29/06/09  Back in Moorea

The harbour in downtown Papeete is distinguished by  “Roach Coaches,” small vans which appear every evening to serve steak frites , chow mein, poisson cru, pizza, crepes etc etc.  Well in the new Marina  anchorage we have instead,  floating bars which appear during the day and disappear in the evening which is a good thing as the patrons are really hammered by then.

We left late morning expecting a gentle motor the 16-18 miles to Moorea.   I wanted to explore a small pass on the SW corner.  As we left we were hit by nasty cross seas with no wind and we were rolling something rotten.  Then the wind arrived big time (over 30 knots) and we could sail, so the motion improved dramatically.  The pass I wanted to visit was completely untenable so we carried on to Opolpu Bay and anchored virtually where we were a week or so ago.  The next door bay is called “Cooks Bay” but apparently he anchored in this one instead.

As we were leaving the anchorage yesterday the Anchor Windlass failed.  This is at least the third time in  4 ½ years it has happened.  It has an electric motor and the anchor locker is a seriously hostile environment heavily exposed to salt water especially when we’re going to windward.   By the way who was it who said: Nothing goes to windward like a 747?

So we had to tie a rope to the chain and lead it back to the cockpit and winch it up 10 meters or so at a time, retying the rope each time. 

Steve spent several hours yesterday and today working on it.  The shaft the  Drum turns on had siezed and the motor had quit.   Everytime it breaks  we replace the  motor with the old one  which has been serviced.  This time there was so much rust, it was almost impossible to remove and take apart.

After nine or so hours of graft, the windlass works again.  It should last a few months and I will look into replacing it with a hydraulic version  possibly to be fitted in New Zealand  at the end of the year.