MONDAY 10th MAY
2010 ( presently about to leave Tahiti
for Raiatea and the Pearl Regatta )
Donal and Skipper got out of the bunks early, as we
had a lot to do before leaving,
It was nice and cool around 06.00hrs,
We checked the boat over, admired her from the quay
wall, must say, " the Holy Mary blue antifouling " is a bit..........we
dunno
07.30hrs Laurent, the shipping agent, came on
board to let us know that " NautiSport" ( the Raymarine agents in Tahiti) had
got the
part for our Chart Plotter, except, they ordered
the wrong part. God , what arseholes......bloody hell , what next
!
Eventually, it was agreed that they would order the
right part from Australia straight away and have it by the end of the
week
and bring it out to Bora Bora and fit it to the
boat. thats the only option really.
So now its time to fill up the boat with diesel and
get under way.
We left go our lines to the quay wall, and hauled
our anchor, except, murphys law struck again, we had another anchor chain
wrapped around
our anchor, so we had to call port authorities to
come and help free the chains, what a dose, Fats nearly lost his life, as
well as a stone or two.
Eventually after a half hour, we were free and
headed over to the fuel dock,
this was a simple task in comparison, and took on
board 1000L of fuel, adding all the cleaners you could think of, to the
diesel.
When we finished the diesel, we hauled the rib up
on the derricks, and walla, the repared STB derrick worked brilliantly...
oh the relief.
We got under way, and passed down inside the reef
and passed the Airport on our starboard side.
Another beautifull day with hundreds of
people out paddling their canoe's, some canoe's were 8 man boats and some even
had mixed crews.
wonderfull sight to see so much use of water
facilities. not to mention divers, sailors, speed boats, skiing,
etc,etc.
By midday, we passed out the harbour entrance and
had a distance of 120miles to " Raiatea "
Wind, 12
/ 14 knots ENE on the stb quarter
Weather, excellent, no
clouds,
Sea state, Flat
Current, + 1 knot
Later we had an egg salad lunch, prepared by
Fats, very welcome at this stage..
We then polished some of the SS fittings, and
skipper had to tighten up the water filters as they had a slight
leak,
boats, thats boats , never a dull moment, even in
this wonderfull part of the world,
Dinner was a simple affair, Bangers and Mash, plus
baked beans, prepared by skipper.. just lovely simple food.
No drink.. we are at sea,
We discussed the results of the british elections
for ages, and the fact that Peter Robinson lost his seat, real trauma in
N.I.
The wind went aft, so we goosewinged for a while in
lovely conditions,
then the wind dropped to 6 knots , so we started
the engine and motored at 1600 rev's and doing 6.5 knots, nice and
easy.
we did not want to arrive in the dark, and now with
less nav. gear than ever before.
Night watches
:-
Skipper....................20.30hrs
/ 01.00hrs
Fats.........................01.00hrs
/ 05.00hrs
Skipper.....................05.oohrs
/
thats it for today...
Signed :-
Stephen Hyde, ( Skipper
)