16042013 Monday - sorry about the dates but my watch and I are still a little confused!!

Up at 7ish to sort out the blog. It’s going to be a busy with visits to the Customs to check us out and the Alcohol from the bonded stores in.

There is shopping to do, Blogs to download and the car to return so its looks like another action packed day,

and here I am blogging whilst the others have gone ashore to start the action.

It’s a lovely sunny day; the wind has changed direction to the south which has resulted in the swell disappearing in the harbour as we are now in its Lee.

Both the humidity and temperature have dropped and the horrible sweaty sogginess and rain have been replaced by a pleasant and bearable heat.

During the night it was relatively cold with sheets being added to bunks as it went down to 24C

The dockside is a hive of activity with a Tanker discharging its cargo to keep the cars and planes running accompanied by the sound of a thousand

jack hammers as they dig their way through the reinforced concrete of the dock and repair their new jetty, luverly.

The Lars returns, Booze will arrive Wednesday 0900 prior to our departure and Fred and Grete have gone to take the car back and do some more shopping

Yesterday the Generator shut itself down due to overheating. Today’s investigation reveals a clogged filter but to add to our problems

the newly installed electric water pump to replace the mechanical unit which has sheared inside the engine and is impossible to repair

without a major engine rebuild, has stripped its impeller.

That damn generator with its interminable problems. So we embarked on a “hunt the impeller” mission and since the outboard motor fuel line has split,

add that to the list for our mission impossible. We search the plumbing department of the local hardware store for anything that our

engineering ingenuity will let us fabricate without success.

Finally directed to the Honda car sales company (Who also sell outboard engines) we trudge on in the noonday sun. Yes they have a replacement

fuel line for the outboard (At vast expense) but a search of their stores has nothing suitable on the impeller front.

Yes there is a god! A customer overhears our tale of woe and says “ I might have one of those” it turns out he runs the Charter Yacht service

and not only does he import container loads of spares but is about to open a Chandlery!

We jump into his car and head to his boat from which he reappears bearing a used unit with the promise that if he can find a new one, he’ll bring it down to us

The pump is reassembled, but there is still a problem, fortunately, after some head scratching we find the source, an airlock and all is well.

It’s now happy hour and we're on the Saffron Gin, and interesting brew they picked up in Tahiti. Fred and Grete disappear below to prepare

a gourmet delight as we dine aboard tonight, the days search has worn us out and the trek to Trader Jacks would be a pub to far.

17042013 Tuesday

Lars and I head of to the Café and Wi-Fi to send emails, Blogs and make our Skype calls. Grete’s off to have her hair done! with Fred in tow.

We also have to down load detailed charts of next area for our passage to Niue pronounced neweeeee, our next landfall some 600nm away with nothing but a reef in the way.

There is no harbour or dock though there are mooring buoys. One of the problems with these volcanic islands is the sea bottom drops almost

vertically to the abysmal depth from when they were born. Its not uncommon for the bottom to drop several hundred metres just a short

distance offshore making anchoring impossible.

The approach is by dinghy and these are winched out of the water due to the swell (Historical note1; Capt. Cook tried several times to land but

the Natives were less than friendly and he gave up). Niue is the world smallest nation and consists of some 1000 people; it’s also the world first “Internet” nation with free Wi-Fi for all.

We meet up with the others while were still downloading, Grete’s not to happy with her hairdo, but we make soothing sounds

“You look 10 years younger etc.” but she seems to doubt our credibility. Off they go shopping; off I go shopping as the down

loads are so slow it relieves the boredom. Finally Lars leaves me to it,

We gather back at the boat and have Swedish guest for happy hour. He’s an Optician and has fix my glasses which lost another screw and those

of the others in need of minor repairs. He has brought us the product of his garden; Passion fruit, Pawpaws, Coconuts, Star fruit and a stem

of Bananas which we hang in the rigging.

After a few social drinks we all repair to Trader Jacks for dinner where apart from the usual organised chaos in the waiting department we had

a good meal (Sushi for Fred and proper scallops for me) the rest attacking their pizzas and steaks with relish.

The bill settled and just one more for the road, we bid farewell to our guest and head home.

Bob the Blog