Coopers Quest

[David Fox]

Finally broken free of Nuku Hiva
26th to 29th July At Sea, French Polynesia

10 20.271 S 141 36.000 W

Weather; all over the place, small amount of sun followed by cloudy skies and some rain, wind between 5 and 22 knots, waves starting at 2 feet but getting up to 3 meters.

Our shroud finally turned up, hooray! We went to the post office on Monday and were told that it had arrived but hadn't yet been entered into their logging system so could we come back tomorrow to claim it. Honestly what could we say? After 17 days in transit and supposedly coming air mail what was one more day of waiting!
Why they couldn't log it into the system there and then is totally beyond my understanding but this is the French Polynesian way and we are only guests in their country so tomorrow it was going to have to be. We had one other thing to do today, dropping off our propane bottle to have it refilled as it had emptied just as we were about to cook dinner the night before, no problem though as we have 2 bottles plus the BBQ bottle so we were never going to go hungry! We dropped the bottle at yacht services and were told it would be ready at around the same time tomorrow, so there were now two reasons to return tomorrow. We consoled ourselves with lunch at the cafe before retreating back to the boat where we did nothing for the rest of the afternoon.


Stop Press 6/8/2021 1920hrs GMT

We were given the Pfizer vaccine and can return in 3 weeks for the second shot. Even though we can get the second shot in Fiji, it means a different vaccination card so we may stay here for it. I've also applied for a digital certificate which is accessed via a QR code - currently being prepared by French health authorities. Gerry Don't hold your breath on a digital certificate

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Now that we knew our shroud was here we had begun to make tentative plans to leave here on Thursday as long as the shroud fitting went to plan and the weather window remained promising. In doing the planning we thought about the best time to do our final load of laundry before leaving and decided that we needed to take it in today as it would take at least a day to do and if we were unlucky and they were busy it might take two days, we didn't want to take the chance of being held up for the sake of a few tatty clothes and our bed linen! The laundry got bundled up and off to shore we went. Our package was waiting for us at yacht services as Gerry had given their address to the post office, finally we had the shroud in hand. We unpacked it and checked it out there and then as we didn't need to take the packaging out to the boat and then bring it back for disposal the next day, everything appeared to be there and in order, only time would tell if our measurements were correct when we fitted it.

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We did a bit of grocery shopping whilst we had the chance then had lunch and finally picked up both the shroud and the propane bottle from the yacht services office where we had left them. Our laundry would be ready to collect tomorrow. We loaded up the dinghy with the groceries, the propane bottle and the shroud and made our way back out to the boat where it wasn't rolling too badly and we managed to get everything onboard without any mishaps. As it was now mid- afternoon we decided to leave the shroud until the morning and start early in the hope of getting it fitted before the waves kicked up and made going up the mast difficult. So we did nothing apart from discuss how we were going to approach the fitting of the new shroud.

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So Wednesday was soon upon us and Gerry was up and keen to get going at some ungodly hour, I tried hard to ignore him preparing stuff but there comes a point when it's just impossible to play possum any longer and I had to haul myself into the land of the living without the benefit of coffee or breakfast. Gerry was outside undoing the old shroud at deck level ready to hoist it up and then undo the upper bolt that holds it in place. As soon as he saw me it was a case of him climbing into the bosun's chair, hooking up to the main halyard, making sure that he had all the tools that he would need in his bag, putting on the head set and then it was time for him to go up the mast.


I took up the slack on the halyard as he climbed to the second spreader, once he was at that point I had to run a second halyard up to him so that he could tie the swage fitting (the solid bit at the end of the shroud) to the halyard and lower it down to the deck. We managed this with a couple of minor hiccoughs, obviously all my fault as I put the wrong cable ties on the halyard and then it wrapped around the other shrouds, jib sheets, the first spreader and the steps before we finally got it to Gerry who was rolling from side to side with the swell and not a happy chap.


No one will be surprised when I say that there were a few heated words exchanged as we carried out this job, what sort of job would it have been otherwise? With the old shroud now down on the deck I had to attach the new shroud to the halyard and send it skywards to Gerry, same problems different destination. Finally we got it right and Gerry set about putting the swage in place and securing it with the bolt and split pin whilst I tried to keep the deck end of the shroud from scratching the deck and flying backwards and forwards with the motion of the boat. With the top in place I had to play with the halyard that was keeping Gerry aloft to allow him to move out to the end of the spreader and thread the shroud through the end cap of the spreader, we managed this with little difficulty and it was then time to lower Gerry to the deck to attend to the deck fittings.

Tiki at Cafe terrible 2's.jpeg (128.09 KiB) Viewed 39875 times

He was quite concerned that the shroud wire wasn't long enough but it proved to be exactly the right length plus the extra that the manufacturer said he would add to our measurements. The extra had to be angle ground off, the ends of the shroud wires unwrapped ( for those who don't have a clue, the shroud is made up of a metal core and then 19 strands of wire are tightly wrapped around the core) and a wedge tool which was supplied inserted to a specific measurement, then the strands of wire had to be wrapped around the wedge before an adjustable swage fitting was put into place and finally filled with 5200 ( the black gunky stuff that gets everywhere) and attached to the reusable turnbuckle fitting that holds it to the deck. The time had now arrived to tighten it down and pray that we had done it correctly, it looked right but only a trip will prove if it's correct!

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Time then for a coffee and breakfast before taking off to do a final grocery shop, not that we needed much, have a final lunch at the cafe and to collect the laundry then head back to prepare the boat ready for taking off in the morning. We stashed the laundry, put the groceries away, stowed the dinghy in the davits and secured it, Gerry tried to give it a bit of a scrub as the bottom of it has become home to a heap of coral and barnacles but as he can only reach one side of it in the davits it's going to be a dirty job for when we can put it on deck to clean. I spent the rest of the afternoon making bread and prepping a couple of meals for the trip whilst Gerry checked on the weather and made route plans. We still hadn't decided if we are going to the Tuamotus or doing a straight run through to Tahiti it will depend on how the real weather is at the time. We tried to go to bed and have a decent night before finally leaving but of course the rolling didn't help much with our sleep plans.

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Yet again Gerry was awake and rearing to go before the sun was up just about. I took my time, knowing that we would forget to do somethings and we finally agreed that we were about ready to leave with all flying objects put away and almost everything prepared for getting underway.

So at 9.30 we started the engine up, this wasn't the leaving time as it took the best part of half an hour to haul the anchor in as Gerry was cleaning the chain off as it rolled in, like the dinghy it has grown its own coral reef and took a fair bit of scrubbing to get cleaned off before dropping into the anchor locker. By the time we had finished messing around we finally set off at 10.15 heading out of the bay but stopping before we reached the open water to raise the main sail and then proceeded out, motor sailing.

Outside of the harbour the sea was flat as a tack, not the 6-10 knots that predict wind had said. We motored on thinking that maybe it was just the island effect and once we got clear of land the wind might appear but Gerry started to talk about turning back and running into Daniels Bay, a small protected bay a little further along the coast line on Nuku Hiva but away from the main harbour as we have not topped up with more fuel here and wouldn't have enough to keep motoring for days on end.

Luckily we noticed that there were wind lines coming across the water from the next island down so we maintained our course and after 2 hours or so of motoring we were finally able to turn the engine off and move along with just the sails. To begin with we weren't doing any great speed, 3 knots was good going at this point but as the day wore on the wind picked up with the arrival of a whole lot of cloud cover. We went from 3 to 7 knots which lasted until the late evening and then things started to get a bit hairy with the swell going from 2 feet to 3 meters but we were under control until the wind began to edge its way towards the stern. Out went the preventer and we had a minor accident with Gerry catching his ring finger on something when he was thrown across the boat, nothing too serious luckily and easily dealt with by applying frozen peas, betadine, a band aid and kissing it better.


