How to make fitted sheets for boat mattresses

OK, so this is definitely the most random post ever on this blog. If you don't own a boat or if you already know how to do this, just skip this post. But maybe there are some of you boat owners out there who is wondering how to make fitted sheets for the irregular shapes that boat mattresses/squabs are. And it's actually really easy and it also makes it much easier getting into the storage underneath the bunks if the sheet fits nicely as opposed to a loose sheet just wrapped around a mattress. I'll do my best to explain how to do it even if you don't have much sewing experience, but a bit of knowledge definitely helps.

Sophia's quarter berth which is a cosy long double. The squabs are split in two, making it easier to get into the storage below. The front squab features a complicated corner, more about that at the bottom of this post

It's easiest to do if you have the squabs with you where you're sewing and a nice flat area on which to lay it down, which pretty much excludes being on a boat unless you have a LOT of floor space. Originally I did ours back in Christchurch when we were house sitting and were storing the squabs there anyway as I was painting everything inside Sophia. I did two for the two saloon bunks (with lee cloths where we normally sleep while underway) and two for the quarter bunk where we also slept on the first long trip up to Tonga, but since then it's mostly just storage, as it's the least airy (and therefore stuffy) bunk on the boat. A shame, cause it's really cosy. I did three for our v-berth as that's where we sleep when at anchor, and therefore the far majority of the time. But they had gotten quite yucky from our dirty sweat (no showers and hot climate!) and while in Denmark visiting my family I made three new ones, obviously without the squabs, but just with measurements.

If your sheet fabric is new, always wash it first (and tumble try if you think it will be tumble dried later on) to pre-shrink the fabric. I have used a mix of new sheets, second-hand sheets and cheap fabric to make mine. I have made a drawing below that shows how to cut the fabric (red) around the squab (white). Put down the fabric, and put the squab on top with the top side facing the sheet. If your sheet fabric has a right and wrong side, place the right side facing down (the side you'll sleep on). Basically you just extend the lines from the sides and cut out the corners, the picture below does a much better job of explaining that than I do!

How much to cut away? It depends on the thickness of your squab and how much fabric you have, but you want at least the thickness of you squabs and ideally some more. Roughly 30 cm, try and make it even all around the squab, especially the corners.

Most squabs most aren't symmetrical, for example if one end is wider than the other. One symmetric example is our v-berth. If the squab you're doing is not symmetrical, then you need to pin the corners so you know which side is. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just pin it anyway, better safe than sorry. Basically try to imagine which side of the sheet is right and wrong (or inside and outside) and then you pin the wrong side (where the seams are). Again, the photo below explain much better than I do. For your information, our squab covers are red with a (cheaper) grey backing. You only need to pin one corner to show you which side of the sheet to do the sewing on.

pinning the corners together so you know which side is right and wrong. It's enough to do this on just one corner of your sheet

Now you're ready to start sewing. If this sounds complicated look at the picture below which pretty much explains all the steps in one photo.

1. zig zag: most fabrics unravel, so first you need to zig zag all your edges. Zoom zoom is the sound of your machine sewing all these straight edges.
2. sew corners: next you sew the corners together, those cut-outs you did when it was laying flat, also see photo above.
3. fold: then you make a fold where the elastic is going to be (and therefore the width of the safety pin you'll use to insert said elastic)m, approx 2.5 cm. If you're the super pedantic type who cares about how the back side of your sheets look, then make two folds, but it's harder and you need a bit more fabric. Obviously I don't care. Remember to leave a small hole where you're going to insert the elastic. A good trick is to start by a corner and fold all the corner seams the same way, which will then be the way you insert the elastic, the safety pin will run much smoother that way.
4. insert elastic: I insert the elastic after the sewing using a safety pin (see pic), but others may want to insert the elastic while sewing, I just find I can't sew as fast then and then the time difference evens out anyway. Tighten the elastic until it seems right and either tie a know or just sew the ends together. For the sheet in the picture below I made a relative small hole and didn't even bother to sew up that seem after I had inserted the elastic. It makes it easier if I later need to tighten the elastic or change it for a new elastic (lesson learned: don't used old elastic from old sheets, they dont' last as long).

