Poum

After our disgruntled feelings about Poum yesterday we decided to go ashore again this morning and the place did slightly redeem itself because we found a very affable couple who had a roadside stall selling pawpaws and chokos!! It's amazingly difficult to find fresh fruit, especially from boat anchorages. You would think that in this climate that there would be fruit dripping from the trees but not so. Apart from the fruit stall Poum only had one general store where you couldn't even walk around within. No doubt because of security issues, but it did make choosing items difficult and can't have been good retail best practice!!
Then just as we arrived back on board with our booty "Giselle" arrived and they went ashore and discovered the pawpaw stall as well! So, everyone was a bit happier but then the wind was getting up from the north turning the Poum foreshore into a lee shore so we decided to head some 6 miles north to a bay sheltered from the northerlies. A gentle motor across saw us at anchor about 100 metres from a pleasant beach. That's about as close as you can normally get because of the annoying fringing platforms of coral which threaten outboard motor props!! Our position tonight is lat. 20 degrees 08.214' S long. 164 degrees 02.742' E.
Then just after we arrived we noticed that the water maker had stopped working. This was potentially serious because it's almost impossible to get water from the shore for some distance in front of us. So we investigated various avenues to no avail and then decided the problem must be the high pressure pump. So we ripped up the galley sole to get at the pump (no small task in itself) and found that it had been leaking oil and was completely out of oil. So, thinking the worst we topped it up and then started the engine and lo and behold it started working again. But it's strictly fingers crossed because we don't know whether or to what extent it may have been damaged. Apparently it's a cheap waterblaster pump and probably not up to the demands placed upon it in this situation. So that's another item that will need replacing when we get to Australia. The pump was sent away for overhaul a year ago and when it came back from the supplier in Opua Jim asked whether there had been anything found. The business owner replied that as we weren't paying for this service he would not tell us what if anything had been done!! Just a way of getting around the fact that nothing had been done we're sure. But it doesn't make you sleep any easier feeling that an essential piece of equipment may be less than reliable. Just another example of the shoddy Bay of Islands "refit" the boat went through in 2007.
Anyway, we're feeling much happier again now and had a pleasant time with David and Mary with drinks at sundown in the cockpit. They had caught a Spanish Mackerel on a lure on the way over earlier and very kindly gave us a portion which we had for dinner. Delicious.
Well, it's just past 2130 and well past our bedtime!!

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