TOP 11 Favourite Phone Apps

It's raining outside and while waiting for the rain to subside.. I'm going through the apps on my phone. I have a ton of them! I don't know why I keep so many, most of which I don't use often. Perhaps I fear that one day I might need them but won't have the internet connection to download them again? I can't believe it.. but I'm hoarding my apps! {I hope Alex doesn't read this, or he'll have lots to say}. 

Being on a boat, weight is a constant concern and issue. Thankfully, apps unlike clothes, books or other little things; it doesn't matter how many I have on my phone, it doesn't change the weight of it! ;)

Having said that, I can't keep everything... So here's a list of apps I/we think are worth keeping:

Maps.Me - offline map

We absolutely love this app! It's free, it's offline, it's detailed maps of the world! You just need to download the maps in advance before your trip and you don't need any internet connection to use it later. 

The maps are divided by country, state or city, so you don't have to download a large file if you're only interested in one area. It even has routing capabilities, but if you intend to use that function, make sure you also download the required files in advance. 

We first used this app in New York City and loved how detailed it was (shops, restaurants, places of interest, subway stations), add a place to the map, drop pins, best of all -- did we mention it's free and no internet required once its downloaded? And for sailing charts? We use Navionics! :)

Flickr - online photo storage

If you know me, you'll know I like to take photos of everything! Photos of food, flowers, bottle caps, scenery, boat stuff, boat projects, family, friends, the sky, the ground, my feet, my shoes! 

The storage on my phone gets used up very quickly. If I haven't had the time/chance to backup my photos to the computer (which we don't always travel with) to make space, I'd have to start deleting my photos that I haven't backed up! {egad!} This happened on our road trip in the US last year. So right after that, I started searching for online photo storage services.

There's plenty to choose from e.g. iCloud, Google Photos, Photobucket, Dropbox, Amazon Prime Photos, etc. But what's great about Flickr is that it gives you 1 TB of free online storage (none of the others came close), the app has an auto upload feature that uploads the photos from your phone (you'd need a good Wi-Fi or cellular data connection though, but it's a great way to back-up your photos) and more importantly it stores the images at original size (or up to 200 MB)!

Airbnb - affordable accommodation

If you're budget travellers like us who don't quite like to couch surf, a little old for backpacker/hostel style accommodation and can't afford to spend too much on hotels, then check out airbnb. 

We first used it on our overland trip in New York City two years ago and have continued using it on pretty much all of our overland travels. You can book an entire place, a private room or a shared space in the heart of the city or out in the suburbs, stay and live like a local. Check out some of our posts labelled 'airbnb'. A good option when we're not with our boat.

Skyscanner - scans for cheapest flights

This is one of our go to apps to check on the cheapest flights available. Even though we sail, we still need to fly home to see our family and friends ;). It searches the internet for the best deals. They don't actually sell you any tickets, it just does the search, gives you the options and directs you to the airline or travel agency that sells the tickets. 

It started off with just flight tickets but have now expanded their services to search for hotels and car rentals as well.

Xe - currency converter

It's always handy to have a currency converter. We're always checking the rates between USD to AUD to SGD to MYR and of course, the currency of the country we're in.

Spending | Track My Spend - expenses tracker

As long-term travellers, we live on a budget and always have to keep our expenses in check. We usually keep track of what we spend daily on an excel spreadsheet. But when we're out & about, that's hard to do when we don't have the computer with us. We found a couple of spending tracker apps that we like. 

Well, Alex likes to use 'Track My Spend' while I prefer 'Spending' app. They are both easy to use. You can set a budget/spending limits, add recurring expenses, create your own expense categories, export the data to a .csv file and so much more. Try both, it's free! Let us know which one you prefer {I hope you'll vote for the one I use}.

WhatsApp - instant messenger

Was almost not going to include this (because it's pretty well known, it would be like adding Facebook to the list) but we met several new friends recently that haven't installed this! {what?! yes.. you know who you are} This may be slightly selfish on our part, but we're spreading the word as the more people use it, the easier it'll be for us to communicate with them {clever ey?} ;)

WhatsApp is by far one of our most used app. We get to communicate with our family and friends from anywhere in the world for free via the internet! You can create chat groups, share photos and videos, send audio notes, make voice and video calls. There are lots of other similar apps like WeChat, HangOut, Skype, Facebook Messenger, Viber, etc. But for us, WhatsApp tops the list!

CamScanner - document scanner, .pdf creator

It's a free scanner app on your phone. We use it to scan documents, receipts, business cards, passports, anything we want really and save it as a .pdf or .jpg file. 

