June 12-24
Hi All,
I did it and survived…..well, so far!!! I had keyhole hernia surgery last Saturday……7 days ago…..arghhhhhh!!!!
We arrived in Straits Quay marina in George Town Penang on Tuesday, June 13, after a rather benign 60nm passage from Langkawi…..although we did have an adverse current until the last 2 hours when we thought it should have been favorable….ugh!!!! We are berthed right next to Bev and Robbie on sv Mersoleil and we immediately went into opening ceremonies…..ODG….how can you get so out of practice for drinks and dinner….TG we are trained professionals and quickly got our mojo going!!!! It was great to see them again and catch up….but, and my liver was happy, they left 2 days later for a month of touring in Vietnam and Cambodia……so all is quiet again….good thing…..because it has all been about medical issues since!!!!
First, let me thank all those family and friends who emailed/texted during this ordeal…..much appreciated and I very much needed the support…..I definitely felt the love!!!!
And second….very good news for Kathy……she saw two dentists and both agreed she did not need to do anything for her tooth at this time……yep, the Admiral was doing the Happy Dance for sure!!!!
The hernia surgery certainly was more of an ordeal than what either of us expected. I had what is called keyhole hernia surgery (laparoscopic….3 incisions for the instruments and blow up the belly with CO2 and go under the abdomen muscle) and hopefully this will be the cure…..at least on the left side!!!. They put a mesh under the muscles to prevent any more holes developing. In Panama I had an open hernia surgery which put a mess on top of the muscle which still lets a hernia develop a rip in the muscle. Supposedly the keyhole is a quicker recovery but that first afternoon for me was horrible…….massive, massive headache, nausea and pretty sore….like the worst hangover I’ve ever had…..arghhhhhh!!!!
So I was in the hospital for 2 nights….I probably could have come home after 12+ hours but glad I stayed the 1st night, but wanted to go home the 2nd night but that’s not how they do things in Malaysia. I got gassed around noon (of course at the hospital at 7:30am as instructed…….a very busy and always late doctor!!!) and woke up ~3pm……just feeling God awful……probably ok by midnight…….I think that is the longest I have ever been out and thus the massive headache. But, I was glad to spend the one night but got pretty bored the 2nd night. While I had a private room, there were 6 children on my ward…..some were in pretty bad shape……just horrible to hear a child cry in such pain….ugh!!
I did take my youngest son’s advice when I got back to Mystic……Dad, take a wee dram or two and more Advil:)))) I had a dram of Glenlevit 18……slept good that night. Also…….Dana sent us many pictures of baby Kennedy….9 months and walking…….she is so full of life and while I didn’t mean to be anxious about the surgery I think I was actually a bit intimidated by it all (as in surgery in Malaysia, in spite of all our research, what could go wrong….ugh!!!) and as I was being wheeled into the pre-op room where they would not let Kathy go in, she showed me and the nurses a video of David lifting Kennedy off the floor as she was trying to get away….laughing the whole time…..it cracked all of us up and a sort of peace came over me……..I can do this, let’s-get-er-done!!!!!
Total cost…..~USD3,000…….it was USD2,000 in Panama in 2013…..I’m not sure what it would cost in the USA but have seen estimates from $4 – 20k…….yikes!!!!
The doc was bit vague on recovery…….maybe light duty for 1-2 weeks and nothing strenuous for 6 weeks……hmmm, how do you do that on a boat…….ugh!!!
I really liked my doctor…..a Dr Wong Juat…….trained in Singapore and Edinburgh……head of surgery at the Island Hospital…..and a Professor at the local med school…….and, he said this is his favorite surgery….so high tech…..”did a really good job on you Mr John, very proud, you will be fine”. He was a warm and funny Malaysian of Chinese heritage…..always wanted to teach….showed us many pics of hernias……I think he might have told me to try to live with it for a while as it was a small hernia……but when we told him we live on a boat it was an immediate, no, you must have this repaired……what if it gets strangulated and you had no services……just as in Panama……we agreed!!!!
Of course, we had boat issues when you really don’t want/need….our ASEA AC-12, power and frequency converter, started shutting down on high temp. We need this unit to convert the 230 volts 50 hertz Malaysian power to the standard USA 110/240 volt 60 hertz power for all the appliances on Mystic. This means no shorepower…..which really means no Air Conditioning……heat index still over 100*……although we both think it is slightly cooler than Phuket……whaaaaa……all I needed was to be more miserable on the settee……..sweat and R&R do not go together!!!! We obviously ran the GEN……maybe 9 hours a day…..some late in the morning to charge the batteries and cool the salon…..and then 5+ hours at night……we had to do this for about 4 days until we figured out a work around!!!!
