At sea again

June 25, 2015 1500
Off Tahiti

Aloha everyone! Yes, it has been awhile! We have been off the boat during the evenings and when we've been on the boat, it has been for projects, no time for writing. We are now on short passage for Moorea. Where do I begin. I guess we left off with trying to get to Papeete. I initially thought we would be off Papeeteby 10AM, we were doing 7ktsand were 60nm off. We get 30 nm off and wind goes light and we get 15 nm off and we start to motor. We are finally off Pt. Venus about 3PM and we get by 30 kts from the south, on the nose! We are heading off for Moorea, tack back, blowing like stink. We were hoping to enter pass past Papeete pass, but, about 5pm, we still had another hour to go so we headed back to the Papeete Pass and got in and got sails down, just as it was getting dark. We started along the channel around the airport. It was dark, very windy and the channel a bit circuitous. Fred was at the helm and I was watching chart plotter. As I was trying to get Fred to head more right, he saw an unlit post and went left, crunch! We hit softly, but could not get off. Some guys in canoe helped us place an anchor, but no luck. The port authority came by and they were able to get us off fairly easily. (tide was going up and we could have gotten ourselves off within an hour or so. We followed the boat in the very blusterly conditions with lots of rain up to the Marina and they took to a place to drop the hook. One of the fellows, a nice, tall Tahitian, was heading to San Antonio in a month. That is where Fred is from, so they exchange numbers. It is now about 9pm and we start getting the dinghy and engine out. We are up on the foredeck, it is blowing a solid thirty knots and pouring rain. Our wives have just landed and we are anxious to see them, but..We finally decide tonight is not the night. We tie things down and head down below and fix a late dinner. After a decent sleep, wind and rain finally have stopped and we eventually get a slip, knowing that we needed to replace batteries and alternator. The wives arrived late morning, and Karin brought aboard a bag of replacements. We had some breakfast and then started in on the boat projects. Late afternoon, we headed off to our hotel and some well deserved rest. Next day, we finished up installing new alternator, and then we were able to decide that at least one battery was bad. We spent a portion of Monday with in procedures and then finding parts, etc., and 8D AGM batteries. Next day, we picked up a battery and then did an around the island tour. Tahiti is a very beautiful island, and i wish I had had the time to sail around it. We had a most pleasant lunch at a surf beach and enjoyed our time with Karin and Linda. They have been very helpful during this time with laundry, cleanup, etc. We finally got new battery hooked up but found that old battery was not holding charge either. Back to battery store! The batteries are very difficult to remove from Ho'o, very difficult! Putting the new ones in is not easy either, but gravity helps. The big problem though, is that in Tahiti, the terminals were reversed!. We found battery wire lugs, but no battery wire. We ended up buying a jumper cable and cutting the wire from that. It took over an hour to redo that,and then the battery cover would not fit. We eventually got things fixed up and the boat put back together. Still have some problems, will need more parts, but we are good for now. We did our grocery shopping and loaded up, fueled up and now are on way to Moorea. We have a few days here with Randy, then he leaves and we will head up to Huahine. Weathern is beautiful n ow, except for no wind. Will write again in a day or so. Hope all are doing well. Aloha, David




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