A New Year Begins, New Destinations Await

You know you're getting older when your favorite local radio station is called The Real Oldies. Whatever happened to K-Rock, Planet Rock, or KIISS and the like?  They all drifted into pop sameness, or repetitive rapping, is what happened..... and I stopped listening.

Here in Florida we had a great Christmas, listening to The Real Oldies on the rental car radio, pulling together the supplies and parts we needed and then celebrating with friends at Hobe Sound, north of Palm Beach.

George & Nancy Marvin, OCC Port Officers for the region, kindly invited us to share Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Luncheon with them - a fine group of cruisers were there, so spirits were high and endless dreams and lies circulated the table.

George & Nancy also kindly acted as a delivery point for our many parcels in the weeks before and after Christmas. Once those goodies were in hand we settled down to a sequence of repairs and service jobs onboard Crystal Blues.

The toughest project was replacing the heater hoses that snake their way through the boat from the engine to the hot water service. The old hose had been installed 12 years ago and was starting to crack - we'd found and repaired two leaks in the past 6 months.

So out it came, which took a day, and then the new silicone rubber hose went in, which took a couple of days - there is about 70 feet of hose in the circuit.  For good measure we flushed and cleaned the cooling circuit in the engine, and replaced the coolant in the system.

Both the Northern Lights genset and the Cummins main engine were due for injector servicing, so we gave both engines a treat and installed new (actually re-built) injectors. Both machines are running silky smooth now, aided by the recent valve lash adjustment - you really can tell the difference.

The Cummins was also rewarded with a new Walker AirSep Filter system, the original item having passed it's use-by date - 12 years was a good run. All in all the boat did real well in the Christmas gift department.

As to those radio stations, we also spent a day installing a new FM radio antenna connection - then scrolled right past the local spanish and rock / pop channels to settle on Legends Radio, a local jazz oriented station. Bliss.

Hopefully we'll be well ahead on the service and maintenance items when we leave here, and can spend time relaxing in the Bahamas soon. The cold weather that is impacting us should pass in a couple of days, and we're hoping for a clear weather window early next week for passage to the Bahamas.

New Walker AirSep Filter System Installed

 

South To St Augustine, Florida

Atlantic Sunrise, Off The Carolina Coast

Too Small & Too Bloody - Mackerel Tuna

With winter rapidly setting in, we escaped southward last week, sailing offshore down the Atlantic coast in warm weather bound for St. Augustine, Florida. Light winds from astern were not helpful, so the Cummins engine worked hard once again, as we pushed south and west, staying close to the coast to avoid the north-setting Gulf Stream current.

I wasn't surprised to find the Admiral on deck early one morning, with a fish hanging off a lure ... but really, did she have to start fishing before breakfast? Unfortunately the first three fish that came in were low-value Mackerel Tuna, and they were all released. With this state of affairs the Admiral gave up in disgust - she wanted Mahi Mahi or Wahoo, or Spanish Mackerel. Dream on.

So the fishing tackle was stowed once again and relaxed cruising resumed. We arrived at the St. Augustine bar right on time, in the middle of a rising tide with a following wind. The entrance was therefore drama free and Crystal Blues found herself safely moored on a City Marina mooring ball well before it was time for drinks. Perfect!

Christmas Lights In St. Augustine

This town, reported as the oldest city in America, was once a Spanish outpost. Now, with Christmas approaching, it kinda feels like a Disney outpost. Trolley / tram rides clog the streets, carrying droves of serious tourists from sight to sight, from Ghost Tour to Spanish Fort, restaurant to restaurant. This is not at all what we expected. But the decorative lights are really nice, and the spirit of the place does eventually get to you. Music is everywhere! St. Augustine has an incredibly vibrant live music scene - we've enjoyed great bars and restaurants with excellent live entertainment and usually no cover charge.

Checking The Injection Elbow

However it hasn't been all glittering lights and music. Our beloved Cummins 4BT engine was due for a major 4,000 hour service, so this past week we've tackled everything that can be checked and refreshed on the unit. The standard lube oil and filters, fuel filters etc were ticked off early, before we moved on to the gearbox lube oil and filter, then flushing and cleaning the gear oil cooler and the engine heat exchanger. Then we inspected and checked the turbo, serviced the Walker AirSep filter system, serviced the syphon break, checked the exhaust injection elbow, replaced the drive belt and replaced the belt tensioner.

