Hong Kong - Kota Kinabalu
July/August 2003
Guest Crew: John Potter & Kent Goeking
[route]
Wednesday July 30, 2003.
We arrived in HK at 4pm where we met Bart-Jan from Simpson Marine
who brought us to the place where Espiritu was moored. We couldn't
see her from the shore but where reassured that she would be out
there
We motored out, couldn't find her directly (all those sick jokes
from friends about photographs went through my mind) but there she
was. It was great to see her finally and an odd feeling to step
on board. We studied the pictures so long that we moved around as
we had owned her weeks already.
The engine started immediately and we were ready to go. I let go
of the mooring lines and Bart put the engine in reversenot. Issue
number one, the lever didnt want to move at all. We didnt have any
WD40 so decided to give brute force a try worked. Motoring Espiritu
to Aberdeen Marina took us 4 hours that gave us quite some time
to explore the boat further.
The first night on the boat was pretty hot as we didn't have shore
power that we needed for the aircon. Sleeping the first night at
our own boat was however terrific. Lying in bed and listening to
all unfamiliar sounds just like you are in a new house but than
even more different.
[Stefan]
Thursday July 31, 2003.
We sweated out of our beds at 7am. Time to get to work!! Cleaning
the boat, which was a pretty tough job. The boat hadn't been used
for 6 months, boat jobs always take twice as long as normal, and
of course the hot sun didn't make life easier as well. We had a
huge shopping list because we needed to have provision for 4 persons
for at least 2 weeks. On the list also a lot of flour and yeast
because we intended to bake our own bread and sushi equipment and
ingredients because John is bringing two fishing rods with which
we hope to catch some nice fish.
On the fixing list: No running water, no shore power, no aircon,
both heads (= marine toilet) not working, generator not yet working
(which we need to have the fridge, freezer, aircon etc running),
install windvane, install HF radio. As it turned out, over 50% of
the failing gear was our fault because we simply didn't know how
it all operated and the other 50% was a mixture of all kind of minor
problems. It's amazing to see what WD40 and silicon spray can do.
[Natascha]
Friday August 1, 2003.
Another day of hard working. Stefan fixed one of the heads, installed
the windvane and we found somebody to fix the aircon and SSB radio
for us. Hopefully John knows more about generators than Stefan does.
John did two cruising trips of 7 months with his wife and children.
One time from Italy to San Diego, the second time from San Diego
to Singapore, where he lives now with his wife Caroline and children
on their new boat. They are also planning to cruise for a year,
as from summer next year.
 John
and Kent arrived at about 10pm. During a nice welcome drink, we
informed them about the jobs being done and the status. Plan was
to leave tomorrow afternoon, after the necessary shopping of spare
parts and other important tools and supplies which you need to have
on board.
[Natascha]
Saturday August 2, 2003.
A short planning breakfast set out the tasks for the day. Stefan
went for port clearance, Kent and John did their shopping for the
necessary tools and hardware supplies at Hop Fat, a small boat supply
shop, but selling an unbelievable different kind of useful stuff.
I did the last round of shopping: fresh fruits and vegetables.
John fixed the generator indeed. Turned out to be an air lock in
one of the hoses. A minor thing, but for no-nos like Stefan and
me a huge challenge.
[Natascha]
We begin to realize that cruising is quite a bit more than sailing,
cooking and navigation. A cruiser should also be a diesel mechanic,
electrician, plumber and rigger. Time to catch up on expertise quickl!!.
 Port
clearance turned out to be a typical example of catch-22:
- Immigration didn't want to stamp our passports because the boat
didn't have port clearance for the boat understood;
- The Marine Department won't give the boat clearance to leave
port because the Hong Kong sailing license expired fine;
- As only the owner can extend the license, we needed to change
ownership of the boat. Ok, needed to be done anyway;
- To change ownership of the boat you need a valid insurance policy,
which we had, but only in our Singapore mailbox. Sorry sir, we
can't help you!
My plead that the boat would be out of Hong Kong waters within
30 minutes after departure didn't work. So with tomorrow being a
Sunday, we suddenly delayed our trip by two days before we even
got started, great!
[Stefan]
Sunday August 3, 2003.
At least we've got more time to get the boat prepared and stock
up on some more tools and hardware supplies. We found this amazing
shop of 35 square meters, which had literally everything we asked
for. Brooms, drills, a heavy-duty bolt cutter, sockets, tie raps,
you name it. We even found a new 12 volts fresh water pump for the
forward heads.
After another morning of shopping and hard work on the boat we
finally got to what we came for: Sailing! We took Espiritu out for
the afternoon and found that all sails were in perfect condition.
No surprises here.
[Natascha]
Monday August 4, 2003.
John and Kent did a last shopping round to get a Hong Kong and
a yellow (quarantaine) flag and an additional winch handle. If we
would loose the single decent winch handle on board, we would be
in pretty bad shape as all gear is so big that our tiny little hands
will be a bit undersized.
Meanwhile we returned to our friends with the Marine Department.
