We're back in America. What a whirlwind finish to the season!

I was unpacking some clothes from my bag and came across the clothing that I had worn after leaving the boat the last time: canvas work shorts, a white nylon sun shirt, sun hat. We simply boarded the plane from Raiatea to Papeete, Tahiti wearing those clothes and didn't change into more appropriate/less stinky clothing until we were through customs and in the boarding area. Holy smokes! That stuff was rank! They were damp from South Pacific humidity and sweat, dirty from crusted dirt, paint, caulk, and other materials, and had that sticky feel of clothing that needed a wash. Well, perhaps you don't know what that feels like... All we wear for footgear is sandals, so my toes were covered in red bottom paint, black paint that I applied to the water maker motor, and a few splatters of white caulk from dinghy work.

We worked like dogs for 10 days to prepare the boat for layover. There was little about which I hadn't written before, so I spared you the details. Our decommissioning list grows longer and longer as we learn from others or discover for ourselves what needs to be done. For several days, we delayed attaching the cover for the deck forward of the mast since we had ordered some gel coat work done. Passports were well made but the workers were inexperienced in fiberglass work since they were, first and foremost, builders of teak boats. We worked on the dinghy almost every day, trying to get it ready for service next season. Not having any purpose-made Hypalon glue, we were forced to use caulk to re-attach the rub rail, for example. By the time that we had climbed down the ladder for the last time, we were both exhausted, but the boat was in better condition than ever.

While I'm here in Oakland, I'll post some photos of the burned boat that appeared at the Carenage. Actually, we learned that the burned boat caused by the incompetent (and consequently deceased) sailor had been raised from a bay on Huahine, a neighboring island, a few weeks ago. That boat was also burned to the waterline, but raised, cut into pieces and shipped to Tahiti for processing. This past week, two other catamarans sank, one, a Moorings charter boat, burned to the waterline in an incident that is still unexplained, and the other simply sank between Moorea and Tahiti. That last one was a charter boat from Poe Charter in Tahiti, and will not be recovered. We wondered if the people who chartered the boat got a refund. The burned boat sank about 17 September in Fa'aroa Bay on Raiatea, although we haven't learned a cause, yet. The remnants were raised by the Carenage staff and dragged to the Carenage behind their tug. What a mess! The boat, as you'll see in the photos, burned down to the waterline so nothing could be salvaged. The two hulls of the catamaran were burned below the bridge deck so they were separate and very difficult to manage. The fuel tanks were damaged, of course, so the wreck leaked diesel fuel into the lagoon. Usually, Dominique, the Carnage owner, can sell the remains for salvage or recycle, but things were so destroyed that Dominique was scrambling for a way to rid himself of the mess. The ramp in which the boat was hanging overnight from salvage buoys was badly polluted with diesel fuel and oil, and the main concrete area was littered with oily debris. Dominique thinks that he'll have to rent a Connex to store the chopped up boat, then ship it to Tahiti for the landfill. Lest we forget, there's also a Sunsail monohull that went up on a reef, another human mistake.

So, that's three wrecks in a month, not a good average, and not good for boat insurance payments.

We were able to bid farewell to our many new cruising friends, and even shared a return flight from Papeete to San Francisco with Amy and Peter. We made many new friends this season, and we spent more time socializing than we ever have. There's just something about cruisers: They're problem solvers, they're daring, and they know how to optimize friendships for the time allowed.

We did buy new batteries, two new 4D batteries. They're lower capacity than we'd prefer, but they're AGM-formats and we got a decent price. They won't arrive until later this week, so we'll have to hire the local electrician to install them. On the other hand, he'll have to hump those 100+ pound batteries up the ladder and down into the cabin! I won't miss that exercise.

Next season, the big project will be the new refrigerator installation. We've got the measurements that we need and I'll fabricate some extra mounts for the holding plate that we can modify on-site for a more custom fit. I simply did not have time to remove the old fridge parts.

We also must rejuvenate our water maker: season two on that task. We worked for several days on removing the end caps, but failed. We'll buy the recommended plugs and try again next season. We had taken a new reverse osmosis membrane with us, at great cost and hassle, but were told that the membrane would not survive in its packaging. We decided to buy an ABS pipe, cut it to length, and buy and cement some end caps. After filling the tube with the "pickling" compound mixed in some rain water (no chlorine in the membrane!), we dropped in the membrane and it's stored until next season.

There will be other challenges and tasks, of course, but those are the two that we know that we'll face.