Putting the mast back on Puddytat

Puddytat looks so forlorn without her rigging.

A sad Puddytat.

Somehow she just doesn't seem very happy. But the good news is that soon she will be getting it all back. Yup they have finished the work on it and have booked a date and time with the crane. They have had the mast for 5 weeks, the crane was booked for Friday, but on Thursday it was cancelled and the date moved to Monday. They had not finished the swaging and were now going to leave it till Monday morning and quickly do it before the crane arrived! David went to them and got angry with them, they'd promised to have the job done and were now slotting other work in front of ours!  They then they knuckled down and finished the swaging on the rigging. He wanted it done in his presence so that he could make sure it was done correctly. It's awful to have to get angry to get a job done that you have waited 5 weeks for... especially one that takes a few hours to do.
So early Monday morning we release Puddytat from our anchor rode and tie it to Limo, the dinghy, to our anchor rode and off we go to the commercial docks. We didn't want to haul the anchor up because the crossbeam was unsupported without the crossbeam in place. By nine am we are ready and waiting. David has gone off to see what is happening.

The mast is pushed into sight on trolleys and here comes the crane. They tie a fat webbing to it and start to haul it up.

Up she goes.

Over and onto the boat...

Settling it down..

Attaching the forestay and roller furler.

The strap is still attached to the crane.

Alex goes up to detach the strap.

It's nerve wracking it is! But all goes smoothly and soon the mast is sitting in place. It seems though, that they are having a bit of difficulty attaching the turnbuckles on either side. Everything seems a bit short. They haven't left much room to loosen the rig if it needs it!

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The rigging wire is too short in the turnbuckle.

David is not happy about this! But, the mast is back on. Our genoa sail is still being worked on, it should have been finished weeks ago. They promise to deliver before we leave the dock... but our time is limited .. They've finished the work on the main.. We get our genoa back and where there was a metal ring at the tack, there is none now...just two straps of webbing.. Another thing David is not happy about. We cannot argue though, our time in this country runs out tomorrow and we have to get the boat sorted to leave. We wondered later, if API works the deliveries of sails and such to boats just before they have to leave the country so that we don't have time to argue or demand work to be redone.

Anyway, what's done is done but we're still not happy and will not recommend this company to any of our friends.

We motored back to our anchorage and worked solidly for the next day and for most of Wednesday, getting the sails back on, the davits refitted and all the electrical equipment re-wired.

Finally at about 15:30 we lifted the anchor and motored out towards The Cook Islands.

Personally... neither of us are in a hurry to revisit Tahiti. Our time was very limited, definitely not enough to see anything of the surrounding islands, and our boat problems were genuine, the powers that be were reluctant to extend my visa and then when they did,  I was limited to the boat and the Marina, so I couldn't even do any grocery shopping for us. David had to do everything! Also each time David had to beg for an extension on the visa it took two or three days out of his work schedule. He did say however, that the lady in the front office of the High Commission was very helpful.
We may visit Bora Bora and a few other islands though... maybe.....