The night was blacker than the ace of spades, we had glimpses of stars but the clouds kept them fairly well hidden. We even saw the halfmoon for a brief period but mostly all we saw was pitch black darkness until the dawn. Our sleeping pattern was horrible and we have spent this morning trying to catch up a little, no doubt this will continue for the rest of today.

In the 24 hours until 10.15 this morning we had managed to cover 123 NM, our average speed worked out to about 5 knots and we ran the engine for a total of 3 hours. We still haven't made the call on our destination so watch this space! I'll be back to report in tomorrow.

[David Fox]

At sea to Tahiti
31 July 2021
11 57.570'S:143 22.215'W, French Polynesia

Weather: In the words of Crowded House - four seasons in one day!, wind 5-15 knots, waves 1.5 - 3 meters


What a carnival ride the last 24 hours has been! We only needed for it to snow and we would truly have seen all four seasons in one day, happily the snow kept away though. We made a mistake when we were doing the preparation of the boat and setting off, instead of getting the spinnaker pole up and ready for use when we were ghosting along at 3 knots in flat, calm water at the start of this trip we waited until we were roaring along at 6.5 knots and heeling over whilst bouncing through the waves.

Gerry decided this would be the time to put up the pole ready to use with the jib, goose winging, when the wind moved behind us as the predicted weather forecast had us believe was going to happen. I manned the lines whilst Gerry wrestled the pole into position out on deck, it's not easy at the best of times and this certainly couldn't be described as the best of them.

Tiki and TuHiva warrior - too may burgers.jpeg (171.02 KiB) Viewed 39869 times

We managed to get the pole up and ready for use without too much arguing ( yes I know that's a miracle but neither of us had the required breath to yell abuse at each other). We didn't need the pole at that moment but it was ready for later, should the need arise.

The sky was horrible for most of the day, covered in thick layers of cloud ranging in colour from white and fluffy looking to black and threatening, the sun didn't put in an appearance at all which meant no solar energy but the wind generator made up for it as it was spinning away all day. The lowest boat speed we saw in the 24 hours was 2.5 knots, that didn't last too long and we spent most of the day watching the speedo change between 4 and 8 knots.



The main sail and the staysail were out for most of the day on a port tack but the wind gradually eased its way from forward of the beam, through the beam to aft of the beam and headed towards the stern, so with each slight change the sails were adjusted, the staysail furled away, the jib unfurled and poled out to allow us to goose wing for a while until the next change of wind direction when everything was reversed.

Gerry is never content to set the sails and sit in comfort, he had to constantly be fiddling and adjusting them to get every last bit of speed out of them, I think it's the competitive racing thing going on even though there are no other boats around to be racing against!.

At least he doesn't expect me to be doing the adjusting and fiddling so that's something to be grateful for and if it keeps him happy to have every last tell tail flying in the right direction, so be it, it certainly kept him busy for the day as the wind never settled in one direction or speed for the entire day!


We were very glad to have the full enclosure when it started to rain, at least we stayed dry but as soon as the rain stopped we found that the humidity was too much and had to open up the curtains to let some air through the cockpit. The wind and waves were too inconsistent for us to put the rod in the water, so there were no fish on the menu and it doesn't look like today is going to be any different although the sun has come out and shown itself today so we will at least get some solar energy.

Despite all our fiddling around with the gen set, polishing the fuel as best we could whilst at anchor, changing out the filters and blowing through the fuel lines we are still having trouble with the start-up of the gen set and are having to start up the main engine each time before starting the get set up. It runs mostly OK after that but has the odd hiccough when it slows down as if there is fuel starvation going on, it's most certainly on the agenda for checking and fixing in Tahiti.

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We have added another fixing job to the list since leaving the harbour, the brushes on our water maker have died and of course there are no replacements to be had anywhere closer than New Zealand, and possibly not even there. This means that we can't run our water maker so we are having to be careful about our water usage. We started out with full water tanks and are trying to keep our use down as much as possible - turning us into true grotty yachties! Of course these brushes are particular to this water maker engine so the chances of getting an off the shelf replacement are slim to none leaving us with a couple of options -filling the water tanks where we can and using the water very carefully until the next port or replacing the engine, if that's possible - not the best of choices to have to make but we can survive the last bit of the trip if we need to.

Overnight the wind and waves settled down into a pattern that was reasonable, we sailed along with the staysail and main out, were reasonably upright and comfortable, so much so that we both managed to catch up on some sleep and are feeling better for it this morning. Given our water situation we are going to head straight to Tahiti as Gerry is keen to get somewhere that might be able to supply stuff with which we can fix things. Our shroud has stood the test of a rough start to the trip so all is good there. We haven't seen anything on or in the water since leaving Nuku Hiva, just huge expanse of water and low clouds.

In the 24 hours we have managed to do 141 NM and have run the engine for just half an hour ( that would be to start up the gen set each time).

It's hard to think that we are going into August at midnight, where has this year gone?

[David Fox]

A calm day and a wild night
02 August 2021
15 04.691'S: 146 50.444'W
Weather; sunny day wild night, wind 5-25 knots, waves 1 foot to 3.5 meters


The sun set was obscured by clouds which had begun to gather at about 5.30 pm and from that point onwards things got more and more wild by the hour. The wind began to pick up and come at us mostly from the beam or just forward or aft of it, so we had the jib poled out and the staysail flying and needing adjusting frequently. The wind speed increased to up to 25 knots and then settled, if that is the right word for it, at around 19 knots, we hurtled along doing up to 9.2 knots but sat mostly around 8.4 knots for a good long period of hanging on whilst being bounced around, heeling over so far that our gun'lls were in the water a fair bit. Of course all of this was happening in the pitch black of night as we were negotiating our way through the beginning of the Tuamotus Atolls.

There are lots of these atolls spread over a fairly big area, most of them are uninhabited and not very many of them have warning lights or lighthouses, you have to be very careful to avoid running into one in the dark! Our sleep was more disrupted than usual due to the constant rocking and motion of the boat, it's a good job that we had more or less caught up before the night happened. We had also luckily closed up the entire cockpit curtained area as waves were crashing into the side of the boat and hitting the windows so we would definitely have gotten soaked if we had left them open.

By 4am we needed to run the genset to boost our batteries as the auto pilot continues to be a big consumer of the power we had stored during the daylight solar charging, not that we are complaining, George is doing a marvellous job! Anyway Gerry went to start the gen set up and it did its "start, splutter and die" thing. The filter got changed out (again) but this time the gen set just wouldn't start up again, we need to blow the fuel lines through as there is obviously still more dirt in the fuel despite our having run it all through the Baha filter and blowing out the lines on more than one occasion - what really need to happen is a commercial fuel polishing with the tanks being emptied and cleaned before returning the cleaned fuel to them, as well as blowing the line through to make sure that there is no residual debris but of course this isn't a happening thing when you are bowling along at 8 knots in rough seas and the closest commercial polisher is at our destination!

So now we are without the gen set and the water maker until we get to Tahiti, thank goodness the main engine still runs though we are hard pressed to understand how that is possible as it uses the same fuel line as the gen set, it's a mystery but we aren't questioning it until we arrive in Tahiti. So given no option, we ran the engine to charge the batteries sufficiently to last until the sun came up this morning and our solar panels began producing power. I have to say that the wind generator was going at a million miles an hour but it can't keep up with the demand that the running gear puts on the batteries overnight unfortunately.

