Our Final Days in the Yard

We've worked every day for over two weeks, and today, Sunday, is the first day we've departed the yard before closing time.  Whew!  Here are a few photos of boats, tasks, and friends.

I mentioned in the blog that we had replaced a wooden Hydrovane pad with an HDPE pad, and here's the end result.  The white plastic pad is clean and very strong.  Our friend, Taputu, ground the contour for us.

Here's our template for painting the inside of the dorade vents.  It's a paper plate, as you can see, taped to a piece of cardboard for rigidity.  Conni held the template and I sprayed the red paint.  I do not know why the dorades are always red, but that's the traditional color.  Our system worked very well!

These are our 5 dorade vents with new paint!  Lovely Conni is holding two of the larger 8-inch diameter ones.

Long-time Carenage employee, Taputu, is our friend and has done a lot of excellent work for us.  Those arms are the reason that we hired him to remove and replace the exhaust when we had to install the new bilge pump.

Eho is one of the best mechanics whom I've ever known.  Here he's working on two Yanmar engines from a catamaran that sank. He removedt both, rebuilt them both on these two pallets, and is starting them for the first time. Yes, it's a photo of him, but also the system he used to start the engine!  He connected that battery in the bottom of the photo, and dropped a fuel line into the yellow jug of diesel, and jumped the starter solenoid:  rustic but effective.

Wings in her cradle. 

Second Wind, as you can see, is from Juneau!  Even out here, it can be a small world.  Bill and Marjorie are wonderful people, and good friends, now. 

Yard owner and friend, Dominique Goché, talks to Conni under Wings' ladder.

This is the vegetable section of Liaut, our favorite store. That's taro on the floor at left. 

Lovely Conni unpacks groceries from a store run in preparation for our departure.  We try to rent bungalow B since it has this larger refrigerator. 

Especially lovely Conni at the first spreaders where she's checked the tightness of the fasteners on the radar.  She checks every machine screw, light, and cable on the mast, all the way to the top.

Today, Sunday, the day before we splash the boat, we knocked off work early and drove around the island.  On the northeast side, we came across this beautiful Charlolais bull.  We both hope that it arrived home safely. 

Down this private road, at the lagoon end of this road, is Opoa Beach Resort, Conni's favorite resort in French Polynesia.  It's hidden, beautiful, and has a beautiful setting.  They also make great cocktails!

Our two cocktails this year were a MaiTai (mine, at left), and a Blue Lagoon (Conni's, at right).  Conni makes great MaiTais, but the fresh juice makes this a great version.

A beautiful scene someplace along the northeast coast of Raiatea. 

Here are three American boats in the Carenage yard.  The boat at left is a Valiant 40, designed by Robert Perry, who also designed our boat,  a Passport 40, at right (Wings, of course).  The boat in the middle is of unknown make, but is owned by a woman who just completed a solo circumnavigation, an impressive feat. 

Bill, Marjorie, and Conni, place orders at the Roulotte Oray.  Bill and Marjorie own Second Wind and hail from Juneau, Alaska.

Here we are, left to right;  Marjorie, Bill, Bill, and Conni. 

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