TUESDAY 18th May 2010 ( presently in Bora Bora )
Gosh, it was interesting here last friday night, As you will have read, it was a cloudy night and about 22.00hrs, the whole sky lit up and remained lit up for a long time in relative terms, We all thought it was lightning,but there was no thunder and no more flashes,, However we were informed later that it was a huge falling Star, most unusual, and we were witnesses to it all . Wonderfull stuff..
08.00hrs,, A very sloww rising, even with all the cocks crowing in the background, The Skipper is still tired, the sore throat is still bothering him and no real improvement,, despite the antibiotics and spray's.. Its hard to believe that one could get sick or ill in a beautifull climate like this.... Its just not fair..
We got back all our clearence papers and had our passports stamped for tomorrows departure. Laurent arrived with the E120 chart plotter, so we set about installing the unit back into its housing, and switched it on, Walla, it working, we have charts and all the details , and we also have the AIS,, progress, Ohhhhhhh we are so happy,
Let's look at all the other functions now while we are still here, Murphy's Law. We think its just French Polyneesian law, Fix one thing and screw up something else in the process, We had it with the antifouling / annodes, with the cleaning of the diesel tanks and now the Chart plotter. The radar does not work, so we took the unit out and checked all the connections again, but still no Radar... damn damn.
We cant talk the system through here with the locals, as they only speak French, and the rest of the world are asleep in bed. If we had a Guilloutine, guess who would be the first sacrifice,,,
Anyway, we wont let it spoil the party, thats boats......................... the bigger the boats , the bigger the problems..... Who said that ?
Later , we toured around and sent some more cards, skipper sent some sexy dolls to his friend Brian A. as he was whinging at only reciving cards with blokes and scenery.... ok , we got the message. We returned to the boat in time for a swim and change before the Skippers briefing in advance of tomorrows departure. We may well skip Suworrow and go onto Raratonga, the capitol of the Cook Islands.
18.30hrs, 14 of us got an organised bus to the famous " Bloody Mary's" restaurant, Skipper and Aileen had been there
13 years ago on their cruise of the Islands,, It has not changed much, but the Island as a whole has changed big time, much more Hotels and much more commercial.
We had a great night in " Bloody Mary's " and the cost was reasonable, mind you ! most of the ARC fleet turned up there for dinner. During the night, Jan Morton Ruud, offered to look at our Radar system, which he did later , but with no success. We will have to leave it for the moment, and at worst go to sea without radar.. not the best situation, but thats boats.
An early night, Skipper off the drink, due to his antibotic tablets. but no one else, However " Fats " made a hot lemon & honey drink for the skipper, before having a few night caps and then the Scratches
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
Thats it for today,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper )