing round corners to relieve any stress points, and slid the new sheave box in place. The two pop rivets were easy enough to install and the job was done.
It took another hour to replace the forestay and the genoa; and then half an hour to stow away all the tools & spare parts that I’d dragged out during the job. By four o’clock, the job was finished and I was dehydrated and exhausted. Glenys spent the day assisting me up and down the mast, interspersed with rushing off every hour to do the laundry.
17 November 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
Today was a dentist day. It’s relatively cheap to get dental work done in Malaysia - about a third of the cost in Europe, so we planned on having as much work done as possible. Glenys had some serious root canal work done here in May and the dentist had put on a temporary crown which has lasted well. She had the mould taken for a new crown, which will be fitted next week.
I had a cracked molar, which needed a lot of drilling, so that a crown can be fitted next week. It was mega-sensitive, so I had to have two big injections - whimp! We were both feeling sorry for ourselves in the afternoon.
18 November 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
We chilled out in the morning, pottering about and then went to see Doctor Strange at the cinema. It was a very high tech cinema, but the tickets were very cheap compared to the UK - £2.40 each, reduced to £1.80 because we claimed old age pensioners rates.
The GPS has not been working on our iPad, so I dropped it into a repair centre a few days ago. They have allegedly done tests on it, but the GPS still doesn’t work. The “Location Services” works fine when the iPad is connected to wi-fi, so the GPS appears to work, but when wi-fi is disconnected the GPS doesn’t work. Unfortunately, the repair centre people can’t wrap their heads around the concept of not having a Wi-fi or mobile data connection and are convinced that there’s nothing wrong with the iPad. It’s so frustrating.
19 November 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
For the past two years, we’ve been accumulating more and more stuff on-board. This has been exacerbated by us holding onto clothes, bits of rope, old diving masks, fishing gear and houseware in the anticipation of giving it to some needy islanders like we did in Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. South-east Asia is a fairly wealth region and the culture is not the same as the Pacific, so we’ve not been giving anything away.
We spent all day going through lockers and being ruthless. By the end of the day, we had binned lots of stuff and had three large bags full of clothes and stuff, which we’re going to take to a charity shop. It feels good to be less cluttered.
20 November 2016 Straits Quay Marina, Malaysia
I bought some new running shoes the other day and went for a run before breakfast, which nearly killed me (although the shoes were great). We spent the rest of the day continuing with our locker clearance project. It’s amazing what we’re finding - a tent that we bought in the USA four years ago and have never used; an old car stereo that I replaced nine months ago; two pairs of large diving fins - out it all goes… We gathered another three big bin liners of stuff and the Salvation Army are going to collect it next week.
In anticipation of being anchored in very remote places next year, with no fresh vegetables, Glenys has been experimenting with growing seeds hydroponically. She’s started off with growing Mung Beans to make beans sprouts and has had success with a method using a coarse sieve, which produces good bean sprouts without spindly roots, in just a couple of days. She’s going to branch out into Micro-greens, so I’m hoping to have fresh cilantro sprinkled on my freshly caught fish, when we’re sitting in the isolated atoll in Chagos.