You could argue that you could do without this (true), but I find that I can't quite get that perfect top-down shot when I use the normal camera. The app is great because it straightens and crops the image to make it look like a scanned document. Very useful when we have to send official forms/documents via email.

Photo Grid - photo editor, video and photo collage maker

If you've read our blog, you'd have noticed we post a lot of grid photo collages. Photo Grid is free, easy to use and packed with lots of other features like video collage, sticker, border, scrapbook, instasize, retouch, filter, text, etc.

We like using this not only to combine photos to tell a story, but it's useful when we have crappy internet connection and instead of having to upload multiple photos, we only need to upload one! :)

iPlum - second line, real phone number

This is another great app if you'd like to have a US phone number without being locked-in a contract at high monthly rates or just want a second line when you travel to avoid roaming charges. iPlum service gives you a real dedicated US phone number at $1/month (or Canadian at $2/month if you prefer). 

You get to keep that same number for as long as want (cancel anytime, there's no contract). You can send/receive text & SMS, make/receive calls to/from anyone (mobile or landline), anywhere in the world at very low per minute rates and free unlimited calls to US toll-free numbers. No SIM card required, just the app and internet connection (via Wi-Fi or cellular data). You can even use this on your tablet!

We've used this to make many calls to US toll-free numbers. As you know, a lot of the products/equipment onboard are purchased from US companies, and we've had to make our fair share of warranty/support calls. We also use this for banking, SMS verification, etc. I've had my bank call me at this number so that I did not have to incur roaming charges on my Singapore mobile line. It works great! We hope there'll be options for AU or SG phone numbers in the future.

Candy Crush - chill & unwind

Lastly, I just had to add it! Sometimes, you just need that one app you can play when you're on passage, while waiting for the bus, train or plane. It's a simple match 3 or more candies in a row game, suitable for all ages, has over a thousand levels and most importantly you can play it offline! How can one resist those colourful candies!?

So this is our TOP 11 favourite list (for now). These aren't sailing related apps, but thought might be useful to share. 😁 Would be interesting to see if this list changes much in 5-10 years? Do note that we're not promoting any of the apps above for any kickbacks. Although, if you do sign up with airbnb through the link on our site, we'll both get some free credit. Other than that, this is just a list of apps we use and think is worth having/keeping.

Thanks for reading.

What do you think? What are some of your favorite apps?

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How To DIY Courtesy Flags on the Cheap | Less Than $1 A Flag

Firstly, I'd like to thank S/V Wanderlust for their post on DIY Caribbean Courtesy Flags! 3 years ago, during the World Cup in Brazil, I noticed these string banner flags everywhere. I remember suggesting to Alex that perhaps we could get them and convert them into courtesy flags, but we didn't know where to get them at that time and we weren't sure of the quality either.

Imagine my delight when I found their post. After reading their experience, we felt more confident and bought ours on eBay for $19.77 USD; also available on Amazon. It comes in a set of 20 Caribbean country flags, at 18" x 12" per flag on 30ft of string.

To be honest, we never bothered too much about flying courtesy flags {not proud}. That's not to say we don't try to wherever we are but it's not always available (in good quality and at the right price!).
 
We know it's not proper etiquette not to fly one when we are visiting a foreign country, but an individual flag can cost around $10 USD each! For something that's for a one-time use and usually doesn't last very long; we'd almost always end up spending that $10 on something else. But with this method, at less than a dollar a flag, how could we resist?! 

When we cruise in a foreign country, it is a sign of respect and diplomacy to fly the native flag of the host country. Photo: Flying our Thai courtesy flag!

Flag Set of 20 Caribbean Countries

1. Antigua & Barbuda
2. Antilles
3. Aruba
4. Bahamas
5. Barbados
6. Belize
7. Bermuda
8. Cuba
9. Dominican Republic
10. Dominica
11. Grenada
12. Haiti
13. Jamaica
14. Martinique
15. Puerto Rico
16. Saint Kitts & Nevis
17. St. Lucia
18. Curacao
19. Saint Vincent
20. Trinidad & Tobago 

Comes in a row on a 30ft of string

Close Up of the Flags

Pretty decent quality

As I inspected the flags individually, I noticed some parts of the string were slightly twisted when it was sewn onto the flags. It doesn't affect the functionality of the flag {just hurts my eyes 😆 It's times like this I wish we had an iron onboard!} But not complaining at this price. 

Here's how we converted the string banner flags into courtesy flags.

What We Used

What You Need:

1. Scissors
2. Hammer

3. Hole cutter/punch (ours came with the Grommet tool set)
4. Grommet tool (consists of a top and bottom setting die, we have a size #2)

5. 40 Brass grommets (2 grommets/flag)
6. Pen/Pencil
7. Solid piece of wood
8. Lighter (optional)
9. Bit of extra material (optional) - we had some spare weblon type material which we decided to use where the grommet sits just to provide some extra strength {it's most definitely going to outlast the flag}.

