we were supposed to cast off, I noticed that one of the shower pumps
wasn't shutting off the way it's supposed to. An hour later the pump
was completely rebuilt and I climbed out of the engine room drenched
in sweat, holding tiny little piece of purple plastic that had caused
the problem. I don't own any purple plastic things...
We had a good motor-sail with the wind pretty much on the nose for 4
hours. The wind was light though and the water was flat since the wind
was coming from the shore. The weather reports showed that the wind
would be northerly for the next several days, which meant dead against
us on the way to Vanuatu, so we'd have to hang out for a bit before
leaving.
We made it to Port Boisé around 3 in the afternoon. Just as I turned
off the wind to head into the pass, my favorite Big Orange Cup blew
over and rolled down the transom steps into the water. It didn't sink
right away, so I made a lop around where it went in, but the water was
way too rough to see it. I bought that cup in Mexico and, with it's
brother Big Blue Cup which went overboard in New Zealand, it has been
key to my happiness on board. I hate drinking out of small glasses and
I can never get enough to drink unless I have a big cup that I use
throughout the day. Big Orange Cu was probably about 750ml and did its
duty serving up everything from hot ramen noodles, to my daily morning
tea. This morning I wandered around the galley, despondent, not
knowing what to have my tea in. So I found Big Measuring Cup. It has a
1 Liter capacity and a nice handle. It's a little too wide and tapers
outward too much to make it practical for long-term service, but it
will do until I find a replacement in Vanuatu. I think developing
countries have the best plastic tableware since it needs to be
inexpensive but last a long time.
This morning I have to keep trying to fix the outboard. We wanted to
go ashore yesterday, put the motor wouldn't start. I opened it up and
noticed that when I pumped the fuel bulb, gas would squirt out of the
carburettor. This is a bad thing. After disassembling it and putting
it back together 3 times, I finally tried to seal one of the gaskets
with RTV and let it dry overnight. On the positive side, I got to wash
both my hands and forearms in gasoline, so I know they're REALLY clean
now...
Today it's a beautiful day. The northerly breeze is still running, but
we might move to another anchorage a little further up the coast. From
there it's about 220 miles to Tanna, our first landfall in Vanuatu. We
should be able to do this with only one night at sea if the wind is
right. Looks like it will turn southerly on Tuesday, so we plan on
leaving early in the morning then.
Our new satellite system is working wonderfully. I'll write that up
later since a couple of you have asked me for more details. The only
hitch I've had so far is not being able to hook it up with our on-
board WiFi which would allow all the computers to access it and get
email, including my iPhone. How cool would that be, to read email on
an iPhone in the middle of the ocean? The real advantage being that it
compresses email to use less bandwidth, which means it costs us less
to use.
That's it for now. Have a great Sunday (or Saturday, depending on
where you are).
-MC
