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Archives for May 2010
The water is always bluer on the other side of the lagoon - understanding Tom
We went of yesterday, its still blowy here and the most sheltered spot is here, on a "booowee" off the Taravana YC in Tahaa. We like it here. Meal 2 nights ago was the best fish I've had since Jackie's cooking on Jackal 2 years ago. And That's high praise indeed. Jack can do stuff to a Mahi Mahi or a lobster that would make it glad to be caught.
Expensive though. We went off on a bit of a trip again, having been here at the YC for a few days, anchored three times out by a Motu on the leeward side of Tahaa. Three times I dropped it right in the middle of a patch of sand three times it dragged and tangled insecurely in a pile of coral. In the end we went elsewhere. Thankfully there are quite a few mooring buoy's around here. Our ground tackle isn't really up to the depths most places round here.
Motu's Ground tackle? Were getting behold the realms of the Ladybird book of boats here.
Terminology (both obscure sailing terms and seriously obscure)
| Aft | Backwards in a the boat, or the back of the boat. |
| Anchor | A big metal hook thing, used to attach the boat to the bottom of the sea, they come in several types. |
| Anchorage | A bay or shallow patch into which the wind is always blowing at the wrong strength and or angle in which it is supposed to be possible to put and anchor down without dragging into something unpleasant |
| Anchoring | Parking the boat at sea, can only be done in sheltered water, where it is shallow enough and holding is good. If you have chain you need to use 4 times as much chain as the depth of water, so we have 55m of chain on board. We get nervous if we have more than 15m of water. |
| Astern | Behind a boat |
| Atoll | A ring shaped islands, where the original volcanic island has eroded away and or sunk back beneath the waves, as its been happening the coral continues to grow around the edge till there is no island, just the ring of coral where it was. Most atolls will not survive global warming. |
| Autopilot | A Electronic/Electrical/Hydraulic/Mechanical system that steer the boat for your. See Unreliable. |
| Beacon | a navigation mark mounted on something solid, either on land or in shallow water. |
| Beating | Going up wind in a sailboat, ins a series of zigzags (slow and uncomfortable), not what is done to mutineers. |
| Berth | Either a bunk on a boat or a slot in a marina where you park a boat. |
| Bimini | A metal frame and fabric awning open at the sides over the cockpit to primarily keep the sun off, and some rain shelter. |
| Blunt End | Back of the boat (stern) |
| Boom | Metal pole attached to the bottom of a sail. |
| Bow | Front of the boat |
| Bunk | A bed |
| Buoy | A floating thing tied to the bottom of the sea. These are either navigational marks, which are there to inform/confuse boats into avoiding rocks and shallows or for racing around (usually known as marks). Or are Mooring Buoys which are for tieing your boat too. |
| Cardinal Mark | A type of yellow and black marker used to indicate which side it is safe to go. Come in North, two black cones pointing up, South 2 pointing down, West pointing together, and east pointing apart. |
| Chinese Gybe | The act of gybing by mistake. |
| Choppy | Used primarily as an understatement, especially by the English especially in the past tense. If some ones says "looks a bit choppy out there" tie everything down, don full oilies, and check your life insurance policy. In reality it mean short steep seas, often seen in coastal waters. Not large, but annoying. |
| Close Hauled | Sailing as with the wind as close to the bow of the boat as possible usually about 45 degrees. |
| Cockpit | A recessed area on the deck of a yacht, where the crew usually hangs out, contains the tiller or wheel to steer the boat, and on most boats the winches and ropes to control the sails. The social centre of most boats in good weather. |
| Crew Flag | Unofficial, but almost universal practice of hoisting country flags up the port side of a yacht mast on mixed country crews. E.G. Ornen, swedish boat, flew a Red Ensign and a Auzzie flag on the port side for me and Roz. Island Kea doesn't fly a Icelandic flag at present due to the volcano thing. |
| Cruseing chute | A type of asymmetric spinnaker that is slightly easier to set than a conventional spinnaker |
| Courtesy Flag | When abroad it is considered respectfully to fly the flag of the country your are in up the right hand side of the mast. If no flag available. Paper cardboard etc can be substituted. Caution needs to be applied to this, in secessionist areas or independent areas you can cause offence by flying the mother land's flag. |
| Customs | People who never inspect your boat, for plutonium, crack cocaine, or automatic weapons so long as you fill out forms right. |
| Davits | Mini cranes on the back of the boat for hoisting in dinghies. |
| Dinghy | See tender for yachtie use, other wise it’s a small boat. |
| Dodger | England: A small piece of heavy cloth attached to the guar rail near the back of a boat to stop spray getting into the cockpit. American's use this term for a spray hood. |
| Donkey | See Engine |
| Downwind |
Usually used to denote sailing with the wind generally behind you or-at-least-no-further- forward than the beam. Sometimes used instead of leeward |
| Dragging | When your anchor doesn't bite into the bottom and slides along the sea floor. |
| Dropping the Hook | See anchoring. |
