We haven’t had much luck in Kudat so far. Luckily we live in the internet era. We easily found several engine mount dealers, some of them in Asia (mostly based in Singapore) and some in Europe, where we bought engine parts for our Volvo before. However, it seems that we will actually order our new engine mounts from a US internet chandlery go2marine.com. They are relatively cheap and the mounts will be sent by UPS, so could be here within a week or so.

As for the rubber cones for the damping plate, we decided to send them to Taiwan. In Kaohsiung there is an excellent shop where we always bought hoses, gaskets and other rubber materials. They also do custom work and since we have a sample – luckily one of the cones is more or less intact – we hope they would be able to find us the same material and make us new cones.

Now we are searching for some steel to modify our engine bed. In the afternoon we go to a Mr. Chin’s workshop – a local Chinese machinist, who promised to try to find us  some steel angle and also some 316 SS for our new shaft. The advantage with Mr. Chin is that we can speak Chinese to him. Most of the Malays speak some basic English but it’s not enough to discuss technical stuff with them. Hopefully Mr. Chin’s hunt will be successful, otherwise we would have to go to Kota Kinabalu and try our luck there. Which actually is not such a big deal either, since we could also do some provisioning while down there.

Meanwhile the weather is still quite crazy. The constant downpours keep us inside the boat most of the time and so although we are currently trapped in Kudat once again, we console ourselves knowing that even if we could leave, the weather would still keep us right where we are. There are 2 new lows next to the Philippines, one of them was just upgraded to tropical depression and the other one has now 30-50% potential of becoming a significant cyclone. It sure is another rather busy typhoon season in SE Asia…

Current Graphical Analysis of the Weather in the Region

Those of you, who recognized, that the neatly wrapped pile on the pontoon is actually our faithful, yet slightly problematic engine, were right. Ironically, there’s nothing wrong with the engine itself, the problems are the same as they were four years ago – the installation of the engine inside the boat.

Some five years ago, when we were trying to buy our boat and were negotiating price with the previous owner, one of his main arguments (apart from the famous pedigree of our boat) was the fact, that though the boat itself was 40 years old, it had a brand new engine. There were only some 70 engine hours on the cockpit dial. A quick internet search revealed that a new Volvo Penta D1-30 including installation would cost us somewhere between ten to fifteen thousand US dollars. What a bargain! And so we negotiated some more and finally Janna was ours. Not only did we get a boat with excellent reputation but also with an almost unused engine. At that time we were still new to boats and busy devouring all the information available about sailing, repairing and boat maintenance. We sure were glad that we could put diesel engine repairs off for some time. At least that’s what we hoped for.

Yet to be one hundred percent sure, before we left Singapore to Langkawi, we invited “experts” from Volvo Penta to check our engine and see if everything was shipshape. After what today in retrospect seems like quite a scamp, they declared the engine perfectly sound. Unfortunately not long after we cast off, it turned out, that it was not that sound after all. The engine was not properly aligned with the propeller shaft, which of course caused nasty vibrations. Soon the nuts started to loosen and fell down to the engine bed, sometimes together with the bolts. We traced the missing bolts, put everything back only to find a snapped bolt an hour later. And then we noticed that the shaft was held in place by only two out of the original four bolts, not to mention that one of them was snapped inside. Today we would probably go back to Singapore right after we found the first nuts and bolts, probably wouldn’t even leave with such obvious vibrations in the first place, but back then we were quit ignorant and could only guess what was causing all the problems. To make the matters even worse, on the third day one of the engine mounts broke!

We had to make an emergency stop in the nearest port, which was either Lumut of Port Klang. Port Klang is a big commercial port with lots of traffic – not a place to mess in with a broken engine. We read about Lumut in Serrafyn’s Oriental Advantures by Lin Pardey. She spoke very nicely about the place and so that’s where we went. Luckily it was in this small port, that we found allegedly the best diesel mechanic in whole Malaysia, a Chinese guy called Mike. Apart from the broken engine mount, a more thorough inspection revealed that the disc at the end of the gear box, which also connects the gearbox to the rest of the engine, is also cracked. Mike and his boss got us new engine mounts and had a new disc machined and welded to the gearbox. Then the engine was put back into the engine room, aligned with the shaft and new holes were drilled for the new mounts. The sea trials that followed were also successful, but Mike warned us that this current installation – the engine was directly screwed to the fiberglass bed (usually there is a piece of steel glassed inside the bed with threads to which the engine is bolted) – is wrong and sooner or later we would have to face the dirty work of rebuilding the engine bed.

