March 2016 through February 2017: Getting MOKEN ready for each cruising season and our eventual forays offshore is a lot of work. Here’s an update on what we’ve been up to since our last boat project report.

Maintenance: Boat maintenance is a regular part of life on MOKEN. Some things we do on a regular basis. Some things we do when something breaks. And some things we do simply because it bugs us.

	Replaced raw water pump and flow sensor on the main engine.
	Replaced faulty float switch on aft shower sump pump. This was a warranty replacement.
	Replaced Racor fuel filter on the Northern Lights generator.
	Replaced the engine blower fan when it quit while we were underway cruising last year.
	Resealed mast step bolts on pilothouse roof to prevent water ingress.
	Replaced main pilot house door handle/lock assembly when it stopped behaving properly.
	Replaced faulty A/C control thermostats in the salon and aft cabin.
	Replaced a faulty carbon monoxide sensor.
	Removed and cleaned the fuel polishing filter housing and replaced the filter.
	Replaced the Walbro fuel polishing/transfer pump.
	Replaced the main engine Racor fuel filters.
	Changed oil in the generator, gearbox and main engine.
	Cleaned the dock lines and mould from lockers and Lifesling at the end of the rainy season.
	Cleaned a nasty stain in the gelcoat on the aft shower bench using a lot of muscle and 3M Marine Rubbing Compound.
	Changed water filters at the galley sink and upgraded to a 2-micron reusable ceramic filter.
	Painted the chain locker.
	Reversed the anchor rode and replaced the shackles.
	Replaced hatch and porthole screens with upgraded fine nylon screens. No more rusting.
	Replaced the outboard engine rail mount.
	Replaced a faulty Raymarine depth sounder transducer. This delayed our January 2017 departure by a few days. Many thanks to Rigo for lending us his spare transducer while we waited for our order of a new unit.
	Replaced a section of water pipe under sink in aft head that split on our first night at anchor in 2017.
	Fixed a leaky stainless pipe fitting at a welding shop in Puerto Galera.
	Replaced the pilothouse roof engine vent fan.
	Ordered green Alexseal hull paint from Singapore and arranged for shipping. This should arrive in Subic by the end of February and be waiting for us on our return. We’ll also need to redo the bottom paint.
	Ordered engine coolant (also coming from Singapore). We’re hoping this arrives sometime in March so we have it ready when we haulout on our return to Subic.

Upgrades: We’re still working to get MOKEN just the way we want her and get her ready for offshore cruising. Some upgrades are merely cosmetic in nature. Others pertain to vital systems.

	Custom made cutting boards for galley sink to provide extra counter space.
	Made an adapter for our new 50A shore power cord to fit the Subic Bay Yacht Club’s unusual power connection.
	Custom made stainless door handles for the pilothouse doors as some of the existing handles had seized in place.
	Installed two new dimmable, LED reading lights in the aft cabin to try them out. Since we liked them so much, we ordered replacements for all the rest and will install them once we bring them back from Canada this summer.
	Replaced pilothouse switch panel with a Blue Sea Circuit Breaker Panel.
	Replaced the two main inverters. Getting the inverters to the Philippines could have been a whole blog post in itself as Cathay Pacific wouldn’t let us carry these in our checked baggage from Vancouver last summer. Apparently they decided a bunch of circuit boards were “explosive”. In the end we had to Fedex these to Subic. But I digress.
	Replaced the main inverter circuit breakers with Blue Sea Circuit Breaker Panels.
	Upgraded the inverter control panel.
	Installed Reverso oil lines for generator, gearbox and main engine. We found a shop selling the hoses and fittings but had to have several fittings machined in town in order to fit.
	Installed provisions for adding two additional house batteries at a later date.
	Installed a new Raymarine wind vane on top of mast.
	Replaced the main engine raw water pump lines with Trident silicone lines and new stainless clamps.
	Replaced the lines on the paravanes with heavy duty double braided lines.
	Ordered new freezer plates and compressor from Ozyfridge to upgrade the chest freezer. These are ready to install on MOKEN during our next round of upgrades.
	Ordered two compact DC Isotherm fridges to replace the 240v apartment fridge/freezer combination. These are waiting for us to pick up in Subic. Once installed, this will dramatically reduce our energy consumption.
	Ordered three depth sounder transducers. One replaces the one we borrowed, one will be installed as a second redundant system, and one will be kept as a spare.
	Ordered two additional Raymarine display units for the helm station to allow us to add a second chart plotter and visually monitor other equipment, such as our new FLIR.

Covers: Sun protection is important in the tropics…for us and for our gear that sits outdoors year round in the sun and rain. We added some sun shades and also updated our indoor and outdoor cushion covers to a more suitable fabric.

	Made new Sunbrella covers for the cockpit cushions. Increased the thickness of the bottom cushions so the seating (and sleeping) is more comfortable.
	Made new Sunbrella covers for the salon and pilothouse settee cushions.
	Made new custom Coolaroo Sunshades for the cockpit and over the aft deck.
	Made new Sunbrella covers for the two Mercury outboard engines.
	Made new Phifertex covers (trimmed with Sunbrella) for the deck hatches to allow more light inside while providing some protection from the heat.

Emergency Equipment: This is stuff we hope we never have to use but need to have on board, just in case.

	Organized and inventoried the onboard Medical Kit and had a custom carrying case made to store everything.
	Filled two DAN oxygen tanks for emergency use after bringing an adaptor from Canada last summer for filling.
	Organized two ditch bags with emergency survival equipment.
	Fabricated and installed a custom liferaft bracket and mounted the liferaft on the aft rail. This was necessary because Viking provided us with the wrong bracket when we received our new raft early in 2016. When we contacted them about it, we didn’t receive a response.

Miscellaneous:

	Ordered and received a copy of the latest Southeast Asia Pilot Guide in a roundabout way via cruising friends in Malaysia and Puerto Galera.
	Installed and set up Open CPN with a new GPS antenna on the laptop. With charts and an orientation provided by Avril (DREAMAWAY), we have found this to be a really welcome addition to our navigation options with better detail in some areas of the Philippines than our Navionics provides.
	Our Balikbayan box that we shipped from Victoria in September finally arrived at the beginning of December. It’s always a bit like Christmas opening these boxes of boat goodies from home.

MOKEN certainly keeps us busy so it’s a good thing Chris is now here full time as the chief engineer.