Boat work

Yay parts came in! We replaced the fresh water pump on port side so now we can use that water tank with no problems and we have great water pressure. We replaced the starboard bilge pump a well. We also have light in the heads now! Fixed the spotlight over the grill....ummm what else....OOh we installed he outdoor speakers! Nice! I think we fixed the leaky hatch above our bed. We did a lot of glueing and caulking yesterday all over the boat. And we got the wood plank that holds up the outboard motor sanded and ready for varnish. We got like a week or two worth of work done in one day between us. Today we go to ace hardware for more electrical connectors and such and the motorcycle shop to look at replacing the steering cable....oh and we r dropping off the generator to see if it an be fixed or if we need to buy a new one. Oh yeah and we vacuumed out all the compartments that had water in em...lots done yesterday! Then we had a nice little BBQ and said farewell to Boz:( he went home last night... 

Rainmaker had her party hat on allll night long...

We call the mountain next to us the rainmaker because any kind of moisture that gets caught around it gets dumped on us. We figured yesterday would be  like any other day and just shower for a bit and then stop and get muggy all over again but....yesterday was different. We had a front move through and the rain never stopped, the wind grew stronger and our anchor?...our anchor got slippery! Haha. We had our first experience with dragging anchors last night. First...we were sitting at the McDonald's waiting for a lull in the rain so we could dinghy back to the boats. (We had Dane from Cadence II with us) when Mike from another boat walks in and asks us if we know where the owners of the boat Clara are..(they are the new boat that anchored in front is Cadence and us) we say no why? Oh just because the are dragging and they are setting just between your two boats at the moment....holy crap!! So we said screw the rain we were gonna be drenched anyway...jumped in the dinghy and hauled ass back to the boat. There were 3 other people on board Clara and they were able to get the engine going and get their anchor up and move them to a more secure spot. At this point the wind was only at about 18-22 knots. We watched Wind Witch put out a second anchor which turned out to be a great idea and we should have followed suit. Buuuuuuut we were pretty secure so we left it. We took advantage of the heavy rains and filled out water jugs and our tanks. We also scrubbed everything on deck with soap an water and scrubbed hard till all stains came off. We pulled the paddle board up and scrubbed it since it was slimy and had growth on the bottom already and we secured it to the deck for the night. Then it got dark and the wind kicked up to upper 20's to lower 30's gusting in lower 40's!!! 42 knots was the highest we saw it get at one point! Have u ever been pelted with rain at that high wind!? It hurts! So we noticed we were dragging and the boys from Cadence noticed we were and offered to come help. So we had to pull up our anchor and reset it in these high winds and heavy rain. The boys are smiling from ear to ear having a blast! They are NUTS!!! I was so nervous but only cuz we never been in this situation before just like everything else. So we are getting the anchor hauled up and then the damn steering cable broke!! How many times are we seriously going to have this happen to us!!!! Looked at the chain and it's all rusted so no wonder it broke duh.... And the emergency tiller goes in on the port side...the throttle is on the starboard side...:-/... What genius came up w that one? Anyway Ty was able to steer just using the throttles and the auto pilot so we reset the anchor and got out the emergency anchor. The boys put it in the dinghy and set it out as far as it would go so we have two anchors holding us right now and we held steady all night no slipping at all! Great success!!! Well while that was going on the boat that was in front of Cadence on the starboard side drug back and tried to reset three times with no success and when they finally got that set...Cadence looked like they were dragging a little!! It never ends! One guy behind us just pulled up and took off and said screw this...he was going to motor up and down the Harbor all night but Then realized he could tie up next to a fishing boat at port control or something like that. Cadence got their boat secured with another anchor as well. This was just in the front of the anchorage! The radio was chaotic all night! The boats in the back of the anchorage were hailing each other too with "hey you are dragging" and "can I get some assistance i am dragging and I can't get my engine started!" That guy was the most calm out of everyone surprisingly. So all night until about 1 or 2 am we kept a close eye on things. Then it calmed down an stopped raining and gusting so hard. We were able to get some sleep but only with a handheld GPS clutched in one hand to make sure we weren't moving ... So all in all I think it was a good night! We secured our anchor better, scrubbed the boat really good, (Ty finally got a shower in) heehee just kidding...learned that we need to replace our steering cable before the next passage on to Fiji, filled the water tanks aaaand found the leak in our cabin so we can fix it today hopefully. We did however wake up to another boat calling for help. I guess they were pulling up anchor so they had the engine in gear and didn't realize they had a line overboard. Turned out to be wrapped around the anchor chain so they couldn't get it up all the way but then it went all the way back and got stuck in their prop so they couldn't steer. They had a few people come over immediately to help them out so they are all good now. What a night huh!?!?!?!?!?! ;) 

