Ahe Tuamotu –22 June 2024
We woke to a very different day with sunny and clear skies and the water with its beautiful turquoise colour. Normality had resumed after yesterday. I went ashore and got some baguettes and we had breakfast.
I had been communicating with my electrical expert in the UK about the watermaker. I will keep this short to prevent it getting boring and I was getting worried that I would not be able to get it to work. It was an electrical issue and over the last few days I had been changing capacitors and they had been blowing. After I had spoken to Tim I decided to change what is called a start relay. This tells the capacitor to start the motor and once started it should tell it to stop. Tim thinks that it is not telling it to stop which is why it takes a big draw of power from the generator and why it then blows its fuse. The difficulty is access in the engine room. I have to get over the other side of the engine in a small space and take a whole load of wires out and then add the new start relay and wire it up again correctly. I am placing the wires into plastic joiners which look a bit like lego. The problem is in some cases there are 4/5 wires going into one connection. To keep it short I fitted the new start relay (I had a spare in the old pump) and fitted a new start capacitor). This took about an hour or more and I was getting cramp from being in such a tight spot. Once done and I prayed I had got the right wires in the right places.
I started the generator and then turned on the watermaker and the moment of truth arrived when I switched on the high pressure pump and it worked !! I felt so relived. However lets see if it keeps working going forward but I have learnt a lot from this issue. I have certainly learnt that I could not be an electrician!!
Tema (the tour guide yesterday) had invited us for a barbecue at his house and he had also agreed to cut my hair. When it gets long it is a bit like the wild man of borneo!. We went ashore about 10.30am and went to Tema’s house with his 4 dogs and his brothers wife and child were there. Tema was his effusive self and before long he sat me down and with his clippers he cut my hair much to the amusement of Andy & Joyce. The picture of the day is me after the cut and it will certainly take me a while to become the wild man of borneo again.
Tema gave us coconut milk and then some dried ground coconut which was delicious. He gave us what he called a Rambutan off one of his trees which was green and you peeled off the skin leaving a lycee type fruit inside. He had a home made barbecue in the garden of a few breeze blocks and a metal grate. They work so well and I wondered why we always have bought barbecues at home. He started his fire with dried palm leaves and the he put coconut husks on instead of wood. He cooked chicken and tuna on the barbecue. This process took some hours and we had beer whilst waiting. He had made some tuna ceviche and he then got a cloth and put the ground coconut in it and then twisted the cloth and the juice of the coconut came out and effectively cooked the tuna. He then added lemon. He made rice which he mixed with ground carrot and sausage (I suspect cut up salami). Once al was cooked we sat down and had the delicious tuna ceviche with the barbecued chicken and tuna with the rice. It was delicious and filing.
After lunch we went to the back of his house which had a small terrace and he had a view across a coral creek which was light blue/green and beyond with a gap in the trees was the lagoon which was a deeper blue. It was an idyllic setting and we then went down and paddled in the coral creek under the shade of a tree. We could see little fishes and hermit crabs.
Tema insisted when we finished to drive us in his car the 300 yards to the wharf and we said out goodbyes. He was quite a character and we had enjoyed each other’s company despite the language barrier. He was certainly hospitable.
We returned to Stormbird and had a siesta and to our surprise there was another boat anchored and one we had seen in the Marquesas. Apparently the supply ship comes in the morning and we will need to stock up and we may well move on to a different atoll. This atoll has certainly grown on us and it is a stunning location with stunning scenery.
Crewing Opportunity Year Two
In addition, in year two I will be going from New Zealand in early January 2025 across to Sydney and up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and probably across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town and I will need some more crew.
If there is any interest do email me at hine.nick9@gmail.com
The blog will continue as we move through French Polynesia and beyond.
If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com I can only upload one picture a day and visit our website www.stormbirdgoesglobal.co.uk