22nd Oct
Jerry says "Again" should read “Nearly” which means there’s always a job list.
We are back in the water and planning to leave the security and comfort of Rebak tomorrow. We have been working hard through Jerry’s never ending job list and are now at the point where the Captain is satisfied we have completed enough jobs and its time for him to take the Admiral for a sail before there is mutiny onboard!
Of course we are coming to the end of the SW monsoon. It’s hot and humid and every afternoon big black clouds roll in above us and we have a huge downpour reducing visability to almost zero. The good thing is it cools us down and fills the water tanks. But its not the best thing to be caught in when trying to sail somewhere.
The old girl, (Tigress Too) is looking pretty smart and itching to be released from the marina and get some wind into her new sails. However, the chance of that happening is very doubtful as wind is very rare up here at the moment except for the hour or so before a thunderstorm.
We have changed the colour of the antifoul from black to blue as Jerry always found it hard to see what was going on underneath with the black antifoul. I rather like the new blue look. We managed to get hold of some propspeed to put onto the propeller, we find it very good at keeping the prop clean.
We painted the bimini top after a year of looking at it and doing nothing about it. It’s a challenge in the heat and humidity to get any sort of maintenance done, a) you sweat buckets as soon as you move and b) epoxy paint goes off very quickly once mixed. But I must say the bimini looks rather smart now all repaired, sanded and painted white.
Once back in the pen we opened our present to ourselves and put on the new mainsail and genoa. They look amazing and we can’t believe how bad our old ones must have looked. Still they were 25yrs old! The workmanship on the new sails is excellent. All we have to do now is go for a sail and test them. We went to put up the old staysail and as we did the luff tape fell apart. Why ever did we think this sail would not need renewing ? So that is now with the sailmaker and we will pick up the new one when we return at Christmas.
I think I mentioned in the last blog I have a bad knee, the result of too much ladder climbing while home only made worse by another 2 weeks of ladder climbing while on the hardstand. I have been doing yoga and swimming laps on alternate days but the knee was not getting better and the swelling was not going down. So a friend here, Jan, took me off to see the very nice Professor Dr Shamsudeen or Mr Din for short, not to be confused with Mr Din we use for car hire.
I refer to Dr Din as the pin doctor, yes he is an acupuncture doctor as well as many other doctors I am sure and is a lovely gentleman with a good sense of humour. Now as I have a slight aversion to needles and anything that may inflict even the slightest of pain I was a little apprehensive about this visit but I’ll give anything a go to help heel the knee. What my friend Jan didn’t tell me was that not only does Dr Din stick pins in you he then wires you up and plugs you in asking you how much he can turn his dial on the little machine that sends electric pulses racing from pin to pin. I was very brave but when a thunderstorm started up together with lightening I did wonder about being plugged into 240v! But all was well, I have had 2 sessions now and while my knee is not heeled all the swelling and inflammation has gone down and its a lot easier to get around. Both Dr Din and yachtie Dr Sue who also examined my knee assure me there are no tears, ruptures, breakages, just an overstretched ligament that needs resting and some very tight muscles that need stretching and massaging. So rest it is, massages (lovely) and fortunately no more ladders to climb. A session with Dr Din is very affordable at MYR 40.00 which is about $14.00! When I pluck up the courage I am off to see Dr Chew. Yes you guessed right, the tooth Dr.
23rd Oct
We reluctantly returned the airconditioner this morning and left Rebak. It was we thought an extravagance we could afford ourselves whilst we worked on the boat and did a great job of keeping the boat cool inside so at night we slept like babies. In fact sometimes we were a little chilly and pulled a sheet over us!
It has been 153 days since we last sailed. I guess that’s why I was a bit wobbly around the deck on the way out of Rebak. We are now anchored at Kuah, no wind to blow us here so the sails stayed packed away. Found a spot to drop the pick and within half an hour the heavens opened with a really good monsoon downpour. We are now chasing a leak in the head lining which is making its way down the wiring that feeds down the mast into the boat. This will be a tricky one to fix and will keep Jerry amused for hours no doubt. He is not a happy chappy
While out and about in town the other day we came across a cake decorating competition. Wow! what bright colours! Not sure I would like to eat any of these, Jerry was convinced they used plasticine to make the decorations. I think the theme was the ocean & weddings. here are a few snap shots that I thought I should share.
When/if it stops raining we will dinghy ashore to but some internet then I can post this blog. Internet is always a challenge and has been very frustrating with its near non existence while we were at Rebak.
Next stop Penang, weather permitting, over the weekend.
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