2:55'.25n 101:15'.71e

Friday 22nd October 2010

Port Kelang

Friday 22nd October 2010 towards P. Gedong (Port Klang)

0630 left anchorage in the dark - a long day ahead just over 80 miles now we will see if all my repairs will hold up!  Lots of thunder and lightning first think this morning and anchored ships plus the usual fishing nets to dodge off Malacca.

Three oil rigs close together just North of Malacca, we are glad that all the surrounding ships are at anchor as we motor past!

 Valerie made great egg and bacon sarnies for breakfast, take a nap and am woken up to be told that the bloody engine boiled over again! So changed the saltwater pump yet again thinking that I may have damaged the impellor coming into the anchorage last night when the water manifold was leaking badly.  How stupid can you get? I took the pump off got out the spare (I replaced the damaged impellor last night) I then proceeded to bolt the one I had just taken off back on! So off with that one and back on with the spare.  Got everything running within a couple of hours. Hands a bit cut and burnt off the hot engine.  Two hours later the engine overheated again.  Took a look at the impellor on the unit I removed this morning to find the impellor to be perfect!  So I think the previous damaged impellor was the result of a problem and not the cause.  I am beginning to think that it is the heat exchanger as there is a lot of corrosion around it and find that if we top the header tank up with about a quarter of a litre of water every 10-15 mins the temperature stays normal.  Cannot see any leaks or other problems.

2100hrs anchored inbetween Gudong and Che Mat Zin Islands nr Port Kleang.

Position 2:55'.25n 101:15'.71e

Distance run 90.5 miles Average speed 6.24 knts

Saturday 23rd October

Set off at first light after a very comfortable night great anchorage.  Straight into 25 knots on the nose.  The engine overheated immediately although the header tank was full, as I could see no leaks I naturally thought the worst that the heat exchanger had gone as it's quite corroded. Thought about sailing south to Port Dixon to try to fix the problem as the generator would not start either so we had no means of charging the batteries!  Gave up after a very short time as the wind died and we could not get across the shipping lane in safety.  Decided to return to the anchorage and take stock of things. Sailed to windward some of the way, then tied the dinghy alongside to tow us back to the anchorage leaving the admiral to steer the boat whilst I operated the outboard that's when the 30 hp comes in handy.

 All going well until I heard from the driver that we seemed to have stopped.  Hard up on the mud on a falling tide -great the icing on the cake!

(Valerie was trying to keep the distance to the anchorage short and went too close to the mudbank we were going to shelter behind.  Being Spring tides, a lump of silt not on the chart got the keel – although the chart said we were in 7 metres of water, and the depth sounder was reading 12 meters, very confusing to find the boat was not moving any longer!)

Trying to be comfortable with the boat at a 45 degree list for 3 hours s a challenge.  Thankfully no harm done, just time for David to take a rest and for us to decide what to do whilst we are here, up the creek without a paddle!

1530hrs off the mud and back at anchor on an even keel again.

A fishing boat like this one got his net caught around our anchor chain, and tried to haul it in, getting it wrapped around each side of the boat

0300hrs sounded if the anchor was dragging got up in a hurry to find that some stupid fisherman had decided to put his net around us and haul us in!  It was a bright moon-lit night so not sure if he did it deliberately to try and claim compensation off us!  He finally got his net clear of us and went off mumbling.  What an end to a really great day - feeling pretty down by now what else could go wrong no engine and no generator. Also gearbox for mainsail furler seems to be on its' last legs!

Position as before distance run zero miles average speed very slow!

Sunday 24th October 2010

Valerie volunteered to go by dinghy with Ollie to find the Royal Selengor Marina to look at the possibility of getting things fixed there.  In the mean time we had emailed/sms'd friends for proper waypoints for Port Dixion if we had to go there about 40 miles south.

Ollie drove the dinghy 10 miles to the Yacht Club and back, an arm aching job which I would not have done with my (Valerie’s) arthritic joints!

Spoke to a recently made friend Ray in Danga Bay who talked the problems through with me and gave me a lot of sound advice.  I finally found the problem a leaking hose to the hot water calorifier.  The header tank outlet had become blocked so it appeared that the cooling system was full when in reality the system was empty!  So sorted that and got the engine running and the batteries charging and freezer getting cold again!  next the generator - swapped the battery with one of the engine starter batteries so had a full battery to play with also discovered a wire off the control box on the genset.  Fixed that and had the generator running again decided not to make water as there was a lot of silt in the water where we were.  Things were definatly looking up we were back in business! 

Meanwhile Valerie & Ollie had returned with the news that there was a good engineer based at the marina but no way would we be able to get there without an engine.  They had managed to do some shopping and top up our phone card.

Royal Selengor Yacht Club, Port Kelang

The Yacht Club in traditional colonial style is very comfortable, holds regattas and sailing events for the expats who are working in Port Kelang, the most important port in Malaysia

I spoke to the English couple who run the engineering shop here at the Club.  They said the September Equinox tide came right over the wall and flooded their workshop last month, thankfully they saved all the important electronic packages which were wrapped up in plastic on the floor!

Haul Out facility at Royal Selengor Yacht Club is a railway

After getting our phone top-ups and shopping at the nearby ‘Giant’ Supermarket, Ollie wheeled ther trolley back to the Club straight past the                police siting in the cafeteria where we’d had lunch, no problem!

At least we could point and say what we wanted to eat, omelette, fried chicken, chicken curry, mixed veggies.

Passed the Malaysian sail training ship on our way out towards the docks

We could not get the spare fuel tank to connect to the engine, so Ollie tried to grab a ladder close to the pilot station here, but could not get a grip on it as the tide was running too fast.  Nearly cut his arms to pieces as he held onto the barnacled posts seen here in the background, as the lad in the photo threw us a line to grab and pull us onto his dock to refuel with our spare petrol in another can! (Moral to the story, we should have refuelled or changed the fuel canister before leaving the Yacht Club of course!).

After getting the dinghy going again, we quicly crossed the shipping channel as a hive of activity was going on at the docks, including this container ship being pushed into position.  We had to manoeuvre around 4 ships all going up and down the narrow channel.

Little and large, the small trading vessel is just on the RHS, can you see it?

The joy of seeing Kanaloa in working order, and us back safe and sound!

 1500 we sat and demolished a bottle of red wine between us and had a siesta followed by an excellent calamari and prawn risotto produced by Valerie.  Watched Bridget Jones' Diary for a good laugh, and went to bed for a planned easy 40 mile trip tomorrow.