The Salt water pump was checked (all blades Ok after 500 hours) and the coolant was tested with a Fleetguard coolant test kit, then adjusted to the correct chemical mix using a measured concentrate. For good measure we finished off with valve lash adjustment today.

OK, I'm slow, but it has taken almost six days to work through the job, in between shopping trips and the essential cruising social activities. The weather here has now turned to winter again, with a series of small cold fronts moving in. Predicted 2 degrees Centigrade overnight tomorrow evening. So we'll probably move aft and turn our attention to the Northern Lights generator - its now ready for service.

Valve Lash (Tappet) Adjustment On The Cummins 4BT

Baby, It's Cold Outside

The South Atlantic Ocean welcomed us with very light winds, but cold weather and 5 meter swells when we departed Cape Town on Monday afternoon. After three days of sailing the water temperature has risen 4.5 degrees to 18.5, and the air temperature is becoming acceptable - just.

Crystal Blues was farewelled by dolphins, penguins and sea lions as we motored out of Cape Town Harbour, where we spent a frustrating few hours re-calibrating our two autopilot systems prior to setting a true course north and west. The big swell has us rolling uncomfortably for the first day or so, but that has all settled down and we're now scooting along nicely towards St. Helena Island. We've covered 392 nautical miles, and have just 1322 miles to go - this will be our longest passage since we departed Australia 11 years ago.

For the first two days we had a personal escort - a group of sea lions slip streaming in our wake, doing aerobatics and generally playing up, though they've now left us and we are content to watch the many albatross, petrels, shearwaters and gannets that constantly surround the boat, soaring over wave crests and zooming through the troughs.

All is well on board, though we picked up some kelp in the propeller departing Cape Town. Most of it was thrown off but something has lodged somewhere as the blades are not folding as they should, which causes the prop shaft to rotate when we are sailing. With leather gloved hands we've slowed the shaft down to a stop and then jammed a wooden block between the hull and the shaft coupling nuts - it's now locked, and I can wait until we reach St. Helena before diving to clear the problem. Ley has done her usual incredible job of provisioning for the several long passages coming up - we have over 5500 nautical miles to travel before the end of June. Already she's baking muffins and planning our menus well in advance. If the weather holds we should be in St. Helena in 8 or 9 days.

Things That Work For Us # 7 - Northern Lights Genset

It's really hard to speak when you are on hands and knees, your face buried against the cabin sole, happily worshiping your genset  .... a  Northern Lights unit.

You think I'm going overboard here ?  Seriously, this is how grateful we feel !

Northern Lights M673L3 Installed On Crystal Blues

After way too many years of dealing with constant Onan genset failures, we got smart and sold the thing to someone else.  Sure it didn't run, and had done over 2700 hours. Then again we sold it for peanuts, which is more than it was worth, in our opinion.

To give you a short history, our first Onan generator was such a complete dud that the factory replaced it at 740 hours of service, no charge to us.

Unfortunately they replaced it with the same model, with the same old problems.  You can guess how much fun that was.

We had to replace the impeller every 100 hours to keep the thing reliable, replaced countless water pumps and drive couplings, and when the control board finally failed they wanted over Two Thousand US dollars for a new board. Get outa here.... !

Onan Coupling Failure - Not Happy

This was incentive enough to move us into the real world, and we purchased a compact Northern Lights M673L3 6kva 230vac generator very economically, direct from the distributor in Taiwan.  It was shipped into Langkawi Malaysia, and delivered duty and tax free, quite a saving for us.  We craned it aboard and completed the installation ourselves, and have not looked back since.

The three cylinder Japanese manufactured Shibaura diesel engine runs like a Swiss watch, smooth and silent, and now, at 1065 hours of service, I am pleased to say that not a single thing has failed since it was installed.  This is a seriously nice piece of engineering.  I actually enjoy working on it for services and oil changes ... everything is easy to access and it's done in a flash.

