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Starblazer - 3/05/2014 – Moving on



We finally left the town quay pontoon in Papeete early on Wednesday afternoon and made our way to Marina Taina to refuel. We were lucky as we managed to tie up on the fuel pontoon at 3.45, they close at 4.00. We spent a night at anchor then left fairly early Thursday morning for Moorea. That was a horrible passage with big seas but, of course, no wind so there was no point pulling up the mainsail to steady us. Cook’s Bay looked fairly busy so we went on to the next pass into Opunohu Bay where we found several other World ARC boats.



Unfortunately we had water in the engine bilge AGAIN and the generator had failed to put out any cooling water though it was taking it in! This time it was John’s fault as he had failed to tighten one of the water pipes on the generator. It was an easy problem to solve but it managed to wreck yet another fresh water pump, but we had a spare. We are not the only boat doing maintenance every time we stop. Free and Br’Easy called us up on the VHF to ask if we had a drill they could borrow. Roger needed to remount the hydraulic ram for his autopilot and hoped that would solve the problems of the nasty noises from the rudders.



We left the anchorage early afternoon to do a whistle stop tour of the sights of Opunohu Bay and Cook’s Bay, both of which had cruise ships at anchor. The passes between the reefs are well marked and about 200 metres wide and 50 metres deep so shouldn’t cause any concern, it is just that the breaking water on the reef close to channel is not attractive. We left Cook’s Bay and headed for Raiatea, followed by three other World ARC boats. We kept Celebrate’s lights in sight for quite a long time. We should be in Raiatea by about midday, so good light for coral spotting as we find an anchorage.



The good news is that the generator is running perfectly, the bilges do not seem to be getting any wetter now and both alternators are putting out lots of lovely amps therefore we have no problems? You must be joking. We tried to run the watermaker yesterday afternoon with no pressure so the membrane would get a good wash. The pump ran but we don’t know if the water ran and we couldn’t get the system to pressurise. We have also run out of gas in the two propane tanks for the galley. Fortunately the BBQ cylinder is quite full so John connected that as an emergency measure. Without problems we would have nothing to do except enjoy paradise!



Finally, Happy Birthday Richard for Monday. I won’t tell the world how old you are because that will make me feel old! Enjoy your celebrations.



Joyce

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