Papeete is a big city in the middle of the Pacific ocean. It is also a popular place for sailors to stop and as a result has some great infrastructure for repairing boats. As we pulled into Papeete a week ago we made a list of all the things that our boat was in need of so that we can keep Far & Away in “ship shape”. Our list of repairs includes the following:
1) Replace the 4 missing battens (that blew out of the mainsail).
2) Repair the Plexiglas in Jaeden and Dailin’s bathroom hatch (it cracked into three pieces during the Pacific crossing).
3) Sew the Mainsail (areas where the mainsail batten pockets rubbed on the shrouds).
4) Sew a tear in the sail cover and Bimini.
5) Bleach out the kitchen sink saltwater hand pump.
6) Replace the broken gear lever on the dingy’s outboard motor.
7) Patch up a small hole in the port rudder (Stern anchor chain rubbed up against it in the Marquesas).
8) Seal up water leak in port window.
9) Fix one of the solar panel charger displays.
10) Replace the water-maker filter membrane.
11) Propeller Zinc replacement.

As you can see there are some small and big items that need a bit of attention but in the end a boat is always a work in progress to keep it in good shape. Along the way we have found a number of other other sailors that have been able to help us figure out how to fix a few of these items. This includes the rather complicated water-maker, solar panels and the simple kitchen saltwater pump.  In other cases we will need to rely on local specialists to help us order the parts that we need. Items such as battens, torn sails and the rudder hole. I wish that we could be more careful and have less things break on the boat but if we were doing that we probably would have our boat sitting in a marina somewhere and not be adventuring on the open ocean. Part of the casualty of going on a sailing adventure is fixing up the things that break along the way.

Tomorrow my mom will come and visit our crazy crew for two weeks and we have ordered a few of the parts we need to be delivered to her. It is certainly much easier to have parts ordered in the USA than they are in the middle of the Pacific ocean. While Tahiti may be one of the easiest places in the South Pacific to have repairs done, I’m sure we will need more things done along the way so lets hope that anything else is simple to take care of.

We have cupboards of spare parts, wires and more for our equipment, engines and every piece of equipment on-board but it seems that no matter how many spare pieces we have, there are always more things we could have brought along. In the end we do the best we can.