Thursday 12^th February Bill was up early to put the 2^nd coat of primer on before we caught the ferry.   Yesterday afternoon he had the sander in bits 3 times! It’s really putting up a fight. With all the extra work it’s going to have to do Bill has decided to buy a new one so that’s been added to the days shopping list.

 

 

I spent the first half of the morning in the launderette sorting out the washing. I know it’s odd including a picture of the laundry room but I wanted to show you that we lead a normal life as well as a privileged life sometimes.

We were both finished and ready to take the 11.00 ferry to the mainland to pick up one of Mr Din’s cars.

First stop was the machine shop and there sitting waiting for us was the prop shaft, the guy had been true to his word and completed it before their 2-week shutdown for Chinese new year. Bill fitted the prop to it and everything fitted perfectly.

 

The new prop shaft was laid onto a bed of rollers to check it was straight and true. The old prop shaft was laid next to it to check it was the right size; it was prefect. They had certainly earned their bonus. After the monies had been sorted they presented Bill with a box of oranges, the traditional gift for your best clients for Chinese New Year, we felt honoured. The awful thing is we don’t even know their names. They don’t have a broad outside with their names on it.   For the boats coming along behind us all I can tell you is that it’s on the main road into Kuah about half way between York engineering and the hospital. Big blue building on the left hand side, we would definitely recommend them.

 

We carried on into town and to buy Bill’s new sander and the do a supermarket shop. We had a second look for the dinghy factory and found it this time (it’s quite common here to be given directions and still not find a place) it turned out we had driven really close to it on our last visit. I bought some neoprene and contact adhesive so I could now get on and make the new dinghy cover. On the way home we visited Nasir to collect our new sailbag; Camomile is going to look so posh.

 

 

The 4.30 ferry delivered us back to Camomile with our purchases to get on with the next set of jobs. As yesterday the primer was dry enough to rub down ready for the third coat in the morning. I asked Bill why he wasn’t using the new sander, he said he was going to wait until this one broke again then start using the new one. I asked if he would consider just throwing the old one away and he just gave me one of his looks and laughed!

Friday 13^th February and Bill was up early painting the 3^rd primer coat while I took the ferry, along with my fellow yachtie ladies, to buy our fruit and veggies from the little Chinese man that turns up at the ferry dock every Friday morning at 9.00. For any one visiting Rebak marina this is a worthwhile thing to do.

When I got back Bill suggested I unwrap the battens for the new sail and sort out any spares. The battens had been delivered tied together with cable ties and formed into a wheel.   Sadly I failed to take a photo before I started. Undoing them was a real trial. As I clipped the cable ties they all just pinged open. Good job I did it on the hard stand. We still have the battens from the old sail and this is our collection, how many spares do you need? I managed to prise 2 battens away from Bill for the give away table but he wants to keep the rest.

 

Here is the prop shaft ready to go in.

Bill carefully pushed the shaft through the cutlass bearing up into it’s housing underneath the engine. NO rude comments please!

 

The rest of the day was spent with Bill serving the rope stripper and rubbing down the primer coat and me making someone a Valentine’s cake.

 

 

 

Saturday 14^th February. I went for my run first thing while Bill put the first undercoat on. So far she’s had 3 primers with a rub down in between each one to smooth out the orange peel surface, which is normal. Now the undercoat was going on to flatten the surface and you can see the difference. So far Bill is pleased with the result. It took a lot longer to apply then the primers.

 

 

 

Fortunately for me it gave me time to ice my flapjack cake. This is the finished effort. The letters are made from chocolate sticks. The resort was putting on a special meal for Valentine’s day and Bill suggested we join them. It was a lovely idea but first we had work to do.

 

Bill reassembled the prop shaft by first removing it to fit the anode (the little metal thing on the inside of the P bracket).   Once reinserted the stripper was fitted and finally the propeller.

 

 

 

It looks very shiny and ready for the water. Once in position Bill had to drill a hole from the inside through the 316 stainless steel so it can be reattached to the bottom of the engine.   This proved to be a lot harder than he thought. It took ages and the drill got so hot it kept overheating.

 

Meanwhile I made a pattern for the dinghy cover. Although made of Hyperlone we feel it still needs a cover on it. I made a temporary cover for it in Australia but now I had some nice Sumbrella material to make one out of but first I needed a pattern.   I used some greaseproof paper that I’ve had hanging around for a while and celotaped it onto the dinghy cutting around it’s various appendages (the dinghy is definitely a boy!) It’s difficult to see in this photo but the tube facing the camera is wrapped in the greaseproof paper pattern. I then carefully cut it off, taking care not to cut a hole in the dinghy.

We had time for showers before our beautiful dinner on the beach. Bill has spent so much time attending to the ‘other woman’ in his life that tonight it was my turn. We had a wonderful evening with the most superb food, it felt like being on the set of Masterchef.

