South Pacific « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Wet day

by KC2RIY, on July 31st, 2010 (Bamboozle, Society Islands)

In the morning we set off on our planned 9 mile hike around one of the lobes of the island. The first stretch of the hike over the low saddle to the bay on the other side of the island was very pleasant. As we reached the other side it began to rain lightly. Usually this is pleasant as it means we don’t have the sun beating down and the light rain keeps us cool. This time the light rain was merely the forerunner for heavy rain for which we were not prepared.

We spent a bit of time standing under banana leaves before searching out a more permanent shelter under the roof of a small shack. After a break in the rain we pushed onwards only to get caught out again. This time we made crude umbrellas out of banana leaves and made our way back to our earlier shelter where we waited out the next period of intense rain.

After exhausting our I-Spy options the rain died and we decided to head back the way we came. It was a good decision as the skies began to darken again as we approached the dinghy. The winds were blowing quite strongly into the harbour we were in so the dinghy ride back to the boat was against the wind and chop. If we had a dry patch on us before the dinghy ride we didn’t when we reached the boat.

We settled down for a boat day as the outside weather remained grey and occasionally wet. We heard from Bamboozle who were on their way to this anchorage. We’d heard that they had a good keyboard on their boat and Ben was already in withdrawal. We soon had ourselves invited over for sundowners.

In the evening we had better luck working our way upwind to where Bamboozle was anchored arriving only slightly wet. There we met their friends Mark & Genevieve with their twin daughters. Both Ben and Lucy played the piano for us while we enjoyed good company and the occasional beer. Helen had a small tinkle on the electric ivories too.

Today we may go for another hike. Not sure yet. The weather overnight has again been windy and wet. The wind gen has been really earning it’s keep. The easterly horizon is looking quite gray so we may have to pass on this idea. We’ll see.

Battery Day

by KC2RIY, on July 30th, 2010 (Kamaya, Society Islands)

I decided that yesterday was a good time to rotate the batteries. The plan was to take all twelve golf cart batteries from the house bank and switch them with six from each bank of twelve drive batteries. The overall goal is to level out and average the usage across all the batteries over a period of three years. We’re having no issues with the system and we want to keep it that way.

At the same time I wanted to complete the topping up exercise started a month ago. Therefore the first order of the day was to manufacture more battery water by rerunning product water back through the water maker to get water at around 3-4 parts per million. This was not without mishap. One of the steps involved in doing this is to remove the tube going into our fresh water tank and use it to fill the bottles destined to contain battery water. Normally I remove the rubber seal from the end of the tube to avoid losing it. This time I forgot to do this. Half way through the exercise I saw the rubber ring ping off the end of the tube. I thought it had dropped under the water tank where it would be difficult to find. I was very angry at myself for this.

When I’d made enough water to fill one bottle I switch over collection bottles. Placing the full bottle down I accidentally placed it on top of something else and it tipped over. Reaching over to stop losing the battery water every where I dropped the output tube. When I picked it up again I saw it tipping water over the rubber ring that had not, after all, fallen in the bilge but landed on top of the water tank. Only problem was now was that the water coming from the output tube washed the ring into the bilge. I was doubly angry at myself.

Once two gallons of battery water had been made up we switched off the water maker and I set about finding the ring. It had made it into the bilge but not where I could reach it. I managed to move it into the deeper water by the pump and then reach down to retrieve it. Seconds after I had it in my fingers the bilge pump went off. Had it gone off before it would have sucked up the ring and pumped it out to sea. I would not have been a happy bunny if that had happened.

Fortunately, after that there were no mishaps. We transferred the batteries in stages minimising downtime to the system. I first isolated six of the house batteries which meant the house supply was off for a minute or two. These were all removed. We cleaned all the anti corrosion gunk off the nuts, washers and terminals and sanded the battery terminals clean. We topped up the batteries with water and cleaned them off. Next we swapped them with six batteries from the port bank similarly cleaning all the pieced and topping them off. Then the batteries from the port bank were put in the house. The whole process was repeated for the final six house batteries and six from the starboard drive bank. Along the way we marked all the batteries so we’d know next time which came from where.