First you zig zag edges (the bottom right hand edge was the existing finish from the new sheet I was using, so I just kept that edge). Then you sew up corners seams and finally make the elastic pocket/fold. The safety pin is about to be inserted the same way/direction as the corner seams are folded down.

If you have complicated squabs like the one in the first photo, it does, well, complicate things. For that one I ended up inserting extra fabric, but I can't really explain it in words, it's easier in real life to just fiddle around and find a solution that works for you. Maybe you can tell from the photo below how I did, although you need a bit of imagination. Basically I inserted some extra fabric. The second photo shows what a squab with fitted sheets looks like underneath and also the complicated corner with extra fabric.

Phil holding up the sheet with the complicated corner, before elastic was inserted. Also note the Q I had sewn onto it, indicating it was for the quarter berth. I did S and P for the two saloon bunks' sheets, even in green and red thread :-)

What a fitted sheet looks like from behind. This also shows the complicated corner with extra fabric

Making new v-berth sheets on my parents's floor with just measurements. I cut all three layer fabrics in one go, as I knew exactly what I was doing and was certain it was correct, but I wouldn't recommend it the first time you try making a fitted sheet. Our v-berth is a king size at the widest point, so I just bought IKEA king sized flat sheets. The left hand corner at the bottom wasn't quite wide enough, but I still managed OK.

Guest post by Sarah and Anton: river cruising and tropical island time

Sarah and Anton came to visit the previous week, and we had a short, but fantastic time together, and without much further ado, here's a post Anton wrote, maybe with a bit of input from Sarah. Thanks for writing it, and thanks a lot for coming to visit.

Anton and Sarah chilling in the cockpit while underway to Tiga. Shade is essential, hence all the sarongs...

Well I have to say from wo to go I was amazed with our Hostess, the fantastic Astrid. Having someone to navigate the local restaurants and choose something that was not going to get us sick and also something that we ended up loving was the key to actually trying a little local cuisine! Have taken photo of the menu board so that I can remember the name of the meal.  Like an egg and vego omelet sandwiched between two crepes, yummy!

Despite professing some anxiety to going solo taking charge of the boat, Astrid was totally at ease as Captain.  Even to the point of navigating up the Klias River. At our anchorage about half way up the river we saw dozens of crocodiles (ok read floating logs… but at least 2 were heading upstream and we all agreed they had eyes). We also saw monkeys!!! Astrid was lucky enough to spy a proboscis one which if you use your imagination is captured in the photo below (notice the red patch?). The second leg of the trip saw us head North. We ambitiously put the sails up with a light aft wind before taking the main down again 20 minutes later. They don’t call Borneo “the land below the wind” for nothing! No danger of us capsizing. The next couple of days were spent snorkelling and hiking round Pulau Tiga. Astrid, spoiled by the underwater beauty of Palau and the Philippines, was unimpressed with the reef, but Sarah and I enjoyed some cool coral and fish.

Ok, so the Yacht Sophia and our experiences, through my eyes!

S:  Sea, it was so amazing to be swimming and snorkelling in really beautiful warm water. Warm like to spa.
O:  Organised! From the little facecloths that you put on your hand like puppets, to the dishrack that has clips for cups I was amazed how organised and easy to find everything is. Everything has a place and every place has a thing!
P:  Pancakes! I made pancakes one morning after one of my Anton sleep ins, well received by the girls for sure while at the helm to get to Pulau Tiga Island. However on the last day Astrid made the Danish Pancakes, I have to say those nicely browned far thinner pancakes really took first prize for me.
H:  Hot! Amazing how much a person can sweat in the Tropics, being the winter season too, it really was humid. I love Sophia’s fans! As we would sit under those fans in the evening and watch the temperature gauge slowly go down. Heaven forbid we had to do any cooking or make a cup of tea, as it mean’t that it would creep back up and over the really important 30 Degrees!
I:  Icecold drinks. We really loved Sophia’s fridge, it just made such an amazing difference to our body temp to be able to drink some wonderful ice cold drinks! Though not sure on the Coconut milk and Nesquik drink we tried to copy from our time in Bali.
A:  Awesome time! We really and truly loved every minute/hour/day on board Sophia with Astrid, just missed Phil!

PS:  The photos are a mix of mine and Anton's, but the captions are mine (Astrid's)

Croc or log?

