Toau to Papeete Tahiti

2:00 am Saturday, 6/8:

We did it, we finally did it….we left Toau for Tahiti. We stayed 9 days in Toau, 4 days longer than planned. We were pinned down by weather – 20-35 kts winds, 10-15′ seas……ugh!!!! We left at 6:30 am on Friday and so far the passage has been ok. The winds have been 7-15 kts backing from ESE to ENE. The seas have been 4-7′ SE and calming a bit…..our course is 230 deg M so the seas are a little off our port beam…..the ride has been a bit rolly…..Kathy has had a tough time with this motion…….ugh!!!! The good news is we have enough fuel to run at 1600 rpm doing 8 knots so the stabilizers are more effective….yeah!!!!

In fact we did not fish…..we could have but with Kathy not feeling well, we did not want to subject her to more motion if we should catch something…..ugh!!!!

I’ll post more on our thoughts on the Tuamotus in another blog…..it has been a wonderful and challenging experience for the 6 weeks we cruised these breathtaking atolls. But, we are ready for a Tahiti….wow, just typing that sounds cool…..the iconic island of the South Pacific…..Cook was there, Bligh was there…..pretty cool to be tracing some of their routes!!!!

The last week we were reduced to being veggies….many snow days…..with the wind blowing so hard all we wanted to do was stay on the boat…..tried to do some waxing but the wax got blown off…..now that is some wind…..I did snorkel with Bruce and Laura on Pacific Highway the last day and it was amazing – pretty good coral and lot’s of colorful fish….diving was supposed to be excellent but I didn’t have a dive buddy……(btw Kathy is better…..but, still sore and on advil…ugh)……the couple on shore is nice and they occasionally do dinners for >6-8 people…..there is one American sailboat who might go and one French couple who already did the dinner last week and they didn’t want to do it again…..so we just sat on the boat and read and putzed. Finished all the Jack Reacher novels, Michner’s South Pacific, finished Caine Mutiny….I remembered the movie but never read the book….and now reading The Bounty by Alexander!!!!

Boat Stuff:

Good news – Nobeltec Time Zero and the Simrad Autopilot are now working in the Nav mode – yeah – maybe better than before as the corrections are only +/- 2-3 degrees!!!!! And the Balmar alternator is working the way it should….sweet!!!!

Bad news – the watermaker is making good water but the clark pump continues to leak. I did take the pump out, fixed about 3 compression leaks but could not fix the leak out of the pump. The good news is there is a service tech in Papeete that will service the pump and since the clark pump has a lifetime warranty, Spectra will cover the cost. Usually they have you send the pump back to the USA, but it’s cheaper and better for us to just have it repaired in Papeete. They think it is just a worn o-ring!!!

FBB 150 Satellite phone: If you recall we had issues starting in Panama, replaced the BDU (black box) and then the unit crashed again half way across to the Marquesas. All the diagnostics said a bad antenna…..so Les and Rose took the antenna back and shipped it to Tyrone in Fort Lauderdale who shipped it to Thrane and Thrane. T&T sent a report back that said the antenna is fine…..in good working order…..WTH…..now what????? I have sent about 10 emails off to various parties asking that question but do not have an answer yet. Maybe we can find someone in Papeete to help. Tyrone did send the antenna back ot us in Papeete so we will try to figure out what is wrong and get the unit back working….a mystery for sure!!!!

Stabilizers: The port stabilizer continues to leak. I’m not sure how to describe the leak…..it’s not a major leak like a gaping hole and water gushing in…..it’s just a small but constant leak….a seal has been compromised causing the leak……we are definitely in violation of rule #1….keep the water out of the boat….ugh!!!! However, the leak is growing….not good…..I wanted to wait until New Zealand for repairs as well as look at other options…..but Wesmar and Kathy felt we needed to get it fixed sooner than later. Papeete has a good boatyard with a 300 ton lift. I knew it would be a logistical nightmare to get this organized and it has been that and then some. It has taken over 100 emails to get Wesmar to ship the parts, schedule the haulout at the boatyard and then arrange for the Australian technician to fly to Papeete…..all arranged for this past week……then Mr Weather decided to get in the act and all had to be rescheduled……arghhhhh!!!! As of today, we are hopefully scheduled to haul on Monday, 6/17 and the repair should hopefully take 3-4 days….oh joy!!!!!

