It was a standard day in the yard. I pulled our propane tanks and gas jugs for filling. I also pulled the props and zincs. The zincs were in pretty good shape but not good enough for me to skip the easy opportunity to replace them.

The Raiatea Carenage has a lot of the necessities but they didn't have Yanmar Zincs. Fortunately the Raiatea Marine shop, a whopping 5 seconds across the dirt, had Plastimo replacements for the Yanmars. They fit and they were zinc so I bought them.

The props were an interesting contrast. The port prop was brand new and installed maybe a month back in the water in Moorea. It already has some stuff on it. The starboard prop had two year old Prop-speed on it and was still clean as a whistle. If you have never used Prop-speed you might want to take a look. It is amazing stuff. The only person I have known not to be happy with it flagrantly ignored the application directions. It is a two step process with an etching primer and the paint after. You have to let the etch dry as per the instructions and you have to have the props totally clean when you start.

As I was messing about with the sail drives I noticed that the starboard drive had a spacer between the drive leg and the prop and the port didn't. At least it didn't now. Got me thinking about how we crossed the Pacific with no prop on the port shaft. Was it there when I checked into things in the Galapagos? Can't be sure. It had certainly gone missing somewhere. What are the odds of finding this little bit in French frickin' Polynesia? Not good.

I sought out the boss for this one. I told Dominic my situation and asked if he could source a part. The wheels turning in my brain: Let's see, two weeks for shipping because no one has the part, the distributor will only ship to a dealer in China who then needs to ship to Tahiti, where it will clear customs in 1to never many days, I will have to fly to Tahiti to escort the part through customs, two days to get back to Raiatea and in the end I will have paid $1,398 and worked for a month to get a $1 chunk of metal.

Dominic said let me see. Stuck his head in a tool box and said "here", as he handed me the exact part! Are you kidding me? I pinched myself the rest of the afternoon as I carefully sanded and polished the little metal ring.