Patience and sanity test - Not quite a Johna story but getting close!

Ahoy to all!

Quick update on our status in Singapore!

Without mechanical knowledge previously tested or "required to date" - we have replaced, refitted, removed and just about re greased everything attached to the propeller shaft all the way back to the engine... On the positive- we now have knowledge about bearings, sheaves, splines and of course the various composites making them up which I must add a non-industry person should never be exposed to. This intimate experience also includes various installation techniques of said bearing, not limited to but definitely including: pressing, heating, pounding, tapping and just pure hard driving never before nor ever "again" to be attempted by the himself. The good news is the entire drive line, v-drive, transmission, hydraulic pluming, water system and not to mention the mounting, adjusting, removing to adjust again.

This of course just helps us get to the really fun part...the ever simple "ALIGNMENT PROCESS" HA! - Well our heads are still spinning over counting the planetary gears - no kidding - We have removed sun gears, moon gears and just plain old planetary gears - WOW! Like celestial navigation all over... It is just that the universe doesn't make crunching/rattling noises while they ellipse - must of had a good mechanic - (note to self: need to get him on the problem)
After real effort, time, money and knuckle cracking it has been concluded that there is a real problem and it required additional professionals.... Wow! #*@#%!!! - OR- SON OF A GUN!

Not a very exciting time on old Bluemoon... Christmas keeps screaming closer as if the pages on calendar were the odometer on a formula race car... The ripping of the pages just a constant reminder of friends and family afar and dollars tearing from our bank account.... We believe there is an end in sight - just holding onto hope and a constant positive outlook.

Just to top off the situation the immigration department will not issue us another extension without a written estimate of repair time and this needs to be from a locally recognized marine yard... Yippee! This was great news as we wasted 3 hrs getting out to their office only to be kicked back. Fun being on a boat sometimes - Arrive by bus or plane get 90-days - Arrive by boat get 14-days - get a one time 30 day renewal and then put up $3000 or who knows what..... So we have to hurry to get a letter explaining our problem on local letterhead...

SO - Now we need to return to the Raffles Marina Yard - not the people we ever wanted to deal with again- let alone ask for assistance... But we need to set the drive train correctly to insure the costly yard repairs were done correctly before departing... What luck!! All else is great! No cruisers in sight and the locals are to busy trying to out purchase the entire world for x-mas, if you think the economy is in trouble - Singapore will keep it rolling.

Enough for now! We will keep fighting the fight.

Transmission Re-build!

After replacing pretty much all the bearings in the v-drive over the last few days and then reinstalling it back into the boat we've come to the conclusion that this was not the only cause of the vibrations. Unfortunately, the damage extended further and has affected the transmission as well. This has proved extremely frustrating as we were up until 1 am this morning putting everything back with the hope that all would be perfect but no such luck. With much head scratching and our ears to the floor trying to locate the source of a loud knocking sound Jimmy and Roger (our Singaporean engine guru) finally came to the conclusion that it 'has' to be the bearing in the transmission.

So today it was back to the grind stone and the slow process of removing the whole gear box, taking it up to Roger's work area and breaking it down. The bearing definitely needs replacing so that's good news and the clutch plates look perfect. Unfortunately it's a holiday here on Monday so we have to wait until Tuesday before we can get the new bearing (if I ever have to see another bearing after this it will be too soon) but in the mean time we can clean everything up including the inch of grease that covers every surface in the boat... and hopefully get a full nights sleep!

Roger has been fantastic and without him we'd be paying a fortune to have a mechanic come down and do the work for us. He even took us out for some traditional Chinese food last night of chicken rice which is really popular here in Singapore...all tasted great but I had to draw the line after a mouth full of boiled chicken feet skin...enough of a cultural experience for one night and I wouldn't recommend it!!

Back in the water but not yet back on track.

Current Position: Raffles Marina, Singapore.

On Tuesday afternoon we were finally dropped back in the water after eight days on the hard. The new bronze strut has been fiber glassed into the hull and a brand new propeller shaft is back in place. This should have been a very happy moment for us but after a quick test run we noticed a lot of vibration on the new shaft and v-drive unit inside the boat. We drove Blue Moon back into the marina and started the process of figuring out what could be causing this as the marina manager assured us that the new strut is perfectly aligned. Wednesday morning we started the process of breaking down the V-drive unit to replace some of the bearings that could be causing the problem, since then Jimmy's been breaking his back carrying the unit back and forth from the boat but as of yet the problem isn't solved.

After mentioning the problem to the yard we've heard nothing from them and as far as we can tell now that we've paid them for the work they want nothing more to do with us...no follow through or interest in why there is a problem, not even a friendly concern!! Luckily we have a saving grace in the form of Roger, an older Singaporean man who knows everything there is to know about marine engines. Jimmy happened to meet him in passing and asked a few questions which resulted in a great teacher/student relationship, he's even driven Jimmy all over Singapore looking for the new bearings. We're pretty confident that with Rogers knowledge we'll finally get to the bottom of the problem and be out of here in time to get to Phuket by Christmas...Fingers crossed!

Happy Thanks Giving.

It's a day late but officially Thanks giving in the States as we're a day ahead time wise here in Singapore...so I hope everyone is having a great day. The tradition for Jimmy is to have a Turkey dinner a lot like we have in England for Christmas but finding a turkey here was pretty much impossible unless we wanted to pay $60. Instead we had another American style meal of Cheeseburgers and Corn on the cob...not quite the same but still tasted great!