Oh we did put the fishing stick in the water during the day, whilst it was calm but sadly not a single nibble was had. With the sun now well up in the sky, the wind has settled down a little to 17 knots but we are still racing along and it's too dangerous to even think about making coffee so our brains are screaming at the moment. Hopefully thing will calm down a little and we will get a better ride as the day progresses.

[David Fox]

Arrival into Papeete
04 August 2021
17 32.383'S: 149 34.232'W,
Papeete Marina,
Tahiti, French Polynesia
Weather; sunny, wind 5-10 knots, waves 1-2 feet


What a difference a few hours can make. Today was almost as frustrating as it is when we can't move around the boat but the difference was that today turned out to be one almost without any wind what so ever. During the course of the morning it started out with just enough to move us along at around 6 knots but by lunchtime the wind had taken off for some unknown destination and it certainly wasn't going where we were heading.

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Whilst it was nice to have a beautiful sunny day the no wind situation was having us wonder if we were ever going to get to Tahiti, our arrival time kept extending out further and further. We had originally thought we would be docking in Papeete after 5 days but the instruments were telling us that it was going to be more like 7 days, it's a good job we weren't having to pick up anyone from the airport in Tahiti this time around though we would have loved to have had the company like last time. So we wallowed around for most of the afternoon doing 3-4.5 knots, it was painfully slow going but the sea had flattened out so we weren't getting the bumpy ride that we had previously experienced, in fact it was so smooth that we both managed to get a couple of hours sleep in without being thrown out of bed, so very much needed and good to have caught up.


The clouds began to gather as normal around late afternoon and managed to block out the sun set yet again but they didn't affect the wind or seas for a change. When our speed dropped to below 2.5 knots we finally gave in and started up the mechanical wind which we set to give us 4.5 knots which might sound a bit slow but we had worked out that if we went any faster we would be arriving into Papeete in the early hours of the morning. Knowing that the harbour has undergone a few changes since our last visit here we didn't want to be left floundering around in the dark, trying to find our way and knowing that there is nowhere to anchor where we anchored last time as they have built a marina there now.

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There is also the fact that the airport runway extends over the end of the harbour entrance and you have to make sure that you get clearance from the airport authority to cross the runway approach - no one needs to be wearing a small airplane as a mast decoration!

Our aim was to arrive just at sunrise then spend the half hour or so fiddling around and dropping the spinnaker pole back into place on the deck and tidying away the main sail and all of the lines and other stuff that we have out for the passage. We were spot on with our estimation and although we could see Tahiti for a few miles before actually getting close, we made our approach to the harbour just after the sun had risen. We spent the next short while doing the putting of stuff away before we called the port captain to get clearance to enter the harbour. The port captain asked us to go into a holding pattern as he had 2 ferries and a cargo ship about to negotiate the channel, no problem as we were still a little way off and could easily do figure of eight turns for a while.

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We watched the ferries and cargo ship clear the channel and then got called up by the port captain to go ahead and enter the harbour, he had asked where we were heading and we had said that we were hoping for a marina berth but it hadn't been confirmed, he kindly tried for us but as it was before the marina office opened we still had no idea if we had a spot to go to but we headed into port where we could go around in circles until the office opened. Once we were into the harbour we tried unsuccessfully to call the marina by phone, usually the most successful way to get through but not this time, so we then went to the radio which is more often than not unanswered but got through on the very first try.


The marina guy said he would check on where we could berth and would call us back (much like the cheque being in the mail, we thought) but sure enough he called back minutes later and instructed us to go to a starboard side tie up slip at the far end of the marina. The fenders and dock lines were quickly put into place and we headed to the appointed slip where the dock master was waiting to help us tie up. Despite knowing the size of our boat he had put us in a slip which wasn't quite long enough to allow for our dinghy hanging off the davits and our anchor hanging off the bow and as we approached he called out that we would have to go to a different slip, he needed to check what was available. So we backed out and did a circuit whilst he found us another spot, of course it was a port side tie up so we had to scramble to change the fenders and dock lines to the opposite side and by the time we had done that he had vanished from the dock. We headed slowly into the slip and a couple of boat owners from nearby boats came across and caught our lines and helped us to tie up, we had arrived and were now able to turn off the engine. After 6 days we were glad to be able to stop and not worry about the next thing to break or go wrong, though the prospect of fixing stuff looms large in our minds at this point.

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We had covered 82.2 NM in the last day and had run the engine for 9 hours during that time.
Our trip total mileage was 755.2 NM and I haven't worked out the average speed for the entire trip at this point. It was time for a much needed cup of coffee and some breakfast (I swear I'll kill anyone that offers me a muesli bar at the end of this trip) followed by a shower and some clean clothes. Gerry took off to the marina office to get us checked in and find out what we need to do as far as checking in with customs and immigration is concerned, although we suspected it would be easy as we have already checked into French Polynesia in Nuku Hiva one can never be certain what today's rule might be! The good thing was that they have made it simpler than it used to be as the marina manager is an agent for the customs people and he just forwards all of our completed documentation, we didn't need to go to anywhere else or check in with anyone else and there is no quarantine (possibly because we had come directly from Nuku Hiva but we weren't going to question it.)

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I did a bit of cleaning up inside the boat whilst Gerry did the checking in stuff and once he had returned it was time to go ashore and find a place to have some lunch. The whole water front is so different now that the marina has been built, there are walkways and a couple of bars / restaurants so we made our way to the furthest one and claimed a table. We had the most wonderful lunch that we've had in a while, proper restaurant style food (and prices!) we even opted to have dessert and I made the biggest mistake of ordering profiteroles, thinking that they would be small and few.

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Talk about eyes being bigger than bellies there were 3 enormous puffs with massive scoops of cream between them, it would easily have fed 3 people. Gerry had unfortunately ordered a separate dessert for himself, we normally share one between us but this time I was left floundering by myself. I managed to polish off 2 of the puffs and one lot of cream and then gave up. After visiting the ladies I returned to find Gerry had taken a chunk out of the 3rd puff so it didn't entirely go to waste but there was a lesson to be learnt here for sure! So now we are back on the boat and Gerry is already snoring away, I really need to join him once I have got this loaded. I have a few photos to share but they are going to have to wait until tomorrow as I am too tired to upload them right now.
Is there any wonder he is snoring after eating a cream puff plus his own desert.
Once a Cadet , always a Cadet, Vittles are part of your wages and he probably earned it and no doubt will be working it off in days to come.

[David Fox]

Time to get jabbed!
06 August 2021
Weather; sunny

We have slept and are feeling somewhat confused as there is no rocking or rolling happening, but it sure feels good! The down side is that there is very little breeze in the marina and we are unable to hook up to the power here as we have USA 110 volt, 60 hertz power on the boat and Tahiti, being part of the rest of the world, the power voltage here is 220 and 50 hertz! As a consequence we are reliant on the solar panels to charge the batteries and we are using battery power, somewhat sparingly and topping up with the genset. This means that we really can't run our air conditioners whilst we are here but we can try and keep cool with the fans, thank goodness that it isn't unbearably hot here at the moment!

So a little bit about the changes we have instantly noticed here since our last visit.


