Birthday morning, just beautiful
The start of my Birthday wearing my new necklace.
Ah, I had such grand plans for my Birthday in Moorea...but what does Buddhism say, expectations lead to disappointment and pain. Well, I can admit to being a little disappointed and I can certainly agree with the pain part. So why you ask? Read on....
It all started out beautifully, Geoff awoke me to a glorious morning in Opunohu Bay, cool around 22 degrees and clear. He made me breakfast of Bacon and Eggs (he'd gone ashore to get a fresh baguette too, but they'd sold out) He made a fresh stove top percolator of coffee and gave me a beautiful necklace of carved pearl shell and a pearl on a black cord. Sounding good hey? After breakfast we then had a frenzied discussion, on the fact that when he went to start the engine it took three attempts and that was worse than ever.
hmm, here starts the part where the day goes off the tracks a bit. We emailed. phoned and researched what we could about Starter motors and solenoids. We knew this was the problem now. But do we get it sent to here from our Yanmar dealer in Alameda or do we pay twice the price and get it from the Yanmar dealer in Papeete? Well, after looking at the costs of the unit, the Fedex charges, the custom agent charges for bringing it into the country and our yacht agents cut....well it would only work out $100 cheaper?! And lots more hassle or so we thought.
We found out the details of the bus to the town on the East coast, where the Ferry to Papeete leaves from, we found out the Ferry times...all looked pretty simple. So by 10.15 am Geoff was off on the bus and I was on the boat to keep a check on everything.
Ah, I had such grand plans for my Birthday in Moorea...but what does Buddhism say, expectations lead to disappointment and pain. Well, I can admit to being a little disappointed and I can certainly agree with the pain part. So why you ask? Read on....
It all started out beautifully, Geoff awoke me to a glorious morning in Opunohu Bay, cool around 22 degrees and clear. He made me breakfast of Bacon and Eggs (he'd gone ashore to get a fresh baguette too, but they'd sold out) He made a fresh stove top percolator of coffee and gave me a beautiful necklace of carved pearl shell and a pearl on a black cord. Sounding good hey? After breakfast we then had a frenzied discussion, on the fact that when he went to start the engine it took three attempts and that was worse than ever.
hmm, here starts the part where the day goes off the tracks a bit. We emailed. phoned and researched what we could about Starter motors and solenoids. We knew this was the problem now. But do we get it sent to here from our Yanmar dealer in Alameda or do we pay twice the price and get it from the Yanmar dealer in Papeete? Well, after looking at the costs of the unit, the Fedex charges, the custom agent charges for bringing it into the country and our yacht agents cut....well it would only work out $100 cheaper?! And lots more hassle or so we thought.
We found out the details of the bus to the town on the East coast, where the Ferry to Papeete leaves from, we found out the Ferry times...all looked pretty simple. So by 10.15 am Geoff was off on the bus and I was on the boat to keep a check on everything.
Now this is where my day starts to go pear shaped. I went for a swim and checked the anchor. We were anchored about 10 metres away from the start of the bigger coral bommies and the outlying reef. We were anchored in 3 metres of sand. As the day progressed the wind kept picking up so that at about midday it was blowing a constant 25 knots and gusting to 30 plus knots. The chain was straight out under the load of the boat and wind. I again snorkeled on the anchor and noticed it had dragged about a foot. Not too bad. But the wind picked up a bit more and steadied around 27 knots with more regular 35 knot gusts. Now I was getting nervous. The engine doesn't start good, were close to big bommies and we are only in 3 metres of water. I test started the engine, which kicked over after the third attempt. I snorkeled over the anchor again and now we have definitely dragged more. I snorkeled over the bommies behind us. And when I stood on one my head was above water. I am 5'2" the boat draws 4'9" it was starting to look a bit dodgy.
Geoff kept sending me texts from the Sat phone. He had got the starter motor by midday, but the next Ferry back didn't leave till 2pm. Rats. I kept watch of those three big bommies behind me and measured a distance between us and them. Geoff texted again from the Ferry, it was the slower one and it would take an hour to get back. Rats! Needless to say that I was feeling a tad anxious. So what does a good boating wife do? She bakes herself a Banana Birthday cake!! Oh and a batch of chocolate chip cookies.