 

 

The staff brought round these lovely little bears, a red rose and chocolates along with our sparkling wine.

 

I took the photo too early they came and spooned the essence of cherry tomato (soup) over it shortly after.  Bill said it should be tortellino because there was only one but it tasted delicious.

 

 

 

For the main course there was the choice of salmon or chicken, we both choose the salmon.

 

 

Mummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm and yummmmmmy

Sunday 15^th February  The undercoat takes longer to dry than the primer so now it’s a day painting followed by a day of rubbing down. Today was a rubbing down day. Bill was getting fed up with the sander continually droning on (it hasn’t broken down again yet) so he wrapped his blue tooth headphones up in socks and played his music while he worked.

 

 

 

From the inside it sounds like bees droning but if Camomile was a cat I think she would be purring. I spent the whole day writing, posting photos and publishing the blog.

By the end of the day the hull looked like this. The blotchy patches are the primer showing through but it felt so smooth. As it was Sunday we took some time off for a swim in the late afternoon.

Monday 16^th February I took the canvas and my pattern to the Hard Dock café to cut out. As there aren’t any walls the wind played havoc with my pattern and little gusts kept blowing the pieces around. They all had to be anchored by shoes, boxes, etc. I had quite a few people passing comment so a certain amount of chatting was undertaken but eventually I had all my pieces cut out for the new cover.

Meanwhile Bill had been up early and given the hull a second undercoat. During the middle part of the day he tries to find inside jobs to do. Here he is with our bed rolled up and working on the inside of the cabinet that the rudder shaft sits in. It was all cleared and painted ready to take the new bearings.

All the fittings that have to back on the transom needed a coat of teak oil so Bill did that later in the day. The rudder has had some repairs to the copper coating. Bill is constantly busy, I try to take photos but he just gets on with his jobs and I don’t always see what he’s doing.

 

 

 

Tuesday 17^th February Bill spent most of the morning rubbing down the second undercoat. It feels so silky and smooth. The rest of the day was spent doing lots of smaller but still important jobs. I spent the day working on the dinghy cover. By the end of the day I had all the pieces sewn together to cover the bow of the dinghy.

Wednesday 18^th February On my run this morning I found access to another 30% of the island through a little twitten.   I normally pass the entrance in a blur on my run(!!!) but this morning I decided to deviate. It led to a very remote and quiet path. There were monkeys in the trees and Hornbill’s and Sea Eagles flying overhead. Everything is bigger here. This butterfly is about the size of my hand, giant bees buzz past, ants are the size of my fingernail and there are spider webs all over the ground.   Normally that’s the sign of Tarantula but I don’t think they have those here although if the spider lives in the ground because it’s too big to live in a web I don’t want to see it.

 

 

I came back from my run and found a shiny boat.   Bill had mixed the third undercoat 50/50 with topcoat and it looked beautiful. Camomile’s new skirt was coming along nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

I spent the day working on the dinghy cover.   Today I was constructing the tube covers, they look easy but the dinghy has so many bits to cut round and make holes for like handles, rollicks, ropes, etc.

 

 

Bill serviced the Hydrovane and rubbed down the transom. Although it’s already been painted it was painted in snow white so now it will be painted Mediterranean white to match the hull.  He also gave the prop shaft and prop a coating of lanolin to try and prevent it getting coated in barnacles.

Thursday 19^th February Last night we had strange wet blobs falling out of the sky, I think it’s called rain but it’s so long since we’ve seen any I’ve forgotten 😉 In the morning the jungle behind us looked a verdant green as though it had been washed, it’s very dusty in the boat yard.   It caught everyone by surprise and there was a lot of mopping up.   The masking tape was all soggy and Bill couldn’t paint the transom. Once it stopped every where dried up very quickly and by 9.30 Bill was out rubbing down the hull. It was 2 hours later than he normally started but as it was cloudy hopefully the sun wouldn’t get to hot too quickly.

Our friends Norman and Sara arrived on Norsa later that morning and came over to have a look at how we were getting on.   Haha they were immediately given a job.   Bill wanted to get the new sailbag and mainsail bent on to try it for size and get it out of the way but it was too heavy for us to do on our own so Norman volunteered to help. First the sail bag was laid out across the boom and tied on.

Then the sail has to be slid along the groove but not pushing the sailbag out of the way.   The new cars were slotted into the mast one by one; at the same time the battens were slid into the sail. All the spare battens that Bill wants to keep are inside the spares pocket on the sailbag.

 

Finally we raised the sail briefly to check it’s the right size and then put it back in its bag. It’s a beautifully made sail; Bill is very pleased with it. We aren’t anonymous any more.

 

 

 

 

It’s Chinese New Year today and the resort had a visit from a troop of Lion dancers. I love watching them.