Majuro 2013

It's been a busy year in Majuro.  When we got back from Fiji last October, I signed on to help the Diabetes Wellness Center as a Project Director, shepharding a grant from the World Diabetes Foundation to a successful outcome.  After my trip home last October/November, we enjoyed a pleasant holiday season here.  In early 2013, I got more involved with the local Alele Museum (I used to write grants and reports for the former director, my friend Newton Lajuan.  The new Chair of the Board had been successful in getting significant funding from the RMI government to renovate the building - which had been suffering from a badly damaged roof for three years.  We completed that repair, with the major effort of a fellow cruiser, Brad Nelson.  On September 27th we had our "soft opening" in time for the cultural day, and again to host the first ever visit by Holland America's MV Amsterdam to Majuro.  Over 300 tourists came through the museum.  It was great!

Ken continued to work for his friend Ben Chutaro, building custom cabinetry in his new home on the lagoon side in Uliga.  Ken also helped with building display cases in the museum.  (When I learn how to put photos in here, I will.)

I am hoping to get Ken out to the "outer atolls" early this spring...so different from living in the capital city here.  Also trying to plan some diving with some women friends between now and Christmas.

Okay, this can get boring, but I want to keep practicing and learning how to do this better.

More later.

After 24 days of what might typically take 16 days, we made it to to Lautoka on June 14th. First thing we heard was that we were the object of a "search" because our dear friends in Majuro had not heard from us after we had checked in with Pacific Seafarers Net and posted on FB that we would be blogging across the passage. The problem that created this situation was that the first day out the generator sucked up a plastic bag and the impeller disintegrated in the heat created by that.  Our in-board generator is too difficult to take apart to do the fix, and after trying to be heard over the interference of the portable Honda generator the next two days, we gave up.  (Our batteries were not holding a charge, because two in the "series" were really bad, so we could not use the HF radio using only the batteries.)  Then the sun cover on the jib started coming off, and we lost one good day of wind (we could have made easting to Funafuti), except that we had to spend a whole day sewing the sail.  The next day the jib jammed (again) and Ken thought the halyard was tangled.  We took the sail down again, and discovered the (wire) halyard had broken.  Then we discovered that the jib was jamming because one of the connecting pieces that makes up the"foil" for the furler had separated.  Fortunately, Ken is good with tools and was able to fix it in about 2 hours of work and effort underway.  Another day lost to repairs. The we hit a few days of no wind.  What? Run the engine?  No problem.  But not long after, the belt broke off the pulley for the water pump.  The problem was the pulley was wobbling. The "keyway" inside the pulley that keeps the pulley securely in place was worn out.  Ken tried to rig a nut in place, but two were quickly shot, and one more belt broken.  We had one left and didn't want to sacrifice it.  Ken found a way to rig the "blaster" wash-down pump rigged for cleaning the anchor chain to pump water into the engine.  You'll love those pictures. Another day, Ken went to check on the engine, and discovered the engine room sprayed with  oil!  We found that if we kept it at 1000 rpms it wouldn't spray too much and we only went through a few quarts of oil getting to Fiji.

We are still in a slip in Vuda Point Marina, waiting on engine parts and other stuff (windlass switches), new line for halyard that was cut when we thought the line for the furler was wrapped around it (it wasn't).  Turns out the oil leak was not the rear seal as originally thought, nor the main seal as we thought after further examining, but the timing gear cover was cracked!  What a job to get that off.  The bolt that holds the cam gear in backed out and was laying on its side in the gear.  No damage to the gears.  Are we lucky or what!  And to make it even better, our main engine go-to is S&W Diesel in Wilmington, CA - and they got all the parts for us!

Ken got the big generator running, the windlass repaired, and is doing "little" jobs while we wait to be hauled out.