Monday, July 20, 2009

Fish world

Manta claims to be the world capital of the red Tuna, and I would not
dispute it. The harbour is overcrowded with fishing vessels of all kinds
and all sizes, all intended to fish Tuna. It is incredibly busy, with
small boats on outboard criss-crossing the harbour day and night.
We had crossed the equator at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday without much
fanfare. We just offered a shot of rhum to Neptune before having
cocktails ourselves.
We arrived in Manta on Friday at 10:00 in the morning after a little
scare caused by the stuffing box heating up and causing noise and
vibration in the shaft. I slowed down and loosened up the stuffing box
until it leaked generously and allowed us to resume normal speed, but I
still remain a little nervous. Hopefully we won't need the engine that
much on the next leg and I will be able to have a better look at it once
in Papeete.
Also, the mooring at the Yacht Club is not very comfortable due to the
fact that the windvane is dangerously close to the floating dock. We are
tied up with a mooring ahead and lines to the floating dock aft.
However, the tide and the pacific swell caused us to be too close to the
floating dock. During the night, we put fenders to protect the windvane
and finally decided to move the boat away from the dock, and use the
dinghy to go ashore, but that might be too late as I noticed that the
top of the vane does not move as freely as it used to. I hope it won't
prevent it to work properly as so far it has been flawless and we did
not have to put any burden on the electric pilot.
Also, it turned out that the electronicians in Portsmouth connected the
transponder to the "Instruments" sub-circuit. We had shut that circuit
down and as a result Papy Jovial disappeared from the charts, which
caused some justified concern with some of those following us. Being
alerted by them, I found the problem and then tried and found a hot spot
in town to go on the web and make sure that the transponder was working
properly.
Internet connection is a problem here. There is a weak signal coming
from the Yacht Club, but they only keep it on from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m. and it will be closed on Monday.
We are also still waiting for the immigration and customs clearance. The
latest news is that we will get it on Monday afternoon. Inc'h Allah !
Other than that, we find Manta a busy place, mostly clean, with lots of
car traffic on cars that are for the most part in excellent conditions.
Not many shops or restaurant, but obviously this town is dedicated to
fishing Tuna.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am enjoying following your adventure-as are others here.
Gary
Roland
Justin