Saturday 18^th April Bill assembled his mystery object. It’s made from off cuts.   The piece of plywood needs to be shaped so by using a circular saw set to a depth it allowed Bill to make cuts to break the grain.  Three of the triangular shaped pieces were screwed onto them and they were both sanded down. They look like mini ski ramps possibly for the gecko’s don’t they but there’s no snow here.

 

Bill continued to create the woodwork for the cockpit combing – no more sitting on the treadmaster and getting diamond patterns on your bottom!

 

 

 

 

The rest of the day was spent removing the last of treadmaster and the old seating behind the wheel, it’s all going to be replaced with teak. That evening we had a lovely meal with Keith and Christine of Poco Andante and Jill and Aidan of Dunworking.

Sunday 19^th Bill decided the old jamming cleats would have to go. They’ve never worked properly and they were in his way but they put up a bit of a fight.

 

 

 

I decided to go and have my coffee in the resort and take some pictures of the palm trees here for my sister Amanda.   Remember we saw these in Wisley in the greenhouse. I know everyone thinks I should help Bill more but there’s really nothing I can do I just get in the way. I make sure he’s fed and watered and has clean clothes and a clean bed and that’s all he needs me to do. Sometimes he gives me jobs but he likes doing things his own way!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I got back he was fibre glassing the mystery objects. We spent the rest of the day getting things ready to reinsert the rudder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday 20^th poor Camomile had major surgery to reinsert her rudder. The forklift moved the rudder into place before they brought the lift in. We had intended to go back in the water but we’ve still got more ‘out of the water’ jobs to do so we are just putting the rudder in and repositioning her.

 

 

 

 

Camomile was lifted.

 

 

 

 

 

It took three of the crew to lift the rudder up into place.

 

 

Once we were happy the rudder was located properly they starting lowering Camomile down onto it inch by inch but Bill was nervous of them lowering Camomile down onto the rudder because if the new bearings didn’t fit, the weight of the boat pushing down onto them would split them and possibly do further damage.

 

So Bill got on board and attached the studding to the rudder so it couldn’t fall out. The forklift was brought in and placed under the rudder with the forks lifting the rudder into place. I was left on the ground to call out instructions; I’m good at that!!   They stopped at the first red line so Bill could place the seal and the steering quadrant on then they continued to the second red line which was for the top quadrant which stops the rudder going to far. Bill put his head out of the hatch in our cabin to say everything was on. I asked if everything was in place ok and did he need a second pair of eyes to check?  For which I received a few words; as if he would do something like that!

 

 

 

 

The boys continued to push the rudder up until it was in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The new bearings fitted perfectly, Bill was really pleased.

 

 

The boys sat Camomile back down again in a slightly different place so we could finish putting on the copper coat on the spots where the cradle rests had been and touch up the anti foul underneath the keel.

 

 

 

Bill spent the afternoon reattaching all the autohelm and steering gear to the rudder. I could hear him swearing and cursing in our cabin so went to see what the problem was – he had put one of the steering quadrants on upside down!   I said nothing. It was too late to do anything about it for now.

Tuesday 21^st we went to Thailand for the day. When you enter Malaysia you are given a 90 day tourist visa in your passport and to renew it you need to leave the country. I had a new one when I returned but Bill’s one was due to run out 1^st May plus we needed to get his new passport stamped. We had been given conflicting advice some people said you could get a new visa by going to Thailand but some said you needed to be out of the country for 72 hours to get a 90 day one and if you go for the day they only give a two week visa on your return. So we thought the only way to find out was to do it.

We took the 7.15 ferry across to Langkawi and a taxi to the ferry port. The ferry to Satun in Thailand leaves the ferry port 3 times a day and we were intending to take the 9am ferry. We went to immigration where we had originally checked in when we arrived and asked the question, ‘could we go to Satun for the day and come back and get a 90 day visa?’ We explained we were on a yacht in Rebak marina that was having work done and wasn’t ready to leave yet.  The lady said it was ok; she would give us 90-day visa stamps on our return so we bought our tickets to Satun. We took both of Bill’s passports and they stamped us out of the country in his new one. The ferry took just over an hour. The instruments it had were very old fashioned.

