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American Spirit II - Day 179; HASH, Water Maker Problem, Skippers Meeting & 6:30 PM Rendezvous Banquet; Thursday, Jule 3, 2014



Up at 7:00 AM to join the 7:30 AM Rally organized HASH. I got up, no one else on the boat did. I don't know what the acronym stands for. About 20 of us walked or ran around the island following flour signages in the roadway on which direction to go or not to go. The HASH was done by 8:15 AM. The walk/run was up and down hills and gave you a good overview of the surrounding area of the resort complex.

The normal Rally broadcast occurred at 9:00 AM. Of particular importance was that it was announced that we may depart for Vanuatu a day early, Friday, July 4 instead of Saturday, July 5 due to a Low pressure system north of our destination.

Breakfast at 10:00 AM. Eggs, chilled peach halves and bread.

Joel then spent the better part of the day taking our water maker pump apart and determined that we had a salt water intake leak and a fresh water pressure switch leak. You may be wondering, why didn't we fix this when we had the chance in Port Denarau for 2 weeks? Because the problem occurred after we left. While Joel did that I put the stern anchor away, which is harder than it sounds - a large anchor that was stowed in the port cockpit locker, at the bottom; 50 pounds of anchor chain, stored in the bilge in the main cabin; and 300 feet of rope anchor rode in the bottom of the starboard cockpit locker. Which means everything in that locker had to be taken out first before the rope could be put in the bottom of the locker.

Lunch was at Dick's restaurant on the property. I had a steak sandwich; Angela a pizza; Chet a club sandwich; and Joel had his usual chicken sandwich. The sandwiches came with french fries, which the locals know how to cook. After lunch we did internet, which was poor (easy to connect, hard to get anything accomplished).

The skipper's meeting was held at 4:00 PM; and it was announced that we would be leaving for Port Resolution, Tanna, Vanuatu the next day, a day early. Due to the change in schedule, this leg will not be 'competitive.' Not a race, just 'get there.' By leaving a day early we hoped to miss some of the worst effects of a Low pressure system to the north of Vanuatu. The sail is 449 miles, and though the bigger boats like Nexus and NDS Darwin and Celebrate will arrive Sunday evening; the smaller boats like us will be happy to arrive in daylight Monday. Daylight Monday means before sunset. The weather forecast has winds 15-20 knots from the southeast then east; with large waves from the southwest. Winds from the east and waves from the southwest means it will be sloppy sailing. There is always a trivia type question to be answered on a piece of paper, one per boat. The question this time was: how many air miles will the Rally personnel (Paul and Suzana) have to fly to get to Tanna, Vanuatu from Fiji? Even though the island is 449 mils away, my guess was 2,000 miles. In hindsight, I should have written down 3,000. Getting to Tanna is not easy. Angela and Chet are flying home from the capital to Nadi, Fiji and then to LA, and the flight from Vanuatu only occurs 2 times per week. Welcome to the third world!

The banquet at 6:30 PM was held inside due to the light rain and high winds outside. It was scheduled to be held on an island under the stars. Oh well. Small plaques were given to all the skippers/owners of 10 of the boats leaving the Rally at this time: BriZo, Caduceus of Burnham, Chez Nous, Circe, Firefly, Flomaida II, Hebe, Skylark of London, Starblazer and Trillium. II Audeacious and Seaduced are leaving the Rally in Australia instead of Fiji, so they're still with us and we'll have our good-byes with them in MacKay, Australia. Each owner was called up to receive their plaque and have a photo taken. Paul Tetlow, the chief Rally person in attendance, conducted the affair, which was very well done. Afterward, Jonathan from Chez Nous had some kind words to say about Paul and Suzana, recently engaged, and gave them a wedding present from the departing yachts.

After the banquet I filled out Fiji exit forms to clear out of the country. Some of these were identical or near identical to those that we had filled out upon entering the country. About 10 pages. In duplicate. Because we don't have a copier (doesn't every boat have a copier?), the forms had to be filled out twice. Thank you Angela for filling out the second copy for me. I also filled out the entry forms for Vanuatu because I thought they were to be given to Rally control before leaving Fiji. Wrong. It took me a little over two hours (9:15 PM to 11:22 PM) to fill out all these forms. The information asked for included many about the boat, engine model number, dingy type, color and model number, ad nauseoum (not sure about the spelling). Joel put the water maker back together as I did this. The end result on the water maker is that we had a faulty pressure switch; and a leak in a salt water intake hose that could not be fixed. I'll have to order a new pressure switch and hose.

Brian Fox

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