That's "the rainmaker" in the background aaaand there's my board:)

Chillin in Am Sam

So we have been doing a lot of shopping and some little odd jobs around the boat as we wait for our big order to come in. We also got the sail parts in the mail so they are on the way also. We could probably do a lot more but it's so flipping hot here that you can't breathe on the boat sometimes so we go to shore a lot....ya know so we don't die of heat stroke or something....we don't really cook on the boat either because of the heat. We found a couple of good places with amazing air conditioning to eat at...if only it had wifi...but then we would never leave til after the sun went down. So we have McDonald's, a Carls Jr, a Filipino joint and the Matai restaurant to choose from. Oh and this place called Sadie's by the sea but I think it's overpriced as far as food goes....

Here is the Sadie's place we went to last Sunday after the game. Listened to live music and shared a few beers w the boys. 

Public transportation rocks here! You take these custom made busses all over the island and u can go anywhere for $1 no matter how far you are going. As you an see these busses are all decorated to the owners liking. Some have flat screens and play movies inside....watched Rush Hour the other day!....but they ALL have sound systems and are blaring music the whole time. They save their music on a flash drive an plug it in and we are Rollin gangsta style up n down this island! Yesterday our driver had boas hung up all over the front...big feather boas in all colors lol...

Here are some of the shops we walked to yesterday. Cool to have that greenery in the background. 

There's another bus. They are trucks that are custom made into busses. From what I here there is a place on the island that will make them. 

Here's the museum. I think we will visit this place next week. 

Fire station. 

Port of Pago Pago where we checked into the country. 

This bus route takes us to another town where we get bluesky for phone and Internet and hardware stores like Ace and the costuless. It's about a 20 min ride. 

I need a better camera on my phone...I may just have to take over the new iPhone 5 Ty got since the camera is sposed to be way better. But this is a little island in itself...big rock w palm trees growing on top. 

I love how our photo bomber is cheesin like she knows she is in the pic lol. Tellin ya they are a happy people here always smilin!

Enjoying the view, the ride and especially the airflow from the open windows 

Lots of churches here and EVERYONE goes on Sundays

We get showers quite often but they never last that long. 

Stayed in and watched a movie last night. We were both pretty beat. A friend asked us to help him dive for a mooring block. So we took him out to where it was supposed to be and watched out while he dive. The sun was brutal yesterday and all I could think was dang I forgot the sunblock. So after being out for a while in the sun we were hot and drained and just wanted to lie around and watch a movie after dinner. We ate at this sushi place called sooks. Not impressed and overpriced. Back to the Matai....

There are all the little Chinese shops all over the place so we are finding random stuff that's good for the boat lately! Like plastic wine glasses and other randoms...

Video

The video is goin to take some more time. Something about copyrights....if we can't get it to work then I will just post a bunch if short videos without music...blah...but at least that will work:)

Passage to American Samoa

These past few days have been pretty hectic for me. Ok lemme clear that up. The past few days have been great sailing weather absolutely awesome sailing!! Unfortunately I have had a fever of 103 and I can't shake it. Nights sweats, body aches, severe pain behind the eyes and high fever. Havent been able to eat anything or had the energy to cook in 4 days. Ty said I had dengue  fever!!! :( I still make it to the helm to do my watches but if I'm not lying down I feel like crap. We finally called Dr B on the sat phone and he said to take the meds he left us with and call him in a few days. He said I had the bloody flu....:( 

I've never been sick to where I had so much pain behind my eyes it's so bizarre. ...

