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Back to Leg 15 Photos | ||||
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We Complete the Trip at the Carenage We had Wings removed from the water on 10 September but didn't depart French Polynesia until 20 September: 10 days of hot work. Dominique (blue shirt), Carenage owner, oversees the placement of the slings that will hoist Wings from the water. And...she's not a boat! Wings is lifted on slings from the slip by the enormous TraveLift. Still in her slings, Wings moves into the yard. On a previous page, I showed a photo of this wrecked boat, showing the boat up hard on a reef on Taha'a. Here, the boat is within two weeks of being re-launched! There's more damage to repair, but she'll be back in the charter fleet. Wings is transferred from the TraveLift slings to the hydraulic trailer for moving about the yard. The smiling man is Taputu, our friend and the yard manager. He's very strong and very competent. This boat wreck was hauled from Fa'aroa, a bay further south on Raiatea. For unclear reasons, she burned to the waterline, was raised by these salvage buoys, and towed to the carenage by their tug. Here, she awaits removal to land, leaking fuel and mess into the lagoon.
After being pulled from the water, the two hulls, now unjoined by the bridge deck, is in two unstable hulls. It's easy to see the astounding damage that burning fiberglass can do. Finally managing to sling the two hulls, the TraveLift gently carries the mess for further processing. After judicious use of hydrochloric acid and a
bronze brush, our MaxProp glows in the sun beneath our newly
painted bottom
From the bow, you can see the three boat cover
sections that protect the boat's interior and exterior from rain
and sunlight.
Last one down the ladder, lovely Conni poses in
front of our Wings.
There's a great French bakery in Uturoa, but we
rarely get there during the lunch hour. Since our flights
departed at 1600, and we departed the boat at 1300, we were able
to drop by for lunch and this gorgeous dessert! Just gaze at
the work, and it tasted that good.
The tiny Uturoa dockside with a water taxi
pulled to the dock. Note the grocery carts where locals from
Taha'a left them after shopping at the nearby Champion market.
Tiny but lovely downtown Uturoa bakes in noon
sun.
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