| El Nino | A weird and misunderstood weather phenomenon in the south pacific, which occurs (according to english people) 9 years in every ten and is responsible for the predictability of wet bank holiday weekends in northern europe. |
| Electricity | In boats this is either 12volt batteries or 24volt batteries. + some form of mains, either from shore, a genny or an inverter. Given the range of countries and boats, you need to know if you need 12v 24v DC, 110v 50hz, 110v60Hz 200(ish)v 50Hz or 200(ish)v 60Hz AC or various permutations of the above. No boats have enough of this (whatever it is) |
| Engine (auxiliary) | Converts large quantities of diesel fuel, filters, oil and impellers to slow forward motion through the water. |
| Expensive | See sailing |
| Finger Pontoon | Posh marina's have their docks like this, one boat each side of a finger off the main dock, like the teeth on a comb. Cheaper marinas have just strait dock that your go Stern Too on. |
| Flogging | The act of selling ones boat, oilies and nautical equipment when one has had enough of bloody sailing. |
| Four stroke |
a type of infernal combustion engine, which is complicated expensive, heavy, low emission and totally unsuited for say small simple applications like outboard motors or scooters. Therefore approved by the European minion. |
| Furl(er) | Many modern boats have roller reefing/furling you pull a rope and it rolls (furls) up the thing that does it is a furler. |
| Galley | The Kitchen area of a boat. |
| Generator (marine) | An auxiliary, auxiliary, diesel engine used solely to generate electricity. See Unreliable. |
| Genny | See genoa, or generator, depending on context. |
| George | See Autopilot |
| Green | a colour used to denote left. You leave green buoys to port, vessels display a green light on their starboard side etc. |
| Ground Tackle | The anchor and associated equipment, chain or warp. |
| Gybe |
The act of moving the sails from one side of the boat to the other with the wind behind. Often quite violently. |
| Halyards | a piece of rope for hauling a sail up the mast. |
| Harbour Master | Man who's in charge of a harbour. Collecting fees, allocating berths, making sure you don't get in the way of something important. |
| Heads | Toilet, usually manual pumped affairs with sea water piped in and waste piped out. |
| Headsail | A generic name for sails set on the front of the boat. |
| Holding | The condition of the bottom in which you are trying to anchor "good holding" means bottom is nice sand or thick mud where an anchor is likely to work well. "Poor holding" rock, or broken shale where you have hope your anchor will bite into a crevice….. |
| Immigration | People who stamp passports |
| Impeller | A rubber starfish thing used to pump water round marine engines to keep them cool |
| Inverter | Converts the ships batteries to main AC voltage, possibly at a murderous exchange rate. |
| Lagoon | This is the area of shallow water between an island and its fringing reef. |
| Leeward | Down wind from the observer. Usually the observers boat. |
| Locker | Cupboard |
| Mooring Buoy | A buoy, usually attached to a large lump of concrete - say an old chest freezer full of cement, with a piece of rope tied to a floating object. Used instead of anchoring. |
| Motu | A small low lying coral island part of a larger reef/island, but with water around. |
| Pointy End | Front of the boat (bow) |
| Oilies | Abbreviation of Oil Skins, now very expensive waterproofs, which no matter how much you spend can't actually keep you completely dry. |
| Osmosis | It turns out fiberglas isn't waterproof. This is a bit of a bugger since most yachts are made of it. Mostly a problem with older boats, water permeates the fibreglass, leeching out chemicals, symptom's include blistering on the hull. The problem is massively accelerated by placing a yacht in warm tropical waters. Its the biological process you, like me, learned about at school, which neither you nor I can remember. |
| Osmose | To keep you boat in the tropics for a long period (so causing osmosis) to be encouraged. Ok so I invented this one. |
| Pollywog | Someone's who's not crossed the Equator, by boat. See shellback |
| Reef | Under water or just exposed rocks. Or to reduce sail. (reefing = the act of reducing sail, not wandering around on rocks) |
| Reliable | In a marine context this means "only breaks occasionally". |
| Rolly | A description, frequently an understatement attached to conditions which cause the boat to roll from side to side and spill your drink. Often used in conjunction to the word anchorage. |
| Running | Sailing with the wind behind you (a bit more specific than downwind) |
| Sailing | The art of getting wet and becoming Ill whilst going nowhere at great expense. (Mike Pyton quote I think) |
| Saloon | The lounge/dinning room of a boat |
| Sheets | either a bit of rope used to control a sail or things that are supposed to catch the sweat of the tropics before they soak into the foam mattress (or mop up engine oil) |
| Shellback | Someone's who's crossed the Equator, by boat. See pollywog |
| Snuffer | A sort or bottom less bucket with a sock attached pulled over a spinnaker on a cruising boat to make it easier to hoist or drop |
| Solar Panels | These are the most reliable electrical generations system a boat can have, they are also the weakest. A 2ft by 2 ft panel will put out one amp at twelve volts for about 8 hours a day in the tropical sunshine |
| Spinnaker | A large colourful sail, set out of the front of the boat that is impossible to keep full in light wind, dangerous and impossible to get down in strong winds. |
| Spray hood. | A collapsible metal fame covered in fabric and transparent plastic, that is mounted on the front of the cockpit to keep rain and spray out. |
| SSB | Single sideband radio, a good set, coupled with a good antenna (usually the backstay) and good grounding I.E. a metal place on the bottom of the yacht, the right frequency, the right channels the right licence and the right time of day can be used to discus signal strengths and levels of noise of a up to half way around the world (though only in selected pockets) or a few hundred at practical frequencies. |
| Starboard | The right hand side of a boat as looking forward |
| Starboard Hand Marker | A green buoy or beacon, conical or with a conical top mark left to starboard on the way into a harbour in system A areas. |
| Stern | Back of a boat. |
| Stern Too | A practice, particularly common in the Mediterranean where you put the back of the boat to the dock and either put sunken lines on the bow to keep it off or your own anchor to keep the nose out to sea. |
| Swell | Long slow oceanic waves often traveling long distances from where they were formed. Wavelengths are huge so they're not a problem till they strike shallow water. |
| System A buoyage | Red buoys on the left on the way into a harbour, green on the right. Used every where but the Americas |
| System B buoyage | Red buoys on the right on the way into a harbour, green on the left. Used in the americas |
| Tack(ing) | To tack is the act of moving the sails from one side of the boat to the other with the wind coming from in front of the boat. Also the forward bottom corner of sail. |
| Tender | A small boat (dinghy) used to get from the big yacht to the shore. |
| Tide | The effects of the moon's gravitation, the sun's gravitation, the planetary tilt and the elliptical orbits of the earth and sun produce very predictable changes in the water level around the planet. Called tides. These vary the depth of water in any given point predictably, allowing for the flow of water to fill up or lower the water. This makes everything complicated. Even if you've got the tides predicted they're never quite right cos atmospheric pressure moves them up and down as does wind, large waves, especially breaking over reefs etc. Its the flows of water as much as the height that are a right bugger. |
| Towed Water Generator | A type of shark fishing equipment consisting of a metal weight with spinning blades tied by string to a small alternator on the back of the boat. Converts half an knot of boat speed to a small amount of electricity (until bitten off). Has 2 sets of blades, one small set for high speed, large set for slow speeds. Normal boat speed is where the little blades are slow and big blades skip out of the water due to excess speed. |
| Trade Wind | A large area of constant, and predictable wind over a long period and or large area. Caused by the Inter tropical convergence zone and areas of established high pressure in temperate latitudes. Or something. North East to East in the Northern Hemisphere, South East or east in the Southern. |
| Trades | See trade wind |
| Transit | Lining up of 2 objects, usually special lights or pole to allow you to stay on a line through say a harbour entrance. Also used laterally to determine whether the boats forward motion through the water is more or less than the tides motion the other way. |
| Two stroke |
a type of infernal combustion engine, which is simple cheap, easy to maintain, light and for a given value of reliable, reliable. Ideal for small marine applications like outboard motors Therefore banned by the European minion. |
| Unreliable | Most things on a boat are unreliable, the sea on which the boat is on is unreliable, the wind is unreliable the weather forecasts are particularly unreliable. Even the (see reliable) reliable things on a boat are pretty unreliable. |
| VHF | Very High Frequency, marine radio, used in conjunction with a masthead antenna (that hasn't got salt water in the cables) gives a range of 25 miles |
| Water Maker | A machine for turning seawater into fresh water, using the principals of reverse osmosis. They consume large amounts of power, are very unreliable and expensive. |
| Wench | A woman on a boat used to pull ropes. As opposed to a woman on a boat solely to do the cooking/cleaning. |
| Winch | A winedy thing used to pull ropes. (Not to be confused with Wench |
| Wind Generator | A noisy spinning engine of death that generates small amounts of electricity per unit of noise or wind. |
| Wind Vane | A mechanical contraption attached to the back of the boat which uses the power of the wind and the direction of the wind to steer the boat an a pre-set angle to the wind. Vaguely |
| Windward | Up wind from the observer. Usually the observers boat. |
| Yellow Flag | Yachts entering a country must fly one of these up the right hand side of the mast till they have cleared customs, Immigration, quarantine etc. Usually left up permanently. |
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Add a CommentMoorea Panorama
What can you see? You sea the sea, and Tahiti and the Lagoon. The image below is just a thumbnail. Click to view/download the full version.
Click for the full file, or right click and save as to use offline
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Add a CommentBlack Pearl
Pearl Farming is rampant around here. Back not like the white ones you get from countries like Japan.
