Life on The Hard.

Day 1.

When you live on the water 24/7/365 adjusting to being 'on the hard' is quite a thing. There is no gentle slapping sounds of wavelets in the early morning, or the motion of bobbing in a wake when another boat goes by, or the sound of sea critters going about their business that is heard through the hull. There are 'human' noises all around, cars, hooters, banging, scraping, grinding, voices, factory noises in the distance. Occasionally you get lucky and you hear a bird. The 'loo' is always over at the other end of the yard, so that, can be quite a trek :-) and takes some forethought.
The best things about being 'on the hard'....
Puddytat will look so much nicer when we're done slaving over her;
you get to have a HOT shower EVERY night;
meeting up with other sailing couples and spend and occasional evening swapping stories;
you have the knowledge that soon you'll be back on the water.

This time we're hauling out at Norsands in Whangarei, well known for their careful and meticulous handling of Cats. So the day before we're booked to haul, we anchor near the Boatyards entrance. It's a beautiful night, mirror smooth water, and not as cold as it has been, probably because there is no wind. The sunset is gorgeous.

The next morning we wake up to a silver day, and no wind.. YAY!

The phone rings and we're asked if we could come in earlier than originally planned. Fortunately we we're ready so we start the engines and lift the anchor. Oh yes, yesterday David took the Port rudder out because he has to replace the bearings, so now Puddytat handles quite differently.
David takes her in as I acquaint myself with all the lines that the men on shore will be taking.

Soon we're tied up and the trolley starts to come down the slipway, controlled by a grader.
Tony lines the trailer up with Puddytat, this takes about an hour, and eventually he's satisfied and the hydraulics lift the pads and Puddytat is lifted slightly.

We're taken off Puddytat and watch the rest of the procedure from shore. A nerve racking time... for all of us.

Without any problems Puddytat is pulled out of the water and positioned over a special area that has built in drainage, She will be pressure washed and all that gunk stuck to her bottom is drained into a tank, so as to keep New Zealand's coastal seas clean.

David and I laboriously scrub Puddytat's bottom to get all the bits that the pressure wash couldn't get off. Some barnacles and oysters are especially stubborn and just don't want to let go. Finally at 15:30 (3.30 pm) we're done and we tell Tony that we're ready to be moved.

They bring the grader, hook up the trailer and push Puddytat into the place where we're going to spend the next 8 days... opposite Cat Wagon! Yay, they're friends of ours.

The sunset is gorgeous and we collapse with and exhausted sigh.. we've been going at this all day since 09:30 am and now it's 18;00 (6 pm)... WHEW.

Christmas in Opua, New Zealand 2013

Merry Christmas and a Fun-Filled New Year

from Opua, North Island, New Zealand

This year we have sailed our catamaran 'Puddytat' to Fiji and back. This is the first time we have visited Fiji and it's definitely not going to be the last.

A Bun Starfish.

A Lion Fish

Coral in various stages..

A Sweetlips?

I can hardly believe that I'm going to start my 13^th year of cruising in January, and Sylvie's 11th. A good friend of mine told me I'd get bored and suggested that I settled down and continued to run my consultancy/surveying business. Well, I'm glad to say that he was wrong. The cruising life-style is one that is going to be hard to give up.

By far the greatest reward of cruising is the cruising community itself. Forever changing, but also remaining constant. We now have hundreds of friends stretched around the planet; most still experiencing the cruising life, and all the experiences will be different. Some that we have lost touch with, but hope to meet again ….. or hear about from others.

At this time of year I get annual news letters from land based friends who are leading radically different lifestyles to ours, but are equally fulfilling. Reading these letters often reminds me of what my life could have been like, making me wonder if, given the opportunity, I would swap ….... but then the answer would simply be 'No' because I have changed.

Last Sunday we sailed into Opua after leaving Fiji to face the ravages of cyclone Evan at category 4 or 5 …. 110-140 knot winds. We had a little less than one weeks warning. Other cruisers were going to stay and 'hunker-down'. Many locals, including officials, new nothing of the forecast cyclone …... and even when I told them, they didn't believe that Fiji would be affected. We had an uneventful sail, averaging about 7.5 knots. We have had little news from Fiji, but we hope that our friends over there are well and have had little or no damage.

