Day 364, Year 1: Happy Birthday to Our Favorite Kiwi and My Nephew Tommy
Date: Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day
Location: Port of Refuge, Neiafu, Vava’u Group, Tonga
My nephew Tommy back in Maryland and Kathleen, crew on Quantum Leap, share October 17 as their forty-something birthdays. We love you both. We were with Kathleen to celebrate and can only hope that Tommy had an equally delightful birthday.
We did a lot of computer work this morning-backing up pictures on our extra hard drive and making CD’s for fellow cruisers. By noon, Mark was on deck trying to pull down our head sail for repairs. But he ran into a snag. The first joint in the roller furling mechanism has some problem and will not let the sail down beyond that point. Mark went to the top of the mast, but everything looked fine from there. So we have asked a couple of fellow cruisers to come over tomorrow morning to help us with the problem. When Mark went up the mast today, the sail was furled, but he wanted to unfurl it and then go up and check the mechanism. I told Mark I wouldn’t do this without help. He will be at the top of the mast and then lowering himself to check the furling mechanism while the huge sail is flailing about in the wind. If a good gust comes, I’m afraid we could pull the mooring off the bottom and if that should happen, I’ll need help to control the boat while someone else holds the lines for Mark. He thought I was being too conservative, but I’m glad I won on this one.
Tomorrow afternoon we have a captain’s meeting to share knowledge of the passage to New Zealand. We then plan to go Ano Beach by taxi for a Tongan feast, but it is possible that it will be cancelled. We’ll report on that tomorrow night.
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| 061017 Day 364 Tonga, Vava'u–Happy Birthday, Kathleen |