Onan Impeller Failure

We spend less than 1/4 of the hours maintaining the Northern Lights unit, compared to the old Onan MDK4 unit. By 1100 operating hours the last Onan had consumed five (5) impellers, two water pumps and one starter motor.

The Northern Lights at the same age has consumed just one (1) impeller, simply because I had the raw water supply valve closed when I started it.  Oops - that was my fault.

To be fair, Cummins purchased the Onan business worldwide shortly
after our initial Onan purchase, and I think they really purchased a bunch of problems.  The very many design issues that afflicted our Onan unit would probably not have existed under a Cummins design regime - certainly I don't think Cummins designers would have allowed a sea water pump with a 3/4" supply hose to be restricted to a 1/4" outlet on the heat exchanger.  The huge back pressure that tiny outlet created, apparently necessary to stop localised boiling in the heat exchanger, was the cause of the constant impeller failures.

In fact the superb support we received from the Cummins team, with our Onan problems, was influential in our decision to eventually re-power Crystal Blues with a Cummins engine - the 4BT-150.  Never the less, Genset control boards priced at over US$2,000.00 will not bring about repeat business.  In the past year I've worked on several other smaller capacity Onan units with mystery problems, on other boats, and sure enough one lucky owner also needed a control board.  He stumped up and laid down the cash - whereas my advice was to toss the whole unit and start fresh with Northern Lights.

Things That Work For Us # 5 - Rule #104 Inline Blower

Just over 10 years ago we installed a new Cummins diesel engine in Crystal Blues, replacing a beat up Perkins that was a little too small and way too leaky (oil that is).

At the time, we also installed a simple Rule #104 Inline Blower, to circulate air from the bilges up to the air cleaner of the Cummins.

Now, some 3,339 hours later, that Rule blower has been finally shut down, when the blower bearings became louder than the diesel engine.  A replacement unit was purchased off the shelf from a local chandlery here in South Africa, for A$49.00 .

How many electrical items run for over 3000 hours sitting in a (very) hot engine compartment ?

So, credit where credit is due.  Many pleasure craft wouldn't operate for 3000 hours over their entire life, so this blower would have been a lifetime purchase.  Congratulations to Rule for building a product that delivers both value and reliable service.

Floating Again

Who's A Happy Girl ?

After a month on the hard stand, we re-launched Crystal Blues in late November.  What a relief  - it was great to be floating again and not dealing with paint spatter.

Preparing for the cruising season ahead,  we were busy cleaning and completing our works list.  Three days work on the main engine, including sea water pump replacement, gear box service and overhaul of the heat exchangers,  which we "rodded out" with brass rods.  The salt water cooling system was stripped completely, exhaust elbow removed and checked, belts, filters and lubricants replaced.  On the electrical side we rectified a loose connection in the alternator field wiring and replaced one of the 12volt fans that handles airflow in the engine compartment.

Our Northern Lights generator also received its first service, having run for just 46 hours since new.  An oil change and valve lash (tappet) adjustment and that was over very quickly.  The toilet system has also been stripped out and re-installed, with adjustments to the stainless base.  Ley has also worked hard re-stocking the vessel with food and wine for the coming months.

Its been a busy time. We flew to Australia in mid December, after a farewell dock party with live music from our resident band.  It was our first Christmas with our families for many years, a real buzz. We returned to the boat just before the New Year, ready to cruise north to Thailand. 

The lure of family connections was strong, but it was hard to leave the boat so prepared and ready for our next adventure - we really were aching for some sailing. The adventure started after a fine New Year celebration on Rebak Island, with Neil's band playing at two locations on the night.

Ley & Jan " Just Testing" The Gin

Good friends and frequent crew, Ray & Jan Pitt arrived onboard courtesy of Air Asia, and within days we headed north to Thailand.

Tonight we are at anchor on the north east tip of Ko Ra, only a day's travel from our destination of Buffalo Bay at Ko Phayam.  The winds are good, blowing generously from the East, and the monsoon has set in with sunny dry weather.

Life is grand.

