Godo got here at last!
Southern Princess
John & Irene Hunt
Fri 23 May 2008 04:28
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16:29S 151:46W
Tuesday 20th at 12:00 saw the start of the leg from
Bora Bora to Suvorov (Suwarrow) in the northern Cook Islands. Southern Princess
& Storyteller were not among the starters as we are still waiting for parts
from Italy. The drive belts for our furling headsails both broke within an hour
of each other and it has been a bit of a saga trying to get replacements,
however we are assured by DHL that they will be here by Thursday. I hope so as
we are just sitting and waiting now.
Fifteen boats started this leg today while the rest
of the fleet sailed off for Rarotonga in the southern Cook Islands enroute to
Niue.
Been having a bit of a problem with the Yamaha
outboard the last few days and after replacing the electrical side of the
equipment it seems as though they have corrected the problem. Hope so anyway as
we will not have access to much in the way of mechanics for the next few
weeks.
DHL has been a real saga. Customer Service asked
for senders name, address and receivers name and address etc so they could trace
the parcel (the waybill number wasn't enough?) and then emailed back they
couldn't help and I should contact the shipper. The shipper gave it to DHL to
give to me and after it left Paris at 19:04 on 17/5/08 it has disappeared into
the ether never to be seen again! Just sent a blister email to the owners of
DHL; Deutsche Post World Net and asked for their help! This is getting mighty
frustrating.
Thursday, after four days of waiting DHL Customer
Service say the parcel is lost and to lodge a claim for compensation. I had been
talking to Ian Massam in Auckland and this morning he sent me the following
email:
Hi John
DHL NZ wouldn't talk to me as I was not John Hunt so I called the friendly country Australia and they didn't care who I was!! Situation is according to their records, the package has arrive in Papeete on 21/5. They are not sure how long it will take to get to Bora Bora but they suspect 3 business days. they suggest you call DHL Tahiti +689 837373 business hours 7am-5pm Monday -Friday. Hope this helps Regards Ian Telephoned Tahiti and lo and behold there it was!
Arrived sometime yesterday. We should get it via Air Tahiti later today. I will
go to the airport and wait for it. Out of curiosity I checked the DHL tracking
system again and they still had it leaving Paris as noted above. Apparently the
only people who knew where it was are in Tahiti & Australia! They have
just called again an the package will be on the 16:00 Flight #413 Air Tahiti to
Bora Bora; John Gilder & I will meet the plane.
  David & Jenny off
Kealoha8. David is the owner and Jenny, together with husband Adrian are captain
and chef. Nick is also off Kealoha and here is handing out the St Patrick's Day
prizes at the Bora Bora Yacht Club.
  John (Storyteller) Hugh (Blue
Flyer). Hugh slipped a disc and had to leave Blue Flyer in Bora Bora while he
flew to Melbourne for an operation. This is me and Val, Hugh's wife also off
Blue Flyer. My cheesy grin is occasioned by my loosing two front teeth off my
bridge work and not being able to smile without gaps.
  Some arty photo! Chip
(Southern Princess) & Shin (Blue Flyer). Shin is Japanese and joined
Blue Flyer in Ecuador. His English is getting better and his cooking is great.
As Hugh & Val had to pull out of the rally for a while at least, Shin was
offered many positions and decided to go with Gray Lady at 72' yacht built by
Vaudrey Miller in New Zealand.
 Waiting for Godo; and this is
where we had to do it, what a chore!
John, rainy & I met the plane and
got the package. We asked for a drive belt and a gasket however they sent use
replacement pulleys, tensioner pulleys drive pulley etc etc etc Looks very
expensive however we will fit them in the morning and head for
Suvorov.
That's all for this epistle and back to
the Iridium phone and no wifi for a while yet.
Cheers
John, Irene, Rainy &
Chip.
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