Last Christmas was a different story. We were at sea, crossing from Tonga to Opua via Mineva North reef. Hence I wasn't able to get out a timely newsletter of our travels. We'd stopped in Nuku'alofa to clear out of Tonga and to obtain a NZ visa for Sylvie. Sylvie's parents had already sailed to Minerva North in their catamaran 'Kudana'. We were enjoying the company of our crew, Roz, who'd joined us at Palmerston Island.

Whilst still in Nuku'alofa we got a message that Kudana had hit Minerva South reef and were partially disabled, but trying to make for Opua. To cut a long story short, we managed to find Kudana at about 450 miles from Opua, towing her in for the last 100 miles on a 100ft nylon bridal with Puddytat powered with a reefed genoa at 5.5 knots! Kudana had suffered the loss of both keels, had only half of one rudder, only one blade on one propeller, and had significant but manageable seawater leak from the starboard saildrive.

Amazing job to sail about 800 miles before asking for a tow!

We spent our days in NZ meeting up with old cruiser friends and swapping stories, drinking the local wine, and doing repairs on Puddytat and others.

One of the big pluses with NZ is access to good materials and parts …. at a price. My credit card was flexed to the max: acrylic and seals for the hatches and windows, wood for the starboard centre bunk, and spares, spares, and more spares. We borrowed a car to get about ….. NZ public transport doesn't get to Opua.

After Kudana had been fitted with new keels, rudders, and propellers at Ashby's boat yard, Sylvie and I set about refurbishing her saloon. It was my first attempt at veneering …... although I had picked up a lot from watching my father at his marquetry, I had not actually done any. Our friend Owen from the yacht Madrona offered some friendly know-how, and I did some research on the internet. The result was pretty good ….. better than most production finishes, but I've learnt a lot too (another way of saying I'll do better next time!!).

David's and my work.. It was very interesting to do.

My Mom and I made a cover for it :^D

Sylvie, her mother, and I had a break from the cruising life and hired a car to visit Sylvie's brother in Nelson on the North coast of South Island. We took the chance to have leisurely trip back to Opua, staying at back-packers and B&B's. Unfortunately the weather was wet when we got to Roturua ….. so had to pass on many of the sights.

I remember NZ from a visit I made back in 1992. I remember the beautiful scenery, the colours, the waterfalls, and the clear skies. Unfortunately this year could not match the memory, but it is still a fine place to visit. This year we intend to do more cruising, especially around the Bay of Islands and Northland.

Fiji on the other hand is gorgeous. The people are very friendly, the waters are crystal clear, the coral is vibrant, and the fruit is sweet and tasty. Hopefully it won't be much changed when we visit there next season. Oh, I nearly forgot, the cost of living in Fiji must be the lowest in the South Pacific PROVIDED you eat 'in -season', stay off alcohol and aren't tempted by imports. Coffee beans are hard to find, even though they grow it here. Most of the Fijians drink kava which is a sedative ….. so coffee isn't wanted. Nescafe is fairly easy to come by though …. but I don't regard that as coffee.

Male Dancers entertaining us.

Beautiful female dancer ... :^D

Me taking kava at a ceremony at Robinson Crusoe Resort …. not very traditional, but it would not be politic to take a photo of an authentic ceremony at an island village. Sylvie decided against trying this one …. we'd recently been through an authentic ceremony at Beqa and kava isn't very pleasant.

Those mats take several weeks to make and last several years.

What Fiji is famous for ….. and it is NOT an aquarium!!

Sylvie is busy with her fabric designing and marketing them on the internet at:

www.etsy.com/shop/SylviesArtOnFabric

www.spoonflower.com/profiles/art_on_fabric

and her blog : http://sylviesdesigns.blogspot.com

The photos don't do her work justice.

This is a photo of one of my fabric designs printed by Spoonflower.

Hand Painted and up on Etsy.com

I've include a few photos give you some idea of our 2012. I hope you've enjoyed them.

If you are wondering what has become of my other boat, Quoi Ca Dit, in Trinidad; and the claim for damages ….... The case was found in my favour, I have still received no money, I am suing my attorneys, and the boatyard won't let me have the yacht back unless I pay them US$36,000. The details are more interesting and painful ….. but not for this newsletter.

Have a wonderful 2013 and don't forget to write. We should have a guest cabin available soon so drop us a line if you fancy dropping in.