They were again very forthcoming and helpful but the way they apply
rules and regulations can make you tear your hairs out! With a faxed
copy of the insurance cover note in our hand we stepped in full
confidence into the office again. So we handed all documents and
sat down to wait for the needed stamps. After 10 minutes the Marine
Department officer calls us, smiling and apologizing for the fact
that he can't help us any further because of a number of dramatic
discrepancies between the cover note and the boat documents:
- the name of the boat was L' Espiritu instead of Espiritu;
- the length was 13.4 meters instead of 44 feet;
- the license code was HKG4952 instead of 4952 which was the official
coding.
Right. If we would be so kind to come back tomorrow. Guess not!
We gave it a try with Natascha's blond smile but even that didn't
work (My somewhat less gentle plans would probably have an adverse
effect so didn't try that at all). We contacted the insurance broker
again to make the necessary changes and fax the revised document
directly to the Marine Department. After spending the morning in
the Marine Department, we finally got out with the required paper
work. We got the passports stamped, jumped on a taxi and back to
the marina.
A quick shower, stowing all gear away, untie the landlines and
start the engine. Not! Six days of running around got rewarded by
a simple click, nothing more. So open the engine hatch again, John
gets his magic multimeter, looks puzzled, measures, thinks, nods,
says try again and the damn thing started. Later we found out that
he also didn't have a clue, but reckoned that trying again would
never hurt. So it didn't.
We topped up the diesel tanks in a duty free tank station that
is only accessible if you have port clearance from Hong Kong. The
price now goes down from $6.70 to $1.70 wished we knew that when
we tanked the first 350 litres three days earlier.
The first part was a bit rough with 20-25 knots of wind, lots of
rain and the occasional thunder flash. Natascha was feeding the
fish within three hours. She had already been nauseous for a couple
of hours, and just before sleeping climbed into the cockpit and
screamed that she had to throw up without harness, hung over the
railing, Kent holding on to her leg. Pretty stupid and dangerous.
Perhaps use a bucket next time or just do it on the floor anything
is better than falling overboard in an attempt to keep the boat
clean.
[Stefan]
 Tuesday
August 5, 2003.
After a night watch with John from 12am-4am, I woke up at 8.30am
from a big splash of salt water. A large wave made it into the opened
hatch and soaked the entire bed. Good morning! The open hatch was
meant to give some fresh air not fresh water. This was actually
the start of a few rough days. The wind increased from 15 to 25
knots, which gave us some more speed but also more heel and overcoming
waves.
What we didn't find out earlier now becomes pretty annoying the
boat leaks like a sieve! As said earlier, the boat hadn't been used
for 6 months, and to that hadn't been properly sailed for nearly
2 years. All silicon dried out, which you don't remark in port or
a Sunday afternoon sail, but becomes quite evident when pounding
into weather with heaps of water coming over the bow for a couple
of days.
[Natascha]
 Wednesday
August 6, 2003.
More and more we are getting used to life on a sailing boat. Cooking,
dishwashing, cleaning, it all takes much more time than usual. Just
something simple such as using the head is a real challenge.
Night watches give me a mixed feeling. John and I used to do 12am-4am
watch which means that we went to bed around 8pm already. Being
exhausted from another day at sea, one falls asleep very quickly,
regardless the time. Stefans gentle call at 11.45pm, telling me
its time for my night watch is not the most fun moment of the day.
But the drowsiness gradually disappears feeling the fresh air in
my face and drinking a cup of tea prepared by Stefan or Kent. Sometimes
some work had to be done, like putting in or out a reef in the main
sail, but usually the watches were pretty easy and the most challenging
thing is keeping your eyes open.
 Today
we had a lucky fishing day. First we had three strikes on the rod,
but unfortunately the fishes escaped all three times. What a pity!
We'd love to have some sushi for dinner tonight. A few hours later,
we had two strikes at the same time. John catched a Wahoo of 10
kg, while Stefan lost his fish on the other rod. What an excitement!
Two hours later we had sushi for dinner. This was the freshest sushi
I've ever had. We also baked a nice loaf of bread in our new bread
machine.
Wednesday night was rather special with a tack to port after sailing
over starboard over three subsequent days. All kind of lockers opened
and threw their contents through the saloon and we also found a
number of new places where more water was leaking through.
[Natascha]
Friday August 8, 2003.
The rougher weather, the 2-4 meter waves splashing into the cockpit
and the constant sailing on a heel, make it rather difficult to
write. It's getting more and more uncomfortable. A lot of equipment
brakes down and the salt water coming into our boat has soaked nearly
all our clothes. Washing them with fresh water is not done, because
we have to be careful with our fresh water supply. Bailing out water
becomes a two-hourly ritual.
Most problems with the equipment are caused by the incoming water
electrical equipment combines poorly with water. Long term non-usage
did the rest. The impellers dried-in and broke which caused the
generator to quit. Where John managed to repair most of the damaged
equipment, the generator didn't want to work again (we found out
later that some pieces of the old impeller blocked the exhaust hose
thus preventing the cooling system from working). Since both the
freezer and the fridge run on the generator, the food in the fridge
started to diffuse a strange odour and the contents of the freezer
changed in a grey soup of minced meat, pieces of chicken fillet
and crabsticks.