ASEA Power has been great to work with. Through a series of emails we determined we lost the cooling fan electronic controller causing the fans to not run and the various transformers to overheat. But we were able to bypass and now the fans are running….albeit at full speed. This unit is down in our commissary in a cabinet on the starboard side……along with the 2 Outback inverters. In order to do all this work you need to fold your body and get into the hole……I tried but had considerable pain so the Admiral stepped up and did the work….GO KATHY GO!!!!! It basically required taking a massive cover off with a gazillion screws…..and of course one screw was stripped….took every tool and trick we knew and maybe over 1 hour on that one frickin screw……..when we asked why so many screws the answer was “The screws are not there for mechanical reasons but to help control RF energy from leaking out and causing interference with other electronics aboard. The 3” spacing between screws is required with the frequencies being used inside the converter during the AC-DC-AC conversion that converts the incoming shore power to whatever is needed by the vessel. This is similar in function to the grid of holes in the door of your microwave oven. You can see in but the microwave energy can’t leak out.”…….so there you go!!!!
It was basically 4 days of misery/stress….but we both did the Happy Dance when the workaround worked!!!!
GEN: Well…….it’s returned to running 5-10* hotter than normal. It looks like my fix for the ground wires is not working. But, in my condition, I’m in no shape to insure the thru hole is not blocked and/or all the hoses or even lift the top sound panel off so we can confirm the actual temperatures on the heat exchanger….I did clean the strainer which was dirty which makes us think either the thru hole or hoses might be partially blocked….or maybe the salt water pump impeller is bad……..so we will live with this for a while until I can dig into it. As we go south along the Malacca Strait we will primarily stay in marinas…..will have to anchor out a few nights over the next 2-3 weeks so hopefully I will recover enough to be able to do that chore!!!
Fuel: Well…..it finally happened……bad fuel……first time in our 13 years……we are sooooo careful but think we got lied to/taken to the house….arghhhhhh!!!!! We did indeed take on ~800 gallons at the Shell fuel barge in Langkawi (great price…..$1.85/gal). The Captain, a very nice young man, as well as the people at the marina, all assured us it was pure diesel. However, emails to Shell have never been returned so not sure what is the exact formula…..could very well be biodiesel……and if it is, hoping it is only 5%……but who knows!!! Well, so far in almost 12 days we have fuel polished out over 70 ounces of water. We even took a sample of the fuel when we tied up to the barge……it was easier for the Captain to get a sample out of the tank and it was clean and clear……well, somehow he switched tanks and we got water….yes, this is the deception/dishonesty we think…..we know better….should have taken a sample straight from the hose……but. we are just too trusting for our own good. And, the fuel is cloudy which we do not know why…..ugh, ugh, ugh!!!! We are fuel polishing everyday and fortunately the starboard tank is clean……no more water……although still cloudy……and we are only getting a few ounces now out of the port tank!!!! We are not sure what is causing the cloudiness…..most research indicates water or microbes…….fortunately the ESI fuel polishing system takes out both!!!!
Good news is we will burn through most of this fuel over the next few months. We have over 1400nm to go and many GEN hours so we will burn through about 1400 gallons by the end of Sept when we get to Kota Kinabalu. We just need to make sure our next lot is good diesel!!! And, the Cummins did fine on the 60nm passage from Langkawi and the GEN has done fine the 31 hours it has run on the bad fuel. Finger crossed now for sure!!!
Plan: I walked about 2 miles yesterday….we went to the local Tesco/grocery store and well, the leg/abdomen was burning a lot by the time we got back….so obviously over did it and need to scale it back. We hope to leave sometime next week and will make a day to day decision when to leave. Our next destination is Pangkor, about 85 nm….could do it in a day but the tides are not right so it will be a 2 day passage. We will stay a few days and meet up with more cruiser friends, especially Brett and Stacey on sv Bella Vita who brought back some much needed parts for us from the USA last month!!
Hope all is well!!!
Recuperating John
Mystic Moon
GO AC-12 GO!!!!!
The infamous Sell Fuel Barge with the dishonest Captain
Site glass on ESI Fuel Polishing Unit…you can see the water in the bottom and then the cloudy diesel on top
Some gasket like material in the bad fuel……we are pretty sure this came from the fuel barge as the material does not look like anything we have on Mystic, at least as far as we know
AC-12 Unit……you can see how close it is to the Cummins exhaust tube and all those screws Kathy had to take out!!!!
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