We’ve been here a bit over a year now. We meet new folks now and again, and reconnect with cruisers we shared an anchorage, a dive, a beer, a meal with after months of separation. It’s kind of interesting – almost always we find the other folks interesting and enjoyable company, but occasionally we really find ourselves bonding over a shared experience, background, point of view, or general outlook on the meaning of life. In the past 12 months we’ve made more good friends than 15 years of living in Phoenix, Arizona. Perhaps that says a bit about how work absorbs one’s energy, but it also is indicative of the enormous distractions there are in our consumptive economy back home.
We feel it ourselves when we fly back for a visit, kind of like being bombarded with information and the necessity to buy more stuff. Gotta go shopping! Well, I usually do need some new flip flops. It leaves less time to spend relaxing with friends, talking about where our lives have taken us so far, and where we hope to find ourselves going next.
Some of the folks we’ve developed the strongest connections with have gone or are about to go. Andrew and Julia on SV Hullabaloo sailed for New Zealand in 2019, and no telling when we’ll see them again.. David and Kris are about to sail home to Australia. These folks are more than just casual friends – we feel like family when we’re in their company. It’s nice to have family, and it’s nicer to realize that they don’t necessarily have to be blood relatives.
John, that big red blob is coming to get us. It’s a maramu, and we’re hoping it doesn’t last too long as we need to depart Tahanea soon for the village at Fakarava. Tomorrow we’ll run out of coffee. That’s an emergency. Problem with the village is a strong Southeasterly makes the anchorage untenable. A strong Westerly as happened a couple weeks back leaves a dangerous lee shore where the holding is dicey at best. Two boats, a monohull and a cat, were lost there in that storm a couple weeks back. We just got scared. Those sailors were left homeless.
I had a bit of a busy schedule today. Started off troubleshooting our single sideband (SSB) radio for noise and poor reception. Pulled all the RF connectors loose, inspected them for corrosion, applied dielectric grease and secured them all very well. Darned if the net didn’t sound a bit better tonight. Next up – share all our route waypoints and evil bommie waypoints with Mike on Easy. Open a couple of coconuts so Isabel could make fresh coconut cream to give to others in the anchorage. That done, off to visit SV September A.M. and try to help them determine the cause of an electrical fire a couple days ago.
Well I found it. Loose connection on a relay that started arcing and melted a few wires, also destroying the relay. No way to make a repair without changing how the system worked. If it were our boat I’d create a work around, make some notes on what I repaired and how it changed the functionality, then carry on until we got to a place to order parts and return the vessel to standard configuration. But this isn’t my boat, and none of the family members aboard are mechanically or electrically inclined. I did offer to assist with a repair if the yard that built the boat would provide a suitable work-around document and operating procedure. We’ll see how that goes.
Bloody storm is brewing up. Wind has been above 20 knots and clocked around to the West. We’re starting to get some occasionally nasty swell in here, but fortunately the wind is moving back to the Northwest. Guess it’s going to be a long night standing anchor watch and maybe tooling around in a holding pattern out in the lagoon. If we do have to motor around for hours, at least I can make some water, and some hot water. We’ll reward ourselves with a nice hot shower if we have to put up with this nonsense again.
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