Today we woke up fairly early to get everything done before the shops close at noon. Susan and I went off to the farmers market, which is right next door to the wharf. We bought lots of fruit and veggies at very good prices. The market also had shops set up selling all kinds of souvenirs. Steve stayed behind and worked on renting a car. We needed it to ferry diesel back and forth from the gas station. Luckily we had help from fellow cruisers and they lent us some jerry cans and an electric pump. We topped off the main tank, filled one of our auxiliary tanks and our jerry cans. This was all going on while the two boats next to us were doing the same with all the same equipment. Lots of sharing going on. Very nice yachties helping all three boats out. Both boats next door are cute little 28 footers from Poland. The crew on each is 2 women. So, there are 3 female skippers in a row here. Very unusual. I can’t imagine sailing here from Poland. I thought I was far from home.
During all this activity, I wasn’t really doing anything, so I went off to the groceries and Steve retrieved me when I was done. I loaded us up with more canned goods. We were very low on canned veggies. I also picked up some New Zealand lamb shanks and a chicken, both frozen. The fridge is about 1/2 full of Diet Coke. The store wasn’t as fun as in French Polynesia, but still had many interesting items. I also had time for a little souvenir shopping too. I got nice black pearl necklace. I bought one last year in Tahiti, but I wanted a bigger one.
By 2 p.m. most of the shops were closed and we were fueled up. I went off for a shower at the harbor office. To my great surprise the water was hot! When I got back Susan and Steve greeted me with the bad news that our main diesel tank is leaking. Fairly fast. We knew we had a leak and had tried a fix. Apparently, it didn’t quite work. Susan had picked up some baby diapers for just such a sopping up occasion. However, they were soon depleted. I ran off to the one remaining store that was open until 4 p.m. When I got back they were pumping some of the diesel out of the main tank and re-seating the seal that was leaking. It seems O.K. for now. Who knows once were underway and sloshing around more.
Warning, technical boat stuff to follow. You can skip to the next paragraph if you’re not familiar with the boat. Our main bilge has a bit of diesel in it now and the primary bilge pump isn’t working. We noticed that yesterday. Which is actually quite a good thing. We don’t want to pump out the bilge in harbor with this much fuel in it. Once were out of here tomorrow we’ll pump it out, by the hand pump if necessary. Then well get the bilge pump working again. The bilge has had a bit of a workout running every half hour or so when motoring. It took a while to diagnose, but we found that the engine anti-siphon is spitting out water that is running back down the bilge output hose. Both are in the same cockpit drain. We hope we solved that by raising the bilge output hose higher.
With all this time running around we haven’t really seen Roratonga. Well drive around tomorrow and maybe even snorkel. Tomorrow is Sunday and the locals really frown on doing anything. Weve already been asked don’t you go to church on Sunday? We pretended we didn’t hear them ask. From what we understand its even stricter in Tonga. Were making Sundays sailing days from now on.
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