A lot of people have been writing in wondering where my updates are. Barbara reminds me every day that I need to do the update so finally I feel compelled to write. It has been a long time so I will try not to repeat too much.
Our life aboard for the last 3 weeks has been consumed with the fact that our water maker didn't work. At first it would work in the evening then it would work for 8 hours and then nothing for a few days. It was very frustrating. I spent many hours taking the thing apart to try and determine where the problem was. Finally it quit all together. We were still in the Marquesas and were getting ready to head to the Tuamotus but we had no water on board to make the crossing. On a whim we decided to go over to a little island in the Marquesas that we hadn't been to yet and see if we could get some water and then make the crossing. When we got to the harbor on this island we found out that if we waited till high tide we could tie the boat to the dock and hook up our hose and fill the water tanks. The water was not drinkable but at least we would have water for bathing, doing dishes and running the toilets. I can't tell you what a God send this was. By the way, in all the islands in the Marquesas this is the only one that had a dock that would allow us to do this type of fill up. Without this we were looking at many hours of going back and forth in the dinghy filling water jugs and pouring them into the water tanks one by one. Ok, water issue solved for at least 2 weeks if we were real careful how we used it.
It seems that when one thing goes wrong something else happens at the same time. As the water maker was dying on us Barbara kept telling me she smelled diesel fumes on the starboard side of the boat. We had just filled up with fuel so I figured there might be a pocket of fumes that had developed during the fill up. We had very rough seas after we filled up and made our way over to the island to get water. The diesel fumes got worse and finally we started going through every compartment to see if we had a leak. It didn't take long for us to discover the problem. We had a break in the fill line from where we put the fuel into the boat on deck to the fuel tank. This break in the line had allowed fuel to wash up from the tank and out the break and into several compartments and into the bilge. In one of the compartments that the fuel had leaked into we found probably a gallon of fuel. On a boat where the fumes cannot escape easily a few drops of diesel will stink up the whole boat. We really had a mess on our hands. I really had no way to patch the leak and as long as we were at sea in rough water the fuel would continue to wash up that line from the fuel tank until we used up enough fuel so it couldn't reach the break. So we turned the main engine and generator on and started using fuel. Doing this for a couple of days got the fuel level down enough so we didn't have any more spillage. Problem, resolved for the time being.
I cannot tell you how stressful this is on captain and crew. Cruising the islands was suddenly not much fun. The boat stunk and we worried about the water running out. We decided to throw the towel in and head for Tahiti and get this stuff fixed. On the way we would stop over in Rangiroa in the Tuamotus and then proceed to Papeete the main port in Tahiti. It took us about 3 days to cross between the islands and get to Rangiroa, which is the largest atoll in this group of islands. The anchorage here was just offshore from this beautiful resort the Kia Ora Village resort. This place is exactly what you would think of if you pictured a south sea island resort. It was perfect and of course it was Barbara's birthday so we got a room (bungalow), for 3 nights. This was the perfect place at the perfect time. Can't tell you how much we enjoyed those 3 days away from the issues of the boat and our way of life on the boat.
After our stay in Rangiroa we did an overnight sail to Tahiti where we are now, working on getting things fixed, replaced or whatever it takes to make life on the boat good again. How could I forget our last problem. Our dinghy has a big hole in the front tube. I have tried to patch it but have not had great success. About 4 times a day I would have to pump up the tubes so we could use the thing. To fix the problem we need to have the dinghy out of the water for a few days and have them use some special glue that needs to dry inside to work. To do all that we needed to be in the marina so we could tie up and let them take the dinghy away to be fixed. This is the time of year that everyone comes to Tahiti to sail and charter so the marinas are completely full. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time and the marina manager said he had a spot that just opened . My lucky day!
So here we are in a marina in Papeet ,Tahiti. The parts for the watermaker have been ordered and should be here by the end of the week. They will come get the dinghy tomorrow and fix the leaks and the rest of our little problems are getting resolved. In spite of all the problems I can't believe we are here. It just doesn't seem possible that a few months ago we were in the cold and snow of Denver and now we are in French Polynesia.
I know this report seems a little gloomy but there are 2 sides to this life style. When everything is working and the weather is right this is a wonderful experience. On the other hand when things are not working this can be a real challenge. We are very thankful we have more of the good days. That's it for now from the South Pacific. This is Destiny back to 16.
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