Our Last Night in the Bungalow
29 May 2016 | Pension Tiare Nui
Anxious Bill
This is our last night on land for awhile, and all that it means. We’ve had our last stand-up shower, our last cool room, our last solid ground, all and more, until we arrive at Bora Bora when we can shower ashore. Other than that, we don’t get these commodities until we return here in 6 weeks or so.
I didn’t post a blog last night because one of the four couples who own a big aluminum motor yacht from Vancouver, Canada (her name is Idlewild) dropped by with a bottle of fine Chilean wine and we talked until ten PM. Andy and Julie are so funny! They and two other couples and two kids motored from Puerta Vallarta, Mexico to Hiva Oa in the Marquesas. The boat is odd-looking, to be sure, but it’s amazingly fuel efficient, using only 1.39 gallons per hour. The boat with the original owner completed a circumnavigation, including a passage through the Northwest Passage. The boat was designed and built in British Columbia and was dragged along the rivers and streams from her construction point to the Arctic Ocean! Holy smokes! Idlewild, the boat, draws only 3’ 6”, so is very shallow draft. At any rate, they are very interesting folks and very adventurous.
We’re ready to launch. That simple statement says it all. We’ve completed tasks that are fairly far down on the list since we’ve done everything else.
Conni completed a superb job in installing the mast boot but using a damaged tube of caulk to touch up some possible leak points. The job looks great and I’m sure will be water tight.
I installed the jack lines, safety lines that run the full length of the boat. Once attaches oneself to the jack lines when leaving the cockpit. As we say, much better than the best life jacket is not leaving the boat!
Yesterday I completed the engine check, R and R (remove and replace) both primary and secondary fuel filters, changing the oil, checking the injector pump lubrication, and changing the transmission fluid. With any luck at all, the engine will start as soon as I bleed the fuel system of all trapped air.
I also got all of our instruments re-installed and checked that the new chart chips that I bought (we always buy the most recent upgrade for our charts) will work. Our radar is working, our AIS is working, and our forward-looking sonar is working. It all should work, but one never knows until the power button is pushed. An upgrade to the Simrad system failed, but the old system works fine.
We’ve got two tanks of water aboard and the Idlewild folks generously gave us a lot of extra food, so we’re set for a while.
Tomorrow, we have a few chores to complete, but we’ll arrive early at the yard and ensure that we get launched on schedule. We’ll have a grocery run to complete, we’ve got to fill a spare jerry can of diesel, and we’ve got to return the rental car. We’ll have to bleed the fuel system but we’ll do that once we’re in the water.
I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to upload another blog: perhaps in a day or two. Wish us luck in the launch.