Since then we nevertheless didn’t have any problems with engine mounts or vibrations. The mounts rusted a bit, but a regular spraying with WD-40 followed by a good scrub with the wire brush kept them in acceptable condition. From time to time we would tighten the engine mount screws and that was it. However, during our voyage from Puerto Princesa we noticed that every few seconds the engine shakes slightly. It was nothing major, but while we were waiting for favorable weather before departing Kudat, we decided to check the engine-shaft alignment just to be sure everything is fine. It did seem a bit out of place, so we corrected the error and retighten the mounts. Unfortunately at least two of the screws couldn’t be properly tightened anymore. Still we hoped the current installation would last some more, at least until we get to Langkawi, where we plan to haul-out. We started the engine, put it into gear several times and watched for any irregular vibrations. Everything seemed ok. Hurray! Now it was all about the suitable weather.

According to grib files it looked like we might be able to leave Kudat on Monday. But on Monday the weather was not good and so our departure was postponed for a day. On Tuesday we were woken up by the sounds of rain drops battering against the coach roof and wind whistling in the rigging of neighboring boats. Finally on Wednesday the weather conditions were ideal. The alarm clock was set for 5 am and after quick breakfast of fresh bread with peanut butter and jam, we quietly sneaked out of the Kudat marina – if something like quiet departure is possible while you have the engine running…

There was only little wind and so we only hoisted the mainsail and kept motoring. Of course once underway we immediately checked the alignment and the shaft for any suspicious vibrations. Everything looked just fine. We passed a few fishermen, sailed through a flock of swallows, that were feverishly clapping their beaks – must have been trying to catch some tiny insects – and enjoyed the pleasant rocking as Janna swayed on a gentle swell. We were making nice 5 knots and expected to cross the Tip of Borneo within two hours. We were curious what conditions await us there, “round the corner” so to speak. Right now we were still protected by the shade of Borneo, but once you cross over the Tip, you and your boat are at the mercy of the monsoon winds and associated currents.

After approximately one hour Petr looked again into the engine room. I was out in the cockpit.

“Shit!” The tone of his voice wasn’t a good sign.

“What’s going on? Give me only the good news!”

“It’s completely off again and the shaft wobbles like crazy. Here, take a look. We can’t go anywhere like this!”

Before we left Kudat, we were prepared for lost of alternatives (maybe we would have to return because of the powerful currents or strong winds) but not for this. For the last two weeks we desperately waited for a suitable weather window to cross the Tip of Borneo and now after only one hour, we had to turn back… Needless to say, both of us were more than dissapointed. We quickly switched off the engine and hoisted the sails. Luckily there was some wind after all, so at least we had a beautiful sail back arriving to the marina just in time for lunch. Our friends greeted us with confused expressions on their faces: such nice weather, why are they back?

“We forgot to return the toilet keys!” We tried to joke about the whole situation, but in truth we felt a bit down.

We spent the next two days dismantling the engine. First we disconnected all the hoses and wires. After plentiful spraying with WD-40 and several trips to the hardware store to buy yet some more socket wrenches, that we still lacked, we finally managed to unscrew the old mounts. The last step was to lift the engine out of the boat.

We modified the mainsheet into a tackle and using the boom and one of the cockpit winches first lifted the engine into the cockpit. There is a protruding oil pan at the bottom of the engine and we didn’t want the engine to sit on it. So we hopped on our bikes and cycled to the boatyard to ask for two suitable pieces of timber. Back aboard we lifted the engine on the boom again and swung it onto the pontoon. Janna heeled a bit as we carefully lowered the engine onto the timber from the boatyard. Finally we adjusted the height of the engine mounts, so that the engine wouldn’t fall into the water. That would be the last thing we needed!

