January 29, 2004--MINI-VOYAGE WITH MEGA-CONSEQUENCES

	This is the rusty chain - after only 2 different anchorages, about 6 days immersion overall. Even the stuff still in the locker has rust marks on it from where the now rusty bit has dripped its loads of salt water. It was a total "YUK"!!!

Last year, after "work creep," and while playing around in the anchorages of Langkawi, we decided on a real change of scene. Time to make a trip to Penang, an island about 70 miles south of Langkawi.

We left the Hole in the Wall, and the wind--of which there hadn't been any--now was blowing right at us from the south. We hid out on the protected side of a small island and left at about 2 in the morning with a small but comfortable offshore easterly breeze.

That time of year--July, the SW Monsoon--the winds are all over the place, especially around the coast. We had just about everything from dead calm to 30 knots on the nose during our day's travel. But the redeeming feature of the trip was catching 2 wahoos along the way! After dragging our lures countless miles, on countless days, with nothing more on the hook than plastic or weed, you just about give up fishing these waters. So the wahoo were a big surprise. And a big treat!

If you have read The Perils of Penang (06 July 01) you know that anchoring there is problematic. This time we tried a new place that some of our cruising friends had recommended. The Marine Police jetty is just a few miles south of the Junk anchorage. Throughout Malaysia, the Marine Police are friendly, helpful, and hospitable to cruising yachts. They are now building a new facility and have let this jetty get pretty run down. You still have the wind-against-tide problem of the channel, but without the local traffic. All told, a better option than the Junk anchorage.

We were off the boat every day--either attending to medical appointments for our yearly health checkups, or wandering the streets of Georgetown, clutching shopping lists for the elusive boat part or edible goodies not found in Langkawi. We could punctuate these demanding days with meals in some great restaurants. Penang is a dominate Chinese community, so food everywhere is terrific! Or, our wanderings would put us in the proximity of "Little India," an area of favorite foods too.

Onward to Lumut, a small town that has a big Malaysian Navy installation. We had visited Lumut several times and had always enjoyed ourselves in the past. This time, Lumut was where things started to go wrong. Al was in the habit of checking "things" with the engine every day or two. After all, we only had about 100 hours or so on this newly installed, rebuilt engine. One morning he found a bolt laying to one side. It had come out of the engine mounting bracket! Further inspection showed that another bolt from the same bracket was sheared off! Oh, dear. Well, even sheared off, the bolt was holding; Al refitted the absent bolt and crossed his fingers.

Four years ago we had had our chain regalvanized while we were in Lumut. Al thought we could get another year out of the chain as it still wasn't too bad, but while we were in work mode, and upgrading, we would have it done again.

Here's something interesting about our chain. In 1980 our chain was 4 years old. It had been end-for-ended maybe twice, and was looking pretty shabby. We would be spending the winter in the Seattle area--a good place for regalvanizing. We sent the chain out, and when returned, it was unusable. Whole sections had clumped together with the zinc. We took it back, the company redipped it, and did a decent job of shaking it this time. That "double dip" had lasted us for 18 years!

When the chain was returned to us in Lumut it was clean and not rusty, but kind of a funny gray, not really the bright zinc color of new galvanizing. In retrospect, we should have questioned it right then and there. However, we loaded it aboard and left the next morning to return to Penang.

We stayed about 5 days, doing more medicals, more shopping, (including some new high tensile bolts!) more restaurant sampling. Al kept his eye on the engine bracket bolts. So far so good with that. We knew that to fix it right we would have to return to Rebak Marina, and possibly lift the engine out of the hole again to get at the bracket. The alternator belt started to screech and he replaced it. Still screeching noises from the alternator, so we dug out the spare and mounted it. He called a neighboring boat to get some technical information about where to get the screeching alternator looked at in Penang, and the VHF radio died. Right there in his hand. Puff of smoke. Dead.

It was time to return to Langkawi--if we could make it without more mishaps, malfunctions and misery. Sailing turned out to be a motor boat trip all the way in glassy calm conditions. Well, if you're going to have to motor...We just got to our favorite anchorage at the fjord with the last of the day's light. Al went forward to release the chain. From the foredeck I heard him yell, "Shit! Get me a light!" followed by a lot more swearing. The chain running out of the locker was a solid mass of RUST!

Now what? We returned to Rebak Marina where at least we had friends who could commiserate, loan tools, offer advice, share a cold beer, whatever. There we attacked the consequences of our mini-voyage.

a) The Engine
The galley was disassembled again, exposing the BGT (Volvo 17-C) in its hole. It turned out that Al was able to lift the engine off its bed with levers and wedges, and get access to the semi-boltless bracket on the engine. He thought the sheared off bolt would be a problem to remove, as it was in a really awkward place to get at (isn't that always the rule?). He was able to get an Easy-Out in there, and it came out pretty freely. The new super bolts are in place and all (knock on wood) seems to be doing just fine.

b) The Alternator
Al took the alternator to a small shop in Penang. Turns out the pulley was at fault. Mis-aligned because of the broken bolts? The pulley was replaced and it is now the spare that lives in the deep reaches under the bed.

c) The VHF
Al took it apart, could see nothing obvious. The line had power; the radio did not. Dead. So we ordered a replacement. And then in a burst of brilliance delved further back along the wiring system and discovered a blown fuse. Replaced the fuse. Voila! The new VHF arrived. The old one blew the fuse again. We took it to a local electronics doctor in Langkawi. He replaced the display lightbulbs--weird little things, and only he knew how to get at them--as this was causing a circuit overload. The radio still works, but it still blows a fuse occasionally. So something is definitely wrong. Meanwhile, the new VHF is living in the deep reaches under the bed too.

d) The Chain
It's a saga. We contacted the contractor on the phone. "Too bad," says he, "bring it back so I can look at it." We had no intentions of going back to Lumut, as by now the weather had deteriorated into the worst rainy season we had seen in five years. We wrote letters, sent photos of the rust pile, had a local guy call on our behalf. Nothing. In the end, the contractor went ballistic on the phone one day and wouldn't even listen to what Al had to say. So...We had a fellow in Rebak who handles galvanizing projects take the chain to a factory in Southern Thailand, and had it regalvanized all over again. It looks fine--but is now a very expensive piece of stuff to hang an anchor on and bury in the mud! And don't I wish that this second time around would act like the second regalvanizing in Seattle--and last another 18 years!

So you never know when you set out on a short trip just what it may turn into. The mini-disasters from Lumut and Penang have all been conquered, it seems. Now it's time to get onto the projects that have been on "the list" too long and have had to take a back seat to the fix-its of necessity. Like installing a saltwater washdown pump and plumbing system to hose down that very expensive piece of chain.