Macaque monkey

Early morning on Klias river

Proboscis monkey, spot the red in the green

This was one of the best snorkeling pics from Tiga, unfortnatley it's pretty dead coral and there are only few and very tiny fish

Outboard wouldn't start, so we rowes ashore, but the rest of the time, we just swam in, much easier

Walking across the island we got bitten a fair bit, so at this mud vulcano Sarah and Anton decided to try and use mud as insect repellant

We played Settler of Catan every night, SOOO much fun. We each got a win, but Sarah got two, so she was the overall winner

Bye bye guys, thanks for coming! Sarah and Anton got a local boat to take them to the mainland and from there a bus back to KK, while I sailed back to Brunei by myself over the next two days, over 90 miles (pat on the back!)

Why it's so quiet here

It's been ages since I posted anything, but time in Denmark flew by. I have now been back in Brueni on Sophia for a week, but unfortunately I'm alone. Phil was going back here two weeks before me, but while he was underway, his dad died, so he detoured straight to NZ where he will be for another two-three weeks yet. This is when international relationships are a bummer and the long distances suck. Feeling are just really hard to convey on skype and email!

Being alone on the boat is another interesting challenge for me, especially since it was so unexpected. The really nice thing is that I'm feeling very much at home here in Brueni having been here for such a long time before we left and everyone are very friendly and helps me out if I need it.

One often discussed cruising subject is pink and blue jobs. On Sophia we're very traditional, mainly because Phil is the traditional male not being very domestic in the cooking, cleaning and laundry department. And since I do almost all those things exclusively, it's only fair that Phil does the typical blue jobs such as engine maintenance, hauling heavy stuff and so forth. He's also the most technical/computer minded, so he also does navigation.

This coming week we're having visitors (yeah, we love visitors), Sarah and Anton found time to come see us while they were here in Asia anyway. Obviously this was planned a while ago. I'm going to take them cruising around here and that's main challenge. The 'funny' thing is if it was Phil who was alone here, it would be much more 'normal' and not cause anyone to thing twice. My main worry is the engine, if something happens with that, I'll have no idea what to do.

The only problem that has arisen this week was the outboard engine, another blue job. It lost a part of the fuel on/off valve and was therefore leaking fuel. Luckily I got help the first night, so I could get out to Sophia. Then I did a really silly blond thing, I went to the yamaha store in town. The problem is our outboard is a mercury! How stupid can one be... Anyway, they didn't have the part, or actually they did, but they couldn't find it. Phil will get one in NZ and bring back here. I made an alternative solution (inspired how the guy fixed it the first night) with some hose and a ball squeeze thingy directly into a jerry can. It does the trick, it's just not very weather proof.

I'm skipping July and August's cruising budgets as the far majority of that time was spent in Denmark, but will be back in a month's time with September.

Below are more picture of our Denmark holiday, including a little mini holiday to Goteborg, Sweden.

My twin and I, her boys and our parents. The green thing is a Kaj cake, very yummy :-)

My twin top right, little sis top left. Centre pic includes my friend Theresa's two girls, the one whom we stayed with in Singapore. 

Mini trip to Goteborg, Sweden. We got a 24 hour city pass so did lots of things, including a boat tour and Liseberg (amusement park). Bottom is me in heaven in a Swedish lollies shop :-)

Martiman Museum was really cool, a collection of various ships, including a submarine and a destroyer!

 

Universum is Scandinavia's larges science museum, also super cool, in the hot and humid jungle section we felt very much at home...

On holiday from the holiday

We don't really considering our cruising adventure a holiday, more like a lifestyle, but in a way it's like a holiday. And at the moment we're in Denmark visiting my family, so therefore a holiday from the holiday.

Time sure flies when you're having fun and we have already been 2 1/2 weeks away from Sophia. You could also call this visit a tour of new babies! Being 32 years old ALL my girl friends and family are having babies at the moment, and many even have several already! It's been over two years since I last visited Denmark, so a lot has happened in that department. My twin sister's youngest son is already a year old, and my little sister was due the day before we arrived in Copenhagen. Six days overdue she finally had a beautiful baby girl, the first niece after four nephews :-)

My little sister (holding her until then only child, another boy) before she's about to pop and below us is the baby girl she then had, check out her amazing hair! The other two babies, Bastien and Mila, are other friends', funny enough with Danish mums, but respectively French and Kiwi dads.

