Underway to Chagos Again!

The coolant pump for the Lugger and the relief valve for the Naiad roll stabilizers finally arrived.  It took only 3 days to get from America to Male (Maldives) and it took daily multiple phone calls to get the parts the 300 miles from Male to Gan and those calls took an additional 6 days.

We tackled the coolant pump first.  Getting the old one out was a real chore since some bolts were corroded and the spraying coolant had made a mess on the hot engine.  Below is a picture of the old pump and the mess.  The entire unit weighed about 50 lbs and was a struggle to muscle it around.  

It took all three crew in the engine room to hold up the heavy coolant tank while we aligned a gasket and several bolts with the new unit.  After much cursing and some bloody knuckles, the new pump was installed.  Several bolts and bolt holes were buggered up (technical term there) and Tom had to run a tap and die to clean them up.  The job was done right though and all bolts were coated with anti-seize to make the next repair go smoothly.  Tom added about 5 gallons of coolant, crossed his fingers and started her up.  Everything ran smoothly and there were no leaks. It is nice to have that repair behind us.

The next day, I replaced the relief valve in the Naiads and that repair went quickly and without any dramas.  That solved the problem and the system pressure came right up to normal.  The relief valve was stuck in the open position thereby dumping all the hydraulic pressure back to the reservoir tank.  It will be nice to have our roll stabilizers back for the rest of the Indian Ocean passage.  The short trip (300 miles) to Chagos should be fine, but the 1500 mile trip from Chagos to Madagascar is known for being a bumpy ride.

We appreciate the comments, well-wishing and prayers of friends and family.  We spent the last of our Rufiyaa on food, fuel and customs fees and pushed off south…once again to Chagos.

 

 

Tom

Addu, Maldives and Breakdown in the High Seas

The Addu Atoll is situated about 480 km south of the capitol Male and consists of 6 inhabited and about 27 uninhabited islands. Dams and bridges connect the 4 largest islands and are the largest land connection on the Maldives. The black top road from Gan to Hithadhoo is about 18.5 km. The total population comes to about 30,000 making it the second largest after Male. The Addu Atoll lies south of the equator.

Hithadhoo is the "capital" with about 10,000 inhabitants. There are schools and a hospital. The population lives mostly from fishing; the fish is processed here also.

The British Royal Air Force built an air base here during World War II and expanded it during the hot phase of the Cold War in 1956. They erected dams to connect the surrounding islands. The English trained and hired the Maldivians as service employees, giving them the possibility to earn an income. In 1976, the English relinquished the post and left the Maldives. The Maldivian service personnel moved to Male and the surrounding tourist resorts. Due to their excellent knowledge of the English language, they were very welcome. There is only one accessible tourist resort on the Addu Atoll: - the Equator Village.

We went there several times and enjoyed their all-you-can-eat buffet lunch for about $66 US for all three of us.  They also have a fresh water pool and we enjoyed swimming until they told us we would have to pay extra for that.  We were surprised since the entire resort only had about 12 guests during this low season.

Tom changed the engine oil and re-attached the bow deck box as we tried to get everything ready within the 7 days we were allowed before we would have to get a $1000 cruising permit.  We met Abdula and Mulla who are brothers and own two of the stores here.  We placed an order with Mulla for fresh vegetables and fruit and they agreed to deliver them right to our dingy in the boat harbor.

 

Tom noticed a little antifreeze puddle near where we have a coolant overflow bottle mounted for the main engine.  Since he had seen and corrected some small tubing leaks there before, we were not particularly concerned. However upon closer inspection in Gan, he noticed that it looked like a leak near the circulating water (coolant) pump.  It was quite a mess since the coolant was dripping on the belt and pulleys and flinging everywhere.  Tom could not identify the specific leak source, but assumed that it is the circulating water (coolant) pump.  Since the level in the overflow tank was only down about a cup, we decided we would start the passage to Chagos and top up antifreeze into the overflow tank if needed.  We hoped this would work until we got to a better port with qualified mechanics to help.

Discussions with Naiad determined that a relief valve was the most likely cause of the Naiads not working, but we had no time to wait for a replacement part to arrive.

So after our 7 days in Gan, we took on 2500 liters of fuel, spent a frantic 2 hours trying to exchange our Maldive money for US dollars, and left for Chagos.

Seas were calm and although we had some rolling, it was much better than the last passage.  Just before sunset, Tom was resting and the main engine overheat alarm started screaming.  We shut down the main engine and started the 37 HP wing engine while Tom jumped into the 130 degree engine room.  He could see the results of the antifreeze leak hitting the belts and slinging around but the overflow tank was still at ¾ full.  (Tom later found out that the coolant overflow tank fluid will not flow into a hot engine until after it is shut down and cooling.)

Since we were only 60 miles into our 300 mile trip and qualified help was more than 2000 miles away if we continued south, we made the difficult decision to turn back to north to Gan.  The wing engine ran fine but it took us 20 hours to backtrack the 60 miles that had taken us only 10 hours with the main engine.  On the trip back, Tom e-mailed Bob Senter (our engine guy) with our SSB radio and we had the replacement part already sourced and waiting to ship before we reached Gan.

