Evening. About sunset, though the sky is overcast and the sun can’t be seen. Rain pattering upon the deck. Bach Ricecar A3 coming from the Bose Soundlink. Freeze dry chicken and rice steeping. A plastic of Sauvignon Blanc to my left.
New Zealand went on summer time last weekend, so last night saw the first of the Wednesday night races. My view of the starting line is not quite as good from this mooring as it was from HAWKE’s, but I enjoyed standing in the companionway and watching a dozen boats maneuver. Looking over the fleet, with racing sails GANNET would be a contender. I don’t race and that isn’t going to happen. But she would be.
I went ashore this morning and walked up and over the Opua hill. I have not done much walking since leaving Neiafu and I have a virus, nothing serious, but I cough and sneeze and have some trouble breathing, so I wasn’t sure I could make it up the half mile incline, but I did. With a liquor store down the other side I had motivation to continue. Along the way I noticed that the sailboat abandoned beside the road for years is no longer there.
I must confess that I didn’t make it up the reverse side of the hill on the way back without stopping. But then I had more weight in my backpack.
I am probably going to sleep tonight on the port pipe berth. In even this moderate rain the forward hatch is leaking in several places. I bought a couple of tubes of LifeCalk the other day and will rebed it as soon as the weather allows.
I took the camera and a couple of lenses with me on my walk. The light was flat. The photo above was taken from GANNET at dawn and these during my walk.
There will not be a post of passage photographs from Neiafu to Opua. For most of the passage I saw only what I’ve photographed before. The last day did offer great photo opportunities, but I was otherwise occupied.
Here is a picture of the Raymarine tiller pilot showing the plastic cut from a trash bag that I taped to it to try to reduce water entering the body via the push rod.
I think it would have worked, but that tiller pilot died of unknown causes anyway.
You can see in the photo the pedestal tube that later sheered off.
The solar panel behind the tiller pilot is also dead.