First you get your oysters up from the depth of 6-10 meters, they're hung on buoys under the water in strings. look In them with a special tool. What they are looking for is a nice dark mother of pearl inside the oyster. The mother of pearl is what determines the final pearls colour.
At this point its time for one oyster in 30 to lay down its life. A nice coloured one gets levered open. The dark skin around the edge gets cut into 30 tiny pieces. Thirty more oysters are levered very slightly open, and a little sack at the bottom cut open, into it is inserted one of the tinny bits of the sacrificial oysters flesh and a ball made of the shell of a Mississippi clam. Why? I have no idea. I suspect its about production time. Pearls take (don't quite me on this) 18 months to 2 years to grow. If you were to put a grain of sand in there, you'd either get a very small pearl or have to wait a hell of a lot longer. The woman from the pearl farm glossed over this bit.
A cross section of a pearl
Note the Mississippi clam seed
Pearl grows from the bit of the edge of the poor old oyster who cops it, and around the seed.
When you come to harvest the pearls, they come out in three types. Perfectly spherical pearls. Single symmetry pearls, either tear-drop or button shaped. And asymmetric pearls where there's no symmetry at all. These pearls are made into bead curtains, or thrown out. Dross.
The crap pearls are bad news for the oyster, cos there just thrown out. No good. The other oysters that have produced good pearls are re-implanted and more pearls are grown.
You can get up to 6 pearls from a single oyster, but since some don't make it, others produce pearls that are crap, eaten by turtles etc there's quite a high failure rate. The larger pearls are rarer since they have to be made using the larger, therefore older oysters - the ones that make it to the fifth or sixth pearl.
The good pearls are graded, though colour varies, its not of great importance to the value. The ones around here vary from grey to black with shades of lustrous green and purply red.
What they're graded by are imperfections, dimples, lack of lustre etc. Grade a pearls have an imperfection covering less than 5%. Judicious use of drill and mounting and that disappears.
As you go down the grades you get more imperfections and less lustre.
Low quality pearls can be quite cheap, but then you have to mount them. Good ones in nice settings are costing the blokes on this rally money that could be spent on boats.....
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Add a CommentThe Economics of Paradise
Now we were light winded and then becalmed when trying to make big passages. Now were tied to a buoy with 20, frequently gusting higher wind and lots of rainy squalls. Shame fabulous bay this. Funnels the wind a bit more than we'd like.
Got soaked going ashore in the dinghy, misjudged a gap in the squalls. Lovely bar the Hibiscus family hotel/pension. We were the only folks in it. This is getting to be a habit. This ocean is painful quiet at present.
French Polynesia has always been fabulously expensive. Guess people can't afford to come, last time I was here I was technically. All right defiantly in cyclone season. Even so the place yacht is surprisingly on the slim side this trip. Less busy than out of yacht season last time.
Cross pacific round the world travels aren't spur of the moment things and they take a while to prepare for/get going. And once you leave the Windwards/Leewards in the Caribbean there's no where to sell your boat till Australia. This years UK pacific crossers at the left England a year ago. Preparing the boat for a good while before hand in many cases. Many will not have done so in the current climate. French Polynesia is an expensive holiday destination, many cheaper alternatives exist. Guess its bad news for the Polynesians.
The French military garrison on Tahiti is to be halved. Not good for the housing market. Maybe the prices over here will drop?
Empty Beach, empty bar,
the sun goes down alone
Three things are produced here, copra - coconut, used in a wide variety of products, particularly the cosmetics industry. Noni fruit, a foul tasting and ridiculously easy to grow fruit that's full of anti oxidants and pearls. Black pearls. The girls on rally have taken to them with a vengeance. However they are also a luxury commodity.
I guess I'm saying now might be the time, if your still solvent to look for that paradise trip. All the hotels are mostly empty. Restaurants frequently closed. Don't get me wrong, its not served by easyjet. But.. maybe just maybe, they'll be deals out there. You can get to see some of the most Paradise islands there are, and believe me. They're great.
Obviously the weather is inclement today, I'm taking this philosophically. I know that while I may be rained on here, and when it rains it doesn't mess about. Tomorrow or at least next week it will be fabulous again.
What I guess I'm saying is if you do come here try and book a 2 week trip...... Just in case.
One of our more philosophical tour guides said, "if the French and the tourists left, the Polynesians would probably go back to growing fruit, fishing and sitting under a tree all day." I'm not sure he's right, and he was at least partly Polynesian, Hawaiian originally. But here fruit grows easily, fish abound, reefs protect the islands, and the tree's are lovely and shady. Apparently you get a year of roofing out of palm leaves. 5 out of a different sort of thatch. I've been to Melanesian islands somewhat like that. All thatched huts, fruit, fish and pigs. Deep inside a part of me yearns for a life like that. God I wish I wasn't a geek some time's pretty sure I couldn't live like that. Shame really.
