Malaysia maintenance

After a 10-month stay in Canada, which was longer than we wanted, we are now back at Sea Turtle in Malaysia at Marina Island in the northern part of the infamous Malacca Strait. Our total flight travel time, including layovers, was 23 hours 45 minutes. We routed from Victoria, Vancouver, Hong Kong, and finally Kuala Lumpur. We then boarded a 4-hour bus ride north to Marina Island. Whew - long day. Or should I say 2, as we also lost a day crossing the International Date Line.

So now back at the boat, the enervating temperatures at first had us dragging our butts, however we soon regained acclimation.

Even though Sea Turtle is in a secured marina yard alongside a fleet of other sleeping vessels, leaving her for long periods always makes us nervous worrying about deterioration in heat and humidity. But she fared better than expected. The bigger worries were lots of mold and cockroaches, however there was only a minor amount of mold and absolutely no bugs to deal with.

We immediately opened up all the windows and got to work cleaning her up. She needed a major spring cleaning and some reorganizing both inside and out.

The decks have now been washed clean of dirt and bird droppings, all the rusty stainless steel fittings and bars have been polished bright, the grimy upper hull has been waxed and buffed, the lower hull has been scraped and sanded of old bottom paint. And finally, all cupboards and storage areas have been cleaned and assessed of contents with old stuff discarded.

Bottom painting gave us problem. The heat and breeze made the already fast drying paint thicken up way too fast. The rollers became thick and sticky and the paint was globbing on unevenly. Thinning isn't recommended. So after the first frustrating coat, we postponed our scheduled launching and regrouped.

Jordan sanded out the uneven lumps and scuffed the whole bottom and got everything ready, even thoroughly mixing the paint. Then at daybreak the next morning, we got at it before the sun had a chance to build the heat of the day. This had been our worst experience ever for applying the anti-fouling bottom paint.

BEFORE: part polished, but bottom not yet painted

AFTER: polished and bottom painted

The above "after" photo was taken with Jordan's drone.

We took a room in a nearby hotel while working on the boat for a few reasons. The interior of Sea Turtle is in a tussle while cleaning and reorganizing, the fridge doesn't work while on the hard (keel-cooled type of fridge), and the hotel has a fridge and luxurious air conditioning.

But tomorrow morning we launch, back into the water again, after almost a year!!