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| It’s not a thing of beauty, but thanks to the addition of a| Pape’ete city marina cruiser castoff, our “new” bow anchor roller works better than ever! |
“Treasures of the Bilge” is a common conversation topic when cruisers get together, as in the space-limited constraints of boating, often excess baggage on one boat is a brilliant boon for another.
One compensation for our custom-sheet fiasco in Pape’ete led to Wayne’s discovery of the perfect fix for our propane stove. Our stove top was only a bit over a year old, a fix for our original stove top, which was rusting its way into oblivion. Wayne sawed out the original 1977 stovetop, and replaced it with one special ordered from West Marine, as the oven part of the unit worked and didn’t require a costly replacement.
As we wandered to the edge of Pape’ete’s docks to find a space large enough to draw out a pattern for custom-fitted sheets, Wayne saw an Eno stovetop cast aside a boat at the city marina. “Were you getting rid of this?” Wayne inquired the owner. Yes, they upgraded; Wayne was free to take it. Thanks to their reject and Wayne’s sharp eye and handiwork, I now am back to two burners on our two burner propane stove.
Wayne also spotted a bow roller left near Pape’ete’s marina gates, apparently the unofficial “freebie” section of the marina. The timing was good; the roller given us from cruisers Alison and Randall of Tregoning (to quick fix fix my embarrassing misadventure in Hiva Oa) was too wobbly and the replacement Wayne bought in a nearby Pape’ete marine store was rapidly disintegrating. He incorporated the freebie into our bow roller’s existing temporary fix. It eliminated the tendency of our anchor shaft to hang on our bow sprit as the anchor was lowered and now works better than it did before I broke it!
We hope the “treasures of the bilge” we’ve donated over the years have given as much pleasure to other cruisers as the ones we’ve put to use.
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| This blog was written for pre-post in Maupiti, French Polynesia. The second stop is Suwarrow Cook Islands, followed by Pago Pago American Samoa. Total distance is 1,100-1,200 nautical miles. |
Location Location
Inspired in Pape’ete, French Polynesia (S17.32.393 W149.34.219), this blog post was written in Maupiti, French Polynesia (S16.26.838 W152.14.690), and pre-scheduled to run while on our long passage to American Samoa, with a stop off in Suwarrow Cooks Island along the way, weather permitting. About 1100 miles with the one stopover in between, we anticipate arriving in American Samoa (and wifi) about the third week of August.
