Repairs and Maintenance in Puerto Princesa

10 November 2024

Here I am, alone again.  Steven and Jessica have returned to their busy lives in Australia and New Zealand.  Its been wonderful to have them visit but now it’s time for me to get going on some outstanding maintenance and repairs. 

The big item on my repair list was the sails, fortunately that job is now complete and hopefully the sails will now take me back to New Zealand without too much additional stitching. But there is more, there is always more maintenance and repairs vying for my attention. Cruising is not always beach, bikini and cocktails, not on this boat anyway.

I have made the horrific discovery of some wet wood in the rudder.  The rudder construction is a sandwich with red cedar on the outside and laminated ply in the center.  Water has got into the central ply section from the tiller pocket and travelled, as it does, down through the ply.  Luckily, I have discovered it early and after extensive prodding and digging around I can see the end of it.  I have removed the wet section and thankfully the red cedar sides of the rudder are all sound.  After removing all the damp wood I have left it for a couple of weeks to completely dry out before treating all the exposed timber with Norski epoxy wood preserver, luckily I had some on board.

To replace the ply that was removed I have made laminated marine ply inserts, glued together with west epoxy.  Its rather like a three dimensional jigsaw getting the inserts shaped and fitted together.  The inserts were fitted and bonded in place with thickened epoxy.  The repair looks good and strong now that the epoxy has set.  To complete the repair I made an epoxy bandage and wrapped the first meter of the rudder with the bandage, two layers on the lower part and three layers on the top with some heavy glass mat.  Everything was then faired and painted.  Unfortunately, I have run out of good quality paint and had to use some local stuff.  It doesn’t look too flash cosmetically.  Well truce is a work boat and as long as it works that’s all that matters.

Fortunately, the rudder is transom hung and not subject to any great force in normal sailing, when sailing with the windvane it just trails along directed by the trim tab.

The actual repairs only took a few days but this was extended waiting for the timber to dry and the various epoxy layups and layers of epoxy bandage, filler and paint. 

I also changed the injector delivery valve O rings and fitted a new exhaust mixing elbow.  The replacement elbow casting is of a different size to the existing elbow.  This needed some work with the grinder to reduce the size to fit the existing hoses.

The three lead carbon batteries that I was previously so pleased with decided to fail all about the same time.  I am really upset about this and have been having some correspondence with the supplier in Auckland. 

The short story is that I have purchased three gel batteries as replacements and will be bringing one lead carbon battery back to new Zealand for inspection.  The new replacement batteries are of a smaller capacity so I have to switch the fridge off at night sometimes if they are not fully charged. 

The NASA Clipper wind instrument has decided to stop working.  I think it’s a battery problem and the guys at NASA have sent me out a new battery to fit.  I got the local phone repair guy to solder in the new battery and it seems ok now, I will test it in anger when we get back to sea.

Apart from the above jobs I have been busy every day doing other small jobs.  Its like all the maintenance and repairs have been mounting up and have burst out in Puerto Princesa.

I have the awful feeling that the longer I stay here the more problems I will find, preventing me from sailing.  I really have to get going soon or I will miss the seasonal winds to take me to the Solomon Islands. 

Working on the boat in the heat in Puerto Princesa is a hot sweaty affair, its exhausting.  I am looking forward to some sea breeze.  A cold shower at the end of the day is life saving.  A cold beer helps as well.

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