David.

Nuku'alofa and on to New Zealand.

David even managed to catch two Tuna en route!

Once we arrived in Nuku'alofa, we tied Puddytat up in the small boat harbour, med moored to the breakwater, David climbed into the dinghy and went ashore to clear us in, and to tell them that we were here to apply for the NZ visa and that we'd be leaving soon.

One of the fish we caught.

Brilliant sunset and great sailing weather! for a change.

We found the NZ immigration office and filled in forms, got photo's taken and finally they said all was in order but they had to send it to NZ for processing. We should wait for an email. This was a Friday. On Tuesday I walked into town to an internet cafe and checked my emails...oh oh I saw that the immigration dept. had sent me an email on Friday afternoon requesting that I please come in, they needed some more paperwork to be filled in. We went around straight away and filled them in. Two working days wasted! :-( They were really nice people and they promised that they'd push it through as fast as they could. I checked my emails every day... On the following Friday we were still waiting so we planned on some sightseeing and decided to check my emails first, nothing.. sigh... I dropped them a line enquiring on the progress of it all and lo and behold a few minutes later I had a reply... Come in later today and collect your passport, the visa was approved! YAY! I went in straight away and asked what time I could collect it as we still had to clear out of Tonga, they said between 12 and 1 p.m.. Needless to say I was not late, I sat and waited patiently. After a few last minute questions I was called in to collect my Passport. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Main street with the huge rain tree on the left, near the post office.

Under  the Rain Tree.

This mat skirt is worn by men and women. This one is elaborate though.

Young Ladies.

School uniforms.

A local sight seeing boat..

The Kings Palace.. garden needs work.

We caught a bus and went to see the flying foxes... they're about 12 inches long. 

Tau'olunga Komipiuta. Fast Internet $1 for 15 mins.
On Salote Rd before Tupoulahi  Rd. Almost at the T of Fasi-moe-afi Rd.

Inside the place.

Ros and David paying for their internet usage.

The Owner. Always with a smile.

During the week my Parents on Kudana had passed by Nuku'alofa, we'd chatted on the VHF when they'd been in range and since then they'd been waiting for us at Minerva reef North. On the Wednesday they decided not to wait for us and to head on out to NZ.

Ros, getting some air and a lot of water.. ha ha the rogue
waves keep breaking over her, she's soaked!

Later on Wednesday when we got back from town, Evi, our friend on the boat next door, told us that they'd heard from my Dad and the news wasn't good. She said they'd hit Minerva reef south. Landed right on top of it at the top of the tide and were stuck there. This was a disaster! How were they, how badly was the boat damaged, were they taking on water? These thoughts tumbled from my mouth at top speed. Evi said they were okay, just shook up, one rudder was badly bent and as yet they were still dry. The plan, she said was to wait for high tide and try and motor off the reef. Now I haven't seen Minerva reef south, but if it's like the North reef it would be wide and flat. I wondered how far in they had landed, if they'd make it off without damaging the boat further. Next morning the news wasn't good. The keels were both destroyed so there wouldn't be much in the way of steerage from them. They'd slide sideways and lose direction whilst sailing. During the night the waves had constantly smashed them and this had caused the keels to deteriorate even more. BUT they'd managed to get off. It had further cost them both the props and half the remaining rudder. Heck, so now they had hardly any steering, no keels, no props, so the engines could only be used to charge the batteries and nothing else, AND they were taking on water! Apparently one of the engines had dislodged it's seal and the water was coming in there. David and I had made sure to fit the yacht out with extra powerful pumps and thank goodness we had because now the boat remained dry and the pump on that side worked like a charm.
They'd decided to carry on towards New Zealand 800 nautical miles away. They asked us to follow them as soon as possible.
As you know I had to wait for my passport. Nothing we could do about it, so we filled in the time as best we could.

Once I got my passport back and cleared out with customs and immigration, we spent a quick Saturday morning shopping for fresh fruit and veg, also filling up with fuel and water. At 11am we left the fuel dock did a motor-by Evi and some other yachts and headed on out towards NZ and Minerva Reef.

Sunset.

