17 May New Zealand time
It has been a really nice break - even if it has been a working one. MInerva is totally awesome and it has been heavenly to be still and sleeping like normal people.
So what have we done the last 2 days? The Forward head was rebuilt by Paul. KUdos to him for not jumping ship that was an all day nasty project. Dennis fixed/replaced a couple of fans investigated the rudder leak. seems the bearing on the rudder is loose - nothing to be done about it until Tonga - it is in no danger of falling off or not working. He also adjusted the packing gland around it. We'll see how she goes once we are back underway. Its not leaking much at the moment. Paul wanted to switch cabins (meaning a total resort of the food etc) which I did whilst he was slaving on the forward head.
Today was a little more laidback. Dennis added waypoints for Tonga into the navigation system (trust me not as straight forward as it sounds), topped up the engine oil and coolant. YIkes we motored more to get here than we did to get to NZ from HI. Crappy weather routing. so we also put all the diesel from the jerry jugs in the tanks. I cleaned and vacuumed the interior and the cockpit and made food (I am always making food). and we made water - the watermaker loves this clear water. THe filter I changed that only had about 5 hours on it from Russell was disgusting - in fact the water maker wouldn't work it was so yucky. Yep just boat maintenance in paradise - hahahaha. We all got a swim in today - the water really cleared up - you can see all the way to the bottom - 45 feet.
Toast and Dean sent some weather info which pretty much supports what Dennis is seeing on the gribs. We will leave tomorrow morning for Tonga (nukalofa sp??), hope to be there Sunday. ONce there I will figure out what the time difference is. I think we lost a day there somewhere - so its really yesterday and one hour ahead. Does my head in. We hope this next leg will be a little friendlier, but as always will batten down the hatches just in case. LOL.
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