Before our shoreside activities we spent some time refining our plans (which may of course change) for the next month or so. The main change is that we now plan to visit Aitutaki in the Southern Cooks and skip Rarotonga. Our path to Tonga is now Raiaritea, Tahaa, Bora Bora, Maupiti, Maupihaa, Aitutaki, Palmerston, (possibly) Beveridge Reef, Niue and then the Vava’u Group in Tonga.
Around 9am we all went ashore and first headed east to visit Marae Taputapuatea which Ben and I had walked past the previous day. The Marae was similar to but larger than the one we saw in Huahine near Maeva. Again there were some interesting signs to read explaining the ruined site. Seeing these vast abandoned stone areas gives some small sense of the population loss these islands suffered when European diseases first made it here (in Europeans of course). Very sad but unavoidable.
Having seen the Marae we headed back in the opposite direction and followed a road inland. We walked past a couple of hydroponic farms and past the ever immaculate houses of the locals. In a few places fruit trees were right beside the road/path and we helped ourselves to any ripe overhanging fruit. We came back with papayas, guavas, star fruit and pampelmouse.
We arrived back on the boat around midday after some good exercise and had lunch followed by a brief rest. Soon we raised the anchor from 90ft, raised the head sail and made our way north to Baie Faaroa where we’ve heard there’s an interesting river to dinghy up.
Upon arrived we discovered the windlass motor unresponsive and had to drop anchor manually. Once we had the boat settled I troubleshooted the problem. I discovered that the screw connecting high amp cable to the windlass relay was slightly loose. Over time this has been heating up and cooling down gradually melting the top of the relay. In turn the relay contacts have been gradually moving out of place each time the plastic softened. The recent deep water anchor raises placed a heavier and longer load than ever and must have tipped it over the point of failure.
Fortunately I had a spare which I used to replaced the broken relay. The only complication was that it was a different shape and the wiring had to be reconfigured. I made sure the screws were in firm and will now add inspecting this component to my long period checks.
At this point it was too late to go to shore. The evening was concluded with a couple more episodes of 24 and a nice curry.