What To Do:

1. Cut the string to separate the flags.

2. Sew the ends or lightly burn the edges to seal it from fraying. 

Step 1 & 2 - I sewed one flag (got lazy) and used the lighter to seal the edges for all the other flags

3. Mark where you want to place the grommets with a pen or pencil. I marked them around the same spot for each flag so that it'll be easy to keep them together with a split hinged ring.

Step 3

4. Punch out the holes with the hole cutter/punch & hammer on a solid piece of wood.

Step 4

Step 4 - If it doesn't punch out completely, use the scissors

5. (Optional step) If you decide to add material to provide extra strength around the hole, then you will need to punch holes in the material as well.

Step 5

Step 5

6. Place the extra material on both sides before inserting the grommet. The grommet (shank) should be placed on the bottom setting die, with the materials in the middle and the washer on the top.

Step 6

Step 6

7. Hammer the top setting punch to set the grommet in place. 

Step 7

 8. Ensure that the grommet is set properly. If it's not set, repeat step 7.

Step 8 - Top view

Step 8 - Bottom view

9. That's it! (repeat till you're done) 

Step 9 - That's it!

All we need to do now is to complete our boat projects/repairs and we're all set to sail the Caribbean! Woohoo! ;D

P/S: You can also get these string banner flags for Asia, Europe, South/Central America.

Asia: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Europe: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland (eagle), Portugal, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland (lion), Scotland (cross), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and USA.

South/Central America: Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela, Honduras, Panama, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and El Salvador.  

Note: The list of countries may vary, so check before you make your purchase. 

You can also get 40 Maritime Signal Flags on a string!

So excited, can't wait to fly these! I know it's still early but after the Caribbean, perhaps the South/Central America set next?

Hope this was useful. If you have any experience or idea on how to improve this. We'd love to hear from you. Happy sailing! 😃

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Installing Port Visors

As you know, sailing in the tropics means we're always in warm, humid areas with lots of rain. Opening and closing portlights (or portholes) every time it rains is a major pain, especially for short showers not to mention how stuffy the boat gets when there's no air ventilation. We know this is not a necessity as we have lived without them for years, but.. what's life if we can't splurge a little?

So, we decided to invest in some port visors. We searched online and were surprised that there weren't many options available. We ended up ordering from Seaworthy Goods, a company owned by two lifelong boaters (they seem to be the popular choice and featured in several blogs). They were friendly and quick to respond over email and are based in Florida, USA.

We were pleased we received the 6 visors in time (while we were in Florida for our '6 Day Break'). Each visor was packaged individually with instructions on how to install it and a small piece of scotch-brite scour. 

Individually packaged 19-R model (18" W x 3⅞" H x 3½" D)

The visors are made of tough, UV-resistant Lexan -- {apparently} unbreakable, transparent poly-carbonate. It's lightweight, weatherproof, scratch resistant, flame resistant and can withstand high impacts (250 times the impact strength of glass and 50 times that of acrylic). Super!

Comes with a mini scotch-brite scour and instructions

Back in Trinidad, our excitement soon dissipated as we opened each packaging to find that the port visors were very poorly finished -- rough and crooked edges. Only one out of the six pieces we received was somewhat "acceptable".

The overall product itself looks to be of good quality but really bad finishing

A ruler against the port visor to show how uneven it is

Installation Steps

A black speck in one of the visors

We smoothed out the edges ourselves with sandpaper. It's not a big job but it's time consuming; for the price of each visor, we expected some quality control {not happy but we'll live}. Maybe it was an oversight -- we were unlucky and got a bad batch?

On the bright side, the installation was indeed very simple. Per the instructions, we:

• Cleaned the surface thoroughly with the scotch-brite scour and isopropyl alcohol (not acetone). 
• Used a pencil to mark the placement of the visor before installation. 
• Peeled off the 3M VHB red tape and pressed hard on the visor along the tape to ensure a good bond.
• That's it! 

We initially used masking tape to determine the placement of the visor but later used a pencil to mark the placement instead

All done! It's advised that we cover at least ⅓ of the portlight to be effective

We've installed all the visors, they look good and we're very happy we don't have to drop everything to close the portlights each time it rains.

