13/7/08 14:00
17:30.299 S
149:49.282 W
We spent 5 days in
Papeete, mostly doing
a huge spring cleaning and reorganizing of a lot of “stuff.” Steve serviced both generators and
replaced a faulty float switch in the forward grey water tank. Lucy and Less
left Thursday night and on Friday Russell arrived from
Boston a half hour
early but Demetra was not so lucky.
She had a two hour slot to
change planes in LA but unfortunately the new American system has done away with
the concept of being “in Transit”
so she had to collect her luggage and clear immigration before running to the check in desk 20
minutes after the flight closed.
British Airways did put her up in a Hilton Hotel having first suggested
she carry on flying via Auk land to Tahiti. I am not going to quote her reaction to
the suggestion she fly an extra 8 hours…
After a lot of thought I have decided
not to spend money repairing the Mainsail as it would be a huge job probably needing a couple of more weeks in
Papeete, and I am planning to replace it in New Zealand anyway. So we stripped out the clew block and
gave the material to Nightwind, the boat we partied on in The Gambiers who
arrived in Papeete
yesterday. Lucy took bag a big bag
back to the UK
containing the cockpit “Wendy House” which we had specially made for
Antarctica and never actually needed.
It seemed a shame to toss it. And now that Demetra’s and my cabin is no
longer a storeroom there was no room for it.
As Monday is Bastille Day and they’re never open
on Sundays, the Papeete Immigration office is closed until Tuesday but I was
told we could come to Moorea as long as I go back on the ferry on Tuesday to do
the paperwork. So we left the big
city in favour of a bay in which we can swim….with no traffic noise…and Moorea
has some spectacular mountain peaks.
The holding here in Cook’s bay is a bit dodgy so
we have put the Fortress anchor on 5 meters of chain in front the of the main
anchor and it seems to have done the trick.
The WiFi merchant assured me that his system was
working here in Cook’s Bay which turns out not to be true.
Natch
as soon as we sort out the anchor it clouds
over