We "Love" The Mallacca Straits

This was our eleventh Malacca Straits passage, and it turned out to be just like some of the others - a pain in the neck.  Keeping in mind that the boat hadn't been actively used for fifteen months, we started cautiously with a 40 mile passage from Singapore to Pulau Pisang.  A quiet night there was followed by a good 6 hours of sailing before the wind dropped and we started the Cummins diesel.  All systems were working fine and we spent some time on deck that day, completing the re-rigging - runners, preventers, down-haul and the like. The new Raymarine autopilot worked fine straight up and it was a joy to be at sea again.

With The Smoke Haze, It Felt This Black

That night things changed, with a decent 35 knot Sumatra (squall) coming in from the north west just after 21:00hrs.  It blew for a couple of hours and settled down gradually.  Our real issue was that I managed to receive a bad rope burn on the fingers of my left hand when releasing the traveler under pressure - substantial skin removed from two fingers and minor burning on the palm and others.  Yes it hurt like hell. After 52 years of sailing I felt like an amateur again - definitely out of practice.  We immersed it in ice water for 15 minutes, then cut away the loose bits, lathered it in Savlon and wrapped it (photo here if you're medically interested).  I have never been so glad to have good pain killers on board.  We call that Incident #1.

Penang To Johor Baru - Heading South

We departed Straits Quay Marina in Penang at 07.30 Sunday morning, motoring south through a sticky haze.

Day One - The Fishing God Speaks

Penang wasn't going to let us go easily though - after 2 hours of travel we pulled up with a fishing net caught on the skeg.  So into the water I went, once again the little Powerdive Hookah system earned its keep. Less than six inches of visibility, but I found the net had caught on the skeg, so the clearance was simple enough. 

By noon we had cleared the inshore nets and traps and were at 05deg 09.38 North and 100deg 12.84 East.  

We're testing the new Delorme inReach satellite communicator on this passage, so you should be able to track our movement by selecting the "Where Are We" tab at the top of this page, and clicking on the link provided.

Late afternoon the south westerly has "freshened" to 15 knots, despite a local forecast of 5 to 10 knots.  We plowed on (literally) through lumpy and confused seas, with a lot of water over the deck.  Beating to windward in the Malacca Straits is a very frustrating exercise - up to 2.5 knots of adverse current means that at times we seemed to be going backwards.   We settled in for a longer than usual trip.

Day Two - The Weather God Shouts ......

The Onan Genset Blues / 2812 Hours

Fault Code 41 - It's a slow blues in E, with a fat bass line and lots of open space between the notes.....those open spaces represent the quiet times when the generator doesn't work.  OK, so I'm really really cynical..... but the music stopped at 2812 hours, as you can see on the meter reading at left.

Onan MDK-AU Installed

10 years ago we bought a shiny new Onan generator, model MDK-AU, and (stupidly) paid to have someone else install it in the boat.  Whilst the installation problems were sorted out eventually, the inherent defects in the generator were beyond repair.  Just twelve months later the good folks at Cummins Power Generation (who had recently purchased Onan worldwide) agreed that we had a lemon and gave us a new unit !  To their enduring credit they paid for everything - berthing, labour, cranes, technicians etc.  So, nine years ago we started again with a new unit .... the only problem was this unit had most of the same problems the old unit did.  Last month it finally stopped producing power, again.  The great Kubota engine is willing, the alternator is willing, but the Onan control board is faulty.  Should we spend over A$2000.00 on a new control board ?  No way.  We decided it was time to say goodbye.

Never Leave Port On A Friday - With Bananas Onboard

And never sail with a woman onboard - well we won't go there.  So we broke all the old rules last Friday and were severely punished!

We cleared out of Singapore heading for a 4 day break on the Johore River in Malaysia.  We anchored over night and departed just before dawn with favourable light winds and current.  Then the dawn peace was shattered by an engine alarm - coolant temperature was high.  Despite having the necessary parts on board we soon found ourselves limping back to Singapore under dinghy power.

Crystal Blues Uses Dinghy Propulsion

 When the alarm sounded we shut down, quickly hoisted the sails and slowly made our way through one of Singapore's big ship anchorages.  As we sailed we started stripping the engine cooling system, starting with the gearbox oil cooler - if the impeller had failed the parts would be pushed through the system to that point.