Actually the whole process of lifting the engine out of the boat turned out to be much easier than we originally expected. Thanks to the tackle and the ingenious laws of physics, hoisting the 130 kilos our engine weighs was truly a child’s play. While I lifted the engine, Petr controlled its movements using another rope and tried to prevent the engine from swinging too violently on the boom. Before we moved the engine from the cockpit onto the pontoon, we asked our friend Dave to assist us just in case, but we could have easily managed only by ourselves…

Though we were really disappointed, that we had to return back to Kudat, in the end it turned out that it was all for good. In order to get the engine out of the boat more easily, we had to also disconnect the gearbox and when we did, we found small pieces of some black rubber around one of the bolts. First we thought maybe the mechanics in Lumut somehow forgot some rubber inside the engine but that seemed odd, so out went the Volvo Penta Parts Catalog. A preliminary search revealed that the rubber could come from a part called damping plate between the gearbox and the flywheel. After consulting Tony, who admittedly worked his whole life as an auditor, but is extremely knowledgeable and is one of the technical gurus in the marina, Petr took the screwdriver and soon the damping plate of out. Unfortunately our diagnosis proved to be right. The rubber in the center of the plate was all deformed an out of place. We shook our heads at the sight of it, wondering how that might have happened, when it suddenly dawned on us. It must be yet another remnant of the incident that happened four years ago, when one of the mounts broke and the vibrations also caused the disc on the gearbox to snap. The rubber might easily have deformed back then or disintegrated way faster because of it. We dreaded the cost of a new damping plate, but on the other hand were glad that we found the problem before something far more serious happened. Once again it turned out that there’s always a silver lining behind every cloud. Sigh.

Currently we are shopping for new mounts and some stainless steel to modify the engine bed. Maybe we will have to put the engine more forward towards the center of the boat, in which case we would have to also get a new shaft… And so it’s another two or three weeks for us in Kudat. At least… Luckily the marina is for free and nobody minds that we have the engine temporarily stored right on the pontoon next to our boat. I guess in a posh marina, they wouldn’t be so understanding. Plus when we finally leave here, it will probably be the north-east monsoon blowing already and so for once we will actually sail with the wind and not against it!

]]> http://www.klubko.net/en/2013/10/unscheduled-return/feed/ 3 http://www.klubko.net/en/2013/09/trapped-in-kudat/ http://www.klubko.net/en/2013/09/trapped-in-kudat/#comments Thu, 26 Sep 2013 10:59:27 +0000 http://www.klubko.net/en/?p=3730 Month and a half ago when we sailed away from Philippines and arrived to Kudat, a small town in Sabah, also known as the „Land Below the Wind“, we thought we finally left all those potentially disastrous typhoons far behind. Turns out not quite so… Although it rarely happens that a typhoon ventures that south [...]]]> Month and a half ago when we sailed away from Philippines and arrived to Kudat, a small town in Sabah, also known as the „Land Below the Wind“, we thought we finally left all those potentially disastrous typhoons far behind. Turns out not quite so… Although it rarely happens that a typhoon ventures that south as Borneo, these cyclonic monsters can influence weather even in regions hundreds of miles away. And so here we are, already two weeks helplessly trapped in Kudat. It’s not that a typhoon’s path is predicted to go anywhere near us, but last week it was the super typhoon Usagi and now another typhoon Pabuk that is sucking in and thus intensifying the monsoon winds, which blow from south-west, i.e. exactly the direction we want to travel. The wind itself would not be such a problem, but the local waters are infamous for serious currents, that are strongly influenced by monsoon winds, and to sail on a small yacht not only against the wind, but also against a 2 knot current is not really much fun.

This is how it currently looks in SE Asia…

It’s kind of frustrating. Every day  in the morning we use zyGrib to download the newest grib files which show wind predictions for the next couple of days. Every day we hypnotize the screen in hope of a weather window that would finally allow us to leave Kudat. Just yesterday it seemed we might be able to cast off next Monday, but today it’s a completely different story. And so our departure date is still quite uncertain at present. The only thing that keeps our spirits relatively high is the hope that tomorrow’s prediction may once again change…

To pass the time, we buried ourselves in the joys of manual labor. Now that all the translations we have been working on for the last few months are finally over, we took out our long-resting hammers, screwdrivers etc. and began yet another demolition.

Couple of days ago we met a very friendly Belgian guy Willie, who also owns a Halberg-Rassy, 35’ Rasmus. When he invited us for a visit, we instantly jumped aboard and had a close look on his boat to see if there are some modifications, that we could also use on our boat. We were immediately intrigued by the scuppers Willie made on the lower sides of his cockpit seats. The water drains through them and won’t collect around the cockpit locker lids, in other words another useful prevention from undesired leaks. Back aboard Janna we wrote down the idea to our endless “todo list”, so as not to forget it, and when it became obvious that we won’t be able to leave Kudat any time soon, we immediately set on the project.