To begin with the marina is new to us, we don't think it has been here for very long as it is still in really good condition. It has been built in the basin of the port which used to be empty and we would tie up to the dock wall which was bordered by the main road. There is no longer any wall to tie up to as the marina slips have taken up the entire space. At the same time as the marina has been added there has been a shoreline upgrade and there is now a very pleasant broad walk that follows the old port shoreline around. This walk has been enhanced with a load of tropical plants and trees with seating and trash bins at intervals all the way along making it a really pleasant place to stroll along. Of course the road still exists on the other side of the broad walk and is as busy and noisy as ever but it is a bit muted now by the greenery. At the marina office end of the broad walk there are a couple of bars and restaurants to make it even more attractive. Then of course there are the marina offices and an amenities block for use by the marina patrons (you need a key card to access them and the actual docks so it is all pretty secure). The odd thing is that they have a building for a laundry but as yet haven't put any washers or driers in, so to get laundry done we will have to travel to the outskirts of the port, all a bit of a pain in the butt but we will manage.
There is a small park which has been developed just opposite the marina which we need to explore.

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So today was the first day of "what should we tackle first?".

Gerry had spoken to some guys who were doing work on the boat next to us, side track here: when we docked we discovered that the boat on our port side is owned by an Australian and is registered in Hobart, Tasmania - who would have thought! Back to the talking to guys at work - they were doing something with oil and Gerry asked them if they knew anyone who did fuel polishing, the short answer was no, but he would ask a few people and get back to Gerry later.

We put the awning up to give us a bit of shade and hopefully to keep the boat a bit cooler. Gerry took the brush out of the water maker to see if he could find one somewhere here before we decided to go into town.

We had spoken with another guy on the dock who had told us that there was a pop up vaccination clinic operating a couple of days a week (today was one of the days) and that he had managed to get vaccinated after a couple of attempts - it was worth us going to see if we could get vaccinated whilst we were here. Off we set in search of the church (and of far more interest, the pearl museum) which was opposite the pop up clinic. We found it with no problem - a small building in a garden space and went in to ask the question. A very nice lady asked a few questions and said she would find out if we could join the queue and be vaccinated, coming back very shortly with the news that yes, they would jab us, so we filled out the form which was printed in French on one side and Tahitian on the other - we filled in the French side, only having to seek help with a couple of the questions and joined the queue on the chairs.

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There were about 30-40 people waiting ahead of us but the queue seemed to be moving forward at a reasonable pace and it wasn't too long before we were admitted to the inner sanctum where we were seen by a doctor who asked a few questions about our general health and then passed us on to the jabbing team. We had our shot and then had to wait for 15 minutes on a seated area out under a canopy before we could head off with our vaccine booklets in hand. The doctor had also told us that we could access an electronic copy of the vaccination certificate if we need it - we will do this as we have no idea if we will be here to get the second jab or in Fiji. By the time we had got through the process it was almost 2 pm, serves us right for leaving so late but as most of the cafes and restaurants close after the lunch trade we were hard pushed to find somewhere to have lunch.

After the pig out we headed across the road to the phone store to see about getting some more internet minutes and paid the normal fortune for another new phone card. Then it was a brief walk to the bank to top up our cash as we knew that we were going to need cash for dinner at the food vans tonight.

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From the bank we headed back across the road to the marina, walking along the broad walk and taking in the fact that there is an area near the marina gate that has been set up as a small reef with different types of coral and a whole heap of small fishes darting though it as well as a couple of puffer fish. Back on the boat we did nothing for a while then had a sunset cocktail out on the deck as we watched the cruise liner / cargo ship that we had seen call into Nuku Hiva leave the dock, presumably to start its next visit to the outer islands. After the sun had set we went back along the broad walk, following the path around to the area where the food vans set up in the evenings. There was a delightful smell along the walk which I think was frangipani as I couldn't see any other flowering shrubs or trees that would have a scent.

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Anyway there were about 10 vans set up and operating, most of them were serving Asian style food, burgers or crepes with slight variations. We picked a Thai based menu and made our choices. It was sort of food hall style food but a little more expensive than the average food hall, it was OK but I've certainly eaten better Thai meals, but maybe it was down to what we had picked. We will be trying a different van tomorrow. The time had come to head back to the boat and get another decent night's sleep. To our surprise at around 9.30 pm the cruise / cargo ship returned to dock, we aren't sure why as we had thought they were on their way for a cruise around the islands, so possibly there is an issue with the ship or one of the passengers has become ill - there were a whole load of passengers that boarded with their suitcases yesterday so something serious has gone down for them to return to port.

I did suggest to Gerry that maybe they had just gone on a dinner cruise but he didn't think it was very likely, I guess we will never know! So we didn't achieve too much today but at least we are now partially vaccinated, even though I don't think it will make the slightest bit of difference to anything as far as quarantining or entering another country is concerned!
So tomorrow we will be looking at going to the hardware store to see how much of our spare needs we can get here.


Market time for me, Hardware store for Gerry!
07 August 2021

We woke up to another delightfully sunny day, having slept well considering that there is no air conditioner keeping us cool and there really isn't too much in the way of breeze coming in the hatches as we are surrounded by other tall boats on all sides. The morning was spent doing things slowly, we were in no hurry and we were expecting the fuel polishing guy to turn up at some time today, there was no time given so it could be any time and would hopefully be before lunchtime!

Gerry spent the morning taking out the brush from the water maker and removing the anchor roller so he could take both parts with him to the chandlers / hardware store to see what he could find for each. He also did something to the windlass, I'm really not sure what but I think it was to do with tightening it down, I'll have to check on that one! I spent the morning updating the blog and transferring and labelling photos from the camera to the external hard drive. The guy turned up at around 10am and a brief discussion followed as to what we needed and if he could do it. The short answer was yes but there was a bit of an issue when we said we were only likely to be here for 2 weeks as he was fully booked out, unless he could come and do the job tomorrow morning - this wasn't a problem for us so we then talked money, came to an arrangement and off he went. It was now time for us to get moving and see what we could achieve for the rest of the day.


By the time we locked up, got off the boat, spoke to our neighbours and headed out of the marina it was close to the start of lunch hour so we took ourselves to the closest cafe where we ordered lunch. Once we had finished lunch we decided to part ways and do our own thing for a while as the walk to the hardware store was quite a distance and I would just be bored stupid anyway and Gerry really didn't want to do the municipal markets, I can't imagine why! Anyway I set off in one direction and he went in the other. I took note of all the places we might need to visit for various reasons, like the chocolatier, bakery, sandwich shop etc. as I went past them. The municipal markets were only 2 blocks along and one block up from the cafeŽ where we had lunch but somehow I managed to get lost along the way and spent the best part of the next hour wandering around the various streets, it was no great failure as I now know where to find most things around the port area and it became more interesting as I walked down streets that we wouldn't normally have bothered going down because there is a culture of street art here which is hidden in the back streets. The paintings had me totally fascinated as they take up the entire sides of a building and are mostly paintings of faces.

Abird in the hand

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Luckily I had the camera with me and took photos as I went, I am left wondering how the artist managed to do some of the work as the buildings would have required scaffolding for them to reach the top, they are certainly worth having gotten lost to see. I got to see and go inside the Cathedral in my wanderings, it's certainly not as grand as some that I have been in but it was a lovely cool place to sit and contemplate life for a while. I did eventually stumble back across the undercover, municipal market, making my way through the produce section first to scout out what was available and there were heaps of great looking vegetables, fruit, meats, fish and some bakery goods all at good competitive prices. I didn't need to buy anything today so I just continued on through to the "tourist crap" area where the local arts and crafts, pearls and sarongs are sold - this as my prime reason for coming to the market as I had bought sarongs here 14 years ago and they were only now beginning to fall apart and needed replacing after daily use for the 14 years.

