Since the last update about a week ago there have been comings and goings !
We spent a few days in Denerau restocking with food , diesel , water and petrol ( for the outboard engine) and doing some sorting out and re-stowing on board . Sadly Denise flew out back to NZ last Wednesday, we have had an excellent adventure together over the last two months but the cyclone season approaches at the end November and I know that she will be looking forward to catching up with our family and especially seeing our grand daughters again. Dave a friend from Upper Hutt flew in yesterday for a week. Next weekend Ted from NZ arrives to crew on the return voyage bound to Opua from Lautoka our check out port.
Denise and I met John a fellow Wharram catamaran enthusiast recently, its amazing what a web of contacts exists.
One repair job which I have completed on Katipo was to replace the worn universal joint on the port hull windvane trim tab on the back of the port rudder. Ted and I had noticed an early problem on arrival in Tonga and despite the fact that it still is holding together, I did not want to trust it on the ocean voyage back to NZ. Peter a friend in Howick sourced one and son Tim brought it with him when he flew in .last month
The work involved marking very accurately the positions for the bolt holes in the fitting then finding someone with a drill press to drill through the stainless steel fitting. The work was done by the Indians working at the local boat yard . they did a great job although had I spoken Hindi communication would have been easier.
I nearly had a major disaster on returning to Katipo as I unloaded from the dinghy a re-filled gas bottle, a bucket with the bolts and fitting just drilled and my back pack with all the ships papers inside. It was one of those unfortunate sequences - the gas bottle fell over , tipped up the bucket nearly spilling the contents into the sea , and as a made a grab for the bucket I dropped my back pack overboard. I just managed to save the pack before it sank and fortunately all was well.
Dave and I sailed out to Malolo Lailai island today into a brisk SW wind and as I intend to just potter about locally this week I will send out another update early next week when Ted and I have had a chance to review the weather patterns for our voyage southwards.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment