{"id":1346,"date":"2014-08-26T02:35:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T00:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/?p=1346"},"modified":"2015-07-06T20:04:33","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T18:04:33","slug":"when-adina-met-harry-and-some-gts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/?p=1346","title":{"rendered":"When Adina met Harry and some G&Ts"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Susie and I tied Adina up to a mooring buoy in Neiafu, Tonga we were tired but happy that we\u2019d crossed the stretch of Pacific Ocean nicknamed \u2018the Dangerous Middle\u2019. We\u2019ve mentioned before we belong to a radio net for yachties called the Isabela Net. We\u2019ve met a lot of the participants but one of the characters of the net, a chap called Harry on his yacht Malua, has always alluded us as he\u2019s been too far ahead. Harry sails passages single-handed and when he crossed the \u2018Dangerous Middle\u2019 he had us all glued to the daily radio net to hear his progress. He\u2019s clearly very experienced but had a tough old time being knocked over, tearing his main sail, losing antennas, engine that wouldn\u2019t work properly, various other damaged gear, gigantic waves etc. It was Harry\u2019s experience that made us all look very carefully at the weather and we waited in Bora Bora for two weeks until we had a good weather window.<\/p>\n

Susie and I sat tidying the boat and low and behold we saw his yacht coming by. He shouted \u201cHello Adina!\u201d \u201cHello Harry, we\u2019ll swing by and come and say hello later.\u201d Fabulous we will get to meet Harry. We settle down and have breakfast. But first priority after scrambled eggs and bacon is that our bilge pump had been running a lot during our passage. A boat typically has alarms, pumps and outlets in the bilge (bottom of the boat) to pump out any water that gets in. When you do get water in the bilge, you taste it. If it\u2019s fresh water, it means you have a leak in one of your fresh water tanks or pipes. If it\u2019s salt water, it means sea water is coming in somewhere and you need to act promptly, start sweating!<\/p>\n

During the passage we noticed our fresh water tanks were unexpectedly low and with the pumps going we put two and two together and got five. Now on a mooring buoy we started to explore the reason for the bilge pump going off every five minutes. To further your knowledge of yachts, we have an engine that drives a propeller and the two are connected by a long shaft. The engine is inside the boat, propeller outside the boat, shaft comes through the hull and a seal keeps the water out. Much to our alarm, there was water flowing through our seal! And at the level pretty much like when you have the tap half open at home. Adina is sinking (dramatic effect here)! We rush for the manual and it recommends cleaning the seal. We push the seal back and, with a fountain of water coming in, clean it. No change. Tom decides Harry is an expert – let\u2019s call him. \u201cHarry, do you know anything about shaft seals?\u201d \u201cSure \u2013 what type is it?\u201d \u201cDripless, in theory\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll pop over.\u201d<\/p>\n

A quick inspection and for the technical sailors out there he calmly says it\u2019s the stainless steel disc that has slipped forward. Using some very useful wooden wedges made for us by Susie\u2019s dad, he proceeds to loosen it, hammer it back and tighten it \u2013 job done. Off goes Harry. Susie and I are left overwhelmed by our good fortune and what a nice chap he is and in shock that such a potentially serious problem was fixed so quickly. Magnificent \u2013 buying that man a beer or two. Sailing people are good people. Relief all round.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a>

Two gin and tonics!<\/p><\/div>\n

Shower, freshen up and off we go to town to secure our whale sightseeing trip recommended by Harry. Return to the Aquarium Caf\u00e9 bar on the waterfront where several of the yachts we know are gathering for sundowners. We\u2019re buying a few people drinks and the waitress runs a tab under \u2018Adina\u2019. She comes back and says to Susie \u201cYou are Adina?\u201d \u201cYes, that\u2019s the boat name\u201d \u201cAnd what is your name?\u201d \u201cSusie\u201d, \u201cI have something for you\u201d. She then gives us a slip (see photograph) and it\u2019s two gin and tonics from the utterly lovely Tim and Clare on the yacht Ghost who we had last seen in Grenada in the Caribbean! How kind is that! Tim and Clare are sailing with the World ARC Rally and are now in Australia having been in Tonga a few months back. Just made our day and hope we can repay the thought somewhere down the line. We miss you crazy folk!<\/p>\n

Quite some day. We\u2019d met Harry, he\u2019d saved us from sinking and some thoughtful people hundreds of miles away from us bought us gin and tonics. The world is a good place, you know!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Susie and I tied Adina up to a mooring buoy in Neiafu, Tonga we were tired but happy that we\u2019d crossed the stretch of Pacific Ocean nicknamed \u2018the Dangerous Middle\u2019. We\u2019ve mentioned before we belong to a radio net for yachties called the Isabela Net. We\u2019ve met a lot of the participants but one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[65,47],"class_list":["post-1346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-harry-smith","tag-tonga"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1346"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1358,"href":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions\/1358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yachtadina.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}