The Polynesian Triangle
For non students of the Pacific, Polynesia, as opposed the "French Polynesia" is a triangle. The top of which is Hawaii the south eastern corner is Easter Island, the South Western corner is New Zealand. Not the most populous, but in terms of area. Fucking massive.
Tonga, Fiji Vanuatu etc are Melanesian. The other islands up towards asia are Micronesia.
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Add a CommentThis is an SOS(not) distress call from the Sailing Vessel Island Kea II
A motu Raiatea, and Tahaaaaaaaa?
The crew are stuck in a perpetual pronunciation loop. We keep trying to work out whether Faaaha and Faaha are the same place. The trouble is that by the time we get to pronouncing "Fa" "ah" "ah" in attempt to say it we've fogoton whether the las "ah" was an extra a or the "ha".
No we've no idea. We've started looking for a Baaaa. So we can sit down and have a beer and try it again with a couple of Hinano's in us.
Were in a bay called Faroa, on Raiatea. Seven letters 2 consonants! and sometimes an apostrophe. Next too what used to be a charter base. Yesterday we took a trip up the river at the end of the bay. Too much time spent in the Caribbean, some guy in a canoe appeared and paddled up there with us acting as a guide. Not only did he not tap us for money he tried to drag us ashore to give us fruit.
There's a big difference between the Caribbean Islands and the Pacific Islands. In the Caribbean people will try and charge you for: Looking after your dinghy, tying a rope round a palm tree. Walking the pub. Breathing. Acting as a guide to your own cockpit. etc etc.
The Pacific Islands aren't like that. Some woman in Rangrioa (metalled road 6km, loop in one end so one junction) actually stopped when I put my thumb out and tried to give me a lift, with the Gendarme in the passenger seat. Turned out she was in the middle of her driving test. le Gendarme ne pas amused!
"I'll have a vowel please Carol. Another vowel please Carol, another vowel please Carol and another, and one more. A consonant please, and just so its no alone another consonant."
Biddy biddy bedierbitbp BOOONNNNGG. "Times Up what do you have for us?"
"Well Richard I've got Raiatea". No you haven't that's wrong cos its supposed to have an apostrophe in there somewhere. "You Stripy jacketed, Git"
We slipped before I was finished this morning, now In Utaroa, along side the town quay. Nice. Palm trees, water tap is on the other side of the petrol station, closed on bank holiday so I've just done my Laundry. Hopefully the bugs in the Ioranet wifi system will have been sorted out and I'll be able to upload this. We'll see. Diatribe will follow if not. I'd rant to my friends if they were here, and whats the internet for if not for ranting?
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Add a CommentParty like its 2010
Still in Moorea, yesterday, despite some very suspicious VHF usage including the letting slip of the "secret girls channel" - eleven. Pete off Perigriana was disappointed, his 60th birthday and nobody was really paying attention.
We were, we just managed to prevent him finding out about it. He was going out for Pizza with only Spirit of Nina. The bar never open's here, even when is says it does. So the darkened bar, came as no surprise to him. The bar maid turning up with a flower head dress and a lei did, followed by the whole rally with food music and booze did.
I think he cheered up at that point. I'm feeling it today drank half a bottle of Rum yesterday.
We're off, most people stayed for the Party and the Rally's breaking up again. Were of to Raiatea, others are going around the corner to the next bay or to Huahine.
We'll be going to Boring Boring then the cook's, It will be good to get somewhere a little cheaper! Anyway, I like the cooks. and Nuie.
Uploaded a new video, shot by Steve on Aspen of us leaving Rangiroa, tide was running like a bastard. Here it is.
Its in the video's section too.
Site Updates:
I've improved the search button, a lot. I've added suport to find inividual photos. I've also gone through a lot of recent photo galleries adding tags. So it can now find photos as well.
As I keep refereing to boats on the rally, wich means nowt to any none rallyist. You can no look at them using "Boat Spotters of the Caribbean" photo gallery since one yacht looks pretty much like another even to me, not sure how much help it will be.
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Add a CommentA pox on Polynesian internet
I'm in Cook's Bay Moorea, there are 3 forms of WiFi available, I've paied for both and neither will work. When everyone asked why we give the Internet away free on Brighton Beach I say "cos were nice people". Its also cos its bloody hard to make it work well enough to charge for it. I understand and sympathise with Ioranet and hotspotWDG, I know its hard. But I have paid, succeeded in paying, all gone through and everything, now give me my bloody password, your unsing chillispot for god's sake, I know that software like the back of my hand. I can make it sit up and beg and Ioranet, it says "No usage time remaining" right next to the history of me paying your for time! Grrrr. The net result is no idea when this will get uploaded.
I've been remiss in my blogging since I got to French Polynesia really. Its great here. Exchange rate's improving thanks to Greece as well.
As I said the rally is in Cook's Bay, guess what that's named after. He was a captain. Knocked around these parts alot. Far be it from me to argue with such a man about an anchorage. I've been here before, we found it very deep. Errr Al if your reading this we anchored in the marine reserve bit that says "No Anchoring" Doh!