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There were all sorts of different fabrics, patterns and sizes available this time and I looked exclusively for ones similar to what I had bought last time knowing they had lasted so well. Most of the stalls had the same prices and the competition is pretty fierce to get your custom - something I hate, but I managed to find some that I wanted to purchase and spent my allowance for the day. The disappointing thing is that the sarongs I bought last time around were designed and made here in Tahiti, this time every single one was designed here but manufactured in Indonesia- there was no getting away from it, we might as have gone to Bali for them! Having made my purchases I was ready to go home and headed towards the water front, which was the way I should have come to the markets in the first place. I walked past the stalls on the outside of the market hall which comprised mostly of women making the traditional head dresses that the women wear here and a few were making leis, as I walked past one particular stall there was the smell that had wafted at us last night on our way to the food vans. As the lady wasn't busy I stopped to ask her what the flowers were that she was using, it turns out that they are Tiare, a relative of the Gardenia family, they are the national flower of Polynesia and not grown many other places. The lady gave me 3 of the buds to take away and whilst I thought walking past them at night was pleasant I'm not so sure I like the scent of them after a longer period of having them in close quarters.I now know what the pleasant wafting on the breeze is due to.

I thought that I was going to be the first one back but Gerry was already on board, he had done his thing and been partially successful having found hose to replace the fuel hoses and a maintenance kit for the electric head. He had also checked out the possibility of a hire car, none currently available but phone in on a daily basis to see if any have been returned. He hadn't got as far as the machine shop to see if they could machine a groove into the anchor roller as it was in a totally different direction, but he knows where the best place to go is located after asking at the hardware store. On his way back he had stopped at the market to see if he could find me but obviously this didn't happen, we missed each other somehow. After a recovery drink of cold water I did nothing whilst watching Gerry take the electric head motor apart, clean it up and install new parts. When it came to time to put it back in place there were more than a few salty sailor words being thrown around as there was toilet water leaking out of somewhere, I got yelled at to help clean up the water as he panicked over where the leak was coming from. More sealer was applied and left overnight to cure, only time will tell if the fix is a good one or not.
By the time we got everything cleared away it was heading towards dinner time, if a little on the early side. We took a slow stroll to the food vans once again and opted for a Chinese meal of which there was far too much, I left about a third of mine whilst Gerry struggled valiantly to finish his. We had to stop on the way home for a magnum ice cream !
Tomorrow we will see about what the next item on the list is, after the fuel polishing guy is finished. I suspect it will be the changing out of the fuel hoses but let's just wait and see.

[David Fox]

There went the weekend!
7th- 9th August
Weather; sunny

ust like that in the blink of an eye the (long ) weekend was gone!
Let's start with how lovely the weather has been here, just to make some of you jealous; we have had glorious sun with a slight breeze, it hasn't been unbearably hot except when you are walking for miles from the supermarket with heavy bags. The harbour is calm and still until some idiot comes roaring through in a stink boat and sets up a wake that sends everyone rocking, luckily this has only happened on the very rare occasion. The water is the most gorgeous turquoise colour and is pretty clear - you can see the growth on the boats and the pontoon pillars very clearly, I really have to get a photo of it. Having said that there is no way that we would make water here or go swimming in the harbour as there is no holding tank pump out facility offered here at the marina and we all know that everyone is going to be emptying their holding tank into the harbour at some stage!

Saturday was spent on board as Yan, the guy that was doing the fuel polishing turned up and spent from 9 am until 2pm running our fuel through the filtering system.

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This equipment had to be brought on board and into the salon, a feat in itself. It was then plugged into our power and the fuel from the starboard tank was run through it and emptied in to the port tank, the bottom of the tank was then "Vacuumed" out and then the port tank was put through the polisher and emptied back into the starboard tank, the bottom of that tank was then Vacuumed out. This process was repeated several times and the filter on the polishing equipment had to be changed out three times as they blocked pretty badly and when the vacuuming was done at the bottom of the tanks there was a whole load of gunky stuff extracted. Gerry wasn't convinced that the equipment was set up correctly in the first place, Yan had hired the equipment and wasn't sure either so he rang the person he had hired the equipment from and sure enough there was a second filter that had been removed as it had broken and had never been replaced!

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This made the system slower and it wasn't doing what it was supposed to do, and after trying to change the direction of the flow through the pump, they had to then run it without a filter before the pump which ended up blocking the pump and blowing the fuses. After much fiddling around and running the fuel backwards and forwards through the equipment, changing out the filter 3 times, they eventually decided that they were getting to the point of diminishing returns. The fuel was much cleaner and there were no longer great lumps of rusty debris coming out of the tanks - it was time to stop and call it a day. It was just as well that there was only about 1/4 of a tank of fuel in one side and 1/2 a tank in the other side otherwise they would have been at it for the remainder of the day! The rusty lumpy stuff that was extracted didn't originate from the inside of the tanks but there has been a weld in one corner of the port tank which looks to have begun rusting out so we will need to be aware of that for future reference.

Whilst Gerry and Yan were down below doing the fuel polishing stuff I made a start on cleaning the cockpit Isen glass windows, hate full job at the best of times but as they were crusted with salt water from the trip across to here they needed doing. It took ages to get them to a state where they looked to be clear and that was just the side ones, I still need to tackle the rear and forward facing ones but I've run out of the plastic cleaner that you need to use. Once the men had finished down below and the equipment was dragged back out of the boat and onto the dock it was time to have a very late lunch, followed by a whole lot of nothing for the rest of the afternoon.

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Sunday, the day of rest apparently, but not for some! Having now got clean fuel in the tanks it was time to change out the fuel lines and install the new hoses that Gerry had bought. Up came the floor boards, out came the tools (but not all of the ones that would be needed), the companionway steps were removed and it was time to close off the fuel lines, undo the hose clamps remove the line from one end (spilling the fuel that was in the line into the bilge and all over the salon floor in the process)then tug and wiggle the line out from the far end underneath the cross hatch boards and between the various bits of cable that use the same space. The good thing was that the old hose came out without too much problem, of course the hose clamp broke so we had to move a few things to find the replacement ones before proceeding further.

Fred Dibner, eat your heart out on that steeple.

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The new hose then had to be threaded through the obstacle course where the old one had come out from, it took a bit of persuasion and some washing up liquid as lubricant but we got it in place and hooked everything up, clamped it in place and then it was the moment of truth - were there any leaks. Happily there weren't any so we were good to go, it was now time to clean up the diesel that had escaped from the old hose, put the tools away, replace the steps and the floor boards and have a cold drink. We didn't have much else planned for today but as we were out of bread we decided to take a slow wander to the supermarket and buy some rather than make it. The Champion supermarket is a fair walk from our dock so we took it slowly but by the time we arrived we were both perspiring badly, it was good to get inside the store and wander around in air conditioned comfort. The supermarket is a regular sized one and had just about everything that we could possibly want. We only picked up a few bits as this wasn't going to be a major shopping expedition. The walk back was just as hot and Gerry had the additional burden of a bag to carry with cans of beer in it.

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Monday and it was time to see about getting our laundry done, there were a couple of bags of accumulated stuff, some of which was desperate or covered in salt water. I bagged everything up and Gerry took the bags off by himself, it would be quicker than if I went with him. On his return Gerry set about hosing down the deck whilst I scrubbed at the cockpit table covering which was filthy and had some mould that needed removing. Then it was on to the jobs of the day, Gerry needed to finish off the shower seat - it needed sanding and varnishing before putting back in place, he stupidly asked me if there was anything else I wanted varnishing and I suggested that the salon windows on the starboard side needed a light sand and varnish coating seeing as he was on a roll.

