Tahiti, Society Islands of French Polynesia ~ Getting on with boring boat projects

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You are probably wondering why you have not heard much from the crew of Spirit of Argo for a while.  After the family visit, over the holidays, the humans sailed us back to Tahiti to get A FEW boat jobs done.

When they suggested a WEE stop over anchored off French Polynesia’s capital city I thought ‘why not’.  Poor Spirit of Argo was looking a little ‘worst for wear’, the capital offers lots of supplies and well protected anchorages in most wind directions.

How was I to know they would get A LITTLE ‘carried away’.

Where do I begin?

1. WATER MAKER

As you well know, the silly humans ‘blew up’ our water maker in the Tuamotus.  They managed to do this at the worst time!  In the Tuamotu Atolls, which are little more than a circle of reef with a lagoon inside.  In the dry season with the boat tank reserves empty.  And while they were in an uninhabited atoll.

They did manage to have enough spare parts to put together ‘something’ that worked.  But it leaked and rattled away.  They were pretty lucky.  Although the dealer back home had ‘washed his hands’ of spare parts for their discontinued model, he did have a client with a ‘trade in’ that would suit us fine.  But then we needed to get it into the country.  Not so easy sailing around with no address.

The problem is easier to solve in French Polynesian than in most countries.  You can have things sent to the post office and pick them up from there.  How great is that?  One problem though.  You have to pick up items within 2 weeks or they will send it back.  With weather and the large distances between many islands, it is best to organise delivery some place you can ‘hang out’ safely until it arrives.

So the humans asked the dealer to hold onto the watermaker until they got to Tahiti.

So excited to get the new watermaker.  Next job fitting it.

Box up the old watermaker as a ‘plug and play’ spare.  Just in case of emergencies.

2. WINDLASS

My humans are always making excuses so we don’t go into Marinas.  Rats, cockroaches, too hot and no where to walk me.  But the truth is they really are too cheap!  In French Polynesia they have an additional excuse, there really are not many Marinas, and the few that exist, are usually full.  So the anchoring system on your boat has to be ‘top notch’.

With the wide spread use of windlasses, electric winches that take all the hard work of lifting chain and anchores up, people have moved to bigger and bigger anchors.  My humans are just as guilty.  They fitted thicker chain and a Rocna anchor one size larger and heavier than recommended for their boat.  As a result the windlass has to work a little harder, and when they are silly enough to get us caught in bommies, I have seen the foredeck take a lot of strain.

Since the windlass had to come off for a long over due service and oil change, my humans decided the foredeck could also use a little TLC.  Good thing they did decide to do this as both the base and under plate for the windlass had fractured.  But the humans were a LITTLE MAD ripping the windlass off while still on anchor!  I am not joking here!

A little something missing from the foredeck?

And you know ‘Sods Law’?  Of course a storm front blew threw with a few gust well up in the 40s.  You can add canvas repairs to the list as well now.

To strengthen the foredeck the humans made a larger aluminium under plate, to spead the load, and a nylon ‘washer’ to stop the chain impacting on it.

Of course, now they have it all back in place the storm system has passed.

The view from below deck.  You can see the faint outline of the old base plate and ‘far’ too many holes in the deck!

Step 1 is to cut the holes larger and fill.  Good idea to patch any ‘rough’ spots.  Later sand smooth and redriller the holes.  This avoids any water leaks getting into the core.

Fiberglass work done, base plate and windlass control cover repaired.  Time for a coat of epoxy primer and 2 pack paint.  You have probably already guessed, but repainting the nonskid deck is on the jobs list.

While that dries the windlass itself gets a clean up and service.

Finally new base plate and nylon washer fitted underneath to strengthen deck.  Electrics tidied up and rope leash whipped onto end of chain.

View from below deck.  Chain locker.

Chain lockers are never easy to get into and definately a challenge to work in. 

3. ENGINE

It is not easy to give the engine a good service when you are always on anchor.  Especially as very few anchorages in French Polynesia offer all round protection.  The fronts that pass through the South Pacific can have cruisers to move back and forth to avoid getting caught on a lee shore.  So a stop over in Tahiti is just what the humans needed to give the old engine a good flushing, cleaning, servicing and painting.