We spent the first week in Copenhagen. We also choose to come at exactly this time because Phil's parents were going to visit Copenhagen on their round-the-world-cruise (like we visited them in Singapore), but unfortunately Phil's mum broke her ankle in three places in Rome two weeks before Copenhagen, so that was the end of the trip for them, very unlucky! My parents were also in Copenhagen as they were supposed to have spent the day with them, so we still did some touristy stuff together.

Our first couple of days in Copenhagen, mixed weather. Phil's parents' cruise ship (without them onboard unfortunately)

More Copenhagen stuff. My legs are the tanned ones next to my little sister's white ones.

Visiting Kronborg in Helsingor north of Copenhagen. Shakespear was inspired by Kronborg to write Hamlet (to be or not to be). Holger the Dane is sitting in the basement waiting to come into action if the Swedes invades Denmark!

Visiting Roskilde and the viking ship museum, fun and interesting! Also Roskilde's cathedral.

We're now in North Jutland where I come from and where my family still lives (minus little sis in Copenhagen). My twin sister has three boys, four, two and one, so they keep us entertained and busy most of the time. Denmark has had exceptionally good weather, so we have enjoyed lots of ice cream, been to the beach and played in the garden lots. Many have complained about the unusually hot (for Denmark!) weather, but of course to us it's quite pleasant, and often even on the cool side, but we do enjoying not sweating. And sleeping under a duvet, lots of showers and other simple pleasures like that.

Around North Jutland. The dark picture is taken at 11.30 pm when there's still a sliver of light on the sky. I love the long light nights.

My twin sister and her three boys.

One funny thing was when I was packing for this trip in Brunei I looked at our long pants and warm clothes and I just couldn't bear the thought of wearing such warm clothes (because I was stinking hot at the time) even though logically I knew it would sometimes get cold in Denmark, so only Phil got one pair of jeans with him! Luckily I fit clothes with my mum and sisters.

Phil is going back to Sophia in a week, but I'm staying two weeks longer than him. When we come back we'll keep going along the coast of Borneo, then to Singapore, Western Malaysia and Thailand.

Borneo Race and 347 miles later

Phew, what a fortnight. Over the last two weeks we have sailed 347 miles in straight lines, I'm sure in real life it was a fair bit longer. First south from Brunei to Miri, then north to KK via Labuan, then back south to Brunei. We have done two long 'ocean' races and 2 1/2 harbour races and met a bunch of cruisers. Basically a whole heap of fun. And we did well in the race also, 2nd overall in cruising division A. All to Phil's credit of course, yes, I'm the very proud girl friend, not afraid to brag :-)

Our routes south, north, then south again. Red arrows reflect the first leg from Brunei to Miri although missing our overnight stops, green is the racing (plus harbour races), and yellow is back to Brunei!

To start from the beginning we first has a leisure three-days sail down to Miri (Malaysia) from Brunei. Norwegian Flow and Hero also went, so we got to hang out a bit more with them, which was really nice. We also started meeting the other race participants. The night before the race we had the first of in total three local dinner buffets, all part of the free race! It's the 10th year that the race is on, the earlier years the participants even got paid to do it, but now it's 'just' free. And it includes goodies like free marina in Miri and KK, the three dinners and a few other things. It's all a bit cooperation between the two states Sarawak and Sabah (the two Malay states on Borneo) and Labuan Corporation (the tax free island, part of Malaysia) mainly to boost tourist, but I'm sure there are lots more agendas.

The first leg was from Miri to Labuan, 90 miles, 10am start, 26 hour time limit, you'd think enough, but this is Asia, so light winds prevail. We did have a bit of every kinds of winds, from becalmed to 20 knots on the nose, keeping us on our toes. Ok, make that Phil's toes. From the late afternoon through to the early morning we were actually beating Bewitched (the winner of cruising division), which made Phil extra keen to tweak maximum speed out of Sophia. That meant I'm not good enough to be in charge to let him sleep, so I got lots of lovely sleep that night! We got close to Labuan mid morning, but then the wind just totally died and in order to make the 12pm deadline, we had to motor the last hour or so, and we came in just few minutes behind Bewithced, no bad at all. Motoring is allowed, but it comes with penalties.

