Greetings from yacht Ensemble.
We have decided to change from the first start - scheduled for lunch time today - to the Wednesday start. There are two starts for this leg because of limited space in the anchorages in Suwarrow and Niue - and we've felt a bit rushed in our preparation - so decided it was prudent to wait until the second start. This gives us time to get the boat in order and set up the rigging for the new sail (a Parasailor). Mike from Wind Dancer has been kind enough to help with the rigging issues (we've now fitted soft shackles on the mast head for both the Parasailor and genakker) - and today we will hopefully sort out the mast head chafe issues.
The generator went into alarm again the day before yesterday - a temperature alarm - that turned out to be the water pump impeller (again). This is disappointing on a number of fronts: it is the second impeller in 6 weeks - and the generator was serviced just in Tahiti - and the spare parts that were supposed to be ordered weren't. So we're down to one spare impeller to last us all the way to Australia!
The other 'not so good' news was that they were still not able to repair the outboard. They need a replacement part - and were not able to get it from Honda in time. To add insult to injury - when we picked up the outboard it was on its side - the wrong side - so that the oil will have leaked again back into the plugs - and the tilt switch protector will have gone again. Back to square one! At least we have the Yamaha 5HP to get us around.
On the food front things are going much better. We had a lovely dinner at St James restaurant for Peter and Carmen's last night - and then dinner and a show with Gunvor at the Intercontinental last night.
Peter and Carmen got away safely. At Bora Bora the airport is on one of the outlying islands and you have to catch a ferry. So very boaty! We had a great time and are looking forward to catching up with them again soon.
Yesterday we went for a scuba dive with the sharks and the manta rays. Really good and Magali had a great time. Big improvement on our last dive in Galapagos!
Today we will spend working on our list of things to do before we leave - and of course watch the start of Group 1... party on Ensemble!
Cheers
Dave
13May2012 026