Never mind, we've got lots of tinned food, pasta and rice and I
hope we'll manage to catch some more fish.
[Natascha]
Sunday August 10, 2003.
 The
whole journey is going to take us longer than expected. With the
current average speed of 4 knots over the ground, we need at least
another 8 days. Besides the fact that fresh water is running out,
this is going to put John in a difficult situation. He promised
to be back by Thursday for job reasons and staffing a personal development
training. Besides that, his wife Caroline, is flying to Phuket next
Sunday to attend a PADI diving instructor course so that he has
to look after their kids.
We considered changing plans and sail to Kota Kinabalu but abandoned
that idea for the moment as we needed to have the boat in Singapore
as soon as possible. The detour to KK would delay that plan by at
least a month and would incur considerable costs in terms of flights,
annual leave and general costs to organize the trip. To that, we
would have to organize new crew as we didn't yet feel confident
to do the trip with the two of us.
Kent injured his toe which was hurting and swelling more each day.
We reckoned it could be a hair crack or a normal bruise. Rest is
recommended in both instances, which is rather difficult when being
on a boat that gets tossed around by the waves.
[Natascha]
Monday August 11, 2003.
I was just having a short nap in the early Monday morning when
a loud crack followed by the flapping of the genua woke me up. The
forestay, including genua and rolling furler mechanism came of the
deck and was now flying around the boat, trying to do as much damage
to the hull, windows and other gear as possible. Basically, the
mast was now standing on its own with no support at the front side
whatsoever in fact, it is a wonder we didn't loose it. While John
turned the spinnaker halyard in a temporary front stay, I grabbed
the genua.
Grabbing is one, holding onto it another. As letting go was really
not an option, I just forced it down, trying to duck away from the
genua sheets that made repetitive attempts to string themselves
around my neck.
We tried to roll the genua around the furler, which at first seemed
to work and although each next round should be easier, we only managed
to furl away one third of the sail. Now what. Letting it hang was
no option and cutting the forestay from the top of the mast would
require somebody to climb up not an attractive idea to any of us.
So we had to secure the lower side to the boat and ideally bring
it back into its original position. The idea to use two sheets,
one running aft to the cockpit and the other one running forward
via the bow-roller to one of the winches on the mast turned out
feasible. After a grueling 1.5 hours we finally had the forestay
back to the bow where is was more or less secured to the bow-roller.
More excitement, the engine started producing a considerable amount
of smoke coming out of the engine compartment. With some horror
stories in the back of my mind I feared the worse. Took out the
fire extinguisher and opened the engine hatch fortunately it was
only steam coming out of the overheated engine. The saltwater pump
had a broken impeller, which overheated the engine. Again, I should
thank Ken, the former owner, for leaving us with enough spares to
fix the boat. We had more than enough spare impellers and after
replacing the old one, we had our engine back.
We already knew that the fresh water tanks were leaking and now
we got confronted with the result we finally ran out of fresh water.
With some 50 litres bottled water, we would still survive but the
coming 7 days werent going to be pleasant. Pursuing for Singapore
now became more inconvenient and with the seaworthiness of the ship
severely affected in fact quite dangerous and irresponsible.
Being very sad over our failure to make it to Singapore we decided
to shift our course and head for Kota Kinabalu, which was only 2
days of motoring. When the steering cables jammed later that afternoon,
we were convinced that aborting the trip and having the boat serviced
properly was the most sensible thing to do. With the mast still
standing, nobody injured, the engine running again and the boat
not set on a reef, we concluded that we shouldn't complain and were
looking forward to arriving in KK.
[Stefan]
August 12 & 13, 2003.
We are all very much looking forward to arrive at Kota Kinabalu.
We are tired, can't wash ourselves and dinners consist of Chilli
SAN carne and Thai chicken curry without chicken. Kent's toe is
very swollen and painfull and might be broken.
One afternoon we fancied swimming, threw a rope in the water and
had a wonderful tow behind the boat. And the absolute highlight
ofour journey was the group of at least 30 dolphins in front of
the bow in the early Wednesday morning.
[Natascha]
Thursday August 14, 2003.
 We
arrived at Kota Kinabalu early afternoon. Stefan and John immediately
went for customs clearing in the centre of Kota Kinabalu and Kent
and I enjoyed a long desired shower and a wonderful club sandwich
at the Marina restaurant.
Late afternoon John and Kent catched the plane to Singapore. Stefan
and I couldn't stand the mess on board any longer and booked a room
at the Marina's five star hotel. Next day we cleaned the boat and
were also lucky to find a good yachtsman to do the necessary repairs
at relatively low costs (compared to Singapore standards). He'll
try to get the boat back in shape, so that we can complete the last
stretch in a few weeks time.
[Natascha]
|
