17.14N 150.22S
JENNY
Alan Franklin/ Lynne Gane
Sat 24 May 2008 12:15
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We are on the move this time back to Raietea to
collect some parts which we were having made while we returned to Papeete,they
are about half the price in Raietea.
The return voyage to Papeete was against the
prevailing wind and the sea was quite unpleasant in fact we were all sea sick
and very uncomfortable.The only reason for back tracking was to collect some
parts for the generator and have it fixed.I have to say the only efficient
part of the whole operation was the parts sent by my office from the
UK,everything else was a shambles.
Jeanneau have consistently failed to achieve any
success in having the generator repaired or even organising the agents
to effect the repairs,I am so disgusted with the inept way in which they
have dealt with this that it will feature quite highly in an article that I am
due to write for one of the yachting magazines.
After our night crossing from Raietea to
Papeete some 20 hrs we arrived in Marina Taina to be greeted by the generator
agents who wanted to remove it to their workshop but they had not arranged a
crane to lift it from the boat nor the men to do it having been aware of this
for at least a week.
So I organised a man or three and my favourite
engineer Michel organised the crane ,which duly arrived within the hour and
after another hour broke down.
So there we where on the quayside with a broken
down crane the driver having walked off in a huff and the generator still in the
boat with the agent coming to collect it in 2 hrs and us wanting to be underway
in 2 days with it repaired with the parts from the UK.
Michel decided that we could rig up a block and
tackle system to remove it ,4 men lots of rope a few near misses and a bilge
covered in oil and 1hr later it was out.Now this unit weighs 400lbs and has to
be lifted out at an angle of 40 deg and the swung over the side of the boat onto
the shore forward of where we lifted it out,
Well I take my hat off to Peter Whatley who put it
in because I now have some idea of the effort that went into it.When the van
came to take it to the workshop it took 4 men to lift it in the back,not might
add.
We still had our doubts that it would work without
more spares which they did not have and how right we were after 2 days it still
didn't work and they were the experts.The irony of the situation was that had
Jeanneau listened to us and got their act together we could have had a new
generator delivered and installed whilst we were at the Marina after all we
arrived there the first time 4 weeks ago.Instead they had procedures and
they knew of the problem 4 months ago.
Now they are organising something for Australia
there's after sales service for you 10,000 nm and 6 months late and they think
its difficult to organise a brewery comes to mind.
We are currently motoring as there is no wind and
we need to arrive in Raitea tomorrow to collect our parts and then onto Bora for
one night and then to Raratonga to get my flight.I'm afraid all the wasted time
with Jeanneau has reduced our time spent exploring the Society Islands
considerably and we would have liked to stay longer but we now need to catch up
with the fleet.So as we move on you will receive more bloggs you lucky
things.
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