AdventuresAboardAvatar: Chores

Sailing to Paradise, seems like such an idyllic thing to do, but it is not always fun in the sun. Lots of chores were been done before and after the fun was had. One of our last minute things was to replace the drive unit of the autopilot that broke on our shake down cruise to mainland Mexico. I guess the good news was it happened there and not out here, where things have to be shipped in at great expense! Pedro had to re drill some of the wood he built to hold the previous one as of course the holes for the new one did not line up with the old ones. To get to the autopilot, the entire aft bunk (where we sleep) had to be taken apart again and disassembled, drilled and re assembled.

In the mean time, Mike made rubber mounts for the dive compressor hidden underneath the aft seat. He then had to secure the frame to the seat mounts to make sure it did not move around in case of a big seaway.

Once we arrived in the Marquesas, we had LOTS of laundry to do. Thank God I had the new clothes washing machine installed to replace the old leaky one. When our friends paid to have their laundry done ashore it was $25 per load! It may have been expensive for that washer, it will pay for itself in no time! Because it was raining a lot when we first arrived we hung up the drying line underneath the sun/rain awning. This way even if it rained a bit the clothes still dried.

The one photo shows really well how the sail track had tried to remove itself from the mast. Thank goodness it was only partial pulled out. It started on the crossing, but got so bad on the passage to Fakarava, we knew we could no longer use the mainsail. So when we finally got to Pape'ete, we took the track off and searched the town until we found the proper sized rivets and bought a rivet gun. The anchorage by Marina Taina was sometimes rolly, especially when the surf was up, so we moved down to Marina Pape'ete to try and be in a more still location for the job up the mast. Mike went up and down the mast at least 6 times to complete the job. He went slow so not to strain his new back too much. Once at the top, he found another problem. The pin holding up the sheaves (rollers that the halyards go over from outside to inside the mast) had come loose and one of the sheaves was missing (most likely fell inside of the mast). Pedro came over and fixed up that problem for now, but we will have to have a new sheave made and re-installed. Probably will not find the other one, until we pull the mast out again!

The mast track itself is starting to show some age, so we know at some point it too will have to be replaced. We actually saw two boats replacing that same type of track here in Pape'ete and got good info on where and how to get one when we need it. How will we know when the time has come to replace it? The cars on the sail will start popping out of the track.

Just like a house, a boat always has something to fix. We try to keep from letting the list get too long and sometimes a thing that is at the bottom of the list, suddenly gets moved to the top, when a priority has to be changed. Such is life cruising around the tropics!