A handfull of rubber bits confirmed our assumption, so we then started removing the seawater pump.  We kept sailing, letting the engine cool down and when the breeze stopped we dropped anchor just east of Changi airport.  The water pump location on the Cummins is tucked well forward, where access is mainly by feel, not sight, through a small opening under the galley sink.  Our 11mm ring spanner was too long for Neil to use in such a confined space, so on the back step we used the angle grinder to cut it down.  All was going well until the last bolt head sheared off as we released it.  Now we had no wind, no motor and 9 nautical miles to return to the marina.

Dinghy Propulsion

A handful of impeller blades

With the dinghy sprung with long lines, just aft of midship, we hung all our fenders overboard to protect the hull.  Well smothered in sunscreen and holding an umbrella we did shifts in powering forward, sitting in the dinghy.  Steerage was via the autopilot as we moved at 3.5 to 4 knots back to the marina.

Half way back the 18hp Tohatsu outboard motor started cutting out.  It would start again after a few squeezes on the inline priming pump, but it was quite stressful as we were drifting in a ship anchorage.  We were sun burned, dehydrated and not having much fun!  Fortunately our good neighbours, Peter and Somkuan of MV Inn Lieu came out in their large RIB dinghy and towed us the last few miles home. Once inside the marina we maneuvered under dinghy power and quietly slipped into our pen.  Now the "holiday" can begin again.

We passed two Dockwise boat / yacht transport  ships in the anchorage - maybe we could have asked for a "lift" home?

Its A Long Way To The Top .........

If You Wanna Rock& Roll !   Aussie rock band AC/DC spoke the truth back in 1975 with their hit song (view it here).  Right now Ley and I feel we're close to the top after a very long climb - Crystal Blues is progressing rapidly.

In the past three weeks the life lines and deck fittings have been finalised and we've completed all the work in the forward hold (its a palace !).  David Samuelson, the rigger from East Marine, has built a new 12mm forestay and twin backstay setup for us.  The Cummins diesel fired up at the first touch (thank heavens).  Last Saturday the tent and frame were removed from the hull - for the first time in twelve months we had to remember to shut hatches and worry about the rain.  The new rigid bimini was also installed last Saturday, and the tent was removed from the mast.

Later that same day, one of the Phuket Boat Lagoon travel lift machines (they have four) lifted us up so that the rudder could be installed.  Its now in the right hole, but we can't quite get it in far enough to attach the shoe.....nothing that a hydraulic jack wont fix.  Thats a job for tomorrow.

Sunday was a significant day for us - we started putting things back on to the boat, instead of taking them off !  The storage shed is now starting to look empty - lines, life jackets and water toys are all cleaned and back on board.  The bitter end of the chain is attached to the samson post and we'll wind the chain and anchor on board  just as soon as the rigging is completed.

The mast is rigged and ready for installation, which will be at 8.00am tomorrow if the crane arrives on time.  After that we can focus on the internals, which are some way behind.  Our friend Khun Nhoon has completed re-finishing of all the cupboard doors and frames, and he's spray painted the bathroom.  His man Khun Jack is busy sanding and priming in the galley, which should get its final top coats this week.   Then our favourite carpenter and friend Yat will come back in and finish the new Corian bench tops. 

Launch date is set for December 4th, when we'll rapidly move around to Royal Phuket Marina to complete the commissioning and internal works.   Our aim is to get out of the marina and spend Christmas / New Year at Nai Harn Bay, then head for the Andaman Islands early in January.

Right now we have very little time for socialising - haven't had  a proper day off in 4 months - more on that in our next entry.  It will all be worth it when she hits the water next week.  Its rock & roll time ...

1000 Miles To Phuket

Latitude 06 degrees 32.31 North, Longitude 099 degrees 25.16 East. The Southern Andaman Sea

Its 1000 nautical miles (just under 2000km) from our long-house anchorage in Borneo to Phuket in Thailand. Right now we're just 90nm from Phuket and should arrive there tomorrow morning. Then we start work in earnest, as Crystal Blues will come out of the water onto the hard stand for a six month intensive refit and paint job.

