Day 84: Hiva Oa, Marquesas – 30/03/10

Firstly, thank you to all of you who have been commenting on the blog over the last months.  I do appreciate the comments.  I started writing it for my friends and family so that they knew where we were and that we were OK, but never dreamed that anyone else would be interested in reading it and that it would end up reaching such a wide audience.  My apologies to people who commented on the blog while we were on passage from the Galapagos.  I published the comments when we arrived, but the internet seems to have eaten them!  I have no idea what went wrong.  Although I still have the comments as e-mails, the system won’t let me publish them again as it says they have already been published.  Bloody computers!

After the lovely day yesterday, today is one of bloody hard work.  I have three weeks’ washing to do (OK none of my clothes but lots of bedding, towels and Mike’s t-shirts) and sod all water to do it in.

Mike needs to get fuel for the boat, and since there is no fuel dock, this has to be done with diesel cans.  First though, we have to empty some into the tanks.  Since we know that the stuff we bought in the Galapagos is dirty fuel (discovered at the cost of another boat’s experience) we need to filter it and we don’t have a fuel filter.  I make do by cutting up my wire sieve and putting layers of the metal mesh into the bottom of the funnel (which luckily is flat) and covering it with a J-cloth.  It works sufficiently well and anyway, Mike doesn’t tip the diesel cans right up so all the crap stays in the bottom.  What is left at the end is a thick, grey-brown sludge.  Disgusting, and of course it means that we have lost some of the fuel.  Tipping all the crud into one can, he goes off and fills the other four.

JB comes over from Eowyn for a chat as they are leaving this morning.  We’ve been trying to get together for a few days now but there has been too much to do.  While he is with us, we make use of his muscle power by getting the stern anchor up.  Mike has been worrying about doing this as his hands are playing up a bit (the arthritis) and my back is a bit twitchy today and I don’t want to aggravate it.  Anyway, they get it up and onto the back step, but it is a struggle.  I think, when we have some time, that we will have to take some of the chain off – it’s just too heavy.  They celebrate their success with a couple of beers.

I start the washing machine off.  To save water, I do the second load in the water I saved from the first load, a bit gross I know, but as they say, needs must.  While the machine is going, we tie all the water bottles together, put them in the dinghy and go over to the quay to fill them  Luckily there is a hose available this morning and filling them is quite quick.  Lugging them back into the dinghy and out again at the other end is a pain, and pouring them into the tank doesn’t do much for my back.  I decide that for this load, I might as well just tip some of them straight into the washing machine – leaving out the middle man so to speak!  Four washing loads later (and using a lot less water to rinse so everything will probably feel horrid but at least, clean) the washing is done but it has taken nearly five hours to do.  I even use the rinsing water to try to wash down the decks which slows the whole process down.

All the time the washer is going, I have to keep an eye on the inverter as we don’t want to use the generator if we don’t have to.  At least with the sun out strongly today, we generate lots of power with the solar panels.

Mike, in the meantime, tries to fathom out what is going wrong with the water maker.  He takes the pump off and when he turns the shaft he can see that the pistons go up and down so he knows it is fundamentally OK.  Maybe it’s just some valves sticking.  He needs to get details from the manufacturer (whose on-line sales blurb doesn’t even mention our model!), so it’s better news (possibly) but not good news.

We go back to shore as the sun starts to go down, to fill the water bottles again.  With each trip we make, we can collect 105 litres.  Our tank holds 530 litres. 

Photo:  With an arm full of water bottles, and a backdrop of laundry, off we go re-filling!

So that we don’t waste the water we have just collected, we decide to shower under the public tap on the quay.  Now this is something I have never done (St Barts doesn’t count as I only washed my hair).  Standing in a bikini in a semi public place and actually showering is not my idea of fun.  There is no hot water and fluffy towel waiting for me as I stand there in my deck shoes feeling silly.  Anyway, the water does it’s job and we both drip back to the dinghy and take our load of water back to Jeannius, in the knowledge that at least two more trips are required tomorrow.  Fun!