I awoke at nine this morning after my overnight watch. Something was wrong about the boat sounds but I could not place it. There was the rush of water past the hull. There was the occasional creak of the jib sheet as it tautened on a wave. The occasional creak of the wheel. And the clunk of the centerboard shifting in its trunk on the bigger rolls. But something was missing.

Usually when the board is down, the cable sings. The taut cable vibrates a bass note that you can almost feel. It’s quiet when the board is up. And it gets quiet if the boat is drifting (but we usually pull the board up if there is no wind). But this morning we were moving (rush of water), the board was down (clunking in its case) but no cable bass note.

I dragged myself out of bed and popped up the ladder and felt the cable. It was slack. “Did you notice we broke the centerboard cable again?” I asked Robin. She hadn’t.

Oh and by the way, there was Tahiti in all its mountainous splendor.

We had to make a new plan now to fix the cable before entering a shallow marina basin, and to double check it wouldn’t foul the prop before starting the engine. We laid a course for the Venus Point anchorage (Darwin landed here!) though I had seen some reports that anchoring was now prohibited. We talked about other options, including anchoring or picking up a mooring inside the Pass at Papeete.

Finally, Robin called the Marina de Papeete and confirmed that they had space for us, and that they had deep water at their docks. That was a piece of luck: a week ago our friends on Sea Pearl were told to go elsewhere as there was no room. The wind and seas dropped in the lee of Tahiti, and Robin went for a quick swim to confirm there was no centerboard cable trailing near the propeller. We radioed Port Control for permission to enter the channel at 1330, and we were tied up by 1415.

This is our first docking since Panama. So many masts and boats in one place! And Papeete feels like a big city - not quite as big as Panama City, but the marina is right downtown. The city has a very French, European flavor to it, right down to the two tone horns on emergency vehicles.

We checked in, checked out the information in the marina lounge, then got right to work on the centerboard cable. It turned out to be a more complicated repair this time - the cable broke inside the tube, so I could not simply grab the broken end pull it up and tie in a new shackle eye. At first I thought I would have to disassemble the ceiling in the aft cabin to open up the top of tube, but I was able to loosen the deck plate bolts from the companionway access cover. And Marc, the friendly French sailor who helped us with our lines had the perfect tools for fishing the cable back through the eight foot long tube into the centerboard.case, so by the sundown, we had repaired the cable again.

I don’t know why the cable has broken twice in about a month. It might have been the way we had tensioned the cable combined with the rough seas, or it may have been general degradation of the Amsteel rope, which is supposed to be stronger than stainless wire rope. Anyway, I spooled out a fresh bit of cable, and hopefully it will not break again.

We treated ourselves to dinner out. We have sailed all the way to Tahiti!