By the end of this all Ben and I each had a very stiff back from all the lugging and bending over. We creaked like old men.

We’d already had sandwiches along the way so we quickly fired up the generator and motored into the next anchorage. We had enough power to go in on batteries and head sail but I wanted to stir them up after the addition of more water. Everything looked good. We ended up anchored near Kamaya and Victoria near the town of Haamene.

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Soon after arriving Tim and Ruth passed us by and let us know that the locals were playing the finals in some five aside football nearby and that it seemed a lot of fun. We were planning to go ashore any way and were soon on our way in. We went up to the enclosure in which they were playing but the place was packed and crowds were round the two doors in so it was hard to see. There was a lot of cheering and shouting so there was indeed a good atmosphere inside. Outside they were setting up food stalls presumably for the end of game and down the road was a roadside food stall similar to the ones on Huahine. After the hard work of the day Ben and I were drawn to the smells. After a quick walk around the town we caved in and bought a beer each and order a chow mein each. The portions turned out to be huge and too much to eat. We ate what we could before leaving the rest.

Back on the boat we watched the movie Alice in Wonderland together. Ben and I were not too tired so we watched Naked Gun together before we retired.

Incidentally, it has been mentioned that the Tahitian’s use a lot of vowels in their place names. We saw one road sign today that beat them all. Bearing in mind we’re on the island of Taha’a, the sign we saw was to the town/village of Faaaha. We think they must have been named by someone visiting the dentist.

Ile Mahaea, Taha’a

by KC2RIY, on July 29th, 2010 (Society Islands)

After the morning net we went ashore for our hike to the top of the nearby hill. At 964ft above sea level we had a great view of the reef surrounding Raiatea and Taha’a as well as Hauhine and Bora Bora in the distance in different directions.

Back down in town we had $2 chip butties for lunch (at least Ben and I did – Helen had a more sensible egg and ham roll). Afterward we went to the supermarket to provision for the next few weeks.

As soon as the food was stored aboard we set sail for the east side of Taha’a to find an anchorage on the reef. We found a vast area in 5 feet of water and despite this being a little shallow for our comfort we entered the area and anchored. As we drifted back on our chain we found the boat bumping on the bottom so we decided to move to deeper water. We pulled up the chain, turned around and grounded on the sand just before the drop off. I raised the head sail to get an extra push but we weren’t going anywhere. We sent Ben in the water to check the situation. He reported that we were more over the bump and only had a little further to go. A little more cycling of the motors and we were off. We later discovered we’d left the water maker on all this time. The primary filter is probably now full of sand.

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Once we’d anchored Ben and I spent a couple of hours snorkeling and testing out the new spear gun. Due to it’s length (the spear is 110cm) it’s a lot harder to load but it has a lighter trigger. There weren’t a great deal of large fish around so it took us a while to have a successful test.

Back on the boat we spent the evening finishing off the last 4 episodes of 24.

Today we plan to head inland up the inlet to our SW. We understand the hiking is interesting so we’re looking forward to that. Maybe we’ll get some of the boat projects done soon. All depends on conditions. My turn to run the net this morning as it’s Thursday.

Uturoa, Raiatea

by KC2RIY, on July 28th, 2010 (Society Islands)

All three of us had a nice snorkel on the pass. Ben and I again took turns with the spear gun with little luck. The gun we have has two problems. One is that I bought a short one principally to shoot lobsters which we haven’t seen. Second there is only one of it. I have been eying the locally available spear guns here in Polynesia and they are surprisingly cheap.

When we returned to the boat I felt the growth on the hulls had gone too far so stayed in the water for another hour scraping it away. Our paint is rapidly losing the battle against the weed. Furthermore, each time I use the metal scraper (the only one that works) to attack the weed, more paint is removed. My intention was to repaint before we left NZ but now we may have to repaint on arrival. We’ll see.

After lunch we motored around to Uturoa using only stored energy. Recently we’ve only had to run the generator for washes managing to limit ourselves to stored amps and wind power. Always nice when we get a good run like this.