Took a look around yesterday. More pictures of the anchorage are in the Moorea Gallery. From better angles this time. Cos we hired a car yesterday to look around. Last time we were late leaving from Papeete, so were going to get to boring boring in the dark. So we anchored looked and left.
Amongst other things one of the posh hotels has a dolphin centre, festooned with writings about "Education". Its a dolphin petting zoo. Where the rich can pay to pet a dolphin. Its not the dolphinarium I object to its the pathetic cover. They've also a sick turtle sanctuary. One of who's occupants was clearly dead. Floating, blown against the fence not moving, with its shell half cracked by the sun and the submerged part of the shell growing weed. Great sanctuary.
Hmm my spell check can't get dolphinarium it suggests delphinium.....
Part of my lack of blogging is due to the lovely trips I've been doing. Here's some advice, which I guess I already knew. Dolphinarium crap, Guagin museum crap. Scenery awesome. French Polynesia is expensive as hell. The best bits are free.
Fortunately the rally have put on some stuff, the aforementioned outrigger sailing canoe and dancers. I'll do a gallery at some point, I didn't take my camera to the dancers. Katrin has changed card's on hers and I've not got hold of it yet. The above picture is from Gill on Spirit of Nina, she can't complain after all the IT support I've given them!
Many of the dancers male and female hips are more blurred than Elvis in his latter, flabbly days. The effects of very fast hip movements in low light. Now I got dragged in the the pig dance in Nuku Hiva (too low light to be usable) others got into this one. I was feeling sick any way. My hips do not move that fast. I'd have dislocated my pelvis if I'd tried that.
Island kea Updates
The boat is running well. The huge battery bank used to power the boat has seemed week and feeble. The long engine run to Rangiroa seems to have done it a power of good. The last time it had a good charge was Antigua. And that was off the mastervolt nobby battery charger. Mastervolt are in my opinion too clever by half. Because of our generator troubles. We've bought a little Jackal style petrol generator. Its power ouput is a bit messy and the mastervolt detects it and won't charge. Damn. Our main generator is fixed. But not as happy as we'd like. Quite a lot of gunk comes out of the breather from the crank case. Stuck or damaged piston rings probably. We're piping this through the old screen for the water and out a pipe on deck. It seems to be running ok...... touch wood.
Katrin is Icelandic, not flying the flag right now, financial crisis and volcanoes being what they are. She's got three brothers, all marine engineers. They, she, and the world in general are wondering why they are at home on land and she is in the middle of the pacific with a dodgy marine generator. One of them had a skype call he is positive about our generators survival chances.
We got alot done in Tahiti, and I fixed tweaked or played with a lot of peoples IT problems. Also swaped some photos. Steve and Maria off "Aspen" decided to photograph us leaving the pass at Tiputu in Rangiroa. Partly for us and partly I suspect to see what happened. The large southerly swell was throwing waves over the reefs and motus on the southern side. Acting as a pump to fill the Lagoon up. It meant the pass never stopped ebbing. We punched into it and we flew out like a cork from a bottle. They shot video as well and its fab! Not even going to try and uploaded it right now, even if I could get on line.
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Add a CommentParadise Lost
Its doing what it does a lot in the pacific, raining. A lot. Soaking out there. Do you all feel better now. We've been out on a tour, in the rain. The first stop at the water fall was impressive, its wasn't actually raining. But there was so much spray the results were the same, only colder.
The chief was so protective of his beautiful daughter that he assigned 3 of his greatest warriors to keep the boys away. One day she met a boy in the woods, they talked but the warriors drove him away. Next day she went back up the valley and ran ahead of the warriors to meet him. Now the boy admitted that he was in fact the genie of the valley. And created 2 small water falls to hide behind. The third he created to sweep the warriors to their death.
Ok that's one version. In the other they were running to stay ahead of the warriors, slipped and fell to their deaths. The first two waterfalls appeared where they fell.
The warriors following saw what happened, looked at each other (presumably), realised that the chief was going to kill them, literally, and probably eat them too. And they too jumped and the the big waterfall formed where they fell.
You basstards you ate my camera
Then my poor, long suffering, camera got bitten by a fish. To add to its previously documented problems, it now has a scratch on the screen. The restaurant had fish pens out the back. Full of medium (ok for England large) fish. I did what any sensible man wound do put the self timer on and dangled it in the water. The little bastards nearly ripped it out of my hands.
After the rather poor (and wet), Gauguin Museum, we stopped at some caves, due to the slightly overfull coach I'd ended up in the small extra people carrier. I was late, that's how, I admit it. We were ahead of the mob in the coach, with the Tourism office guide, the big cave with curative powers. Was fenced off, due to health and bloody safety. So I obviously shinned over the fence and paddled in the pool, I was wet anyway. Cured of all athletes foot I heard the Rally representative hissing "get back she's coming", referring to the guide so over the fence I went, and proceeded to carry on my musing on a rock against the gate. The guide duly arrived and said "If you were Polynesian" you'd just go over the gate, we do". I laughed and said I already had. I may not in fact have had my feet cured of athletes food by the medicinal cave pool cos I don't have it, it didn't cure Gauguin's syphilis either.