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What was I doing ? well the sheets on the stay sail had begun to fray at each end and the inner core was looking like a pony tail so they needed to be fixed. I stupidly offered to whip the ends, thinking that it would only be 2 ends but of course Gerry took the whole sheet off on both sides so I ended up having to whip 4 ends which took a while. Cutting the inner core off was a mission and a half as it is made of Kevlar and it is bloody difficult to cut through even with a brand new Stanley knife blade! I got there in the end and they are now back in place and will hopefully last for the duration of our boat ownership. We ate a late lunch on board and then did nothing for the rest of the afternoon, only showing our faces at cocktail hour and then eating dinner on board as the food vans are closed on a Monday. Gerry had contacted an electrical guy about our water maker brushes and he was going to come to the boat at 5pm, it didn't happen so he either forgot or was busy but didn't let us know - that's a phone call to make tomorrow!

[David Fox]

A quiet Tuesday
12 August 2021
Weather; overcast and cool

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Well today started with Gerry calling the guy who didn't show up yesterday evening to look at our water maker issue, he was apologetic and said that his partner would be in touch today to make arrangements to see us - watch this space! We were quite surprised to actually get a phone call a short while later and the partner said he could come to the boat in about an hour if that suited us. As we had no great plans to go anywhere for the day it was fine and we waited patiently for him to turn up, which he duly did and Gerry explained the brush problem to him. He wasn't sure that he would be able to get anything done but he took the brush and diagrams away with him and would call us once he had spoken with his contacts.

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Gerry took off for a quick walk to the laundromat to collect the bags of washing that we had dropped off yesterday. He returned and proceeded to tell me that we need to stop wearing clothes and not use towels after showering, the 2 bags of laundry had cost US$75! There was really only 2 wash loads so it seemed very expensive, however I had checked on what the laundry had cost us here last time around (14 years ago)and we apparently spent US$100 for roughly the same amount so I wasn't quite as shocked as Gerry was. I stashed the clean stuff away and Gerry vanished outside to continue with the hosing down of the deck that he had begun yesterday. I spent a fair bit of the day cooking up some of the meat that I had defrosted and making some pumpkin soup for those nights when we don't feel like eating a heavy meal.

Cornish Pastie anyone?

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Gerry ran the gen set to see how it was going with the clean fuel and new hoses, the good news is that it is no longer hiccoughing once it gets going. The starting up is still very hit and miss, sometimes it will fire up on the first or second try and other times it won't start until the main engine is running first, I think that Gerry has come to the point of not trying anything else, he knows how to get it going sooner or later!


So that was all for the day, tomorrow we have a hire car so it will be a busy day rushing around the place.

Hire car day one
12 August 2021
Weather; sunny then late showers
As I mentioned yesterday we had arranged to have a hire car today. It was a bit of a walk to the hire place and we had to be there at 9am so we got moving as soon as the sun was up and we had finished breakfast. Gerry had a list as long as his arm to try and get through and I had a few items that I really wanted to pick up from the supermarket - all exciting stuff! When we got to the car hire place there was a bit of a queue and it took us until 9.30 to get the paperwork done and into a car. As is always the case we checked the dents and scratches to make sure they were recorded before we took charge of the car, a 4 door MG with 31000Kms on the clock and only a couple of years old, it was canary yellow - you wouldn't miss us in a crowd!. I'm certain that it has had more than its fair share of accidents as there were scrapes and dents on almost every panel, the driving expectations around here are obviously on the low side!

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Anyway we took off for the port as Gerry had a few places that he needed to go, it is unlike most ports in that there isn't one or two dedicated marine type of stores, there are a few shops that sell some bits and pieces and you have to do the rounds of them all to exhaust the possibilities of getting what you need. Unfortunately we were asking for bars of gold covered in unicorn coloured fairy dust and no one seemed to have them in stock. There is an Ace hardware store which we tried to get some of the boat cleaning materials from and guess what - they didn't have any but Gerry did find some electrical contact cleaner which he took out a mortgage to purchase - US$40 for a regular sized can of the stuff, he's not going to be spraying that around freely I'm sure and after the shock of the laundry cost he really shouldn't have been surprised but he was.

We found a place that coiuld machine a groove into our anchor roller so that it doesn't rock backwards and forwards and clang as it had during our last passage, we left the roller
with them and it will be ready on Friday apparently. At the very last minute we found a marine supply store which had a couple of the things that Gerry was chasing including a replacement toilet seat for our aft toilet - if I haven't told you about the need to replace it due to me falling and breaking the lid off and leaving sharp edges you will now appreciate why we need a new seat! We had found it almost impossible to this point in finding a replacement but at last we had success! Unfortunately we arrived at this store at 11.28 and like so many local shops it closes between 11.30 and 1.30 so it was a very brief visit and whereas we could probably have found most things that were on our list we had to cut our shopping short so that they could shut up shop for the lunch break/siesta.

As nothing else was open we made our way to the customs office to get a tax exemption form so that we can buy fuel without paying the excise, the form is free as long as you have boat papers and identification to show that you are a foreign vessel that will be leaving the country. Gerry was gone for ages and I waited in the car watching a group of would be boat operators being put through their paces in a small stink boat with an examiner and one other crew member. From what I saw everyone passed as they were all given a certificate once they had completed the course.

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When Gerry reappeared it was time for us to go in search of some lunch, I had seen a cafe/patisserie that looked promising and we found a parking spot near the marina and walked across to the cafe where we had a very pleasant lunch. With not much else on his list Gerry agreed that it was time to do the bit of grocery shopping that I needed to get done and we headed off to a different store than we had already walked to. It was in a much larger complex and had a lot more stock but I was out of luck with 2 items that I really needed, they just don't stock them so I'm going to have to improvise, something I have got very good at doing on the boat!

It was now time to return to the boat as we were both flagging badly. Back on board Gerry fitted the new toilet seat whilst I stashed the rest of the shopping. We then relaxed for a while until it was time to watch the sun set and follow that with some of the soup I had made yesterday as our dinner. Our water maker guru phoned with bad news, there are no brushes to be had and the only other option is a new motor - that's not going to happen so we are going to have to carefully manage our water use on the rest of the trip and put in an order with the manufacturer for new brushes ( if you recall there is an 8 week lead time for them so they won't get done until we are back in Australia).
So with the rushing around done today we have the whole of tomorrow to go sight-seeing in the car and to do a better grocery shop stock up - oh joy! Fingers crossed for a nice sunny day and some good photos.

[David Fox]

Hire car tour and return
15 August 2021
Weather; sunny.

Day 2 of having the hire car, time to do some sight- seeing as we had nothing else urgent to attend to. We had looked for places of interest to go and visit but had surprisingly come up short, there really aren't very many places of interest for the average tourist, we had memories of finding the place very pleasant on our last visit here but sadly lacking in anything memorable unless you count the resorts. We decided to do a drive along the water front road (it's the main road and couldn't be avoided anyway) which goes all the way around the island. We started off in an easterly direction, keeping the shore line on our right hand side and the mountainous backdrop to our left. Tahiti is pretty much a circular island with a small polyp at one end. The big circular island is called Tahiti Nui and the polyp is called Tahiti Iti. When we were here last time we stayed at a pension on Tahiti Iti whilst our boat was out of the water in the yard having stuff fixed so we didn't need to revisit the Polyp and continued on around the main road of Tahiti Nui.

When we were here last time we stayed at a pension on Tahiti Iti whilst our boat was out of the water in the yard having stuff fixed so we didn't need to revisit the Polyp and continued on around the main road of Tahiti Nui. The further we went the traffic became lighter but the road narrowed down to just one lane in each direction. We stumbled across several lots of roadworks, seemingly in the middle of nowhere but it didn't hold us up for too long. The sides of the roads were very picturesque with every sort of tropical flower, shrub and tree in beautiful coloured bloom. I recognised the majority of them but there were a few that I have no idea what they are called. I would have liked to have taken photos of them but Gerry was on a "Gerry tour" which means that you drive and don't stop unless the car breaks down, those of you who have been treated to a "Gerry tour" will know exactly what I mean!