Another text from Geoff, he was at the town but no buses yet. This was now 3.30pm. The wind was howling and the calm lagoon had turned into a scene of white caps and decent sized chop. All the 7 boats were swinging wildly with the bullets that came down from the 3000' mountains. We were the closest to the outlying reef. I had gone through the scenario, if the anchor goes, then I will have to kick the motor on as quickly as possible (that's if it starts) and put it into forward to keep us up off the reef. Then if that doesn't work, I will have to run up and bring up the anchor and then run back to the helm and motor away from the bommies as fast as I could. Hoping that I could do all that before we whacked onto one. Scary thoughts.
Got another text from Geoff at 4.30pm, still no bus. Bloody hell, now it was getting late and the last bus supposedly leaves at 4.45pm. So I hang on and go for another snorkel over the anchor, we've dragged about 10' a nice big plow mark in the sand. I snorkel over the bommies, they are now only a couple of feet from our stern, a little too close. I get prepared for having to motor forward any minute. Now it's 5 pm and no text from Geoff, I'm nervous as it gets dark at 5.30pm. Then at 5.15pm a text that says '5 mins away' I grab the dinghy which I had tied short to the back of the boat as it was trying to flip in the strong wind and scoot ashore and wait. The wind is now starting to back off, typical....will Geoff believe me that it was as strong as my texts were saying? When he arrives I point out the decent sized chop running through the anchorage. I explain whats been going on. Then when he gets on board, he sees the bommies just off our stern, looks at me and says "lets move further away"
So that was my Birthday! We stayed on board, no fancy restaurant, we were both stuffed. Geoff spent 7 hours getting the starter motor and I spent 7 hours worrying. We had a ham and cheese omelette's for dinner and my Birthday banana cake. Which Geoff covered in candles! Yay!
Geoff kept sending me texts from the Sat phone. He had got the starter motor by midday, but the next Ferry back didn't leave till 2pm. Rats. I kept watch of those three big bommies behind me and measured a distance between us and them. Geoff texted again from the Ferry, it was the slower one and it would take an hour to get back. Rats! Needless to say that I was feeling a tad anxious. So what does a good boating wife do? She bakes herself a Banana Birthday cake!! Oh and a batch of chocolate chip cookies.
Another text from Geoff, he was at the town but no buses yet. This was now 3.30pm. The wind was howling and the calm lagoon had turned into a scene of white caps and decent sized chop. All the 7 boats were swinging wildly with the bullets that came down from the 3000' mountains. We were the closest to the outlying reef. I had gone through the scenario, if the anchor goes, then I will have to kick the motor on as quickly as possible (that's if it starts) and put it into forward to keep us up off the reef. Then if that doesn't work, I will have to run up and bring up the anchor and then run back to the helm and motor away from the bommies as fast as I could. Hoping that I could do all that before we whacked onto one. Scary thoughts.
Got another text from Geoff at 4.30pm, still no bus. Bloody hell, now it was getting late and the last bus supposedly leaves at 4.45pm. So I hang on and go for another snorkel over the anchor, we've dragged about 10' a nice big plow mark in the sand. I snorkel over the bommies, they are now only a couple of feet from our stern, a little too close. I get prepared for having to motor forward any minute. Now it's 5 pm and no text from Geoff, I'm nervous as it gets dark at 5.30pm. Then at 5.15pm a text that says '5 mins away' I grab the dinghy which I had tied short to the back of the boat as it was trying to flip in the strong wind and scoot ashore and wait. The wind is now starting to back off, typical....will Geoff believe me that it was as strong as my texts were saying? When he arrives I point out the decent sized chop running through the anchorage. I explain whats been going on. Then when he gets on board, he sees the bommies just off our stern, looks at me and says "lets move further away"
So that was my Birthday! We stayed on board, no fancy restaurant, we were both stuffed. Geoff spent 7 hours getting the starter motor and I spent 7 hours worrying. We had a ham and cheese omelette's for dinner and my Birthday banana cake. Which Geoff covered in candles! Yay!
No comments:
Post a Comment