4. RIGGING

The rope in Tahiti is better quality and cheaper than Panama (Panama Canal).  My humans figured it was time to replace the dynemer running back stays.  They had also managed to ‘break’ both their genoa poles.

A dark and stormy night.  A loud bang! And the genoa starts to flog.  The locking mechanism on the adjustable pole had failed.  The forces on the pole were so great the humans had to rig up a strap and winch the pole out again.  A few bolts tapped in and the pole is the right length, but no longer adjustable.  Oh, well.  The end caps on the back up, stay sail pole, needed the same treatment.

The adjustable pole was ‘locked’ in the shortest position.  This was too short for the foresail in light air conditions with any waves.  The end cap decided to fail on the spare pole at the same time.

The humans strappped one end of the pole to the deck and the other to a halard.  They carefulling winched the pole long enough.

New ‘larger’ bolts tapped into poles to hold the ajustable pole at the longer length and to hold the end caps on the spare.

Fully extended the longer pole ‘just’ fits on the boat with very little over hang

5. WATERPROOFING

Seals and sealent parish with time.  The constant movement and twisting of the hull under sail, combined by the strain on fixtures and fittings, all boats spring leaks.  Sealing the leaks is not that hard, finding where the leak comes from is usually the challenge.

The other challenge is having enough marine grade sealents aboard.  But no worries, you can get both N.American and European products in the shops here. The humans also had the family ‘mule’ in some new porthole seals.

Sealing up leaks is a never ending process, but at least while we are not sailing about the humans can get ‘a bit’ caught up.

Fresh water drip you can ‘live with’, but salt water getting in is a nightmare.

The constant battle of replacing seals and plugging leaks.

6. STITCHING
It really does not matter how UV resistant the threads and materials are, in the blazing sun, solar radiation just ‘picks away’ knocking atoms off.  Add a bit of abrasive salt water and strenious use and PRESTO, lots for the humans to restitch or replace.

Sails, shade covers, dingy chaps, zippers and Velcro flaps.  When I see how deep the human buries the sewing machine, I understand why she waits until there is a long enough list.  And with the saloon ‘taken over’, it is best if you do not need to go anywhere soon.

Tahiti also has has lots of fresh water available to wash ‘things’ before they are stitched.  Important when you are trying to slow down the corrosion of parts in a portable sewing machine.

7. DIVE COMPRESSOR

My humans are always going ‘on and on’ about keeping things simple on a boat so you spend more time having fun and less time on break downs.  But here they are with a ‘big ticket’ luxury item aboard, a dive compressor.

In their defense, they do use it an lot.  Most of the best dive sights in the Caribbean and South Pacific have been no where near a dive shop.  They have also never thought twice about diving down to sort out their own or a friends anchor or chain in murky waters.   Cleaning the coppercoated bottom every 3 months.  Much easier to spend time below cleaning and checking everything.

But it is another engine aboard that needs old bits replacing, servicing and a lick of paint on the rusty bits.

8. BBQ

There they go.  Another luxury item aboard that always needs some TLC.  The original was bought for the humans by family when they first bought the boat.  Two burners, the most recent brought over by the family, and one gas hose later it has served he humans well for 20 years.

Small and light, the humans made a bag for it to take ashore for beach parties.  But she really needs a good degreasing and clean up before putting in the new burner.  Tahiti has mains water avaiable!

9. STOVE
Back to the essentials.  The sea air is cruel and some of the pipe work needs replacing.

10.  SOLAR PANELS
No mains electric to plug into.  You need to generate your own power aboard a boat.

Do not let anyone convince you solar is maintenance free.  Frames and mounts corrode and wiring can get damaged.

Some rewiring needed on one of the lower swivel panels.

WILL IT EVER END?

The SCARY thing is this is just the jobs the humans have gotten started.  They have an even longer list still to do.   Like the non skid painting I mentioned earlier.  I find it exhausting just watching them.

At least the anchorage here is convient to the supplies they need, has a nice view and there is a public beach for me to run and play on.

View out towards the island of Moorea at sun set.

The view from the boat of the public park and beach.  They are happy to let me run about in opening hours (7am-6pm).  

Just no more trips to the vet, please.  This is embarrassing.  The collar of shame!

I will try to write you again, as work progresses.