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The other thing that I would have liked to have taken some photos of was the churches that we passed. I think Tahiti must have been a favourite place for every denomination to try and convert the locals as there are churches at every turn. It was quite difficult to determine which religion each church represented as they were so much more ornate than the Norman built churches I was brought up with, these had very decorative steeples which reminded me of the type of castle turrets you see in Europe and were painted in all sorts of colours with decorative scroll work around the roof edges. I had thought that being a French administration here that most of the churches would be Catholic but it didn't strike me that that they were typical catholic style churches, guess I will never know as we sailed past each and every one without stopping. The only place that is really promoted for tourists is the Paul Gauguin museum and even that isn't really a well-publicised destination, it is a small building half way around the east coast in the middle of nowhere, again we didn't stop but I have to say that it looked to be closed from the road side view I had as we drove past. Near the museum there are some caves which I think are known as Bat caves, there was no way we were stopping there! So we continued to drive all the way around the coast road eventually finding ourselves coming back into the city centre.

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Whilst it was a nice drive around the coast it wasn't the sort of sight- seeing trip that we had hoped for, there just wasn't anything to draw the tourist dollars in. So back in the city we went for a very late lunch and then headed back to the boat for the rest of the afternoon. Gerry announced that he had a sore throat late in the afternoon, and we had to search out the cold and flu tablets to dose him up. He had been saying for a couple of days that he was feeling a bit "under par" but this was the first indication that he might be going down with a cold/flu/ Covid.

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Needless to say he was at death's door within hours, amazing how man flu works! How ironic it would be if this turns out to be Covid after having the vaccination, though to be honest he has always had bad reactions to any sort of vaccination so I wouldn't be at all surprised to know that it is a reaction to the Covid jab that we had a week ago.

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So we didn't go anywhere for dinner, settling for a home cooked meal and an early night.
Day 3 and it was time to return the car. It had to be back at the car hire place by 9.30am but first Gerry had to do a trip out to the furthest part of the port to collect our anchor roller which was having a groove machined into it for the anchor to sit in. Gerry didn't want company, for which I was grateful, I had stuff to get on with on the boat. He took off and was back on the boat by 9am having picked up the roller and returned the car. Then came the bad news, the roller wasn't comprised of just one piece of metal, it was made up of 3 layers and when the machine shop tried to machine a groove into it they failed epically. We now have a roller which has a groove to one side, and now have to see if we can find a replacement or something to even out the groove. At least the machine shop didn't charge us for doing it! Gerry thought that he might be able to fill the groove with thickened epoxy but after giving that a try he has decided that maybe he needs to rethink the solution (like replacing the roller or adding a rubber covering). Its useable but not ideal and we aren't sure that it will stop the clanging that started this process in the first place.

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So back on board Gerry gave in to feeling well below par and sniffled, coughed and popped cold and flu tablets like they were smarties for the entire day. I made some ready meals for when we can't be bothered to cook plus a baked cheesecake to use up some cream cheese that we had hanging around. For someone who was feeling like death warmed up I couldn't believe that Gerry was mithering to try the cheesecake before it had even had time to cool down, he's like a kid in a candy store with any sort of sweet treat! It was another early night to try and knock this man flu on the head as quickly as possible, preferably without passing it on to me!

That brings me to today. We had nothing planned for the day, I thought it would be a stay onboard and do as little as possible day to give Gerry time to kick back and rest. Gerry's first words to me today were that he was going to the supermarket and did I want to come. To be honest I didn't really want to go but I wasn't going to let him go by himself as it is quite a walk, the sun was up and hot and I didn't need him to keel over along the way. So just after 9am we set off going via the dock office which wasn't yet open so we gave that a miss, thinking to do it on our return journey. We made it to the supermarket and took our time inside to enjoy the comfort of the air conditioning. I knew that we were only there to pick up more cold and flu tablets and tissues but we were surprised to find that the supermarket didn't stock any sort of general medication for colds and flu. We bought a few extra bits just because we were there and it would save another trip later on we asked the cashier where the nearest pharmacy was and she gave us good directions - it was just at the back of the same block, not too far. Gerry managed to get some cold and flu powders that have to be dissolved in water, I just hope that he has enough and doesn't need them for long! The walk back to the boat was facing the sun, it was hot and blinding so we crossed to the dockside walkway and made our way along through the park that lines the waterside, a very pleasant walk which did give us a bit of shade.

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We stopped for a coffee and ice cream at an over the water cafe before finishing the journey back to the boat. We tried the dockmaster's office again but this time there was a queue of people and quite a wait and as we didn't need to see him urgently it can wait until next week. Back at our boat we found that we have managed to scare off the neighbours on both sides now and have empty slips on both sides of us, that was until late this evening when a boat from 2 slips down moved sideways into the slip next to us. Although I wasn't bothered about going out for dinner Gerry wanted to go to the food vans for a meal so we walked to the vans after our cocktail hour and had a feed there before heading back to the boat for the night. Gerry has just dosed himself up with more man flu stuff and is off to bed. That's our lot for the last 3 days, it hasn't been very exciting but you get that even in exotic places.

Stop Press. Gerry & Nicky have just sailed for Fiji 28th August

[David Fox]

Pass the tissues and anti virals
16 August 2021
Weather; sunny

Well the inevitable has happened, I woke up with razor blades in the fight for supremacy in the back of my throat and my nose running faster than Usain Bolt! Thanks go out to my wonderful husband for being generous and sharing his boy germs with me! I have felt like death warmed up for the entire day and know that I have at least another 4 days of this joy to contend with. Gerry is beginning to feel a lot better which is just as well because we can't both be incapable of even getting a glass of water at the same time.

Gerry appeared and stated that he was going to take the jib down and do some mending on it, I'm not quite sure what and to be honest couldn't have cared less. There was no way I was going to be allowed to sit quietly with my eyes closed and the breeze blowing across my face whilst Gerry was being busy, he dragged the port side sheet for the jib back into the cockpit and presented me with the sail sewing kit, I obviously needed to whip the end of the sheet which had a small pony tail growing out of the end. So I spent the next hour or so whipping the ends of the sheet (you never just do one end!) and then I thought I might as well start on the cockpit end of the starboard sheet as I was certain that this one would be heading back into the cockpit following the re-attachment of the port side one to the jib.

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I was surprised when Gerry began to furl the jib back in after finishing his sewing job, the starboard sheet end didn't make it back into the cockpit, so I had done three ends out of four, the fourth one will need doing at some later stage I'm sure. By the time I had finished it was getting too hot to stay outside so I retired to the salon and after another handful of tissues mopped up my runny nose and watery eyes I swallowed some medication and took myself off to bed for a sleep. I think Gerry had a sleep on the salon sofa but to be honest I was so out of it at that point that I can't be certain. The entire day disappeared between sitting in the cockpit, followed by the salon, then having another nana nap all on repeat until it was time for the sun set ritual of retiring to the cockpit for a cocktail followed by dinner.

The need for a cold drink was really just an excuse to drink some rum ( I would have done the honey/lemon and whiskey hot toddy thing if I had got any whiskey and honey on board but in its absence a rum and coke had to make do!) neither of us felt up to cooking nor were we hungry, so we settled for Jewish penicillin AKA chicken soup which came out of a can and probably has none of the benefits that home made chicken soup has!

I just hope this cold/flu doesn't hang around for too long though I guess the good thing about it is that we are pretty much isolating on the boat as it is so there isn't much chance of sharing it around any further than we already have done.