Our view with our portlights open on a rainy day

Ah.. the breeze is great! :)

Update: We wrote to Seaworthy Goods to give feedback on the portvisors we received. Instead of ignoring our email (like most companies do these days), Paula (one of the owners) was excellent; she not only responded to us during her holidays, apologized for not catching the trims, thanked us for the feedback but also gave us a refund for one port visor for our troubles. Thumbs up for their customer service! Thank you! 👍

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How To Remove Rust Stains From Fiberglass | FSR Review

 

If we're not fixing leaks or fighting corrosion, we're cleaning rust stains... and we have a lot of them on our deck {oh! the horror}. Mostly from our stainless steel deck fittings and screws! Wait a minute.. doesn't stainless mean no stains i.e. no rust!? Um... no.. {sighs} Alex was quick to enlighten me that unfortunately stainless just means stain-less i.e more resistant to rust, staining and corrosion than regular steel! {oh.. :( so it still stains.. just less.. hmpf}

One day, on one of his many "shopping" trips to Budget Marine, Alex decides to buy this tub of FSR Fiberglass Stain Remover ($85.50 TTD). A non-abrasive light bluish stain absorbing gel, made in USA. According to the manufacturer, it's safe to use on white painted surfaces even gel-coat; great for exhaust and waterline stains, removes oil, rust from stainless steel stanchions and railings as well as road dirt from RV's and boats. Sounds fantastic!

So I put it to the test. The instructions were simple enough. I used a sponge (you can also use a brush or a cloth) to apply the gel on the affected area; left it to work its magic for about 20 minutes (or more) and wiped it off (you can also rinse off with water). No scrubbing required.
 

Before

Several applications for the tough spots

After - What do you think? Probably could do with another round?

I would say it works, those stains from the cleats have been there for quite some time (as we left Raptor on the hard for 16 months). It took several applications, but remove them it did {well most of it}. The less stubborn or more "recent" stains, came off in one or two applications.  

Besides cleaning off the rust stains, we had to re-bed the deck fittings. This meant digging out rotted wood in the deck core (this happens because the fittings weren't bedded properly the first time), filling it with epoxy, re-drilling the holes and re-bedding them with sikaflex, but that's another story..

If you're looking to clean rust stains without much elbow grease and don't mind spending some money, you can get this on eBay (~$15.47 USD), Amazon (~$13.64 USD) or your local chandlery/hardware store.

This was our experience with FSR. Hope this helps. If you know of any other way to remove rust stains from the deck/fiberglass, we'd love to hear it! :)

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How To Clean A Heat Exchanger

Here's a post on how we cleaned the heat exchanger on our Yanmar 50Hp diesel engine without using the ultra high pressure water jetting method.

Method 1 - Soak in Vinegar

We were advised by our dear friends that we could soak it in hot/warm vinegar. Unfortunately we did not have a big enough heat proof container to pour the hot/warm vinegar in. So in the end, we just soaked it in a plastic bottle and left it under the hot sun for a couple of days.

The heat exchanger after soaking it in vinegar

Still grimy in between the tubes

A couple of days later, the heat exchanger was definitely a lot cleaner than it was before, it works! but not quite to Alex's standards.

Method 2 - Soak in Barnacle Buster ®

Alex decided to get a bottle of Barnacle Buster ® from Budget Marine, a safe, non-toxic, biodegradable marine growth remover specifically formulated to clean seawater cooled equipment. Proudly manufactured in Florida, USA. It is said to dissolve barnacles, zebra mussels, calcium, rust, lime and all other mineral deposits. It also boasts that most applications can be completed within 4 hours!

And so.. we took it to the test and soaked half the heat exchanger in the Barnacle Buster (follow instructions for ratio) for about an hour and a half (be careful not to soak it for too long), rinsed it off with water and gently brushed it with a metal brush. We are pleased to say that it worked very well and repeated the process for the 2nd half of the heat exchanger. See photos below.

Before

Rinsing off the chemical with water and brushing it gently with a metal brush

A huge difference between before & after

Here's an After photo.
We still had to run a LOT of water through it to wash out all the deposits inside.
End result - (almost) shiny like new!

Re-assembling the heat exchanger into the Cooling Fresh Water Cooler

The Barnacle Buster $227.08 TTD excl. 12.5% VAT (~ $32.50 USD)

The 2nd method is a lot dearer than the 1st, but it worked quite well and saved us a lot of time.

To be honest I was a little apprehensive at first, I thought this was going to be yet another fancy labelled high priced bottle of waste. Glad I was wrong and apparently we can also use it to clean: -

• A/C & refrigeration cooling systems
• Engines seawater cooling systems
• Bow Thrusters
• Water Makers
• Sea Strainers
• Propellers
• Seacocks
• Pumps
• Piping
• Hulls

Great! Look forward to making the most of this. Anything that helps reduce the need for elbow grease always gets my vote! :)

Do you know of any other method to clean a heat exchanger? We'd love to hear about it.

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