18 July 2014 Vuda Fiji
The EJ's Voyage
Mike Everton-Jones
Thu 17 Jul 2014 22:41
The saga goes on... Renner lift got patched up and working again yesterday.
But because the cables are now shorter, they only want to work at high tide
which yesterday was at 10:30AM. Because they had to lift a 55ft into a cyclone
pit before lifting us, we had to wait. Took forever to get that boat sorted so
we thought that they wouldn’t haul us out until today. But “No, no” said the
yard owner “we’ll have a go with your boat now”. So we made our way to the dock
and got in the slings by 13:00. It took about 45mn to change the propeller. Then
we told them that they better hurry to lower us down as the tide is running out
fast. Kept us waiting. Eventually the lift operator arrives and says “no, no,
no, not enough water, can’t lower you down enough until high tide tomorrow”. By
that time we saw red... We just picked up our meat order from the butcher who
neatly vacuum pack each item and deep freeze it so our freezer is full. No way
we could afford to stay overnight on the hard without our freezer working! We
then agreed to stay overnight in the slings but hull in the water so our
fridge/freezer water cooler plates would be in the water and therefore
fridge/freezer could work. Then Adam, the yard owner arrived. Said "No, you can't stay there
because the pilot boat needs to put its tender in the water". So up the lift we
go again so the tender could be put in the water underneath us. Then back down
again we go... Then Adam looked and talked, pushed and pulled. And after a lot
of waffle we finally got free of the slings
(not without some scratches in our gelcoat,which did eventually polish out this
morning). The good news is that the propeller is rotating the correct
way. The less good news is that Mike thinks it is the wrong pitch so we don't
have much power. We didn't sleep last night just a little concerned about it.
And there are no good engineering companies around who knows what this is all
about, so no help except other kind yachties. So this morning we have put our
dinghy and outboard in the water - all working fine. We consider going to Port
Denarau for a
test run and take a mooring ball. It is not as far as Musket if
anything goes horribly wrong they have a Renner lift and can lift us out
again if needs be. Will keep you posted. |