When we were getting near to Minerva North reef, our initial plan was to stop there, as there was really bad weather forecast and we didn't want to chance it, and clean our hull, but we had 30 knot winds and 15 ft seas. David was hesitant to attempt the entrance into a reef we'd never visited before and it was directly downwind, so he decided we'd pass it by and continue on, maybe look at Minerva reef South and stop there. But the wind had other ideas and it headed us, forcing Puddytat to head directly for the reef. Then it suddenly dropped to 13 knots. We could clearly see the entrance to the lagoon shaped reef. It was nice and wide. David changed his mind and said ''we're going in.... under sail''. We swooped through the entrance into lovely calmer water, and just then, the wind turned from beam on to head on.. what timing! We dropped the sails, turned on the engines and motored to a spot at the north end to drop the anchor. It was Monday afternoon. I was worried sick about my parents. We didn't have a SSB transmitter on board. We had a receiver and Evi had promised to relay their position at 4.30 every afternoon. We'd heard two positions and plotted them on the chart, then when we got a third we discovered it was exactly the same as the second, which was very weird, two plots 24 hours apart cannot be the same we thought... Later we found out what had happened. At the time though, we were not sure whether my Dad had made a mistake and plotted East instead of West so now we weren't sure where he was. Very very worrying. There were a group of Ham radio bods in New Zealand where were trying to keep in contact with Dad and sometimes we'd hear them wondering why they hadn't heard from him. One chap said that it was obvious, that they had gone down and were dead. It shocked me to the core, my blood ran cold. David looked at me and told me not to worry, they were fine, just out of radio contact for some reason.

In the reef it was the weirdest feeling, to be anchored out in the middle of the ocean, no land or trees in sight, just some waves breaking all around us showing us that there was something there. Ros and I jumped into the water and cleaned the hulls. David was working on something inside the boat, I can't remember what now, but it was a far hotter messier job than we had. The next day, after he'd completed some other work on Puddytat, David had his turn, he wanted to give the props a good clean so in he went. It was late afternoon when he finally finished and the wind was still too southerly and still very strong. Soooo frustrating, it was hard for me to relax.  We stayed another night and early on Wednesday morning we left Minerva reef North. We were almost a full week behind them.

We had a totally uneventful sail to New Zealand, the winds were alternatively stronger and then lighter as the sailing goes on long trips. So some days we had all the sail up and others we reefed down sometimes to two reefs. I must say that I do prefer to sail on the Atlantic ocean as against the Pacific. The Atlantic is a much smoother sail, much more comfortable and has many more dolphin that come and play around the bows of our boat. Puddytat flew over that water, we made the best use of the wind and clocked an average of 9 knots. We sailed, listened to the radio and after two days got another position, I plotted it and couldn't find the x. So I plotted it again, still no x. I'm standing there looking at the chart plotter thinking, what am I doing wrong? Then something made me zoom in, or out, I can't remember now and there it was a beautiful red x right under us.. YAY!!!! We were exactly where Kudana had been 14 hours before. Now to try and find them, a tiny yacht on a HUGE ocean. David said that logically my Dad would be trying to make as straight a line to Opua as possible, so we'd do the same. It's what we'd been doing the whole time and it had paid off so far. He instructed Ros and I to call Kudana on the radio every hour. So we did this through the night on our watches. Morning came and we hadn't heard anything. A tad worrying as we knew they were only doing about 3 knots at most, we should have caught up with them by now. After breakfast David got up and went to the radio, he'd decided to call again. Oh Joy of joys my Mom answered the radio and we started to cry. I hadn't realised how tense with worry I'd been. It wasn't much later when we spotted her and we sailed up to say hi. We were 400 nautical miles from Opua. Still a way to go, but we'd found them and that was all I cared about.

We asked about the two positions, how'd they been the same. Dad said that during that storm, we'd been sitting out in Minerva reef, they couldn't steer and had sailed in a huge circle and ended up where they'd been before. A very strange thing to happen, but it did. We also asked why we hadn't heard regular position reports. He told us that his SSB had gone on the fritz and he worked on it trying to repair it and managed to get it working long enough to hit send on an email to my brother, Kevin who lives in NZ, and then Kev sent it on to the radio ham guys to transmit to us. At the time he didn't know if it had gone through. He just had to hope that it had.

Kudana, 1.5 miles away.. even though she's on top of a wave she's hard to see.

Down in the trough and she's almost impossible to see.

