Days in the Carenage Yard

It's been several days since we've posted any photos.  We've collected enough to post now, so here they are!  They're sequential but that's unimportant. 

This is our typical "home from work" evening start:  good French cheese, saucisse (sausage), baguette, and wine or a cocktail.

From our little bungalow, this is the view during Wednesday's downpour.  We didn't even drive to the yard, but elected to stay warm and dry in the bungalow.  Note the rain bouncing off that metal roof, creating a mist effect.

Even the local chickens are seeking cover during the downpour.  I'm unsure of the cause of those white vertical streaks, but my guess is large drops falling from the porch roof under which I was standing:  they're closer so larger, and slower since they've just started their fall to ground, producing streaks of light. 

While wiring the new bilge pump and switch, I've dragged my wiring gear out.  I've got most of the tools that I need in that box and I pay for both quality and how easy they make my task.

Here is the new bilge pump (at right) and pump float switch.  The pump is a high quality, high volume submersible pump.  The switch is the BMW of float switches. 

Lovely Conni steps across the new paving in front of the Carenage building as we head back to the bungalow.

Here's the inside of Villa Ixora, our wonderful anniversary dinner location.  I've got a Pina Colada and Conni has a MaiTai.  With the fresh fruits available, both cocktails are superb.

Course one:  Pate and toast points. 

Eyes closed, Conni poses with her meal of duck breast over mashed yams with a honey/ginger/line reduction. 

My meal was this gorgeous tuna concoction, their take on Salade Nicoise,  I think.  The seared Ahi tuna was over a quinoa salad and lettuce. 

The woman who owns this boat has just completed a single-handed circumnavigation:  an impressive feat.  The boat has an odd underbody, though, with a split between the keel and rudder, and an enclosed propeller.  It's a design that I've never seen, but obviously provides a lot of protection for the prop.

 

This old boat was hauled on Wednesday and splashed on Friday, nowhere near enough time to repair the entire transom of the boat.  There's a lot of wood rot there.  The hull is wood, obviously, but with a layer of fiberglass over it.

 

Lovely Conni strides back from admiring this catamaran as the boat slides back into the water.

A small fleet of sailboats lie at anchor between us and the beautiful island of Bora Bora.  Clouds cover the island's top.  The land at right is Taha'a, the vanilla island.  Taha'a is one of our favorites and lies in the same lagoon as Raiatea, the island where we are.

This a derelict ferry that now complicates entry and exit from the launch slip.  Take care if one must tie to this piece of crap, since the rust on her sides can badly damage a hull. 

This expensive boat, a catamaran, struck a reef at high speed last year and the collision removed significant parts of this hull.  The yard crew pumped her out, patched her enough to get her to the yard, and has almost completed repairs.  It's an impressive amount of work, and the yard's proficiency gave them carte blanche for the work.

I mentioned this marking on our tickets:  Docs OK, means that we had provided proof of our CoVid vaccine and a negative PCR CoVid test within 72 hours of boarding.  These people weren't messing around!  On landing in Papeete, we had to test negatively to a test given at the airport before we were allowed to leave.

This is an interesting photo, showing our VHF radio at left, our new BlueTooth radio in the middle, and the single side band radio speaker at right.  I fabricated the box for the new BlueTooth radio and had to solder a lot of wires together to install it.

These are propeller zincs, the one at left showing the reason that they are used.  Two dissimilar metals immersed in seawater create a battery and one of the metal will lose atoms to the other metal. Boats have sunk because of this electrolysis problem.  We use zincs because it's the metal that will give up atoms to any other metal, as it has done here.  The zinc at right is the replacement one. Amazing, isn't it?

The yard has new stands and two new boat lifting devices.  This large blue machine has independently-powered and movable wheels, so it can move in any direction.  It can carry a 50 ton vessel. 

An impromptu sign at our Liaut store announces that there is a rice shortage.  We learned that the reason was a delay in the local supply ship.  When one lives on an island, one survives at the whim of shipping.

Tuna!  Fresh tuna, locally caught and in huge blocks, is for sale today in Liaut.

This photo will probably load slowly, but it's worth it.  Bora Bora, 22 nautical miles away is, to most people, the most beautiful island in the world.  The green-colored water in the foreground is just inside our reef and is VERY shallow water.

With red-hulled Wings in the background, Teina Teriitaohia waves hello.

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