We departed Sarawak, Borneo, on July 23rd, and paused in Singapore for a 4 day break that (typically) turned into a 2 week layover. Why does this always happen to us ? Catching up with friends is part of it, and being thoroughly entertained by the Stonham family (we call it being "Stonhamed") also took its toll. However we did spend a lot of time checking out equipment for an upcoming video shoot, completed our AIS transponder installation, re-installed our wifi antenna system to the davits aft and purchased a lot of the materials needed for the refit.

Our good friend Robert Goh, who lives in Singapore, is a newly initiated cruising sailor. He's also a 1st rate alpinist and mountain climber. Unfortunately he was caught up in the sad disaster that engulfed the climbing teams on K2 in Pakistan this season - Robert wasn't hurt, he was below the ice fall and he returned to base camp safely. Check his website here. His summit attempt has now been cancelled and he's naturally very disappointed. Robert's partner Elaine spent time with us as the disaster progressed, and is naturally quite relieved that he's on his way home.

We escaped from Singapore on Wednesday August 13, heading north up the Malacca Straits and arrived in Langkawi (Malaysia) exactly 2 days and 11 hours later. Every hour of that passage was on the engine - the "new" Cummins engine has now clocked over 2000 hours. There was no useful wind for the entire trip. The even newer Comar Automatic Identification System also proved its worth - more on that in a future story. 36 hours anchored at Kuah town in Langkawi let us abuse our credit cards whilst stocking up on essential duty free "beverages" and adding further to the collection of refit materials now clogging the boat.

Stashed below are 2 sheets of Dow RTM Styrofoam insulation for our new freezer box (each 2.6m long), plus a roll of vinyl marine hooding for Ley to make new covers. On deck we have a new aluminium extension ladder for access to the boat on the hard. A deck mount air-con unit loaned by SV Tweed fills the salon, thanks Jon & Pam (thats the Tweed crew in the image at left, breakfasting on Roti in Langkawi). Our aft cabin is full of grog, hardware, stainless steel angle, paint and spare parts. Its now a big floating hardware store, and it all has to come off the boat and go into storage when we arrive, along with everything else on the vessel - food, clothing, utensils, parts, tools, mast, rigging etc. This will take a while, though we hope to complete the transfer before we haul out on September 4th.

We departed Langkawi this morning and have a fine weather forecast for the next 24 hours - a little wind this time, so we're now motor sailing with 7 knots of breeze just aft the beam. Flat seas and sunny weather, little rain, its unusually mild for the South West monsoon. Ley and I expect to be in Thailand for 6 months, and will be renting a house for the duration, somewhere close to Phuket Boat Lagoon. Friends and family are always welcome, so please email or call us if you'd like to visit.

Maintenance In Paradise Again

Lat. 04deg 23.11 North Lon. 113deg 58.33 East

A surprise visit to Australia last month let us join Shaun and Sarah for their engagement party in Melbourne. It also allowed us to stock up on the bits and pieces we needed for the forthcoming cruising season. Back in Miri (Sarawak) we dived into some serious boat maintenance. In between the inevitable dock parties and cruiser dinners we've put a solid three weeks into maintenance, repair and refit work. Payback time.

First off the block was the Onan genset, which needed to be stripped down to isolate a fault (again) in the drive train. This time round we attacked it with advice and support from the technical team at Cummins (who now own Onan) and we believe we eventually found the culprit - a dodgy bearing in the idler pulley of the auto belt tensioner. No Onan parts within a thousand miles or so, so we headed for town and managed to have a replacement bearing pressed in for the grand total of 20 ringit. About $8.00 Australian. We hope it lasts until we hit Singapore in November, where we'll fit a complete new self tensioner. Not having complete faith in the little Onan devil, we also bought a compact Honda petrol genset, as a get-out-of-gaol device. It's stowed in the lazarette and we hope we won't need it for a long while.