She did have a go at me later for entering a Tiki site and not being a priest. Right in Malaysia I offended the Buddhists, I'm forever bothering the God botherers. Ahhhhh another Religion offended.
I was trying to Photograph our first stop, a blow hole sandwiched between the road and the cliff, glamorous. It wasn't doing much so closer and closer I snuck. WHOOSH. My totally redundant sunnies, hooked into the top of my T-Shirt flew fifteen feet down the road my hat went. I blinked my smarting eyes turned to look as it soared away to land 40 feet down the road. Eye's still sting now.
If it hadn't been for the bizarre incidents the trip would have been a little disappointing. Yesterday I was sick, like last time I was here. Went sailing on an out rigger canoe anyway. Saw some very pretty Tahitian dancing girls, and went home and missed the pub, I was that sick. Will no go and retrieve photos of said dancing girls, and of me in the outrigger canoe and see if I can't inflict them on you later. Thanks to PierToPier.net (currently running in down town Papeete) I can leave my laptop on board.
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Add a CommentShampoo You - Its what we do!
Repairing dinghies, is a git. The Brighton Drinking Sailing Club Rescue Boat has had a leak for years, its right next to a joint on the rubbing strip on the side.
Instructions say, if you must have an inch of patch from the hole all round. In my experience, and I suspect every ones else's as well you never get a hole more than half an inch from a seam or fitting. Its bloody infuriating.
This one is right next to the strip that holds the handles. I suspect - and I did it properly, I used the Shampoo method, it won't work. I suspect it will end up like the SC's rescue boat. Not cured but better. I'm thinking pump once a day not every trip.
Shampoo You
By Shampoo
The "Shampoo method" may take some some explaining. As per bloody usual, there's no instructions on the tube of glue. Not a problem its like inner tube repair or contact adhesive, you cover the boat and the patch and wait a while then press them together, forever. So I decided since "a while" is a bit vague. Here's where the Shampoo (capital S is not a typo) comes in. I decided that by the time I'd smeared the glue and cleaned my fingers, the 'orrid, pre Spice Girls band's song Shampoo You, of the classic Album "We are Shampoo" was just the right amount of time to wait. You can listen to this nineties classic using the play button left (hipIplayer).
Dinghy's are a yachties best friend, and worst enemy. This is the first time since mid February I've not had to use it to go everywhere. The food for the pacific, including 17 slabs of lager, bottled water, gerry cans of fuel and water its all come aboard by dinghy. Trips snorkeling, the pub, beach BBQ's all in the dinghy. We've 2 dinghies. A soft one, with and inflatable bottom (god knows what that phrase will do when it gets into Google search) and a rib. Rigid Inflatable Boat. We've 2 outboards as well. A heavy one and a light one, actually they're about the same weight. One works and is 9.8hp, its a 2 stroke. The other is still not working, is 4hp. I hate it. its a bloody 4 stroke, EU emissions friendly piece of shit. You put it down wrong the oil falls out. It weighs a ton, its covered with stoopid safety features and its carburetor is a M.C.Esher esque nightmare of pipes nozzles and tiny little holes many of which I have prodded and poked some are still blocked. It will run if A: you give it full welly and start it with the choke. B: You run it with the choke. C: you half choke it by putting your hand over the air intake.
This outboard sunk, twice. Still ran.
The dinghy called Jesus rose from the
dead, after 3 days of repairs.
Unfortunately rather than ascend to
Heaven its sank to the depths. Frequently
I've had troubles before with outboards, there are some tricks. they are some times hard to start, hard to get to idle properly. But mostly if you've problems you take out the spark plug clean it. Take the bottom off the carburetor and get the needle valve working. If your really smart adjust the screw on the carb till it idles properly. The only reason you clean the plug is if you've put too much oil in it. Flooded it (with fuel not water). Or you've been committing the cardinal sin of 2 strokes, too much choke.
Starting a 2 stroke. Pull. Pull again, fiddle with throttle. Pull. DO NOT USE CHOKE. Pull again. Check fuel by pumping it to the carb using the bulb if it has one. Pull again. Check for whiff of petrol by now there should be one. Pull with high throttle - helps blow the excess fuel though if you've flooded it. Now if it is not starting you may engage the choke. For one pull only. If it starts, immediately release the choke and rev. If it doesn't start. Take the choke off again and do not re-choke for at least 7 more pulls. Often it will start on the pull after the choke.