No luck on fish yet. We had 3 lines out and now we r down to 2. We got a good bite but we can't seem to set the hook and reel em in..... 

We hit out first squall out here. Ty n I saw it comin so we ran all over getting sails put up and down and furled away, kicked on both motors and waited for the worst. It looked baaaad and huge In the distance. It dumped a ton of rain on us and stole our wind!!!!>=[  we were ready for all the worst winds and all it did was rain for a bit and left us with no wind!! Lame. 

Finally got over the fever when we landed in Suwarrow!! This place was so beautiful! White sand. Palm tree after palm tree. Crystal clear water and tons of sharks! We had about 12 pet black tip reef Sharks that hung around our stern all day every day. We stayed for about 3-4 days. We snorkels the reefs and swam with the manta rays! Yeah I am getting better about getting in the water. It's getting easier and I like it more and more every time I work up the nerve to get in;). The Suwarrow rangers are awesome btw. There are two that stay on the island and we had an awesome beach BBQ potluck on our last night there. I made a massive batch of tortillas and they were gone by the end of the night. We left the next morning after swimming with the mantas and we are now gonna be in American Samoa tomorrow morning. Yay McDonald's and free wifi!!!

We caught a massive dorado finally! I reeled it in and when we finally got him on board he made a huge bloody mess but we are eatin pretty good right now:) 

We have had a few squalls but no high winds or anything hectic so far. It was quite nice actually. Having a huge downpour, in the dark, eating lamb chops and drinking wine inside....radar on of course and popping my head outside every 5-10 min .... A little island music and we had a nice evening. Even let the rain fill our water tank! 

We did laundry in the jungle from the well water. Or rain water collected in this well it was pretty awesome doing laundry in the jungle and then hangin to dry on a line in the middle of the island. We also got to watch the rangers feed the sharks. They feed them on the other side of the island twice a day. It was pretty intense watching them all fight over scraps and watching the big ones come in so close to shore! 

Off we go

Well here we go!! Just left bora bora and we are off to American Samoa. Had a wonderful time. Met lots of cool people. But it's time to say goodbye. Next stop should be about 2 weeks from now. We may stop in Suwarrow  along the way for a night or 2. Google that place if u can!!! Sposed to be ridiculously pretty. Then going to pull into Pago Pago American Samoa around October 1st.  

Gale force!

Maaaaan the wind is PUMPIN!!!! It's been a hectic and consistent 25 knots of wind here in the marina. Glad to be secured on a mooring but still get a little uneasy feeling when it gusts up to 30 knots. With wind like this it's hard to get anything done outside but the inside is spotless lol.... So we figured out how to rig the mainsail so as soon as the wind dies a bit we can put the baton cars on and be on our way outta FP! 

So Ty and I noticed there are sooo many fanny packs going on here...we can't figure out if FP stand for French Polynesia or fanny pack! Haha either they are makin a comeback or they never left;) ill be sticking with my lil Hurley daypack but to each their own. 

So our friends on Privateer loaded up our hard drive with all the best 80's movies!! I'm so excited!! And they added THE PRINCESS BRIDE!!!!! I'm in heaven. ;) they got all our good music to choose from and repaid us with awesome movies. Can't wait to watch The Lost Boys and Princess Bride. 

Friday the 13th...nothing bad has happened but we DID see a boat dragging anchor near the moorings...then we saw one person up at the now taking the anchor up so we thought it was all ok but then we were on the dinghy dock of the yacht club and the person is jumping up n down and waving both arms (international symbol for Help) ...it seemed they were able to navigate thru all the boats but ya never know...maybe they needed help maybe not but I let the guy from the yacht club know so he got on the radio... Seemed like they were in control so no worries. 

Some other friends we have on Just Drifting said there were whales in the marina the other night!! So sad we missed that. We did see whales on the way from maupiti to bora so we didn't totally miss out. 

My Tahitian pearl;)

Lela and Chris....nice Cali peeps and they bring us cake!!!

Gotta rep my team all over the world. ;)