Needless to say, we slept well that night. The next day was harbour races. Luckily Keith from Voahangy (the NZ ex-paua fisherman we met in KK) was keen to crew with us for the harbour races, which made things a lot easier. It's quite tricky with the spinnaker (no sock) with only two people. It was a nice day with OK breezes and we came third, then second in two races, which unfortunately favoured gennakers, not spinnakers, which both our closes competitors sported, and yes, there is a type of sail we don't have on Sophia!

The second and final long leg was from Labuan to Kota Kinabalu (KK), about 70 miles, 3pm start, 20 hour time limit. Bewitched just took off and we couldn't catch them. This leg was more influenced by several squalls, none bringing more then 20 knots of wind, but with lots of rain and lightening, including some phenomenally huge bangs. We crossed the finish line at 2am (average of 6.4 knots of speed), and got some well deserved sleep. The next day we were lucky to get a spot in the marina, the immensely luxurious Sutera Harbour. We were mostly busy being social though and didn't get much pool time. The KK harbour races unfortunately didn't have much wind, so we only did 2/3 of one race, then they cancelled it. A real shame, because we were finally beating Bewitched :-) All those trailer sailor lake regattas Phil has done in NZ in lights winds makes him real good at still moving along in next to no wind.

Bewitched with half a gennaker, but look how much bigger she is, and we had to beat her on handicap!

A cool little series of us overtaking a competitor, Full Flight I think. Thanks so much to Behan on Totem for taking these pics of Sophia

Keith from Voahangy joined us for the harbour races. This is before a race, hence the relaxed pose...

Overall we really enjoyed the regatta. And even more considering it was all free. In NZ there certainly aren't big buffet dinners for all participants in regattas, and in Thailand where Phil has done a couple, it's just as plush (or even more), but there are entry fees. If we were to complain, it would be of the organisation of the regatta. The morning before the race at the registration, they still didn't have start numbers for us, nor t-shirts, or knew which boats were in which classes (cruising div A and B), that wasn't sorted until late in the day or the next morning. We also weren't very impressed with the handicapper. It seemed quite random how boats were handicapped, and despite Sophia being the second smallest boat entered (and the smallest actually racing) we had one of the toughest handicaps, we actually had to beat Bewithced, a Catalina 42 on the line. The handicapper simply guessed how much all the cruising boats had motored from Labuan to KK, and the guesses were totally off, so of course the results were wrong, instead of waiting until all yachts had submitted motoring times. Somehow the wrong result was used in the price giving and not the corrected one, although that was just more fun than anything else! We did also laugh in Miri when one of the (many) speeches mentioned that race had won an award for being the best organised event in Sarawak.

Most of the participants were from Australia and New Zealand. We were the youngest crew by miles, at least if you don't count in some of the boats with kids on them :-) One of the kids' boats was Totem from US (Washington), whose very popular blog I actually read back in NZ before we were leaving! They have been cruising for five years, including a two year stop-over in Australia to fill up the cruising kitty again. Jaime is also a sail maker, so he and Phil had a lot to talk about. They have three kids onboard, from age 9 to 14, great and well-spoken kids, boat life is good for them too, I think. We also met several other boats, all lovely people, but one fun thing was that the mono-hulls were mostly hanging out together and the multi-hulls were together with themselves, but with some overlaps. Multi-hulls were also all slow, we were beating them all by miles.

June's cruising costs and the big annual overview of costs

June was our second most expensive month at NZ$ 2926, however, that's because our annual boat insurance was due and without that cost of $1974, June would have been our second cheapest month at only $952. And that even with our most expensive eating out month ever, funny how that item just seems to grow each month almost. I think the tipping point was an expensive lunch we had at the fancy Empire Hotel in Brunei with the Norwegians, but it was good too.

The last few days of our trip to Singapore (most figured in May's budget) came in at $151. Other than that, an interesting fact is that June is the only month without internet expenses! In Singapore we had internet at Theresa's place, in Brunei free wifi is part of the $5 a day for use of the yacht club's facilities. The two days we have just spent in Malaysia before the race we just used our old sim card from Malaysia we have loaded up earlier on. Although admittedly we barely had time for playing on the internet there, we were busy being social and also getting Sophia ready for the race.

