Sunday, 22 August
Shahna Bacal has now been at the AMI shipyard for 3 weeks, and throughout this time I have been staying at the KTM Resort.
The resort is very quiet during the week but busy at weekends and on the two public holidays (Islamic New Year, 11 August; and Indonesia Independence Day, 17 August). It is situated on the seaward side of a coastal hill and spreads out from the hill top down to the waterfront. It has a swimming pool but few other facilities, and two restaurants both on the waterfront, the international restaurant and the local Indonesian restaurant. The food at both is very good albeit the choice is rather limited. Owing to the pandemic the restaurants are only open for dinner from 1500 to 2000 each day, so breakfast has been a challenge every morning which I have overcome by bringing the cereal and milk supplies on the boat to my room. I have also now ventured into the main town, Nagoya, and been shown a supermarket (and hardware store) nearby, and have stocked up on these essentials.
My room is on the hill top which means I have a long, steep up-hill climb every night after dinner; but it also backs onto the local forest which is home to a troop of monkeys who on the occasional morning swing through the upper regions of the resort, including over the deck area in front of my room. David Attenborough must have stayed here at some time.
In readiness for retirement on the Sunshine Coast I have got into the habit of going to bed at 2130 and getting up at 0500. My days follow the same routine, weekends included : up at 0500, exercise, breakfast, study; then at the shipyard from 1000 to 1600; back to the resort for a swim if the sun is out and a shower followed by dinner and messing around on the computer until lights out at 2130. As most people know, I am a creature of habit – and most of them bad according to Sue.
Study, you note?! I am embarrassed to admit that after 30 years working ashore I have forgotten how to work out a sight and I decided to use this time in the resort to re-discover how to do so. My copies of “Munro’s Navigation” and “Nories Tables” are somewhat yellowed now with age, but still readable; and I would be lying if I said I have not enjoyed studying navigation again. After this intense refresher course I am now confident I will be able to not only use my sextant to take a sight, but also to now be able again to work it out!
Whilst messing around on the computer in the evenings I managed to set up this website. I would like to say I know what I am doing with it, but I don’t. I know how to post updates on the blog page, but I am still working out how to upload photos and video clips. It doesn’t help that I bought a Gopro Hero 8 camera just before leaving Singapore which I am also still getting to grips with. Just some of the joys of being a dinosaur….
On the repair front, I have had some testing moments. As the standing rigging is now over 13 years old I made the decision before leaving Singapore to replace it whilst at the shipyard here. Marintech in Singapore are the local agent for the Sta-lok fittings I wanted, which are made in the UK. Marintech placed my order in early July, and normally they receive everything from Sta-lok within 4 days or so. That however, was before the pandemic. My order did not arrive in Singapore until last Tuesday, 17 August, and even then 2 items were missing. Fortunately, these 2 items are not so critical and I can manage without them; and will have to, as I cannot wait here until the middle of September to receive them. Marintech have now made up my new wires with the Sta-lok fittings and the new wires should arrive at the shipyard tomorrow, 23 August.
The hull has been prepped for top coating, and the new antifoul will be applied this coming week and the topsides touched up and the waterline repainted. The bowsprit has been removed for painting and will be ready for re-fitting next week. Both masts were unstepped during my second week here and the old rigging removed, along with the spreaders so that new end fittings can be made. These should be ready this week, and all the other work on the masts, including the fitting of the new standing rigging, should be completed by Wednesday of next week.
On this basis, weather permitting and all going well the masts will be re-stepped on Thursday of next week and the rigging set up and tuned on Friday. By this time all the painting should have been completed and the bow sprit should be back on the boat, so that Shahna Bacal should be ready to go back in the water on Saturday, 28 August. Fingers crossed!
