An Unfortunate Delay

Damaged davits, stern rail and marina gate

Bent swim ladder

An Unfortunate Delay

May 17, 2015

It's been said that cruising is fixing your boat in exotic locations! That is proving to be the case for us.

On Sat we were looking forward to moving on to Moorea and were checked out of the marina and Tahiti Fri. As I backed out of the slip and went to go into forward the cable for the transmission broke. By the time I turned off the motor we still had enough momentum to crash into the dock on the opposite side with a good amount of force. The sound brought out many other boaters who helped us get the boat secured in a slip on that side .Being the weekend, we have just been able to assess the damage and clean up until Mon. There is a fair amount of damage to both Maggie and the marina.

On the bright side, there was not another boat there to hit. Also, there are services here for doing repairs. The dinghy and davits took most of the force so that protected the hull. There is just a chip out of one corner. The dinghy is punctured and the davits bent. They look beyond repair to us. The stern pulpit and swim platform are bent. The hydro generator is broken from its supports and dented.

An Australian couple came over for drinks that night and we had a wind down time. They have been helping today with some of the work. Rob got the solar panels all up with the new controller this morning. We have good power now which is also a highlight.

Further updates to follow: Doesn't look like we'll be able to get any stainless work done until we reach Australia. We believe the boat is sailable in it current condition. The dinghy definitely needs repair, and we are installing a new transmission control cable which is proving to be a challenge. We're optimistic that we won't be delayed too much, and that we can rejoin the fleet in Bora Bora before their scheduled departure date of May 27.