The boat was hauled out last Wed. We have been living on the hard in our treehouse at Technimarine in Papeete, Tahiti. The boatyard is a real working yard, with huge fishing vessels being fixed here. We have been allowed to live on the boat which is a real bonus, it means we do not have to find other accomdation. Everything is very expensive here so it would have been very costly to find somewhere else to stay.
The yard is located just inside the reef at the main entrance to Papeete harbour, we can watch all the large ferries and ocean going vessels enter and leave port. Cat's-Paw IV is by the fence on the edge of the boatyard and there is a paved road and then a ditch for runoff and then a cement seawall that is 20 feet high. The road is fairly isolated from downtown and seems to be quite a hangout. In the morning and evening there are all sorts of joggers on the road, some seem to be making some sort of loop and we see some them a couple of times in a evening, Barry is very jealous. Then there are the young people who show up in their cars after sundown. They stop and drink and visit and turn their car stereos up to full volume, so we are never short of music for our listening pleasure! Next the even younger guys show up on their motorcycles and scooters. As I said the road is isolated so they use it as a drag strip, Barry enjoyed watching them doing wheelies the other day. Added to this, the boatyard is in the flight path for the airport, huge airliners pass over on their final landing pattern. The first night on the hard I was awoken by one of these behemoths and the noise was so loud and I was so startled I thought we had hit the rocks again.
Which leads to our repairs. Last week we spent contacting the insurance people and getting a surveyor and an estimate done on the repair bill. They have started the repairs this morning and if the weather continues to be good they should be finished by the end of the week. They will not work on it if it rains. The fellow at the yard thinks he should be able to do it for $5,000 USD and he and the surveyor think it is all just surface damage, nothing structural so we are very relieved. The worst part is the damage to the keel because water was getting in there so it is good that it has been drying out since last Wed.
It is a 30 minute walk to downtown so if we go to town we walk one way and take a taxis back. Barry`s hip seems to be getting worse and he is limping badly when we get to town. The taxi ride is $17 so we don't want to take one both ways. We keep running into fellow cruisers downtown and are able to communicate with them on VHF so we don't feel too isolated here. We took Brian and Cathy from Tarun out to dinner the other night to thank them for shadowing us from the Marquesas and had a wonderful time. The other day while we were visiting with friends I had to kick myself to believe we are in Tahiti, it seems unreal and it is a long way from Yellowknife: We have been busy on board doing odd jobs, re-painting our chain, varnishing, cleaning the deck and the lines, etc, etc: We did get our ham radio back but the fellow here was unable to repair it, DAMN, we will have to think about what we want to do to have it fixed.
I am using the computer in the office as there is no internet access on the boat so I am unable to load pictures; hopefully I will be able to soon.