As this is the 12th month, I have also made an annual overview of all the months put together, fun to see our whole year of cruising layed out like that. Interesting for example that the last four months we haven't had any expenses in regards to clearing in and out of countries. The reason for that is it's free in Malaysia and Brunei and in Philippines there are only entry, not exit fees. If you want explanations to each month and for example what the general misc item consists of (varies each month), you can find them here.

Insurance is a big item, without it the monthly average for our cruising costs would be NZ$1600 and not $1800. And this is even only insurance for Sophia, not our health insurance. My lovely parents insist we have health insurance and they also pay for it. I struggled to even find insurance, both for us and Sophia before we left, but in the end I found boat insurance through the (NZ) Island Cruising Association with Edward William Marine Services, and for health insurance I found several options from the Seven Seas Cruising Association (US). Thankfully we haven't needed to make any claims, so I can't say anything about either services.

I have also made a pie chart to show which items are biggest. For that I added some of the items together, eg groceries, alcohol and eating out, otherwise the many different items made it confusing to get a good overview.

This cruising budget is of course reflective of us and will vary hugely from boat to boat. This is our first year out, so Sophia was well stocked with food from NZ, the cost of which occured before this year began. Sophia also left NZ with brand new sails and canvas and major work done to her, so this first year will probably also be cheaper than subsequent years when more things break and wear out. Another thing to note is we're pretty light drinkers, so the alcohol item and drinks out is very small compared to most cruisers. Other cruisers also spend much more on sightseeing and here in Asia there are quite a few marinas, and they aren't free. In the Pacific it's easy because there simply aren't any marinas (or only a couple), so it's all just free anchoring. We do also know some cruisers who spend less money than us, typically older people (hardy long time cruisers) with only a set income like pension.

One year cruising anniversary

OK, so this post is a few days late, it was 21 June that was our one year anniversary since we left Gisborne. We actually left Christchurch over three weeks earlier, and one could easily argue that's when our cruising life began, but we feel it really started when we began our passage to Tonga. I did a similar post for our six month anniversary. We are still loving the life style and are keen to keep it going for a while longer, although we still have no specific plans. Only thing we don't love it the heat, it's still pertty darn hot out here.

We have now visited five more countries in addition to the first four we visited the first six month, in total the list is: Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore (which only counts half as we flew there, however, we will sail there a little later on).

It's very hard to pick a favourite, as each country is different and that's also the beauty of it. If we're hard pressed, we actually both agree Vanuatu was our favourite. It's a beautiful country with lovely people (like everywhere, but Melanesia (Vanuatu, Sol and PNG) is particular known for its friendly (and poor) people. The reason we like Vanuatu better than Solomon Islands and PNG is simply because there are no security issues (thefts and worse) and no crocodiles (except at the very north, close to Solomons). If the other two countries didn't have those two issues, they would be just as lovely destinations.

One thing we really miss here in Asia is the snorkelling. In the Pacific we could jump in almost anywhere (except where there are crocs...) and see beautiful coral and fish life. Sadly here it's so over-fished that there is very little left. The only good places in Philippines were also some sort of sanctuaries.

On the other hand, we really like the the food here in Asia (me the local food, Phil the fast food options!) as well as the much better stocked supermarkets and more things to do on land. I actually used to dream I was in huge supermarkets sometimes back in the Pacific, or OK, admittedly, it was often in the candy sections of supermarkets, haha.

More numbers:
- the first half year we had about 48 over-night passages, that number has been drastically reduced, three more to Palau (the six month anniversary was mid-passage), four to Philippines and only one (that we even could have avoided) to Malaysia, in total 8 over-night passages. We like day hopping :-)
- somewhere around 8000 miles, we think, but we haven't added it up, and our speedo has been broken for a while, which is the easy way to count miles.
- only one fish in this last half year, a mahi mahi in Philippines!!! Surely that's also related to our sad snorkelling experiences as above.

