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American Spirit II - Day 191; Boat Boarding Becomes More Challenging & Joel Heyne Wins World ARC Humanitarian Award; Tuesday, July 15, 2014



Days until home 291.

Up at 7:30 AM. Jeanine then tried out the marina shower facilities. When in a marina its usually better to use shore water to shower than boat water, especially since we don't usually make water in an anchorage due to the water being more dirty than our water maker filters like.

At 8:55 AM I met Warren from The Edge, the company that I'd had my interesting rappelling experience with. He was at the marina to pick up another group of sailors for the Mele Cascades abseiling adventure. He indicated that I would have a CD from our Friday adventure (we didn't pick it up Friday due to us being in a hurry to get Angela and Chet to the airport) before the day was out. When I asked about getting the rope that broke on me, I was advised that the proprietor would be getting it to me. I hope the check's (rope) is really 'in the mail.' I have my doubts that I'll ever seem my newly (de)parted rope. We'll see.

Breakfast at 10:00 AM: scrambled eggs, BBQ flavored Vienna sausage, chilled pear halves and bread. Being Jeanine's first breakfast with us I was glad that she liked what she got. After breakfast I showed Jeanine how to do the dishes. Not as simple as it sounds because getting the dishes really clean (sanitary) using as little water as possible (remember, we have to make our own water while under sail), requires a certain technique.

After breakfast Joel replaced the water maker hose that was leaking. Jeanine had brought in some hose from the Spectra water maker dealer in Oldsmar, Florida; and Joel had also gotten a different type of hose from Tommy from Alpheratz. I think he used the new hose that Jeanine brought in, and after powering up the system it didn't leak (yet?); and the water production was over twice what it was (about 7 GPH versus 3.0 GPH). GPH = Gallons per Hour. Plus we got an improvement in a pressure number. We're still going to have the whole system checked out when we get to MacKay to make sure we don't have any other lurking problems.

Joel and Jeanine departed the marina to go abseiling at noon. Joel was kind enough to go with Jeanine because she was new to the crew and didn't know a lot of other boat people yet. Joel had gone last Friday with Angela, Chet and myself. Thank you Joel.

Charlie from Celebrate and I met Tommy and Marianne from II Audeacious at the Grand Casino for lunch at 12:40 PM. We received a free poker chip for doing so. (If it's free it's for me!).

Back at the boat at 2:55 PM I worked on filling out the departing paperwork for leaving Vanuatu; and the entry paperwork for entering Australia; for two hours. When you arrive in a country or leave by airplane, you fill out those little 1 or 2 page forms. When you arrive in or depart in a boat, besides those little forms you fill out, the amount of paperwork you fill out can be very time consuming. Many questions are asked about the boat: length; width; draft; gross tonnage; net tonnage; hull material; hull color; bottom color; mast color; sail color; motor type; motor horse power; cruising speed; cruising range with a tank of fuel; how much fuel you carry; the type of dingy you have; the type of outboard motor on the dingy you have; what type of life raft you have; any other identifying pieces of equipment on the boat like radar, hydro generator, wind turbine; documentation number; then personal stuff like your cell phone number; satellite phone number; home address; the last 6 ports you've been to; the next port you're going to; sometimes how much money you have on board; etc. It seems that dictatorships like Fiji ask more questions than democracies like French Polynesia. But Australia is also asking us a lot of questions, especially because they are very eco-sensitive. They don't want our boats bringing harmful sea life into their waters, so our boat bottoms have to be extraordinarily 'clean' when they're inspected by their quarantine officials. They even use Go Pro cameras on poles to check the area below our boat's waterlines.

Boarding the boat was also becoming more of a challenge today due to the wind direction and maybe more motor boats going by and giving us more wake to contend with. I believe I indicated before that the board we walk on to get on and off the boat was 12 inches wide. It's not, it's 8 1/2 inches wide. And 15 feet long. At any rate, in getting on and off the boat today the board is moving left and right and up and down; often at the same time. And when you're in the middle of it, it sags. And if its rained recently, its wet. And due to tidal changes, the water changes level as much as 5 or 6 feet every day. So you're either walking up five feet from the boat to the concrete dock; or down five feet to the boat. All in a length of 15 feet. Steep. The 'down' is more difficult than the up. And the board is also split in places, giving you something to look at and contemplate while 'walking the plank.' Since I carry 2 cell phones with me and my wallet, I'm considering starting to carrying them in my hands so that if I fall into the water I can at least throw them onto the grass and not ruin them. Because the dock is concrete, if you start to fall you can't really 'dive' for the dock because a dental bill and possible broken ribs is not worth getting wet.

Joel and Jeanine returned from their abseiling trip around 4:30 PM (?). Joel remarked to me that the experience was better the second time around. This time he also took his camera and was able to get some good pictures, including one of the practice cliff where I had my mishap last Friday.

We proceeded to the marina restaurant for a cocktail hour sponsored by the World Cruising Club (or was it the Yachting World Marina?) at 6:00 PM. At 7:00 PM dinner was held, with the 2 dinner options being curry beef and some sort of chicken. Most chose the curry beef, which was quite good. With it came rice, papadan, and a fruit salad; followed by banana cake or chocolate cake plus vanilla or chocolate ice cream. Other than the meal serving being slow, the food was very good and a good time was enjoyed by all. After dinner Paul from the WCC gave out awards. American Spirit II received the Humanitarian Award for helping other boaters unselfishly. Joel deserved that one because he has helped many boaters in analyzing, consulting on and fixing their mechanical and electrical and plumbing problems. Charlie and Cathy from Celebrate nominated Joel for this award. Thank you Charlie and Cathy. Brian Ramsey from Folie a Deux (a 16 year old boy) received the Fisherman Award. Nominated by American Spirit II, of course. If Brian keeps improving his skills as a trolling fisherman, he'll have his own TV show by the time he's 18. Congratulations Brian!

After dinner many of the couples danced the night away.

Tomorrow starting at 9:00 AM we get cleared out of Vanuatu by customs and immigration for our Thursday departure at 11:00 AM. Once the departure paperwork is signed off on, we not only have to depart like we said we would within a set period of hours, we can't stop at any other islands in Vanuatu after leaving Port Vila.

Jeanine was first to bed, followed by Joel and then me.

Brian Fox


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