Day 10 Position Report 10 25.33 S 160 02 W 2300 CIT

Mark_needler
Professional Skipper
Tue 20 Sep 2011 09:06
2200 19/09/2011, Air
intact bird survey and bottle tops!
Well we have been here now
since Thursday at 2300hrs, everyone here has been really friendly and
generous its amazing how many people are really happy to help you out with
everything.
We have received all sorts
of help already and are still getting a lot of support from the
locals.
one of the locals Tangi
let us use his family home while we are here take a look at
this It's a lovely place and
best of all we can have a fresh water shower and wash out clothes in a washing
machine!! not much for you guys to comprehend in the northern hemisphere but
trust me it seems like 5 star living when you have been at sea for a
while.
Orongo did really well on
the way up here but she still needs some modifications to make her 100%, the air
outlet from the engine bay did help a lot in keeping the heat in the engine room
cooler but there still isn't enough through put of air to make the engine run
really smoothly. So whilst Ian and Natua are carrying out the Bird survey I am
endeavoring to install a air intact pipe to get the engine running at it's
best.
When we first arrived the
mooring situation was pretty precarious because if the wind direction
changed there was a high chance that the anchor would turn over and the
boat would drift off.
After talking to one of
the locals I found out there was a chain attached to a big rock just off the
channel that only needed a buoy and some rope attached to set up a
mooring.
I offered to
a
suitable rope and even offered to dive on the rock to reattached the chain to
the rope & buoy. But I managed to talk with Marine guys and they gave me all
the help with materials man power(Thanks Ravi) to get the job done. In the end
Ravi did all the work and I just manned the dive
boat.
All this said it now means
that we can quite happily state on shore and not worry about the boat drifting
off. Orongo on her mooring~ see above
One of the many
modifications to the boats included the installation of two warning lights to
indicate the charging system was working and that the oil pressure was high
enough. The problem there was that these lights weren't a problem in the day but
at night they were too bright. So i went to a local mechanic to buy some Bulbs
but in the end he gave them to me....Thanks
Any how after that I want
to put lens over them so that were not so bright in the night, after a trip to
the DIY store I soon discovered that it's best to ask what they have and not
what you want that way you might find something that will help you fix the
problem, however no lens so I went scrounging on the beach and found 4 or mare
plastic bottle tops and glued them together to make two lens covers one green
and one red! they work really well.
Tomorrow I'm off the other
side of the Island to find the bank to get some cash, and then I will
start drilling the holes for the Air intact, this won't be easy due to the
limited tools available and the fact that it all needs to take place on the
mooring!!
Ok I'm including some
photo's from Manihiki so you all can enjoy its
beauty,
Regards
Mark
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