Counting Down to Splashing

Jan 28. 

The sky today is cloudy, grey and threatening rain - not good for painting. Instead, Rene embarked upon reinstalling the aft railings which have been suspended a few inches above deck for the past 2 months. He discovered (of course) that this job was more difficult than expected (why is it never easy on the boat?) because the metal had warped during its time in the air. I reattached dorade vents to the deck and the spray dodger frame before realising there wasn't much else I could do and so retreated inside to continue TESOL. Local workers finally fixed the electricity cable that had fallen from its support and been lying on the ground (often in a puddle of water). They dug a hole for a new pole and then pulled the large cable up using their bare hands (!) in a cherry picker. Ren also reattached the portside winch and painted the last of the topcoat. We didn't quite have enough to paint everything - there are a few spots left around the place that are still waiting for a second coat. They'll have to keep waiting! In the afternoon I started peeling/scraping the old masking tape from the green stripe that has been there for nearly 2 months. Have discovered a new sundowner thanks to another yachtie here - beer on ice! Makes it go further and is more refreshing too. I'll have to make do with my ration of one of these each day for now as we can't afford to drink wine anymore :(

The old pole is pushed over, note the wire on the ground

New pole in, wire is pulled up by hand in the cherry picker

Jan 29. 
We're booked to splash back in the water on the 2nd of Feb. Can't wait! There's still a lot to do but I think if we keep working we'll be fine. Have been bitten by a few mozzies lately - I really hope they're not disease ridden. Today we worked together at scraping off the old masking tape from the green stripe. It was tedious, soul-destroying work. After a few hours though, it was done (many hands!) and we set about sanding and cleaning it ready for painting. I was cleaning the stripe from above, leaning down and over the edge when I stood up and nearly fell overboard. Luckily I could hold onto a rope and steady myself before tottering inside to collapse on a seat for a while - my head reeling. As usual, my hypochondriac tendencies started to go rife. Rene didn't help - when he finally came inside to get something and saw me lying there he said 'do you need to go to hospital?'. 'I hope not!' was my reply. Looking at the clock I saw it was past 2pm - maybe I'm hungry? I forced myself to make lunch and eat a sandwich. Then I took an iron tablet - we've barely eaten any meat here because I can't bring myself to deal with the way it's sold here. So, while I lay around trying not to panic that I'm dying, Rene got on with the boat work, taping and painting the green stripe. After about an hour, I felt OK again and so ventured back into the heat of Malaysia to continue work. Ren was enjoying painting the green enamel paint (far less toxic than the two pac paint he's been using lately) so I busied myself taping up more areas. Then, a finishing touch - our name sticker is back on the back!

Check out the difference in green on our stripe

Ren working at making Anima pretty :)

Painting over the non-slip on deck

Jan 30. 

I scrubbed the deck with turps and then soapy water until my hands bled - literally. ouch! By the end of the day, I had cleaned, taped up and painted 13 non-skid deck sections. Phew! They look great and I'm impressed with how much I achieved in one day - though am not impressed with the blisters and cuts I received as a result. Rene worked on the hull. He sanded all of the little spots that had been exposed to steel by those nasty little barnacles, then he cleaned and painted those spots with Jotamastic before painting half of the hull with antifoul paint. Busy busy busy!

Rene paints the first coat of anti foul - Jotun Sea Guardian 60

Jan 31. 

Rene concentrated on the hull all day again. Firstly he painted it in antifouling, then painted those spots from yesterday with Safeguard before embarking upon painting a second coat of antifouling. He is still at it now as I quickly type this up at 8.15pm before showering and trying to figure out what to rustle up for another late dinner. I spent hours in town with some other yachties in the car - my last chance - to stock up with food for the coming week/s and sort out other things like getting our new name sticker! When I returned, I pulled off all of the tape from yesterday's sections and then installed the starboard side safety railing. Much cursing was involved at some points when those bloody bolts and nuts just wouldn't cooperate! I succeeded in the end and finished off with doing more hand washing. A new record - I killed 6 mosquitoes who were all biting me while I did this annoying, never ending yet necessary chore. Tomorrow we go up in the haul-out machine so we can paint the bottom and points we're held up with currently. It's all happening finally!!! 
Rene ended up painting into the night. He finally knocked off at 1am. 

Anima with the first 2 coats of antifoul on.

Ren working into the night.

Feb 1. 
Our alarm went off at 5am and Rene got straight into it. He had to paint the final coat of antifoul paint early enough so that it would dry by the time the machine lifted us. I got up early too but instead of launching into work, I did an hour of Ashtanga yoga. It felt soooo good to do the primary series. I should get up that early more often! While Rene concentrated on painting and setting up the anodes, I installed the portside railings and cleaned up all the stuff (ropes, jerries, gas etc.) that was hiding out under our tarpaulin on the ground. A few toads escaped as I scrubbed and hosed for hours. I somehow managed to convince Rene to agree to us chucking out a bunch of stuff that we don't use and which usually lives on deck (clutter!). A lot of it will be recycled by the marina here which is cool. Our air conditioner broke. We were just talking about selling it / giving it away and it started making a very loud shuddering/vibrating noise. As I write this, sweat is sliding off various bits of me and gathering in other parts. Oh yeah, the joy of the tropics! Anima is looking great. The highlight of today was being lifted up onto the haul-out machine. Tomorrow we splash! 

Our beautiful, multi-coloured home!

Anima sitting in the Pangkor haul-out machine

Job nearly done!

Rene happy that he only has a little more painting to do!