[David Fox]

A catch up of the past 10 days before leaving for Fiji
27 August 2021 Papeete Marina, Tahiti, French Polynesia

We are about to leave Tahiti heading for Fiji today.
Gerry is feeling so much better but he never gets the same chest hacking that I get, as such he keeps wanting me to go out to places like the market and the supermarket which is a fair walk in the heat when you feel in top form, it leaves me feeling hot and weak on the odd occasion when I go.

We have to have our Covid swabs done tomorrow (Wednesday) for Fiji, I keep wondering what we will do if they come back positive, best not to think that far ahead! Then we are supposed to get our second jab on Thursday so it will be 2 days of a long trek to the clinics, oh joy! We plan to leave here on Friday after a trip out to immigration at the airport to clear out, a trip to a different marina to fill up with fuel and an overnight anchoring so Gerry can jump in the water to clean the boat bottom and make sure there are no barnacles growing on the prop. It will then take us about 18 days to get to Fiji, if they let us in still, not certain as we don't know our Covid status and Fiji has a massive outbreak of Delta variant that it is trying to deal with!

We thought we would start on the provisioning for the trip on Saturday with a walk to the market only to find it was closed, along with just about every other shop on the way.

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Apparently we went into a snap lockdown from Friday midnight for 2 weeks! We hadn't been notified by the marina, there was no English language notification and we needed to know the rules. Our neighbour on the dock is French and tried to explain as best he could that there was no movement without an exemption paper, this left us in a quandary - would we be able to leave as planned. We were also told that it was a lockdown on " gathering places" like restaurants but that most other things would be allowed to operate. So we stewed on it and did nothing until Monday when we had planned to do our laundry. Gerry set off with two bags load and an hour later reappeared with them still in hand, uh oh, the laundry was closed - how were we supposed to do our washing?



We asked at the marina office and was told that there was possibly another laundromat near the supermarket (not certain if it existed or if it was even open) at that point I was beyond caring and said that we weren't walking miles with the washing to find it was a waste of time, we would do what we could on the boat.

So I have spent the last 2 days with 2 buckets, one for washing and one for rinsing and a temporary washing line strung up throughout the cockpit, up to my elbows in soap suds and every pair of jocks and most of Gerry's polo shirts, the sheets and towels and the minimum ( thanks to not wearing much other than a sarong whilst I've been sick) of my clothes. I would have given my eye teeth for Nan's old boiler and mangle!


At least it's all washed and the last load is hanging out to dry at the moment. I have to add at this point that Gerry has already worn another 2 polo shirts and pairs of jocks so the load is already on the rise again. Funnily enough every other boat in this marina is looking like a Chinese laundry at the moment, guess we aren't the only ones who are missing the laundromat.

French Polynesia Expects Every womaMan to do their Dhobi Looks like the French are getting their own back , what with Nelson demolishing their fleet and Boris giving the the Churchillian salute for Brexit. Must have been quite colourfull .
Then yesterday another edict came out saying that all travel between marinas and other islands has been banned.

Gerry contacted DEPAM who put out the notice asking if we were able to leave Tahiti as planned and apparently that's OK as long as we aren't stopping at any other French Polynesian island, which we weren't planning on doing so we are still planning on Friday to leave. We have printed off the permits to be on the street for the allowed exercise/ grocery shop/ Drs visits/ customs attendance/ immigration attendance etc. etc. (maximum time of an hour even though it takes that long to walk to the grocery store and back without stopping to buy anything) and so far we have been to the market yesterday which was open and operating normally, picked up some take away rolls (all food places can operate on take away basis ), been to the mini mart for a few bits, then today Gerry has been on a long walk to the customs office only to be told that they won't check us out unless we are leaving in the next 24 hours so that means another trip on Thursday - I swear they are doing it to mess with us!

Thursday is going to be busy enough with last minute provisioning, prepping food and the second jab! I'm not particularly happy about the Fiji stop over but as our water maker has given up the ghost and we are reliant on being able to top up our water tanks there it's a no brainer. I think we could make it all the way to Brisbane without the stop (28days or so) but Gerry doesn't want to take the chance.

He applied to Qld health for an exemption to the 14 days of hotel quarantine when we get to Brisbane or for at least our 10 days at sea between Fiji and Brisbane to be taken into account but to no ones surprise we got a resounding no, we have to do the 14 days at our expense in a quarantine hotel! Talk about not following the science, it's a total none sense but there's no way around it apparently.

So now we know for certain that the Covid tests they are using aren't accurate or they would trust them, the vaccines aren't working or they would trust them and isolation doesn't work or we would have reduced quarantine time after spending 10 days at sea with no contact with anyone else!

We had our Covid tests, results back today (Thursday) and of course they were negative, so we just had colds. I am almost better, still got the residue hacking of a 60 a day smoker and not so much lung coming up now thank goodness, I still feel hot but my temperature is normal so I guess I'm just being a hypochondriac!

The walking to the clinic followed by a detour to the supermarket just about killed me, I was wheezing and breathless for hours afterwards. Then today was ground hog day as we had to go for our second jab, followed by a side trip to the supermarket. I'm at the point of thinking that if we haven't got stuff now then we will just go without until we get to Fiji. I think there may be some interesting meals in the coming trip! I'm cooking up a couple of things today for those days when we can't cook due to bouncing around but I see a lot of soup in our future at this point!

A whale of a time

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I have the laundry almost finished, if Gerry would just stop wearing clothes we would be ok! As to why I was the one doing the suds in bucket stuff, well apparently it's only any good when I do it, I was upset at the amount that he wears but at the end of the day at least it's not really dirty so doesn't need much more than a quick dunk and rinse.
Gerry has been doing the longer walking to customs etc by himself, it's quicker than if I drag along and less moaning on the way! Unfortunately we both have to attend the airport for immigration tomorrow in case it's not really me with him leaving. I suspect that by the time we get back from the airport, go to the other marina to fill up with fuel and Ged has jumped in the water to clean the boat bottom it will be too late to leave tomorrow and we will head off on Saturday morning instead, not that it makes much difference apart from one last decent nights sleep. We expect to make Fiji in somewhere between 14 and 18 days, depending on how the wind and waves are along the way, I will keep the blog current so you know where we are once we get underway.

We have an Australian single handler in the slip next to us, funnily enough we have gotten to the point of having him over for cocktail hour almost every night and we have discovered that we are from pretty much the same area in the UK, at least within the same school catchment area!

We are now at Friday morning, Gerry was up at the crack of dawn, I think he gets excited at the prospect of leaving and can't wait to get underway. Luckily he had a couple of jobs to do early on which didn't involve me (like taking the trash to the dumpster and going to the bank) so I was allowed to wallow in bed until 06.45 then it was all hands on deck. Once we had finished with breakfast we took off for the airport to get checked out along with our neighbour who is also planning on leaving at about the same time as us.

The clearing out was pretty simple as Gerry had sent off all the appropriate forms and had all the correct paperwork in hand for us, unfortunately our neighbour had missed a step - the getting permission to leave Tahiti during a lock down from the port authority and he was held for a while whilst the authorities contacted whoever had to grant permission for him to leave. We took off leaving him to sort it out as we had stuff still to do before leaving. Back on board we packed away all the flying objects, topped off the water tanks and stowed away the final awning, water hose and anything else that we didn't need.

Finally we were ready to take off. Our neighbour, who had returned by this point,and one other guy helped by tossing our mooring lines on to the boat and Gerry took charge of the helm for a change and motored us out of the slip, we were on our way by 10 am. Our first stop is going to be the fuel dock at marina Tiana which we are approaching as I type so I'll leave this at this point and will be back tomorrow.