Stuff broken:
- in general electrical stuff, like small gadgets and chargers! Probably almost half our computer chargers are broken, there are problems with both 240V and 12V chargers. Another example is the little fridge thermometer, so mostly small (and luckily cheap) things like that. It's a tough life on a boat on the salty sea.
- the big broken electrical thing is our Nexus wireless wind wane. It stopped working in Solomon Islands already.  We also have Nexus dept sounder and speed log, and the speed log stopped working a couple of months ago. We bought all the stuff from Pyacht in US only just before leaving NZ and are certainly NOT impressed by their (non-existing) customer service. Thankfully KiwiYachting in NZ has been super great and have twice now sent us replacement stuff (via Phil's parents in Singapore, and yet another nice expat here who flew to NZ last week). We think the speed log is now working, but not the wind anemometer, although Phil needs to play around with it a bit more to be sure.
- the down button on the wind lass (anchor winch) was playing up (like like letting the chain bolt out without being able to stop it), but Sheralee bought us a new one along to Philippines.
- yet another friction hinge on our forward Lewmar hatch broke, the other 'old' one, although the hatch is only 3-4 years old and apparently those hinges never normally breaks. Phil's parents also brought us a new one, so it's all good now, fingers crossed.
- we also only bought our tiny Aakron dinghy just before we left, so just over a year ago, but it has already needed repairs, it's leaking air and most of the handles etc have fallen off. Sure it's all fixable with glue, but it's still annoying and we think it's too soon.

A wooden spoon has had a job for a long time holding our hatch open!

The tiny poor quality dinghy (everyone calls it cute because it's so little!)

not exactly a breakage, only to be expected, the flag fading. Sheralee brought us a new one to Philippines

Unrelated except to the present, check out more pics on facebook of the hash run all us Scandinavian boat girls did

We are STILL in Brunei (five weeks later, though one was spent in Singapore), but we are leaving tomorrow, finally... Although obviously we really like it here, great yacht club with fantastic facilities and super friendly people. We are going to Miri where the Borneo Race begin, which we're gong to participate in.

More bumming around in Brunei

It's pretty quiet here on the blog and facebook, simply because we're laying pretty low and not doing a whole lot! It's now over two weeks since we got back from Singapore and we're STILL in Brunei. We must be one of their longest visiting yachts! We are in no hurry though, all we have to do is kill time until we are going to participate in the Borneo Race starting in Miri 1st of July. We have both been sick since we got back from Singapore, Phil had 39 in fever one day and then subsequent days with head aches, while I had cold - sore throat - cough and now 'just' head aches, a bit strange to be sick for such a long time! Luckily it's not quite bed-laying sick, just 'laying low' sick. And it has been nice that we have actually just been able to do very little, mainly just hanging out at the yacht club.

We have been into town (well, city I guess, it is a capital after all) a few times and the second Sunday when we were feeling better, we again did the dinghy racing. That time we actually had enough wind to sail and it was really good fun. Quite hard work constantly moving around for us lazy slackers, we both had sore muscles the next day! We improved vastly through the three races. The first one we came last (out of four in total), second race we capsized (totally my fault, but it was the most fun I thought, which I do know is a bit weird) but still finished third! The last race we won, amazingly, but of course all thanks to my clever boy friend :-).

Another reason we're still here, Phil has gotten a tempoary job cutting down the 10 ISO dinghy sails

 Two Norwegian boats just turned up, both round-the-world boats, the great thing is they both have young (ish) crew, one with little kids even. This week Phil and I have borrowed a car from one of the boat owning expats here who's away for a week, another example of how nice they all are. Anyway, yesterday we invited Camilla and Inger Johanne to join us visiting the Empire Hotel here in Brunei. It has a really funny background, beginning with the the Sultan's younger brother, Prince Jefri, who was the country's finance minister for a while. Typical bored rich kid, he went on an insane spending spree and among many other silly things, had the Empire hotel build, originally as a place to put the Sultan's visitors (as if the palace's 1788 rooms wouldn't be enough!). The hotel complex is huge and extremely lavish, gold, marble and columns everywhere. To our surprise we were actually allowed to just walk all over the place, which we of course though was great. We finished the visit with lunch from the hotel's own bakery, yummy sandwiches and fancy pantsy cakes! Ohh yeah, Prince Jefri was later sacked from the job and apparently is now a big embarrassment to the country.

Tomorrow is our one year anniversary since we left New Zealand (Gisborne) and I'll write up a summary similar to the one I did for our six month anniversary although I might be a day or three late with it.

Not from the Empire Hotel, but a random mall. Typical example of the extreme colourfulness and bling of Islamic womans' clothing