We went through the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine dance again and decided to call a different agent for this stay in Gan.  By nightfall, Tom had another cell phone sim card and the shipping address for the parts.  Just at dusk, Tom called back to the USA that was just waking up and ordered both the replacement coolant pump and Naiad parts.

Time will tell how long it will take to actually receive the shipped parts and whether Tom will be able to repair the items without help.  Although this is not the best place for a breakdown, we are all safe and the girls are able to snorkel a bit and finish up home-school lessons.  There are enormous bats that fly directly over the harbor that have a 24 inch wingspan and perform for us each dusk and dawn.  Tom can rent a motorbike for about $10 to run errands or borrow Abdulas for only the price of a fill-up.  

 

Wish us well Dear readers that these repairs will go quickly and we will soon be back underway.

Tom

Bay of Bengal and North Indian Ocean Crossing

The passage started out fine.  The seas in the North Malacca strait were glassy with less than 5 knots of wind.  We trolled a lure, did homeschool for the first two days and all was well.  It was so calm that we did not have the stabilizers on and the boat smoothly powered through the seas. 

Day 3 dawned clear and we got a daybreak hit on the fishing rod.  We slowed her down and Dad reeled in a 3 foot long Mahi Mahi.  After boating the fish and removing the hook, Dad sped back up and flipped on the stabilizers while Mom cleaned the fish.  The roll stabilizers that had worked fine in Langkowi decided to stop working.  No problem said the Captain.  Seas were still relatively calm and the forecast was for some rain but light winds.

The GRIB weather files lied.  Winds steady picked up and rather than the variable directions predicted, they were all from the SW, W, or NW direction…right on our nose!  We started pitching into the seas which began to grow day by day as the winds strengthened.  We saw steady winds for most of the next  9 days around 18 to 25 knots and saw gusts in squalls go to 35 to 40 knots.  The seas were mostly from the SW, but were variable enough to give us a bad rolling motion as well as the pitching.  On 3 days in a row, we had rain squalls every two hours.  We would race around and close hatches on our hot boat and swelter while the heavens dumped rain and lightning crashed all around.  Then the rain would stop and we would open up the boat and let the 87 degree air try to cool the boat.

We saw furniture walking across the boat until we tied it down.  A fiberglass dock box on the bow that was full of lines, broke loose from six deck bolts and wedged against some fenders and the deck.  Thankfully we did not do any fiberglass damage and no lines were lost, but we did not attempt to go forward during the heavy seas.  Cooking was near impossible, so we had peanut butter sandwiches on more than one day.  Thankfully we all had our sea legs and did not get seasick, but even reading was not easy to do for long periods.

After 12 days, we motored into the calm waters of the Gan harbor at about noon. We were the only cruising boat in the harbor and although the harbor was a little small with several local boats on moorings, we dropped the hook.  We raised the yellow quarantine flag and hailed the officials to come check us into the Maldives.

The check in went relatively easy but we found out that new $66 fees (both in and out for $132) were now imposed.  We were happy to rest and decided to wait until tomorrow to let our boat cool down before venturing ashore.

Tom

The Malacca Straits

We had an uneventful (that's good) run up the Malacca strait to Langkowi. Mention the Malacca Straits to many people and their immediate response is "Pirates!" Since 2006, the straits have been dropped from Lloyd's of London's list of "dangerous waterways" - so that's the worry about pirates dealt with, which just left squalls, shipping lanes and suicidal fishermen.

The straits should be a delightful area to sail in, with winds blowing from either the south-west or north-east, depending on the monsoon season. There is however that tricky transition from one monsoon to the other, during which winds can be light - unless you are run over by one of the numerous squalls. These nasties could arrive at any time of day or night, with blinding blasts of lightning, deafening thunder, gusts of over 30 knots and torrential rain. We specifically chose this transition season (no wind) between monsoons to try to sneak across the top of the Indian Ocean in calm conditions.

 

The Malaysian coastline does not offer an abundance of secure anchorages, so we decided to opt for a mix of day trips and overnight passages. Yachts are advised to head north in a virtual channel between the official shipping lane (filled with fast moving tankers and container ships) and the 10m depth contour (beyond which lie fleets of small fishing vessels). Sounds like a good theory, but it does place small fragile yachts in the same waters as behemoth tugs towing vast unlit barges. Night watches required considerably more vigilance than we're used to with the E-Reader and MP3 player being replaced by radar, AIS, binoculars and the hand-bearing compass.

Our first stop was Pisang Island and we specifically chose this short trip so Tom could have time to don the SCUBA gear and clean the bottom. He did clean the prop and keel cooler, but with 10 inch visibility and some fast current, he came back aboard to try another day.

Our next day trip took us to the Water Islands near Malacca (that we had visited by bus). We had a slightly rolly night and left early the next morning for Admiral Marina in Port Dickson. There we met Tiger Balm again and swapped some notes. We enjoyed a nice dinner out, swam in their pool and enjoyed a cool cabin from the air conditioners as we slept.

