Hello! Weekly write-ups are BACK! Did you miss them? 😘 

It feels like our lives have been moving a mile a minute lately! We’re exhausted. After finding water in our starboard sail drive during an overnight passage from Bora Bora to Moorea several weeks ago, we learned that the earliest the yard could haul us out was the 25th. We used the downtime to study how to remove our props and replace the seals ourselves in case no mechanic was available. We dug through our spare parts inventory only to realize that the spare seal kits we had were missing an O-ring, and our props have a special washer that bends in two places that shouldn’t be re-used (we didn’t know this existed, let alone that we should carry a spare). 

We searched high and low to find these parts in French Polynesia or an avenue to get them here before the 25th for a reasonable price. We determined that a single round-trip plane ticket to Los Angeles was the cheapest and fastest option. I volunteered to be the traveler. We were still anchored in Moorea, so I took a ferry, two taxis, and an 8.5-hour flight back to the Land of Convenience (the USA). 

I grabbed what we needed and a few additional odds and ends to make the trip worthwhile, then booked a flight right back to Tahiti. Unfortunately, my return flight was canceled the night before I was set to leave. I was rebooked for the next flight out, but the delay caused me to miss the ferry back to Moorea, leaving Ray to move Sabado to Tahiti single-handed. The forecast showed 3kn, so imagine his surprise when encountering 27kn winds on the nose and 6ft seas. The forecasts have proven worthless time and time again for us here in French Polynesia. 

He struggled to make headway on one engine but safely anchored in Point Venus five miserable and salty hours later. He picked me up from the beach and helped me unpack before a well-deserved good night’s sleep. 

The following day was our haul out. I was cutting it close with that trip! We chugged our coffee and readied our lines and fenders. The wind began to pick up as we motored toward the boatyard. It was blowing 20kn by the time we got to the well. The yard hailed us on the radio, instructing us to bring our bow and stern lines midship, approach the well sideways, throw both lines simultaneously, and then pivot in. We’ve never done anything like this; honestly, it sounded crazy. We put our headsets on and assumed positions: me on the bow, ready to handle the fenders and lines, and Ray at the helm. We attempted an approach but bailed out soon after, circling around to try again. We had not gotten close enough to the concrete pier to throw the lines, but we had gotten a better idea of how things would go. Our second attempt was not much better, but with the yard guys’ encouragement, I threw the bow line. We were still too far away; the line missed the pier by a few feet and plunged into the water. I quickly pulled it back aboard as Ray announced he was reversing so I could try again. He got the boat into position, and I tossed both lines together on our port side- both were caught. Phew! Third time’s a charm! Now, the real challenge began: pivoting into the well with the wind on our beam. Seven men handled our port bow and stern lines as I moved around the boat with a fender in hand, talking to Ray through my headset. 

“6ft starboard bow… starboard bow line tossed… clear midship… starboard stern line tossed…5ft over here… you’re in!” 

We pulled it off without a fender even kissing the concrete. We both let out a sigh of relief. Things moved quickly after that- a diver jumped in to place the straps for the travel lift, and we were blocked on the hard before we knew it. Two mechanics immediately got to work. They said they could change our sail drive seals and get us back in the water that day if we wanted! Things were looking up. 

We noticed they were struggling to remove the props, so much so that they had to use an impact driver to remove the nut. It seems they were overtightened the last time we had the sail drives serviced. Could this have contributed to the leak? They removed the shafts, and we were shocked to see significant wear on the port side shaft (not the leaking one). There was no obvious cause. We found no line or abrasive, and the starboard side looked perfectly fine.

We discussed our options with the mechanics: we carried speedi sleeves for situations like this, but the shaft didn’t seal from the factory, so it already had two sleeves on it from the first haul out. The mechanics all agreed it was too deep of a groove to ignore. The best course of action would be to replace the shaft. Luckily, there was a Yanmar shop nearby. So, we walked over in the sweltering heat with the part number in hand. Of course, they didn’t have it in stock and quoted us an outrageous amount to have them order it. We returned to the boat and began exploring our other options. The clock was ticking as we sat in the most expensive boatyard we’d ever been in. We scoured the internet for a shop with the part in stock and called everyone we could think of to see how quickly we could get it. We then realized that even if we could get the replacement shaft, we couldn’t properly remove the old gears here and press them onto the new shaft. I was surprised to learn that Yanmar doesn’t sell them fully assembled. 

By the end of the next day, Just Catamarans in Florida had come to our rescue, agreeing to ship us a new shaft fit with new gears for a reasonable price, although it was still the fastest and cheapest for one of us, to-you guessed it- fly back to the States to pick it up. So, off I went again. This time, it was one taxi, an 8.5-hour flight to San Francisco, and a 4-hour flight to San Antonio, Texas, where my lovely family would feed and house me for a few days while I waited for the package to arrive. To make the trip worthwhile, we decided to go all in and purchase a new windlass, too. We recently got more anchor chain and our windlass has been groaning/ changing pace for a while now. Most boaters I’ve met at the Tahiti airport who are making a run to the States for parts (this is very common) have been going to get windlasses. The deep anchorages of French Polynesia can really test your gear! So, I figured we’d get ahead of it and hopefully prevent another trip. After spending four years together 24/7 on a 42ft boat, it’s tough for Ray and I to be apart, and we didn’t want to have to do it again. We upgraded from our 1000W windlass to a 1500W, and we now carry 320ft of shiny new chain. 

While I was gone, Ray held down the fort at the boat yard, enduring the heat and humidity by himself. He washed and waxed the boat, tracked down a shop that would refill our propane tanks, and arranged for the portions of our helm enclosure that we’d been complaining about for months to be replaced.

The second I had my hands on our new shaft and windlass, I booked a return flight to Tahiti and carefully bubble-wrapped our new prized possessions. Just Catamarans and MMarine Online: thank you from the bottom of our hearts (and the depths of Sabado’s bilges!) for working with us on this. We received excellent customer service from both companies, with clear and frequent communication to ensure we got what we needed quickly. I boarded my return flight, and was hilariously the only passenger in economy.  

I’ve flown a lot in my lifetime but have never seen a full first class and empty main cabin on such a large plane! Several flight attendants told me the same thing; I’m just grateful Delta didn’t cancel the flight. I landed, made it through customs and immigration without issues, and climbed into a taxi to reunite with Ray. ❤️  I’m sitting on Sabado as I’m posting this. I’m thrilled to be back, but life on the hard is far from glamorous. The yard is next door to a sewage treatment plant and some sort of fish processing facility, so I’m sure you can imagine the aroma… There is also a dead rat off our stern cooking in the 90° heat. Delightful! We’re knocking out our to-do list as fast as possible so we can get the boat back in the water and get the heck out of here. Please, please, please keep your fingers crossed we have a smooth splash- these days, it seems like we need all the good luck we can get! 

I hope you had a great week. ❤️