6 September 2024 – Tahiti
Keith and I woke early as it was going to be a busy day. Keith went to get some croissants etc and I prepared breakfast which we enjoyed. John came early and finished what he could do and apparently the gel coat stuff did not work well so he suggested I redid it in NZ, which was a little annoying.
The riggers came about 8.30ish and the aim was to replace the parts that I had ordered and to sort out of the foil in the mast that foiled the mainsail. This looked quite complicated and how were they going to get out those tubes from the small holes in the mast I do not know so I left them to it. I hoped that they were not going to say we need to take off the mast!!. I took the care hire back and needed to buy some more gas torches as the one I had stopped working. I needed this for my new method of marking the anchor chain so I knew how much chain I had put out when we anchor.
Keith and I had a busy day as we hauled out and marked as much as we could of the anchor chain with rope this time. This meant taking a foot of rope and taking out the center and wending the foot of rope at the right point and sealing the ends with the gas torch. Keith went through provisioning and what we needed to buy for the next few weeks. We cleaned, hoovered, and put away tools etc after the last few days from what workmen had been using. I got out the fuel from the Jerry cans and 80 lts was about enough to top up the tanks. I therefore went and refilled these and packed them in the lazarettes.
I needed a new fitting for my diving Octopus which I got from the chandlery which provided me with depth, pressure and compass. A diver agreed a price to come and clean Stormbird’s bottom which he did and that was good.
The day wore on and eventually the riggers finished with the replacing the parts in the mast. They then had to sort out the main halyard which had split in two and spliced a new bit of dynema into it. We then put the mainsail back on to Stormbird which felt great. This took about 35 minutes and involved putting back 5 battens as we raised the sail. We then furled it and attached to outhaul which was good and we foiled everything away and it felt like a new boat and she was whole again.
Once done Keith and I showered and it was almost dark. We decided to go ashore and we had a beer and a salad which is just what we needed after a busy day.
We will need to give everything a clean down tomorrow. We still must resolve how we fill our gas cylinders and we still have no Tahiti CD’s of their music.It was a busy and productive day and we hope to head for Bora Bora on Sunday.
The picture of the day is the brave rigger at the top of the mast. It is a long way up and I am not sure I could go that high.
Crewing Opportunity Year Two
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 then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025. 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