Catching up with friends

Last night was a very sociable one as we met up with lots of newly-arrived boats, many of whom we'd only previously met via radio. We went to the 3 Brasseurs micro-brewery where we had the table-top nine pint dispenser of the Blonde lager which was excellent. The Stormmvogel crew were very happy to have completed a long list of jobs (see their blog for details) and the boat is looking very shiny with new antifouling paint and a polish to her topsides.

 

After a busy few days we have also ticked off lots of maintenance jobs so we feel that we've completed a 10,000 mile service and given Maunie a good clean and polish too (the proximity to those superyachts rubbed off so Graham was to be seen polishing stainless steel and fibreglass like the pros). Christian the Fridge Man has performed some magic so we have two working fridges once again, hurrah. However, it hasn't all gone to plan – our watermaker has been stripped down by Gilles the Watermaker Man who has been advised by the manufacturer in Italy that they will send out some parts made of a different material. This suggests that that we are not alone in experiencing problems in warmer waters and this suspicion has been reinforced when we met Matt and Charlotte on Gallinago yesterday (we first met them in St Lucia) and they have exactly the same problem on the same model.

 

So we'll leave Tahiti today without the watermaker, which Gilles will rebuild, once the parts arrive in a week or so; he'll then send it by internal flight up to Bora Bora. This means that in the meantime we'll have to be more careful with our water usage and collect fresh water in jerry cans wherever we can. Luckily the last time we had the sewing machine out we made a rain-water catcher so if the wall to wall sunshine breaks we'll be ready to direct rain straight into the tank.

 

Next stop is the neighbouring island of Moorea – only 20 miles or so – where we'll anchor in Cook's Bay (one of Captain Cook's favourite anchorages, apparently). A few other boats are heading there so the social life should be good and there is said to be good walking ashore so we're looking forward to the exercise.