We were sitting ducks when we arrived and were immediately picked up by a local taxi driver wanting to give us ‘a tour’.   It turned out the town was 15kms away so we agreed a price to just go to town and bring us back later. We could have probably got on a tuk tuk for a 10^th of what we paid but the guy had a family to feed. The town was fairly uninspiring although we did come across this colourful temple in amongst the houses.

 

 

 

 

The market was very interesting with lots of local produce but we decided not to buy any and complicate the return.

 

 

 

 

 

These stalls were selling uncovered chicken that was open to all the flies and didn’t smell very nice – yummy! The fish stall was even worse but I didn’t chance going close enough to take a photo. You could smell it from 10 yards.

We found a nice restaurant for lunch and wandered back to where we had agreed to meet our little taxi driver. Bill managed to sniff out this hardware store on the way back. We took the ferry back to Kuah on Langkawi and nervously queued for our passport stamp.   Luckily the lady we spoke to was still on duty and remembered us and gave us our 90 day stamp – job done.

Wednesday 22^nd While I was out for my run Bill resolved the rudder problem. By using the studding he was able to lower the rudder enough to turn the quadrant round and wound the rudder back into place. This photo is looking down into the cupboard and the offending part is the black quadrant on the left of the photo. Bill reconnected all the steering and autohelm parts. Luckily we weren’t in the water.

 

 

Finally Bill put the cupboard back in place ending almost 3 months of sleeping next to the ‘hole’.  The mattress was rolled back into place and I made the bed. Our cabin was back to normal apart from the headlining but that will be addressed later. If anyone is interested in how Bill built the bed in the first place see Bill’s technical article Blue water comfy bed on the website.

 

 

In the next few days lots of little jobs were achieved. The tyres I had bought in the UK and brought back in my suitcase were put on the dinghy wheels but the wheels were taken off the dinghy because Bill rubbed down the transom of the dinghy for painting; probably when we’re back in the water. We managed to get the dinghy back on the davits.

We carry a number of diesel jerry cans above and below decks. The ones from the bottom of the deck locker were getting really rusty so they were taken out, the rust was ground off with an angle grinder and Bill re-sprayed them.   First with a prima and then the next day with black paint. I put their coats back on.

As some of you know we have a central heating system in the boat powered by an Eberspacher diesel unit (which isn’t working at the moment; it’s on the list). A bit crazy in the tropics you may be thinking but remember we are circumnavigating the world and intend to go back to the UK when we’ve completed it. For that we’ll need heating and some of the radiators have gone rusty so Bill took them off and sprayed them.  It’s something he wanted to do.

You don’t get either of these here very often.   You can count the motor cruisers on one hand in this marina; mostly sail boats here. You don’t normally see old traditional wooden boats either; it’s a bit too expensive for the locals but an American guy who is doing it up owns this one!

 

Most of the woodwork was completed now, even though not all of it was attached yet, and Bill had very little left. Our curtains are held back with a piece of headlining material that’s gone a bit saggy so Bill has used the last of the wood to make some new curtain retainers. It didn’t take him long. They will slot into these, which are made from the parts cut out from the new grab handles. As they are going inside they were given several layers of varnish.

 

 

Friday 24^th the boat next door owned by a Swedish couple had their rudder put back on and asked Bill to help. It was more complicated than ours and gave everyone a few problems. The yard boys lifted their boat off it’s cradle and got their rudder in place and proceeded to lower the boat onto the rudder. As they started there was an awful crack, I decided I was leaving and went off to the ferry for my usual trip to the Chinese man with a van.   When I came back they were using the forklift to push it into place and apparently the crack had come from the piece of wood the rudder was sitting on. All ended well.

So what has become of the mystery objects, well they will be connected to this. This is how Bill bends wood!