[password] zara1010
[status]
:position 20 12.88s 164 01.90e
:date 13/10/2013
The festival at Poum was fairly small, we searched for a stall selling carvings whilst listening to the live music - although we could have done that on Roxi from a distant anchorage as volume seems to be an indicator of popularity, or perhaps it's so those people who can't get their outboard started don't miss out?
We left after a while and headed to an island out in the bay, as we neared we could see a large jetty and thought there may be a resort, getting closer it all looked a bit shabby, but the jetty was impressively solid. Going ashore we found a selection of picnic tables and benches, huge shade 'umbrellas' on the beach and a swim platform dragged up above the tide line. Everything was a bit crooked and gradually getting blown apart, but as it was made from small tree trunks and woven palm fronds the disintegration would just be absorbed into the island again as it rotted. Behind the trees lining the beach was a massive bar area complete with glass fronted fridges, loos and showers, these were more properly built and the place was abandoned. The environment had been built for the P&O cruise line as a place for their passengers to spend the day. Three years ago the cruise ships deleted this destination from their itinerary, now nature is venturing into the bar and it's slowly falling down. Probably a big loss of income for the small town we'd just left, people must have had been employed to supply local food and perform traditional ceremonies and dances.
The following morning we got up and were ready to leave by 0800, during the night the wind had turned and the beach was now behind us, Si started the engine and went forward to do the anchor, by that time I was by the wheel and he came back saying the boat was in forward not neutral. After a minute or two of trying we realised that the throttle would not disengage the gear and go into neutral - it's more usual problem when it needs attention is not going into gear.
We checked the problem was not at the engine end, then emptied the back locker so Si could squeeze in and lie down to look behind the morse lever. Whilst we worked out what was happening the wind rose from 12 to over 20 kn the waves coming across the bay were getting lumpier and the beach looked close behind us. It seemed that the fix would be a bit of a mission and shouldn't be attempted here. We planned our getaway within the limitations of our sick throttle and headed upwind to the sheltered side of the harbour to dismantle the throttle and find out if we could fix it.
It took us all day to repair it, to persuade whatever was corroded inside the potted mechanism to release. It is a Teleflex and is a shoddy design, not watertight and no way of taking it apart to sort out the inevitable problems when water gets in. Eventually our efforts with turps, paraffin, patience and oil succeeded and the lever moved in neutral without taking the gear mechanism too. Now the challenge of re-assembling the morse cables in the almost invisible area behind the throttle lever with all those small bits and access being so tight and awkward - does BOAT stand for 'bring out another tool'?
At least it hadn't happened when trying to leave Boat Pass, that would have been almost dangerous in the wind we had; neither leaving nor staying to fix it were a good choice. Anyway that didn't happen and it's all working now, but we're getting a new one in NZ, they make a robust easily serviced model, and we'll be glad to replace this inferior Italian brand.
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