THURSDAY 6th MAY 2010 (presently in Tahiti,South Pacific)
It's amazing the things that happen at home and sometimes we here immediately and other times we don't ear anything for ages, but the latest was a fire in Crosshaven Boat Yard and Hugh Cassidy's portocabin was destroyed in the blaze. So what? one could ask, except my old engine was in the cabin. God what next, we will just have to wait and see... Another beautiful day here in Tahiti, and today there is a nice breeze blowing for a change, keeping things cool.We did some early boat work and later Mike arrived and took the skipper to "Nautisport" to get some bits and pieces, like a new anchor to replace the one we lost in the Galapagos, plus a 100m of anchor rope, shackles, charts, and some cleaning agents, we also collected the spinnaker on our way back to the boat plus getting 60L of fuel so we would have something in the tank to get us over to the fuel berth, just a 100m away from where we are berthed. Meanwhile, Donal spent the morning removing the fecked spliced rope from the anchor chain (this is the reserve anchor) which turned out to be a monumental job, but he likes these projects, and he is also good at it, God bless him.
The good news today is, our 2 batteries have arrived from O'Connell batteries in Cork, and the parts for the E120 chart plotter also arrived from Australia... Fantastic! and our modifications to the bimini will be finished and ready for instalment tomorrow. It looks if we will be ready to go on Saturday. Later on in the day (afternoon) when Donal was having his siesta, the skipper fixed lots of minor jobs that have been outstanding for ages, you know, things like loose winch handle holders, backstay brackets, fittings for holding the spare anchor, endless story. But that's boats, and what's worse, as soon as you fix one thing, something else will break down... but the sun is shining! As Donal keeps reminding us " It would take a lot of this kind of trip to kill you" I agree............
Around here, the women are fairly heavy in general, not surprising with all the eating they do. Everywhere you go, there are roadside fast food trucks parked on the edges of the road and surrounded with loads of families stuffing their faces with all sorts of local fish dishes, wonderful dishes, but the amount of food served up is astronomical, it would kill a normal Whale. Even " Fats " would have trouble finishing this stuff......... and lets say he's not small or short of walloping down a good meal.
We had lots of emails from friends, and as we have said before, we love to get news from home. However, there are ones like our friend " Hugh Gibson " who has never sent a message, because he just bloody well won't sit down
and learn how to use the box........ Would Marilyn ever shake him up and show him the ropes!
Aileen must be in London on her way home for a few weeks as the skipper writes this blog....
We met Tom from "Chessie" and Charles from "Dreamcatcher" later for a drink at the "Pink Coconut" ....... can you recall "Dreamcatcher", the H.R Charles bought new to do this World trip and has had nothing but trouble with the boat. I mean serious trouble, like engine trouble, steering problems, and lots of other major stuff... It makes us feel like the cat with the cream on our " Oyster 56 " we only had minor problems in comparison...
Donal cooked steaks for dinner, great stuff plus all the flowery spuds, green beans, ( a favorite of his ) and lots of garlic and onions. Cripes, we will be blown away tomorrow! A late night.........Anything after 10pm is late here, as most people get up around 6am everyday! See, the sun goes down every day at 6 pm and rises at 5.30 am, 365 days a year, so they adjust to that scene.....
That's it for today,
Stephen Hyde (Skipper)