On the hard
Ripple2
Sat 19 Aug 2006 23:29
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G'day Blog fans.
I've finally got hands clean enough and time enough
to write.
What also is incredible is the amount of time,
effort, money, aggravation
(because of the Metric system and the US refusal to use it), dirt, filth, that comes with "being on the hard". Yes the boat is out of the water again. I say again because it is less than 12 months since the last time. We have had a persistent leak in the rudder post
since the Galapagos. This
has nessecated pumping the bildge by hand every few hours since then!!!!!!!!!!! This is hopefully being remidided. But the catch is with things these is that you don't know is you are successful until days later when they put you back in the water. And if you are not successful it's another expensive haul out. \ Another pressing reason to haul was that we lost the depth sounder in the Tuamotous (we didn't "loose" it, I mean it stopped working). It's generally always a good idea to know how much water you're in. But especially a good idea 'round here and the other places en route. The depth sounder pokes out through the bottom of the boat so to replace it you have to take the old one out and pug a new one in. This is best done when the boat is not sitting in water.\ We have also lost our wind speed /direction in
struiment. So while we were
buying a depth sounder we got a wind instrument. All this stuff needs larger holes in the hull (they change the sizes of depth sounders??/!!!!! why???/!!!!) a right royal pain in the arse. And even worse the old wireing needs to come out and new put in. This may sound easy but the instruments are near the bow and the display is near the aft in the cockpit. On a boat it is mind-blowing and somewhat soul destroying how hard this task can be. I won't go into the details. A friend is also here and is putting antifoul
paint on his bottom and gives
me his leftovers. So we get a new coat of antifoul and I get, inevitably.; some of it on quite a few places on me. So "life on the hard" has been extremely busy and
dirty. But unlike Trinidad
it is mercifully cool here in mid winter. We should be back in the Pacific on thur 17
Aug.
Soon we will get to
(whisper it...) Bora Bora. Ahhh.
I need a holiday.
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