If you’ve ever had any connection with boats, you’ll know that one of the biggest issues with living on one is the constant equipment failure. It’s the inevitable consequence of living in the corrosive marine environment.
Add termites, tropical heat and humidity into the mix, and you’ll begin to understand why sailors go on about maintenance all the time!
Corroded cables or connections is usually the problem
But it’s not just our beautiful SY Esper that suffers. Video recording and editing equipment (cameras, mics, desktop, laptops, hard drives etc) all disintegrate faster at sea than on land. This makes an already expensive hobby a lot more expensive than you might think…
We headed back to the marina
It was time for the usual repairs and maintenance. We had more holes in the dinghy to tackle (even though we didn’t know where they’d come from,) but Jamie got on with the job armed with the knowledge recently given to him by Graeme of Artemis III.
More difficult was identifying the source of the diesel smell going up Liz’s nose while she was trying to sleep in bed. It turned out to come from the new(ish) locker installed during the total refit we did in Thailand back in 2014. The smell has gone now that Jamie has sealed the cracks which led to the lazarette. But is this the last of it?
Jamie reminds those of us who think Malaysia is “third world” that (apart from the fact that “developing country” is probably a more acceptable term) there is nothing “third” about Malaysia. We shouldn’t believe everything we read online or hear down the pub.
Those who’ve been here know the country has it all, and we hope that our videos go some way to proving that.
It wasn’t just us in the marina getting on with boat jobs
Songlines III pulled out and replaced their exhaust hose which they’d discovered was crumbling.
Meanwhile Roy on SY Chasca had discovered termites! His beautiful bowsprit contained a termite nest which was gradually turning the beautiful wood to sponge. Luckily he’d caught it in time, so after fumigating, scrubbing, scraping and scrapping he installed a new bowsprit and Samson posts.
Check out the video here…
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