However, we didn’t want to drill holes through the cockpit teak, that we spent so much time putting in last year, and so we decided to make the scuppers in the fiberglass edges below the cockpit locker lids. After all that’s where most of the water tends to collect anyway.

Also instead of copper tubes Willie used we made them out of polyester resin and fiberglass cloth. As a mold we used a piece of plastic hose, which we first sprayed with Silicot, so that it would be easier to get it out of the polyester tube once the fiberglass cures.

Then came the demolition phase – i.e. the part, that I personally dread the most. The boat gets filled with tools, spare parts and other odds and ends and you have to jump over it while at the same time paying attention not to end up in the opened engine room or bilge or some other “trap” that had to be set because of the current project. Plus it always turns out that before the demolition can even commence, something first has to be disassembled, emptied and thus the whole cockpit (sometimes even the main cabin) is suddenly flooded with boxes of various shapes and sizes, jerry cans, hoses, anchors and what not. To put it shortly, before the demolition proper, it is usually necessary to first undergo a preparatory one…

This time it was quite easy. We “only” had to empty two out of the three cockpit lockers and unscrew the locker lids and put them temporarily on the pontoon. Then we took some measurements and started the destruction. On both sides of the cockpit we drilled two holes, drilling under a slight angle, so that the water would drain even when Janna is heeled while under sails. Once again the tiny fiberglass sawdust was flying everywhere and our skin itched even after we took our evening shower. A good warm-up exercise before the haul-out in Langkawi…

Once the holes were drilled and sanded, we glued in the polyester tubes – first by using the quick hardening epoxy putty and then reinforced everything with more polyester resin and fiberglass cloth. We left it overnight to cure properly and then as the last step put on a plastic hose with clams. The lids were screwed back in place and a bucket of water was poured over them to test our new upgrade. It worked wonderfully! All the water drained away and not a single drop ended up inside the lockers. Hopefully the SW monsoon will calm down soon and give us chance to test the scuppers even when heeled and at sea!

Luckily for us, soon after we entered the bay, we spotted a couple of local fisherman in wooden canoes. One of them was nearby so we called him to come closer to our boat. He couldn’t speak English but using hands and gestures we somehow managed to explain to him that we were stuck on a reef and that we need him to row our stern anchor back to deep water and drop it there. We would then try to winch ourselves off the reef.

The skinny fisherman readily took our anchor, though when Petr was handing it to him while he was balancing on the bow of his canoe, I was convinced that they – i.e. both the fisherman and our stern anchor – would soon end up on the bottom of the bay. However, our fisherman handled it without batting an eye, rowed the anchor to approximately 20 meters off Janna’s stern and dropped it. Petr pulled hard on the anchor line to set the anchor properly. Then he lead the line through our stern fairlead and onto one of the winches in the cockpit, that we normally use for genoa sheet. I handed him the winch handle and after few turns Janna healed, I pushed the engine into reverse and not even 5 minutes after we hit the reef, we were back in deep water!

So in the end it all turned out well, though both of us felt a bit shaken for the rest of the afternoon, just as we did after our last close encounter with a coral head in a bay on Linapacan Island. Originally we planned to hike to a nearby lighthouse – there’s supposed to be a path that leads you there from Clarendon Bay. But now, our appetites for taking a walk were successfully ruined. The only consolation and excuse for our lack of vigilance might be the following confession of two Japanese sailors, whom we met back in Coron. Both of them were seasoned sailors and before venturing into Filipino waters, both could boast of never hitting a reef in their whole lives. Yet, before they finally anchored in Coron, they managed to hit a reef three times in one day! Their example clearly shows how treacherous the Filipino waters, and above all the not exactly well-charted reefs really are!

As a token of our gratitude, we emptied the rest of our Filipino pesos into our rescuer’s stretched out hands and presented him with two packs of sugar – before we left PP, our Kiwi friends, who already sailed through here to Kudat, wrote us email saying that we should stock up on sugar and similar commodities, since these are very appreciated in these remote regions. They said that locals would approach us and try to trade these for fish or their home-grown vegetables. Our rescuer then gestured to us that he also wouldn’t say no to T-shirts, shorts or a wet suit. We gave him several of our older T-shirts. As for spare shorts and wet suits, these were unfortunately currently “out of stock”.

