Splish splash

Perry ready to splash. Photo courtesy
of Dave of Tortuguita (as are all the
splash photos).

Perry is now in the water after ten months on the hard. Since our return from land traveling around Cambodia and Vietnam, we have been working double-time to get her ready to splash.

What comes down, must go back up.

The parts we needed came in on time and the rigging company got our mast up 2 days before we were scheduled to go back into the water. There are only certain times of the month when the tide allows boats to be put back in (or taken out of) the water. If we had missed our launch date, the delay would have put us more than a week behind schedule.

Au Wei of Doyle Malaysia working
diligently on our rigging

Can't we just leave it like this?  It's a nice breeze...

In the meantime, we replaced our cockpit windows because the sealant/glue was coming off the windows. Despite our best efforts, the old Plexiglas broke when we tried to remove it. Oh well, it was a bit crazed and hazy anyway.  Fortunately, Pangkor Marina had new Plexiglas on hand. We were very grateful for this because the lead time on ordering new Plexiglas could have caused another major delay.

Matt with his big gun.  Because the big 
caulk comes in "sausages".  Yes, lots of 5th
grade humor there...

Our friends on another boat suggested using a guitar string to cut the old sealant and it worked pretty well. The messiest and most time-consuming part of the process was removing the old sealant. A multi-tool and hours with a razor blade and 100-grit sandpaper did the trick. 

The new glass waiting to go in.

Cutting the new Plexiglas, shaping it, and painting it went relatively smoothly. Matt carefully planned the placement and used bolts and washers to hold the Plexiglas in place while the sealant cured (the proper spacing had to be maintained around the sides, front and back of the window). Amazingly, we had ordered the right amount of sealant (Dowsil 795) and didn't make too much of a mess.

Splash day arrived and Perry was back in the lift. She still groaned a bit about being lifted from the middle, being a heavy gal, but tolerated the 300-foot ride to the water.

The skilled lift-driver, Abeh

Matt had a bit of a freak out when the guys (underneath the boat) started to
 push Perry away.  He couldn't see the guys and didn't understand why the
boat was accelerating, though out of gear. Quickly
sorted, though.

Once in the water, we checked to make sure that there were no leaks. There was a small leak in the starboard engine heat exchanger that the mechanics had worked on, but it was manageable and could be fixed later. 

We held our breaths to see if the engines would run after being out of the water for so long. The starboard engine fired up just fine. The port engine, on the other hand, just made a clicking noise. Matt hit the starter with a hammer, but it still didn't work. A small knot of fellow cruisers was on shore watching our launch and providing moral support. They yelled, 'Hit it with a hammer' and when we said we had, they yelled, 'Hit it harder!' That actually did the trick and the port engine fired up.

Joss sticks (giant sticks
of incense) for Chinese New Year

Matt is in the midst of fixing the things that have broken after many months of disuse: the tachometers for the engines and Conrad's toilet (that stubborn port starter works just fine after being banged around a bit). The generator seems to be working and the outboard eventually got going after a bit of convincing. He finished up the final caulking of the cockpit windows, re-connecting the wiring in the mast, and replacing the kinked hose for our holding tank.

Pretty soon, the only things keeping us here will be a visit from mechanics for our engine and outboard to re-fix some previous fixes and a package coming from the States (with boat stuff of course). We are enjoying the Chinese New Year festivities at Marina Island while we wait. It is celebrated over multiple days and you can hear fireworks every night.

We have also revised our plans for the upcoming year. Instead of sailing to Europe via the Red Sea, we will likely head across the Indian Ocean towards South Africa. While we'd love to see the Med and parts of the Middle East, the decision not to go is primarily due to timing. For the Red Sea route, we should be leaving now to get the right winds and we just aren't ready yet. If we've learned one thing over the past few years, it's not smart to fight the weather.