We chose to overnight the next 140 miles to bypass dirty Kelang and anchored in a nice bay off Pankor Island. The fishing boats fish at night too and lay a long net with a blinking (or not) light (or not) at one end of the net and keep the boat at the other. With one boat showing on the radar and the tiny blinking light one mile away, it is child's play to decide not to drive between the two. It gets harder with 5 boats and near impossible when we counted more than 30 boats on our radar set at 4 miles. Sometimes they will motor towards you at high speed and/or frantically wave a light to try and get us to steer one way or the other. At a couple of really heavy fishing areas, we diverted more than 5 miles off course to avoid getting tangled. Only once did we catch something in the prop (with no boats or nets close by?) and our speed dropped from 6 knots to 4. We just slowed, backed up and the knife cutters on the prop shaft must have cut through whatever it was. We never saw anything floating and our speed went back to normal.

 

We safely anchored at Pankor just off a beautiful resort where we watched rich folks being delivered by helicopter.

We used the free WiFi signal to find out its name and phone number. A quick phone call and they came out in a small launch to collect us and bring us ashore for lunch. We were given a private tour of the island and spa and told we could enjoy all the facilities. We had a scrumptious but expensive lunch and spent the entire afternoon by the enormous lap pool drying ourselves with their fluffy towels.

 

Our next day trip took us to historic Penang Island and we took the last available slip at Straights Quay marina. Clustered around the marina were several nice restaurants. We had a nice meal and took a bus to explore Georgetown the next day.  Georgetown was clean and pretty with 3-wheeled rickshaws, Chinese temples, beautiful fabrics and friendly Muslims.

 

 

We enjoyed two more cool nights and then made our last day trip to Langkowi.

I believe that this group of islands has been strategically placed at the end of the Malacca Straits as a reward to cruisers. After cruising through the archipelago, I could understand why this has become a long term hang-out for many sailors.

Langkawi is an example of limestone karst scenery - which translates into a plethora of steep sided islets, many with sheer rocky cliffs which seem to be melting via stalactites into the jade coloured sea. The waters around Langkawi are all fairly shallow, which makes for some interesting navigation, but also enabled us to anchor close inshore, under towering rock formations. We chose an anchorage called the Fjord and it was special. We were greeted by a massive soaring eagle which was appropriate since Langkowi has taken this bird as their symbol.

The next morning we motored the 9 miles in Rebak marina for our last week of provisioning. The marina is on a private island and connected to a 5 star resort. We pay about $25 per day for dockage, but can use the swimming pool, spa, restaurants and free ferry to Langkowi.

While there, Tom changed every engine fluid he could find while Kim bought every frozen meat, can good and fresh vegetable she could find. We bought 3 more 20-liter pails of engine oil and a few more assorted filters. Tom also finished cleaning the bottom and got all the SCUBA tanks filled. This is a duty free port so we also managed to find room for about $300 worth of wine, beer and spirits. That actually is a lot since beer here is about $10 a case and a full liter bottle of Absolut vodka is $11! Why are we leaving?

 

For shopping, we took the resort's speedboat ferry for a 10-minute ride across the harbor to Langkawi, where we shop, do errands, and sightsee. We rented a wreck for $15/day from Mr. Din on four separate days, the unsmiling Chinaman who has his fleet of cars parked at the ferry dock. We rush to get one of his "luxury" cars for an extra couple of dollars as they're usually in better shape. One of them even had automatic gearshift. We pay in cash, no driver's license requested, no paperwork, no insurance. (If a foreigner has an accident here, it's his fault. Driving on the left and risk is all part of the adventure of third world travel.) The first thing we do upon leaving the parking lot is to gas up, since the fuel tank is almost empty. About $5 gas takes us all day. Mr. Din is rumored to siphon off any extra fuel when cars are returned, leaving his customers just enough to get to the nearest gas station.

One car rattled our teeth when idling and would dump copious amounts of cold water from the A/C on Kim's feet every time I made a right turn. The second car was so infested with ants that we stopped at a hardware store to buy and empty a can of insecticide at the scurrying creatures!  But the car air conditioners were both pushing out frosty air and somehow we found everything that we needed.  We visited several museums and we saw batik being made and bought a few more pieces.

We only had one extra beef tenderloin that Kim could not jam into the full freezer. That got cut in half and jammed into the icemaker!

So it was with a full freezer and refrigerator and fruit hanging in nets aft, diesel fuel sloshing out of the overfilled tanks, we push off to sea. Next stop is about 12 days to the west in the Maldives. I've been watching the wind and seas for a month and have never seen any wind over 15 knots (mostly 5 knots and below) and seas always below 2 meters. This weather is a sailboater's nightmare and a trawlers dream…we shall see. Stay tune dear reader to see how it all works out.

Tom
Posted via SSB on passage

PostScript- To make things interesting for our last night on land, we heard the reports of the nearby 8+ earthquake and feared another tsunami was on its way toward us. A quick check on the internet showed it west of Sumatra and unlikely to affect us. It was however, almost directly on the route we plan to take at sea. My engineering background tells me that being at sea over an earthquake would be OK since tsunami damage only occurs as the waves near the shore, but still… In any event, the crew of Emily Grace did not feel a thing and we appreciate all the concern from friends and family.