Repeated pulls with the choke on will either flood it or oil up the plug or both. Making it harder to start not easier. Requiring choke is a sign to my simple mind of clogged or semi cogged jets in the carb. disassemble and clean out jets. Piece of piss on a (small) 2 stroke. Watching my father trying to start lawnmowers as a child I've always wished I'd know then what I know now. It would have made life so much easier.
Island by Island we crossed the pacific,
and with the exception Jesus things were terrific,
such an embarrassment it was to be in that craft,
with hats pulled low we pumped and laughed.
Pumping and pumping for me in a dinghy,
Pumping and singing they've all been drinking,
Pumping and bailing "oh god we're sinking",
Pumping our way across the pacific.
Extract from Roz's Poetry
For instance Jesus's outboard sank twice. Pull the spark plug out pull to pump the water out of the cylinder. Rinse. Dry and add clean petrol and start. Remember the bit about pulling the spark plug out before turning it over. Air is compressible, water is not. if its full of water turing it over will break it. Badly.
Jesus was Ornen's dinghy, it took 3 whole days to get it too rise form the dead. Unlike its namesake who ascended into heaven. This Jesus tended to descend to the depths. Frequently. Procedure was one to pump air, one to drive and one to bail the water out. Using it alone was a complex multitasking procedure.
Dinghies are personal thing. On Ramprasd on my first big trip I shared a bunk with a seahopper folding dinghy. Great idea, it was a flat pram style dinghy. Of plywood. The joints were neoprene strips. It literally unfolded like a cardboard box. It was great to row, it could sail, light winds only or the leeward shroud went slack and fell off. It was found with 2 huge rastas sat in it on land in St Lucia. There after the seams gave out and it sank. That's when I found Jesus. Thorborjn on Ornen came to our rescue, he drove I pumped.
Normally most people use some kind of inflatable. Rigid bottom's allow bigger outboards and faster. But are heavy and a bugger to store. Softer bottoms are lighter and can be collapsed, but if you put a larger outboard on them tend to fold up as your going along. An are easier to puncture. They go Psssssst bubble bubble when you hit something, rather than Crump. Neither is perfect, both usually row like a one legged dead kitten so outboards become the norm.
To store people often fit davits on the back of the boat to put the dinghy in. If you do that its often hard to go stern too on the dock or go swimming. You can't usually have a wind vane either. There is no right answer here. Will some one please make a dinghy that's: Nope not happened yet. I expect cold fusion first. I'm secretly hoping if some cretinous sales person from a dinghy manufacturer will post a comment along the lines of "my design is perfect" so I can ridicule them. In light of the fact that tis Election day, please use the coment form below to indicate whether on not your prefer: Oh and if by the time you're reading this the Torries are In at least I'm on the far side of the world. And if Gordon's till there, at least I'm on the far side of the world. This is a win win for me I think.
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Add a CommentPrickly Heat
No wind, in Marina Taina, Papeete, Tahiti and man its hot. However expensive this Marina may be, its fatal mistake was to give us flat rate electricity. Its thirty something out side, baking sun and 24 degrees in side. We've got the air con on. We'll get our money's worth out of the Electrickery. Tied to the Land, not dingying ashore, with infinite electricity and water - out of a pipe. You have absolutely no idea what a pleasure that is. last time we were alongside with power was Shelter Bay in the Caribbean. We've dinghied ashore with Gerry cans and water a food and everything, charged batteries by engine or genny, watched our batteries, out tanks and our filters like hawks, we had too. And relax.
View From Marina Taina,
over the reef towards Moorea
Unfortunately is blasting hot out side. I've fixed the wind generator (last worked in Panama). Locked up brushes on the swivel base. Errrr obviously that wasn't all the trouble it gave me. Its on a boat nothing is that simple. It sliced it cable the fold down for maintenance pole system didn't function as it was supposed to. Also the flat plate on the front of the cowling was cracked so I broke it. Its glued back together again and all working.
We think there is no wind. Also its blades are made of glasfibre and have been in the tropical sun for more than 2 years. Their shedding. Despite a shower - infinite water is such a luxury I itch like mad with little pieces of glasfibre in me.
The man arrived today to fix the generator. Poor sod looked awful daunted at the tinny hobit hole full of shite he had to crawl into. He's gone off with the heat exchanger. Here's a pocket explanation of what may have happened. Heat exchanger is a bugger to get at. Its made of copper, with end caps bolted on with steel. It contains an anode. Rust is a normal problem on boats. However dissimilar metals also corrode when dipped in an electrolyte. Such as sea water. Remember I said its a bugger to get at - that where the anode is. Even the professional service guy couldn't check it.
An anode is a piece of galvanically attractive metal, often zinc, that is supposed to corrode first thus saving important bits. Manual says change every three months. NOT every 10 years.
Due to a lazyness, the above picture is in fact 2 years old. Its the first time I've cut that corner so far this trip, sorry. Must find and charge camera. Anyone who tried the Nuku Hiva video yesterday and it didn't work should find it fixed now.
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