And then the stream of visitors really started! One after another, the locals approached our boat in their small wooden canoes. First came the fishermen. With the first one we traded a pack of sugar and a pack of rice noodles for two nice little fish for our dinner. The second one try to offer us a tiny tiddler, but our dinner was already cared for, so we politely declined and gave him a pack of sugar simply as a present. This fisherman spoke some English and was kind of nosy. He made us feel a little uncomfortable when he started ask questions like: how long are we going to stay, how many people are aboard etc. Petr quickly answered that we sail with our child, but that the baby’s sleeping right now inside the boat. He was probably no gangster, but since Filipinos really love their kids, we thought a little white lie could do no harm…

Once the importunate fisherman was finally away and I put the fish on the griddle pan, we had a first child visitor, a small boy. Petr invited him to cockpit, where they chatted for a while using simple English – turns out local kids go to school (i.e. literally “go”, as on their feet) twice a week and their school is in Balabac town, 4 hours by foot! The boy asked us if we had any English books for kids or a vocabulary. Unfortunately all we could give him was a notebook, pencil and a ball pen – a real hit! Plus some sweets, of course. He also took a piece of the grilled fish but obviously wasn’t very impressed with our chick peas salad that he quickly spat out over the side!

Next round of visitors were also kids – a boy and a girl, possible younger siblings of the boy that just left, because they came in the same boat. Just as their older brother before them, they offered us some kind of pumpkin/melon, but since we already had two, we told them to keep it. The little girl was a bit shy, but her brother directly asked us for some fishing line. Petr dove into one of the cockpit lockers and found one for him, including some fishing hooks. That probably gave the little boy an impression, that our boat is some kind of a magician’s hat, that will readily spill out anything you ask for. So instead of thanking us, he simply cried out: “Television!”

“Sorry, we don’t have television aboard,” was our bemused reply. Instead we gave them notebook, pencils, ball pens (of course!), crayons and each of them a hat against the sun.

Luckily for us, when they left the sun also went down and the stream of visitors ceased, otherwise by morning our boat would be completely empty!

But let’s not forget the crocodile adventure! After we managed to winch ourselves off the reef back into deep water, Petr was getting ready to jump into water to inspect the hull for any potential damages (we were driving real slow, so we didn’t exactly hit the reef, it was more like we comfortably “sat” on top of it, but a visual control means extra points to our black box). He was already putting on his fins when I spotted a dark shade moving in the water just behind his back. I immediately recollected the warnings of couple of fellow cruisers that rivers in the south of Palawan are brimming with crocs. I wasn’t exactly sure that “my shade” was really a crocodile, but if they are in Palawan, which is just “next door”, so to speak, then they might as well be here on Balabac, too! We decided to postpone the visual control until we get to some safer waters, just to be sure. We haven’t seen any crocks there, while we were there, but when we asked our little Filipino visitor if there are any crocks in Clarendon Bay, he replied that they often have them for dinner! – i.e. the fishermen the crocks, not the other way round…

Since we spent the previous night at sea taking turns on watch, we slept like babies, despite the shock after hitting the reef and the possibility of crocks swimming around the boat. The alarm clock woke us up at 5:30 next morning and since there was still no wind, we decided to pull up the anchor and have breakfast later on the way.  Not a smart move! Sure, it was really calm inside the bay, but once we stuck our nose out of it, we immediately got slammed by the first wave and before we even finished our breakfasts, we spotted the first squall approaching. We quickly devoured the rest of our porridge and poured the still too hot coffee into a thermos. Before the first gusts hit us, we had just enough time to pull on our raincoats and put a reef into both our mainsail and headsail.

Balabac Strait is infamous for strong currents and since at least two currents running in different directions meet here, it’s not uncommon to experience big waves and confused seas here. We can only testify to this because that’s what we had to deal with for the rest of the day.

At first we thought that the squall will soon pass away and enthusiastically showed each other whenever a new bright spot appeared in the otherwise overcast sky. Truth is the sky never really brightened and in the end we had at least five squall similar to the morning one. On top of that, the head winds and waves constantly pushed us towards the shoals southwest off Balabac Island. Our goal was to reach the sheltered waters between Balambangan and Banggi Islands, that lie 30 miles south of Balabac I., preferably before nightfall, anchor there for the night and during the next day sail the last 30 miles to Kudat, a small Malaysian harbor at the north-east tip of Borneo. In order to maintain a better course towards our anchorage and to reduce the leeway, we decided to motorsail.  Also, after one of the gusts during the first squall lay us abeam – fortunately everything inside the boat was properly stowed, so the only thing that fell out were the books from the starboard bookshelf, because we forget to set up the bracket, that’s suppose to prevent just this from happening – we put another reef into our main and took turns by the tiller.