Ros and I were ultra busy, what with keeping the skipper fed with hot meals, (and us too,) we were also involved in making a courtesy flag for New Zealand. This proved to be an entertaining and interesting pastime. It was also fun to be in constant contact with Kudana. We spent Christmas day playing Christmassy music to each other and chatting, it would have been fun if the seas were nice and calm that we could raft up together and have a huge lunch.... as it was I'd cooked up the last of our fresh meat, a roast chicken, for our main meal that day. Boy did we ever pig out.. YUM.. ;-)
We don't ever buddy boat with anyone so this was a new experience for us. It was now only 105 NM to go till Opua, we thought we'd get there on the 27th Dec.

Making our New Zealand courtesy flag...

Dad insisted that he wanted to sail Kudana all the way to Opua. We wanted to take them under tow. So we sailed as slowly as we could with a tiny bit of sail up so that we didn't leave them behind. But now Dad said that the wind wasn't playing nice and he just couldn't control the boat anymore. We sailed up and started the long process of passing tow ropes etc. It took 2 hours to get the boats tied properly. My Dad was exhausted. We set our genoa and started to sail, pulling them behind us and our speed was already up to 5 knots. Dad radioed and asked what they should do, we told them to get some sleep, leave the radio on and if there was a problem we'd wake them up. They were so exhausted they slept for 12 hours solid. Shame.

Under Tow for the next 100 nautical miles.

A few days later we were almost there. I started to cook up a huge meal, kind of like a Lasagne, with the layered lasagne pasta, white sauce and corned beef out of cans.. I've never done it that way before, but I didn't have any fresh meat left and I needed to be able to feed all of us. I used dried crumbed Parmesan Cheese, the stuff in a shake out bottle, and the last of our cheese and it turned out rather well.

When we  came into the sheltered waters of the Bay of Islands, we dropped the tow and came alongside Kudana and rafted up with her. From then on we had to motor. Customs and Immigration were well aware that we were on our way in. All the sailors in the area were aware as well. When we arrived at the Q dock, where all newcomers to NZ have to go to clear customs and immigration, there were loads of people at the yacht club watching our progress.

The space between the fuel dock and the Q dock isn't large and David had to maneuver both yachts in and dock us. I was in charge of tying us up he said... He first turned us around so that it would be easier to get out and then docked. As simple as that. He made it look so easy. Many of the sailors came to us afterward and said that they hadn't seen seamanship like that in years. Made me so proud of him.

The Customs guys were great. We couldn't have asked for nicer treatment, even though they had to relieve us of some fresh veg and such, it was all done with a smile and a joke. They came down and attended to us even though we'd have been happy to spend the night on the customs dock. They told us there was bad weather coming and they thought that we'd need to get out into the anchorage and get our anchors in well and good and this was the time to do it. How nice is that! Thank you guys.

Once we were done with them, I slipped the lines and we went off to find a spot to drop the anchors. First we dropped Dads anchor and pulled back on it hard with both engines at 1800 rpm, to dig it in nice and deep, then we went and dropped ours, did the same, switched off the engines and looked at each other... Time for a drink we all said at once.. LOL what a relief to be safe and sound, to have my folks safe and sound. I slept really well that night.

Our Trip from Tahiti to the Cook Islands.

Day one. 09/11/11. Wednesday Afternoon 16:00. Exhaustion! thats all we could feel. Leaving an anchorage when you're ready to drop with exhaustion is not a good idea, but we had to leave, we'd already stayed one day over the limit and this morning we'd been slowly checked out by some officials on a small boat as they drove by. They could see that we were working hard at getting Puddytat ready so I suppose that's why they let us be. Finally at 15:45 we motor sailed out of the safe harbour area at Papeete, Tahiti.

Sunrise the next morning.

As soon as we were clear of all danger and we'd eaten our meal of lasagna, I went down to our cabin and crashed. David woke me up at 21:00.. groan groan groan I was still tired. He collapsed into the bunk and I sat upstairs trying to get some enthusiasm going. Nope nothing .. sigh... I sat my whole watch, gave David and extra hour till 03:00, like a zombie. Thank heavens for radar.

