A Big Thanks to All Who Got Us Going Again!
31 July 2012 | Koumac, New Caledonia
We asked around here in Koumac about having a new tiller arm machined and it was recommended that we go to Noumea (the main city 5 hrs away) to have it made. But, there was talk of poor quality and long wait times, and with us being so far from Noumea, logistically it would have been very difficult.
Graham Perry, helped us look for a replacement, but the part is now obsolete and the recommended replacement had too many complications.
Michael's next thought was to contact his buddies at his former work to see if they could possibly help. After talking to Gary Searle it looked like they could. Sketches were made, scanned and emailed to Gary. Roman Puklic started machining on a Friday and had the part completed by Tuesday morning. In the meantime Ajay Mistry picked up a few items at Canadian Tire, ripped a couple of Indian music CD's and picked up citric acid powder at a wine making store (no, we are not making wine aboard! The citric acid is for passivatiing the water muffler to delay inevitable rusting.) . At the same time our friend Mike Rick passed on some sought after DVD's to Ajay. Ajay then got all the bits and posted it via DHL couriers and the parcel was in Noumea by the following Monday. It took another day of faxes and phone calls to clear customs and on Thursday we drove down to Noumea and picked up the package in person and checked out of the country.
It took a while but everything got installed and is working as it should. Once again, a big thanks to all who helped out, including those who I have not mentioned by name.
Please check out the two new photo albums in the photo gallery. One is showing our cave adventure and the other has more details about the repairs.