The weather delay and this stabilizer repair are combining to eat up most of the 90 days we have left to be in French Polynesia (last day 7/4)…..kind of a bummer…..Hopefully we will get to see some of Tahiti, Moorea and towards the end of June make it to Bora Bora before we get kicked out. We will attempt to ask for an extension due to the repairs but we don’t expect it to be granted…..after all they are the French 🙂 ))))

While the above boat issues are not fun to deal with…..it does seem most boats are also suffering their own issues…..let’s face it, 20-30 days on a crossing just pounds the boat until something breaks…..we know of boats with ripped sails, rigging and halyard failures, lot’s of chaffe issues, engine failures, rudder issues, outboard engine failures, watermaker failures, windlass failures, battery failures, autopilot failures and the list goes on…..so, while a PITA…..our list doesn’t seem too bad in comparison!!

Weather Comment: We maybe getting into a La Nina weather condition…..we certainly hope not!!! Bob McDavitt, the weather guru out of New Zealand, similar to Chris Parker in the Caribbean or Don on Summer Passage on the west coast, issues a weekly forecast. Per Bob, the atmosphere and ocean indicators are starting to lean towards La Nina conditions, although it will take another few months of this trend before it is declared. Well, what does this mean to us…..basically enhanced conditions – more wind, more rain, more seas……which is pretty much what we have had the last month or so…..ugh…..and we still have another 3000 nm and 5 months to go before New Zealand…..double ugh!!!!

———————————

4:00 pm Saturday 6/8:

We are here in the marina with power, AC’s cooling, battery chargers charging, we have internet and now we are having our passage beers…..but, it was a 4.5 hour ordeal…..yikes!!!!

The passage was 228 nm and took us 29 hours…..7.9 avg SOG…..not too bad…..the seas continued to calm and were 2-4′ when we came in….sweet!!

We arrived at the marina around 11:30 am…..Kathy hailed Philippe, the marina manager and he said of course, he had a slip, we had a reservation…..we were actually a bit concerned as many boats had left before us and some did not have reservations that got a berth and then we heard the marina was full…..but, Philippe had a slip, but….it is a med moor and it is lunch time so we have no help…please tie up on a waiting dock until 1:30 when the guys come back…..ok…..we met Mark on Gray Matter on the dock so we had a nice chat catching up and then we did some internet…..I noticed that all the power used European plugs…..I had emailed Phillipe and he had said no problem…..so, I asked again and he said we can get an adapter at the store when they open @ 2:00 pm….hmmmm…..so, indeed at 1:30 the guys came to get us and we went to our berth…..it was a 70′ fairway w/boats all along and I have to turn 90 deg…..we are 60’…..not much wiggle room….gulp…..but I did it….thank you thrusters…..we get it all tied down….they have lines buried for the bow so all we have to do is tie up the 2 stern lines…..all is good…..let’s plug in and get those batteries charging…..ok, a Captain from 2 boats down says he can convert our plug so off he goes…..then Len on Maestro walks up and says the 1 phase power is 220 on one leg….I don’t think that will work….I talk to the tech and he says no problem…we will hook up to the 3 phase plug like other USA boats….hmmmm….we do and it immediately pops the shore power panel breaker…..hmmmm….we talk some more, many more guys show up…..this goes on for a bit……now, this is mostly in French which I don’t handle at all…..we decide to disconnect the neutral at the panel to make 2 phases and viola….we have power on Mystic …..LIG!!!!!!

I’m not sure how long we will be here…..if we get everything organized on Monday for the haulout then we might go over to Moorea until we haul….it’s about 10-15 miles away.

Hope all is well!!

John
Mystic Moon
Papeete Tahiti