Position           Port Vila, Efate, Vanuatu

Date                Thursday 27 August 2015

Or as Mark Twain might have put it "The report of ‘our departure' was an exaggeration".

First it was the bow thruster.   Diagnosed as a fault in an electronic controller plug in module.  Solution get one brought in from New Zealand with a joining crew for another boat.  Greta, it arrived on Sunday bit did not cure the problem.  The electrician thinks that the replacement was also faulty so he manufactured a replacement out of discrete relays which works bit does not provide the protection so we must not go from one side to the other without a pause.

OK.  Now that is working but better just check the genoa furler which has been intermittent.  "B***er said Pooh" it will not turn.  Take the drive side apart and find that the drive belt that I fitted a month ago and has been used in anger 5 times has shredded.  Diagnosis the bearings in the worm drive part of the mechanism have collapsed and probably the gears worn to extinction (8 years and 35,000 miles of hard wear to blame plus loss of grease from a "Sealed for life" part of the mechanism).  Solution - obtain and fit a new furler drive (Quick £4,500).  Well we have found the part in Auckland and another joining crew is bringing it out on Friday together with yet another bow thruster controller.  Old friend David Haynes, as in David and Nicky, has stepped up to the mark and as I write is driving around north Auckland collecting the bits and getting them to the airport to rendezvous with the "courier".

Oh and of course because of the value of the items I now require customs clearance and a shipping agent.

The engineer, Pete Wederell a Kiwi and a great general engineer, has been inconsiderate enough to have a birthday at the weekend so it will be Monday before we can take the fore rigging apart as it is really a two man job.

But the sun is shining and we may actually consider diving at the weekend so it is not all bad.