As I said this topic deserves its own entry, mainly because there seem to have been so many things ‘needing attention’!!!

I don’t know, but it seems to me that it’s one thing after another.

First the refrigeration, then the bilge pump, then the aft heads, then the refrigeration, then the cruising chute and now the turning block for the genoa halyard.  The stainless steel block had split, which meant no more genoa, so not only did we not have cruising chute capability, but now we would lose the Genny.

Fortunately, the port side block was interchangeable, but when we came to fit it, it too has a hairline crack. Not bad enough to stop us using the genny, but it will have to be replaced when we get to Tahiti. We were lucky that we could swap them over, otherwise we would have been left with only the main and the staysail, which would have impeded our performance and made the passage much longer.

Then, as Roger was tightening the first reefing line, the pulley on the boom broke and the line tore the sailbag.

By now it was like everyday brought something else to fix or replace. The engine was also misbehaving, but that was only due to dirty fuel from Isabella (despite filtering it into the tank, then polishing it before the Racor filter!!!!)

The chart plotter keeps throwing wobbler and my gas cooker still takes forever to light the oven.

Oh yes and Roger now suspects the batteries might not be holding a charge properly….as I said, one thing after another.

Oh, I nearly forgot the batten stopper that had broken on the mainsail

One day out from Hiva Oa, the auto pilot gave up. We had found a couple of tiny pieces of plastic in the cockpit and that’s where they had come from. Fortunately the team fixed the problem before nightfall, as hand-steering all night was not a prospect any of us relished, having to do it for a day was bad enough.

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 I really don’t think Beaujolais wants to go to Australia. Who said women were high maintenance?? They obviously didn’t have a yacht.