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After arrival we went ashore to explore the town. We soon found a hardware store that had an array of spear guns on sale. I couldn’t resist and bought one twice the size of my current one for less than I had paid for the first. We also bought some more metal scrapers so more than one of us can work on the weeds on the boat. The town was quite nice and catered more for locals than tourists. We also found the location where the trail up to the top of the nearby hill started.

We no longer have our free internet so we’re now back to grabbing time in small slices. It was good while it lasted.

This morning we plan to hike up the hill. We may move north to Taha’a this afternoon.

River Ride, Gardens, Bananas and more

by steve, on July 27th, 2010 (Society Islands)

Yesterday was another one of those days that ended up better than we could have ever expected.

Our main trip of the day was to explore the nearby river. The wind in the bay we were in was whipping up the water so getting to the river mouth got us a little wet. But soon we were in the river and all was tranquil.

There was not a great deal of wild life to see but Helen was totally thrilled (not) when Ben thought he saw a snake in the water. We made our way up river about a mile or so before coming to a shallow section. While Helen and Ben waded ahead to see if the river improved around the corner, I dragged the dinghy up a couple of the shallow sections. In doing so I developed a huge hole in the seat of my shorts.

In the end we all agreed with Helen’s early conclusion that it was not worth carrying on so we reversed and dragged the dinghy back over the shallow sections. For a while we paddled the dinghy to enjoy the peace and quiet of the surrounds. At one point we passed a collapsing jetty with a man working. He called out to us and asked us if we wanted to see the botanical gardens which was by the jetty. We were keen to do this and quickly agreed.

We soon learned the chaps name was James, although not James Bond. He had a reasonable command of English. Near the river the gardens, if they were the gardens at this point, were very overgrown. As we progressed, though, the gardens became a lot neater. We were followed by a young chap and a very pretty young girl who smiled a lot. They didn’t say anything and weren’t introduced. Being in the company of a pretty girl (followed) while having a gaping hole in my shorts reminded me of the worst disasters of my youth.

James was a good host. He explained the names of the plants in English and French and sometime in Tahitian. At one point he showed us how to climb a palm tree although Ben and Helen’s attempts to copy were less than successful. I declined to try owing to the trouser situation.

At another time, James also opened up a coconut for us to nibble on the contents.

Throughout his guided tour he kept offering us bananas. When we reached the river he again offered us some and we accepted thinking we must tip him for his kindness even though it was uncustomary. The young boy and girl joined him in his skiff and they crossed the river and headed downstream a short way. James went ashore and soon came back with a big bunch of bananas. Despite our offer, he refused to accept. We thanked him in Polynesian using the words he had taught us during the tour.

Loaded with bananas we headed back down river and back to Dignity. On arrival we hoisted the dinghy in readiness to leave the bay. A few moments later a couple on a nearby boat passed our stern in their dinghy which promptly cut out leaving them adrift. We lowered the dinghy again and I headed off to their rescue. I took their bow line and towed them back to their boat. I offered further assistance which they declined.

We soon had the dinghy raised and were underway headed for Ile Tarou. Having been off the internet for a few days I checked around for signals and to our great surprise found a faint but open one.

All thoughts of getting in the water were soon dismissed as we all took our fill of this free resource. For that last couple of months we’ve had to be careful with our time as it costs several $$$ per hour. Now we could catch up on the things we wanted. Over several hours I downloaded all the updates for my old laptop. Finishing this morning I have gone back and checked all my old blog entries back to the Galapagos. I have fixed all the categories and embedded all the photos into the appropriate entries. That took a lot of time.

Ben and I did go out snorkeling for nearly two hours. We took the spear gun hoping to find some big fish. Near the channel drop off we found some very interesting sites including a whole area of anemones complete with clown fish (of Finding Nemo fame). We did shoot a few fish which we fed to moray eels.

In the evening we carried on with watching 24. During this we heard this ever increasing beeping/chirping. At first we thought it was from the show but after a while we figured out it was coming from the bananas which we had hanging up. After we had finished watching the TV I examined the bananas and found a small cricket which I dispatched. We heard no more chirps.

We’ll probably all go snorkeling later this morning to catch the incoming current before moving on.

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Ile Mahaea, Taha’a

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River Ride, Gardens, Bananas and more