This week we learned the in's and out's of living the remote island life. They say that cruising is really just doing boat projects in beautiful places and t...

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Rarotonga really took us through some

ups and downs if you remember our

introduction to the island was hardly

paradisaical but a week friends changed

all that around it seems real Tonga

liked them best because when they left

our luck slid back downhill holding onto

some flowers garbage I just started

throwing up it hurts so bad and take my

temperature thermometer hit from whole

really good time instead we have

got last thing we had the laser read a

temperature gun city has been a long

genus recovering it's been a work day

for me I am fixing what I broke I was

great be nice so this is a refrigerator

half of our icebox and I cut off this

little tube and cable looks just like

this copper one and that was a

thermostat so apparently that I thought

it was the wires actually is the tube

it's hollow inside it's got the same

refrigerant as the inside of this box

and as it gets warm it expands when it

cools down and contracts so it makes it

kind of like a home thermostat and

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CLEC to the guys next door who have a

very big boat with a lot of spare parts

and they happen to have just what we

needed so they gave me the thermostat

and I'm in the process of removing and

putting in the new one just kind of

completing the connections here and then

hopefully we'll have a running fridge

again

lesson learned is make friends with the

people around you all cruisers are

pretty well prepared good everybody kind

of helps helps each other out it's a

great community

three days later how they had nursed

both me and the fridge back to health

and we continued our way west to the

island of aitutaki on the way we

realized we had dropped an outboard part

in the water and were a little nervous

as to our chances of finding replacement

on this remote island we hitchhiked

around the island going to every single

knick-knack shop cafe and front door of

anyone who knew anyone who might be able

to help us along the way we met a

mechanic who gave us a lead on the boat

maker up the road who might have the

part we made my dinghy vote with no

vehicle of us we run of a shop and a

couple Yamaha same still fitting is ours

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why do we need this feel fit oh yeah our

thing is like an extension and without

doubt Florida we can't go yeah right now

we just have the tube into the gas tanks

but I feel flushing around all over the

place sorry what was that

he's got a way to walk while we waited

we checked out the handcrafted aluminum

fishing boats being though right there

on the island but once the heat really

settled in and the mosquitoes started to

attack we walked back to the dinghy

empty-handed and disheartened we needed

something to lighten the mood

and we knew just lipping join a up

pastime cups of water we're going really

fast our way out is what it looks like

admittedly there wasn't you might see

during our past five but before I can

nature's version of a conveyor belt on

high speed

we rode this ride over and over again

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holding tight under the dinghy we rode

the currents into deeper waters and

there we were in for a treat 3 min of

livening the features nothing found away

crashing down but it's only to this tip

from my dream as I drown in the past

aitutaki is one of the 15 Cook Islands

and is the definition of remote with

limited natural resources I - talkies mm

and habitants heavily rely on provisions

from larger islands the cargo ships

containing goods from Apple's to SUVs

comes about once every three months

while we were pondering how we'd ever

get our replacement parts this cargo

ship came in and gave us a bit of

perspective oh and a whale show - yeah

those were there absolutely look how

close by

what no this can't be happening right

now

the next day and three hitch hiking

trips later we got some news on our

missing part the bad news

the only Yamaha carrier was in Rarotonga

the island we just came from and we

certainly weren't going back the good

news a local cafe owner had a fund in

Rarotonga who could send us apart on the

next local flight now all we had to do

was place like a pleasure bumpy bumpy

gravel landing strip right there yeah

that's the good thing about being out

here is that we're waiting for our

dinghy still connector parts and

apparently for 4:30 flight we'll know

when it comes it will know when our

parts are here we can head back into

town and get our singing back up and

running so we don't have to stick our

thumbs up yeah and what's crazy if you

turn around them we go Ernest the best

spot not off that runway xe5 pretty good

we don't come on the dingy runway what's

it like for ya past well that's good for

us for now

all the world all dying kind of zoning

out what is kind of murky all the sun's

like tools out of nowhere

it's like it's like what now no spring

water

so we just met that couple it was

apparently the only couple thing at this

bungalow resort and he stopped me

because he was surprised to see me

swimming in the water and it's because

apparently they told him not to swim in

this area I which is right next to where

I was snorkeling

I'm not worried though because where I

was it's fresh water coming in all the

time but I guess he was worried about

wastewater being dumped but I would be

pretty pretty disappointed if I came to

a resort in the Cook Islands from

Denmark and they told me not to go

swimming at the beach which is the whole

point yeah poor guy felt really bad when

our part flew in two days later we were

so excited and relieved to have our

dinghy working again just to make sure

we took the dink for a cruise around the

island

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so we had all these plants believe

this morning I supposed to be 5 to 10

now in but definitely not what we're

experiencing here

oh we're a still anchored outside the

reef and I don't think we're going to be

getting any excuse before bed but like

many sailing terms you know we sail

where the wind takes looks literally so

I guess we kind of stuck here I'm a

little concerned that our anchor is

going to be stuck between some coral

about to be down I can't dive that steep

so honestly I don't you want to try and

lift up the anchor right now pretty set

and I don't know I got a feeling we're

in for a little disappointment little

frustration trying to get the anchor up

to go anywhere and fit site

keep saying weather updates even though

there are not actors at all because the

5 to 10 knots wind and lots of movies or

make the movie should we try raising the

anchor yeah what's the over-under on it

coming out in the first try

and then I'm going to say it's going to

come out first ray

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all right so we're we're underway now we

had trouble with the anchor as expected

is definitely stuck we not the first

time we've had this problem in Mexico we

wrote that are winless well we were very

careful I made sure to have the grip we

now on the wind lifts up and once it

flips it can slip and not rip anything

out so we used a halyard this time we

attach them to the chain with a with the

carabiner and started pulling it up

pulling it up pull it up and get to the

point where is it it was hot and

everything's blowing around right now

and what happened is mm you the boat up

and down eventually caused way too much

stress we're trying not to flip it will

kind of hold it a little bit and

eventually one of these shackles gave

way and two of these little bits broke

off the shackle

and well this was on the base of the

mast attached to the block that ripped

off so we kind of attached a snubber

back on to the chain and kind of pulled

it up a meter at a time a little by

little you know that the wheel did a

phenomenal job it's really hard because

the wind gusts are coming and they're

moving in both one way or the other and

we can't really afford to be depending

on that anchor at that time we need to

be able to keep the boat in one place

and not let the wind go yank the bow up

both literally and now we're sailing we

say here you know you can get stuck

somewhere we might as well get stuck

while we're moving and it's definitely

definitely blowing out here we've got

some very little bit of our sail up

enough to keep us moving at five six

knots trying to keep it as comfortable

as possible so you can just watch some

movies what else is there to do we'll

keep our school for whole watch as we

call it keep popping out every couple

minutes try not to get seasick and we

really just hope our autopilot stays on

us today we don't want any problems so

we're headed to Palmerston if the

weather doesn't cooperate we'll just go

to beverage reef that Palmerston is

doing a miles away beverage reef is 450

miles away we'll see I really we just go

where the wind blows

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Oh