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25 September 2020 | Home
William Ennis | Rainy and 40°F: not the South Pacific!
Our trip across the Pacific and then up the US West Coast was uneventful, thankfully. Our Global Entry made entry into the US fast and easy, we had no contraband, so whisked through immigration and customs. We only had a 2-hour connection window in Los Angeles, and still had a hour wait! First Class (thank you, Alaska Airlines!) from LAX to Seattle, but then back to regular seats from there to AK. Our dear friends Peter and Toby fetched us at the Anchorage airport, drove us to their place, and fed us a lovely dinner before hauling our weary butts home. The dinner was in their garage with the door up, and all of us spaced more than two meters apart since we were sitting at a makeshift table made of a sheet of plywood...with candles. Very clever folks.
So, after a few days of washing boat stink and boat yard grime from ourselves and our gear, how was the trip?
We both think that it was one of our best! I'm surprised to feel that way, but we're both enthusiastic about our experience. Had we worked so hard with less to show for it, we would certainly have felt differently. Without recounting the work, Wings looks considerably better now than when we arrived.
As we discussed things, Conni made the statement that, "After all, we have a 36-year-old boat.", and that fact means that we should be spending extra time and effort on simple maintenance. And so we shall. Our sailmaker will complete a new forward section of boat cover made from a heavier material than the old sun cover, so the boat will be cooler below decks and will suffer a bit less rain and sun on her decks. We've always removed all of our halyards, of course, and all of our masthead instruments, and we've just begun to cover our new radome with a re-purposed outboard cover. We'll continue those practices, and begin to search for anyway possible to reduce or eliminate damage from the brutal South Pacific environment.
I think that we'll try and schedule a bit more time each season for simple maintenance, and make a list of regular maintenance for us to perform. At this point, we've got a new engine and new electronics, although I've still got to install our B&G wind instruement next season, so we can focus on maintenance rather than installing new.
We spent 9 days lounging in Bora Bora's lagoon, an exceptionally long time for us to stay anywhere, but we'd just launched after our grueling 4 weeks of boat yard effort. We spent several days, on two occasions, waiting out inclement weather in Tapuamu. We also accomplished a first for us, and visited the pocket lagoon on Raiatea. On our last Sunday before our Monday departure, we drove around the island and found the land side of that lagoon. I'll post a few photos of that scene later today.
We also visited Haamene Bay on Taha'a's SE side. It's Conni's favorite places and I've come around a lot now that it's safer for us. And of course there are both the Taha’a MaiTai and the Hibiscus to visit, two of our favorite restaurants.
Lots of work, lots of progress, lots of relaxing while floating in the most beautiful water in the world: a good trip.