Parts is parts 22 Sep 19

17º 29.480s 149º 51.167w

Sun Sep 22 2019

A couple days ago our sailing pal Shawnee arrived bearing gifts. Brought ‘em all the way from Augusta, Georgia in the good old US of A. Her new business card will read “bon vivant, and international boat parts smuggler”. For us, it’s Christmas in September!

When you’re in “exotic land” one of the bonuses is “exotic prices” and almost no boat parts to buy. Yes, cruising is a little bit of “fixing a boat in exotic places”, exotic being defined perhaps by the idea folks might conjure up in their heads when thinking of a place like Tahiti. Repair parts are somewhere between ridiculously expensive and unobtainable here, so it’s darn exciting when someone comes for a visit, especially when someone will happily carry a couple of checked bags full of bits and pieces that will either help us repair a failing doodad or facilitate execution a new project such as a canvas rain barrier.

Shawnee arrived on French Bee Wednesday morning around 0600 with 2 of the finest pieces of Goodwill luggage I’ve ever seen. The drill is pretty simple, really. First, find a victim who wants to come sailing in a new and exotic place and is agreeable to enduring endless Amazon Prime, Westmarine, Downwind Marine, Sailrite, and other company deliveries until the small mountain of stuff risks catastrophic failure of their kitchen table.

Once the pile is complete, said victim goes on the hunt for used luggage, one or more suitcases that will successfully contain and protect the delicate (or not) parts to be transported from A to B. Upon acquiring the luggage, the packing begins, but first, all new items are removed from their original containers and the receipts and instructions are separated into a different pile. New Turkish towels to replace the fraying ones on JollyDogs become packing material for new relays, light fixtures, and anything else that might need padding or protection. Track material for canvas projects gets cut to a length that will fit in the Goodwill luggage piece. Only the new pizza stone gets to travel in its original box – a broken pizza stone is pretty useless, and that’s one expensive piece of rock.

Well our load was so big that Shawnee had to make a second trip to Goodwill for an additional suitcase, but she got here with everything! TSA had their way with the bags and left us a love letter in each, but nothing was missing upon arrival. Probably one of the electronic gizmos such as the the relay or the anchor light tweaked their interest. Surely it couldn’t have been the pizza stone, Could it?

We had anchored in a little bay fairly close to Papeete International Airport, so once Shawnee’s “I’m on the ground” WhatsApp text arrived Isabel delivered me by dinghy to a point of land that left me about a 15-minute walk to the terminal building. Small airport, no way to get lost or lose somebody, and soon Shawnee emerged, post immigration and customs. No inspection – Woohoo! No complications with import duties, no need to wave official boat documents around and mutter “yacht in transit” to stubborn bureaucrats, just two old suitcases carefully packed with parts. Fortunately neither was too heavy, and one rolled, so in no time we were back at the pickup point and here came Isabel to fetch us out to JollyDogs.

Unpack, inspect, celebrate, then look for a home for the suitcases. Couldn’t find a taker, so left them in the nearby marina laundry room. They’ll get recycled. In the meantime, stow everything and get ready to launch out of the anchorage and sail for Moorea – there’s a nice wind blowing!

Our first night together was in Oponuhu Bay where Captain Cook first sailed into Moorea or so it is said. Stunningly beautiful – I kept thinking King Kong was going to descend from the jagged peaks but no such luck. A windless night produced an opportunity for various flying insects to visit, and as Moorea has had reports of dengue fever, we elected to depart the next morning for the sandy shelf just inside the reef and a little East of the bay entrance. Pretty here, and a lovely park about 300 meters away where our newly minted yoga instructor can practice her craft on us and any other interested parties.

I’m bolting and wiring up new bits and pieces as fast as I can, but until the wind dies down a bit, successfully completing electrical wiring tasks involving heat shrink at the mast head will have to wait. Got all the mechanical up there done yesterday, so maybe we’ll have a calm spell soon.

We wound up our big shindig yesterday afternoon about a half hour before sunset. I had to deliver 6 folks back to the beach and navigating the coral heads near the shoreline dictated a decent amount of light. Stephen and Debbie from Amelie needed to buzz about 3 miles back up to Cook’s Bay in their dinghy, and the reef markers along the way are more of a suggestion than a rule, so they needed good light as well. For the crew of JollyDogs, we observed our biorhythms and heading off to bed by 2100 (9 pm), what we refer to as “cruiser’s midnight”. We were up at the crack of dawn this morning, enjoying our coffee before the sun came up, prepared to launch into another day of clean living!

The wind howled off and on all night, and it’s still honkin’ out of the East Northeast this morning. I may give it a shot, but I’m betting Mr. Heat Gun won’t be able to shrink diddly in this gale.