We're still on the hard and waiting for the strut to be fixed, after being hauled on Monday other than twenty minutes of grinding nothing has been done. Patience is a virtue and we are being tested to our limits at the moment. The good thing is that we've taken the time to do work of our own checking all the rigging and running into the city to visit Jimmy's favorite stores at the Sim Lim tower (every electrical component you can think of is sold here) to get pieces and parts to improve the electronics on the boat.

Being on the hard is never fun as we can't use the toilet and the heat is unbearable especially at night when were trying to sleep, so we're very thankful for the Pool and air conditioned lounge which gives us a break. How long will we be out for?...to be honest we have no idea and no one is giving us any hints, if they work they work but we're not holding our breath!

High and Dry!

Current Location: Raffles yard, Singapore.

As of 10am yesterday morning Blue Moon is now High and Dry in the haul out yard in Raffles Marina. With the use of our dinghy and the help of marina staff we were able to propel ourselves around to the travel lift and within a half an hour we were lock and chocked on the hard stand. Amazingly the bottom paint from Panama is holding up pretty well so no need to re-paint this time just replace the strut and shaft and away we go. We're really impressed with the work the yard does from looking around at other yachts being repaired so we're extremely confident that this is one of the best yards for getting our work done. Yesterday they ground out the base of the old strut and today they should start the process of putting in the new one. It's a little complicated as the strut has to be lined up perfectly to prevent any unwanted vibrations in the propeller shaft but we'll leave that to the professionals and fingers crossed it will last for a long time to come!

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Trapped in Raffles!

Position: Raffles Marina, Singapore.

Well we're still here waiting to get hauled out in the yard to fix our strut... It's been over three weeks and we feel like we're fighting an up hill battle with the yard, they keep putting us off due to higher paying jobs being more important than us even though they arrived later!!...and yes they did tell us this themselves. In five years of cruising this is probably the worse we've been treated in a place we least expected it.

We're constantly being promised that we'll be the next boat out and yet we've watched a constant stream of yachts going up and down! When we question them on the day we're supposed to get hauled they just tell us to come back in a couple of days time and they'll see what they can do...amazing! If we'd have known it would have taken this long we could have done some inland travel or even flown home for a visit, as it is we're constantly worried about time and money as this is not a cheap Marina. The yard manager also told us to have the new Strut Fed Exed in as soon as possible from the states as this will speed things up and we'll be out as soon as the package arrives...it arrived three weeks ago and here we are still waiting.

On a good note we really can't complain about the marina itself, every morning we have the Singapore straits newspaper delivered to the boat, The pool and gym are fantastic and there's even a bowling alley. To get to the city we take a free shuttle bus to the MRT (mass rapid transport) station which is a train and underground system that takes us anywhere we want to go downtown. The food is the best we've had in a very long time and if you buy it in the mall's food courts it's also really cheap....with a mix of Chinese, Indian and Malaysian it tastes so good! So here's to getting stuck in yet another Paradise.

Stuck in Sinagapore!

Current Position - Raffles Marina: North 01*20'555 East 103*38'017

This week has been extremely exciting but not in a good way...we had a great time anchored in Danga Bay in Malaysia and caught the bus over to Singapore for a couple of days exploring and sightseeing. It's a great way to see Singapore without checking the boat in and Out and having to stay in an expensive marina. The Malaysians are really friendly and with the combinations of many cultures including Indians and Chinese it's a really diverse place to hang out and more importantly eat out! So after a week of acclimatizing to a new country we decided to get underway and start heading up the Melacca Straights and the west coast of Malaysia. All went smoothly and we were making good time motoring along until all of a sudden we heard a loud crunching sound from under the boat, every sailors nightmare and panic shot through us both as all we could think was 'the strut'!

We'd noticed in Australia that the bronze strut holding the propeller shaft in place had become weakened after we got a rope caught around it in Brisbane. Jimmy had reinforced it and was fairly confident that it would out until we could get ourselves to Lankawi in northern Malaysia where we'd find a cheaper
haul out yard to get the work done.

Obviously our luck had run out as Jimmy jumped into the water and confirmed our worst fears...the strut was hanging upside down from the shaft and no longer attached to the hull so we were without an engine. We quickly made the decision to turn around and try to sail the 15 miles back to Singapore, luckily we were traveling in company with Ingvil and Gunnar on s/v Helen Kate so we called them on the radio and they agreed to turn around to accompany us back. By 4pm the wind started to die off making it impossible to sail and so we threw a tow line across to Helen Kate and they pulled us the last nine miles back to a small island on the Malaysian side facing Raffles Marina on the western tip of Singapore.

We anchored up and dropped the dingy to use as an emergency engine if necessary and were happy to get some sleep. At 4 am we were hit with a huge lightning storm with winds blowing up to 40 knots and heavy rain. If the anchor didn't hold we would have been in serious trouble without an engine we wouldn't have been able to stop ourselves dragging into the rocks of Singapore! Luckily the anchor did hold and at first light we made the decision to get Blue Moon into a Marina as soon as possible.

Raffles was the only marina close enough with a haul out yard but of course we had to check out of Malaysia before we could enter Singapore waters. The check out process took all morning but with the help of the Puteri Bay marina it all went smoothly and by mid day we had the dingy strapped to the side of the boat and used the outboard engine to propel us the three miles across to Raffles without a hitch. We said a sad fair well and big thank you to Ingvil and Gunnar as they returned on their trip up the coast and we tied up to the dock to start the waiting process for being hauled out!

Luckily we'd already ordered a new strut to be cast back in the states so it was sitting on the shelf waiting and with the help of Jimmy's dad it arrived today by Fed Ex. The problem is that there's a long waiting list for yard and we're definitely not at the front of it. I can't complain though as there's a great swimming pool to hang out in and easy access to the city so we'll be seeing a lot more of Singapore!