06/07/2014 – 21°19′N 157°54′W

Tahiti Trip:

Yep. Still here in the slip at Keehi, sigh…

The bimini is up, solar is charging swimmingly, but still no comms. The SSB setup didn’t work with the modem so we ordered the satellite phone. But the Iridium 9505A didn’t come with a data adapter. So now we’re waiting for Monday for the sat phone place to open in case they have one on hand, but also ordered one on Amazon to arrive on Tuesday just in case. No more delays! (But wait, there’s more…)

After changing the fuel filters the engine wouldn’t bleed correctly. Last time I changed the filter about 8 months ago I had to hire a guy to bleed it thinking I was just a newb and wasn’t doing it correctly. Turns out a check valve somewhere in the system wasn’t working and the mechanic had to hold his thumb over a port to get it to bleed. Unfortunately I had just left for work and wasn’t able to see what he did. And now he is unavailable to talk so… Hire another mechanic to figure it out? All mechanics on the island are busy until Monday.

Patrick is our water guy, checking out a replacement Pur 40E water maker membrane, checking out our emergency Go-Bag water maker, and buying a few more collapsible water containers.

Torsten is our GPS guy, buying a longer antennae cable and researching hand helds. Right now we have Navionics installed on my Droid (operational in airplane mode), 2 laptops with OpenCPN and GPS pucks, and all the reduction tables and small scale paper charts and sextant and plotting paper and compasses and almanac required for celestial navigation. Once Torsten is done we will also have the Garmin 210 and handheld working, so we WILL know where we are!

So tomorrow, Sunday, will be an “off” day while we stock the boat with plastic containers in preparation for a low-trash cruise. Buy in bulk, remove packaging, store in air tight containers in all the hideaway spots on the boat.

If we delay past June 15 we won’t have time for the trip. But as of now Wednesday, June 11 is our new goal; Engine, comms, food and water, go!

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