This is definitely the month when the maintenance bugs bit hard .... a new pressure vessel was fitted to the fresh water circuit, and a new over-pressure relief valve to the hot water service. A rusty spot on one chain plate has been repaired and re-painted, along with paint touch-ups around the aft steps. A new forward navigation light, plus a repair to the stern nav. light. A full service (1500hrs) on the Cummins engine. Adjusted steering cables, greased rudder bearing, new protective coating on shaft. Repaired the hose on the dinghy foot pump, backwashed the watermaker, cleaned both sea strainers. New leather boots on the aft lower chain plates. New hand controller on the anchor windlass. New engine start batteries (the old units died at seven years of age). Re-installed repaired water bladder in aft tank, touched up paint areas inside the tank. Bow anchor and chain re-galvanised and re-installed. I think that's it, thank heavens !

The last of the jobs was completed yesterday, today we tidied the boat and made ready to go to sea. Our next destination is the Lasa River, then on to the Rajang and our Iban friends at the longhouse "Rumah Lidam" on Sungai Tulai. In November we'll cross to Singapore and move north to Penang and Langkawi. Departure will be on the high tide after midnight tonight, and we should enter the Lassa about 36 hours later.

Old Friends, & Older Gear Problems

Lat. 04deg 23.11 minutes north. Lon. 113deg. 58.33 minutes east.

Here in Miri we've been catching up with old friends, as boats gather for the annual Borneo Cup yachting event. Jon and Pam (SV Tweed), Joe and Janette (SV Tegan), Wally & Robyn (SV Annwn) and Bryce & Martha (SV Silver Fern) are among those who've helped maintain our sanity as we addressed a range of maintenance issues. The stolen Tohatsu outboard motor has been replaced - we rented a car and drove 400km on dodgy roads to pick up the new unit in Sibu - saw a lot of northern Borneo and spent time in Bintulu, a town new to us. Everywhere we go the people remain friendly and courteous - Sarawak is a delight.

Love It Or Hate It…. Can't Live Without It !

Many cruising sailors adopt the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) approach to boat preparation. With our techno past, Crystal Blues was never going to fit that category. She's a complex vessel that really needs her Onan AC genset, for at least a few hours each day, if we're to live the way we want (big freezer, cold beer, fans, music, computers etc).

Late in June the Onan had a major seizure (at 1400hrs), the flexible coupling broke and the drive pulley took out an oil drain line, as well as lots of the foam acoustic lining. The end result was a broken genset and black, greasy, foam particles spread everywhere in the back of the boat. We removed everything and washed down with warm soapy water, which took a whole day. Then Neil had to remove the fuel tank and covers to investigate. The failure was at the rear of the unit, only accessible by leaning over and working blind.

The broken bits were extracted and pondered over. Parts were sourced from the USA, albeit slowly, and the rebuilding began this week. It went back together surprisingly well over one and a half days. Neil pushed the starter and the genset roared to life, sounding much smoother and quieter than it had for a while.

Our good friend Jim Cate (who's familiar with our Onan issues) asked recently if we would ever deal with Onan again - on reflection I think they are a good company, but they simply weren't quick enough to pull what I believe is a lemon, off the market. Our original two year old unit was generously replaced free of charge (at 750hrs) when it proved to be a mess, and that was after Cummins had taken over Onan. However, all the good will in the world doesn't help when you replace one lemon with another…. Cummins have tried hard, but they didn't design or build this thing. They even extended the warranty, but the cooling system still requires way too much service. We average about 200 hours from a new impeller, and the seawater pump needed total replacement at 1170 hours - no rebuild kits available. So no Jim, sadly we wouldn't buy an Onan again.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells - Future Green Power

The flip side of this story is that we don't know any truly reliable small gensets. Right now we're "hanging tough" with the Onan, hoping that Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology will become reliable before this thing dies completely.

There are now two companies offering fuel cell products to the cruising yacht community, one version powered by methanol and one by LPG - see the Yachting World "Green Power" story in the Cruising Information section of our web site. Silent, low emissions and few moving parts - it sounds too good to be true. We'll wait and see.

Our Cruising Plans

Next month we'll participate in the Borneo Cup regatta, then do some more land travel in Sarawak, before heading back to the Rajang River and our Iban friends upstream at Sungai Tulai in October.