During David's sleep we were hit with a rouge wave and it found the half open porthole we'd left open in our cabin. David was woken, from a dead sleep, to a torrent of water cascading all over the place. He had to go and shower to get all the salt off him. All the sheets and things were dumped on the floor and towels draped onto the bunk and he want back to sleep... It rained and gusted and we flew along even with the main dropped... oh yes we decided that with both of us being so knackered, we'd drop the mainsail and only use the genoa. That way if we were hit with one of this areas infamous 70 knotters that spring up out of nowhere, we'd be able to furl the genoa till only a tiny corner was visible and run downwind with it. But lucky us, nothing happened and I handed over the watch to a slightly refreshed David and crawled into the damp bunk. Bliss!

Day two. Thursday. I came up in the morning and soon afterwards David went down to sleep. A couple of hours later he emerged, feeling much better. The day went along with alternating wind and no wind, but nothing over 20 knots, I rinsed all the bedding and hung it out to dry... a lovely calmish day. I baked bread and started to make a courtesy flag for The Cook Islands. It's a blue flag with a Union Jack in the top left corner and 15 white stars in a circle next to that. Again after our late lunch, smoked chicken roast and veg this time, (we eat at about 16:00), I slept and later that evening David woke me from a totally dead sleep, for my watch, then he went to sleep, in a much dryer bed this time :-) I wasn't so tired tonight, thank heavens. My body was catching up and getting into this new routine. I carried on with the flag and finished it just before my watch was over.. nice ;-D  We'd had hardly any wind the whole night, we were crawling along at 3 to 5 knots... in  5 to 8 knots of wind. Nice and peaceful.

The Cook Island flag I made.

Day Three. Friday.. 11th of the 11th of 2011.. ha ha nothing was written in the log book during David's watch... hmmmm.... I do remember that it rained and squalled pretty much all day. We were either dropping the main or lifting it again and catching water.. lots of lovely rain water.. what did we eat.... oh yes Kedgeree from some left over fresh caught Wahoo that we were given by another sailor... who's name is Ding.. true! :-) Everyone calls him that.

Day four. Saturday...Wonderful winds. 17 knots once for all of 7 minutes, yeah I was out there in the rain watching the wind speed and our speed wondering if I was gonna have to do some fast work if we were hit by a biggie.... then it died down to 12 knots and we went from scooting along at 11 knots to a more sedate 8 knots. The wind stayed pretty constant all day. So it was nice and uneventful. We haven't seen the sun for two days now... It's constantly overcast with occasional huge black rain clouds that make the radar shriek out it's warning.. then we look at the clouds and decide whether to carry on or drop the main.

A large storm ahead.

The center is where we are. This is the storm above as we see it on Radar. It is about 9 miles wide.

During this storm the wind whipped up to about 35 knots, David had dropped the main and he was furling the genoa when it hit. There was a lot of rain, we collected scads of water and then it was gone. The sails were reset and we carried on.

Day Five. Sunday.. No wind... we motored last night till almost 01:00 then it came up.. 11 knots yay. better than what we'd been having. I set the sails and switched off the engine. So when I handed over the watch to David at 02:00 we were sailing. It seems though that at 04:18 the engine had to be switched back on as we were going nowhere. From then on he was switching the engine on and off dealing with gusts of wind and dead calms. The log book has this note : "Wind 10 to 3 to 10 knots. The drizzle is now set in. The water is calm - just 6 inch ripples on the 3 to 4 foot ocean swell. The unsettling part is we never KNOW what the wind is going to be. We have a radar that shows us the size of the system, we have eyes to see the wave conditions and the darkness of the clouds and wind instruments to keep track of the wind changes.... But I can't tell, yet, when we are about to get clobbered by a 30 knotter, in the back of my mind is the capsize of the Chris White Cat last year... they didn't see it coming either."
So there you have it. This weather is sure keeping us on our toes.
It's now 22:00 (10 pm). I've just had a look outside and seen stars. The moon is rising and for a change I can see it. SO lets hope that we are done with all those storms for a while.

We expect to reach our destination, Aitutaki Island, at about 07:00 tomorrow. So I'm on watch till 01:30 instead of 02:00, because I'll have to be awake just before 7 to take the boat into the pass. I always get the job of taking the boat into our new anchorages. David stands point and scans the depths for coral heads, especially in places where we are going tomorrow. It's reported to be very shallow so we're going to have to be really careful. The Island's GPS position is 18 deg 54'S and 159 deg 47'W according to the guide book. If you have "Google Earth" you can have a look at it.:-)

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!

.

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.....