2 weeks...

We arrived in French Polynesia two weeks ago, yesterday.
We are all getting a little whiney about these persistent obstacles of the hydraulic steering system and the starboard diesel engine.
Oh! And the second-hand mainsail. Grr.

We have a diesel mechanic [Eric the Red - Don't call him that!] and a sail maker both with excellent reputations. And we found a decent hydraulics shop.

And the generator runs great.
And the water maker works well.
We have cold storage, shore power & water, and access to a laundromat.
Things aren't terrible, but we are all ready to be on our way home to our loved ones.

~e.

Day 14 - Tuesday 18 May

The pass through the barrier reef was very narrow, not terribly deep and whirling with strong currents. I can't imagine doing it for the first time in the dark. Ugh. As we motored up the channel we saw dozens and dozens of boats at anchor... don't want to think about that in the dark either. Nope. Nope. Nope.  It was definitely the right decision to stay out over night!

This marina is really nice, clean, well organized,  in good condition 

.. and FULL!  

 We waited until 0800 when we had support & got tucked into a slip no problem.  We were all a little confused about the "Mediterranean style tie" where you drop the anchor a ways out in front of the slip and then back up to the dock. Then a diver goes down to ties bow lines to a couple moorings... But it worked.  So that's fine.

It's HOT!  I was not expecting it to be so much hotter! But I guess we are sheltered from any breezes, and the sun shines so intensely brightly. 

We  were introduced to a sailmaker who will put a new luff rope on our sail in the next day or so. 

We have a couple leads on a diesel mechanic, but nothing "real" today. 

We will run some errands and fuss with some other fix-it tasks, hopefully we can be done here by the weekend?!

~e.

Days 12 & 13. Sailing to Tahiti

I think I mentioned that we estimated 25-30 hours... yeah. We were way off. We had some flukey winds as part of an all up-wind sail, plus a couple exercises that took some time.  So ... we did not make it to Tahiti before sunset.    Which was a bit of a disappointment.   We chose to manage the many inherent risks of boating in an unknown place in the dark... narrow channels, unknown anchorages, and a strange tie up at a marina where everyone has already gone home for the day.  ... Nah... we'll just low-key drift around until sun rise.  LOL

The night sky & tropical breezes, the pretty lights along the shore... it's pretty good. And much better than whatever anxiety ridden close calls or accidents we might have had doing tight maneuvers in the dark. 

Yesterday afternoon we had a close call when the main sail halyard  almost split completely! Luckily the core of the line held, and we were able to take the sail down, and run a new halyard  and re-hoist the sail... all before night fall. 

 The new halyard is very slippery and we've had some trouble with it slipping the various "clutches". But we can adapt for now, and add it to the work scope to make some adjustments in port.

This prescription scopalamine patch, has been great! I'm very grateful to not feel yucky during all these rough hours, bouncing around on these waves. I'm still enjoying my ginger candies and sharing the love with Torsten.  

Did I mention how great it is to have him on the boat with us? He's a great mechanic, a good story-teller, he knows lots of interesting & even relevant things! He has helped with so many projects,  he's cautious and capable, and is really good company. The whole package! We feel so blessed!!

Love and light.

~e.

Our First Overnight

And we are all here at sunrise, a little sleepy, but doing fine. 

Recap of yesterday (Day 12)

Most of yesterday was beautiful. 

We even enjoyed a delightful rainbow, and some light, not cold (!) Rain.

But in the late afternoon, the main halyard partially failed when the red sheathing just parted from itself at the cleat on the mast. Luckily, the core of the line stayed in tact. 

With some fast ugly whipping, we kept it from getting much worse, and we were able to lower the sail. And replace the halyard. ... at least the boat is stocked with supplies & extras.  And luckily, we were able to complete this exercise before it got dark. Whoop! 

We put up our smaller amount of sail for night sailing, set the auto helm to steer to the wind. And passed a mostly uneventful night. 

This morning (Monday, 5/17: Day 13)

We can see Moorea, and Tahiti is just on the other side. With a little luck we    will  arrive before noon. 

Or maybe not... whatever.   We have confirmed with the harbor master that there is a space for us. 

Love and Light,

~e.

Sailing! (Day 12)

We are a couple hours out from the barrier reefs surrounding Raiatea and Ta'a; having embarked on our fist overnight sail.

We had a good early start with minor obstacles that were quickly overcome. 

15-20 knots of wind. Heading about 40° off the wind. Running 8-9 knots (speed over ground).  Feels pretty good! ... still getting accustomed to the movement of the big multi-hull, but I think we will! 

Raiatea - again. May 9-15

I think I left off with our frustrating last day in Bora Bora. 

13 May - Day 9

We left the mooring yard at about 9:00. 

We saw a pod of small dolphin on our way out. I always see them as a good omen and was happy to see them early on that day.   The boat sailed very well and the second hand Main Sail with one reef in and our smaller stay sail in about 20 kt of breeze.  And we arrived back at Raiatea at about 3:00 pm.  We had every possible contingency plan prepared and in our pocket if we lost and engine or steering or any other weirdness!  But we cruised right in... Jeff handled the boat very well!!! Torsten and I got lines on and we successfully did the thing!! LOL

Thursday was a French catholic holiday, so not much was going on in the boat yard. And there was a regatta happening around the island which occupied most of the local professionals.  LOL

Friday, May 14 

Not much assistance available to us, but we got a few helpful tips from professionals via text. 

One of which may have mostly solved our steering issue with the starboard rudder drifting out of alignment... fingers crossed!!! We'll test it out tomorrow.  

We (mostly Torsten) made some real progress on the generator mess. Apparently it swallowed one of the blades off the cooling water pump impeller. SONOFAB$$$  

...and still trying to solve what we believe is an issue with air in the fuel line. 

Decided to get the new sail modified with new, smaller-diameter luff rope in Papeete. 

And we discovered that Percy couldn't stay with his awesome foster family. Apparently his vocalizations were giving their little dog horrendous anxiety.  What a bummer! But our dear generous friends Patrick, Yvonne & Leilani welcomed him to their home in Ewa Beach. He even has his own YouTube channel now! 

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZn4Zz9pfmGPkJzp-fpDM1hiJief8Y20V

Saturday, May 15th

This was our original target departure date. Oh well. C'est la vie. 

The generator runs again! Thanks to many many hours of Torsten's labor in the "hobbit hole"

Jeff re worked the way the new rudder bearings & stock were landed took care of a fair amount of wobble... so that should also help the steering situation.  

Replaced a couple of lines, and cleaned the seals on all the hatches, put in some significant effort to cleaning the engine rooms. (Man, these engine rooms have been neglected!)  I should have taken "before" pictures. ... I always forget that. LOL.

We head out sailing tomorrow- early morning.  And are planning on the trip taking 25-30 hours... as it is nearly 100% upwind sailing for the 130 miles. 

Love & Light 

~e.

Day 8

Thanks for the prayers.
We are all safe and well.
The new main sail sails very well. We saw porpoises on our way out of Bora Bora! I always think it's a good omen. :)

The boat... meh. It's giving us some trouble. We came back to the boat yard on Raiatea. Will learn more about the scope and timeline tomorrow. (Fingers crossed)

Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.