And now one confession: in case we ever claimed here that our rigging doesn’t whistle, then we take it back. Maybe the whistling sounds are not that intense as on other boats but truth is after two squalls we quickly figured out, that although we don’t a dedicated wind meter, the whistling through the rigging is a unmistakable sing of an approaching series of gusts. An so as soon as we heard some whizzing around the mast, we let out a bit of mainsheet and tighten it back only after the whistling ceased. So you may say that it’s not exactly our rigging but our mast that whistles…

Although we were slowly but surely approaching our anchorage, we started to worry if we would finally make it before dark. Just when we were close enough to see the opening between the islands and started looking forward to our little shelter there, we spotted yet another squall coming right at us. It was nearly 5 pm, not even 2 hours before sunset. The gloomy squall line was quickly approaching and within couple of minutes our vision was completely obstructed by heavy rain. Instead of islands all we could see now was a grayish-white screen of clouds and rain. We didn’t want to risk another close encounter with a reef and so didn’t really have another choice but to tack and turn away from our destination!

What a frustrating experience! Luckily after half an hour or so the squall moved away and we tacked back on our previous course towards the islands. In the end we dropped the anchor just as it grew dark, right next to a fleet of big fishing ships. We noticed another sailboat in the anchorage but were too tired to lower the dinghy into the water and pay them a visit. We figured they must have left from Kudat and were heading the opposite way – i.e. to Philippines. We made spaghetti for dinner, took a shower and hit the bunks – the odd were that we would have to fight the same elements the next day and so we wanted to take a proper rest.

The alarm clock was set for 5 am. This time we didn’t want to take any chances and decided to enjoy a peaceful breakfast in the anchorage. We left our shelter at the crack of dawn. The fishing boats were gone and the other sailboat had the running lights on. Apparently they were also getting ready to set sail. The sky was much brighter than the day before. Were our fears groundless? According to the grib files (which admittedly were 5 days old now and therefore not very reliable anymore), the monsoon should gradually pick up  starting from just that day, so we were getting mentally ready for the worse just in case…

In the end we were once again lucky. For the first two hours the wind was still blowing quite hard and Janna was climbing up what looked like 3 meter waves, but right from the early morning the sun was shining through the dispersing clouds and as soon as we reached the “shadow” of Borneo, the sea calmed down noticeably and out went the sunglasses, hats and sunscreen lotion. For lunch we had a quick risotto using up the last of our Filipino veggies and just after 1 pm we already spotted the entrance to Kudat marina.

It was still blowing more than 10 knots and so I must admit I was a little nervous before entering the marina. After all it has been a few months since we last maneuvered to a dock. Plus the pontoons inside the marina are really short and space between them so narrow that two beamier boat just won’t fit in… Later someone told us, that the marina was originally built for local coastguard and their small motorboats – that would certainly explain the dimensions! However, instead of motorboats, now the marina was full of sailboats, most of them yachts that were taking part in the Malay-Indonesian regatta and were waiting here for the two hosting countries to figure out some bureaucratic procedures. In fact, there was just one free spot in the whole marina!

Luckily, just as we approached the pontoons, we were spotted by Dave and Jackie, whom we met in PP and who were now waving at us, showing us where the last free spot was. They also stood by ready to give us hand with the lines. Petr was ready on the starboard with the bow and stern lines while I nervously held onto to the tiller. We just turned into a narrow space between two marina fingers full of boats. There, just to the left of us, was our spot. I steered to the right to allow myself more space for the final turn and just as I was getting ready to turn inside, a strong gust came in and we had to wait. Luckily we didn’t get blown on some other boat but it spoiled my original maneuver and I had to put the engine into reverse. Problem is, reverse is something Janna really doesn’t like to do… Yet this time it somehow amazingly worked and I managed to steer her right into the tiny slip by the pontoon and next to our new neighbor, who was watching the whole show with a fender in his hand. Phew! We were home and dry, or should I say by the pontoon and (almost) unscratched?

We tied the lines, greeted our friends and gratefully accepted each a glass of orange juice filled up with ice that Jackie offered us. So after 6 days we arrived safely to Malaysia. This time we survived the passage against the winds and currents almost unharmed. But what will it be like next week when we cast off to slowly sail towards Singapore…? Whatever comes, can’t wait to be back at sea again!

Map of the passage (including our current GPS position)