Muchos Kudos

For furler fixing help we would like to say a big thank you to Vicki aboard Southern Cross who was flying into Nuku Hiva and stuck spare parts for our furler into her luggage for us. Knowing that a friend was hand carrying the parts, rather than being at the mercy of various postal systems, made it easy for us to put that issue aside while we were still on passage and to enjoy ourselves without stress in our first few anchorages. But how did we order those parts? My Dad gets a huge thank you for reading my sketchy descriptions via radio email and then calling riggers all over Washington State, identifying which parts we actually needed, ordering those parts and getting them to Vicki before she boarded the plane. Thanks Dad.

SV Pandion let us use their amps, their sewing machine, their main salon and their thread in order to fix the sunbrella on our main furling jib which had come loose on passage rendering the sail unusable. Now we are back to having two headsails and it eases our minds to have a spare during a period of time when we will be making a lot of passages.

Finally, we got our stern anchor good and stuck in the soft suction-y mud of Atuona on Hiva Oa and three boats came to our rescue. Bruno and Yvonne on Momo attempted to free our anchor with their dinghy and then by putting our rode on their electric windlass. SV Uma tried some dinghy and hand maneuvers with Carol. Finally, Michael of Wondertime used his hookah rig to free the anchor which was embarrassingly easy when down at depth digging in the murky water with his hands. Luckily our anchor, while enormous, was very light (a Fortress) and he reappeared with it in his arms shortly after descending.

Thank you, thank you and may we spread the good will by helping others in the future.