S/V Acacia

I am sure you all know that we arrived in Kaneohe on July 28 after a 14 day passage.  We didn’t come in first in the race, but our time was, discounting the time we spent “anchored” to the crab pot, almost the same as our 2004 passage.  Arriving in Kaneohe was everything we had expected along with the house we rented.  We had a great time!  Many parties, going to the beach, the north shore, some surfing, etc.  A vacation from the crossing.

On the Saturday after we arrived, we sailed and motored Acacia around the south side of the island to Ko Olina Marina.  It was a very nice trip.  We had a long stretch with the light air spinnaker up.  Maryann now has some spinnaker driving experience!  After the wind died we finished the trip under motor.

Ko Olina Marina is a relatively new marina on the east side of the island, next to Barbers Point.  Barbers Point is a large commercial harbor.  It was pretty cool going by at night with all of the lights on land.  The marina is very nice and well equipped.  It’s a little isolated but other than that fine.

Our plan was to leave the boat here for two weeks and come back to get the boat ready for the trip to French Polynesia.  Becca and I returned on Saturday the 16th with a long list of projects to do.  This includes installing new stereo, servicing the engine, getting rigger to reinstall mast wedges, get and install new BBQ, add valve to allow water maker to fill either water tank, etc.  Steve and Chris were to join us later in the week.  We had planned on leaving around the 24th.

On Monday we had the local engine service guys come over and take a look at the engine in preparation for doing the engine service.  They are both named “Mike”.  We have come to call them the “Mikes”.  Well after opening up the access to the engine they took a look and then said something like “looks like you have a problem”.  Our version, of what the Apollo astronauts said when they called Huston.  It turns out that sometime from when we last had the engine serviced in San Francisco and our arrival in Hawaii, we broke the bracket that connects the engine to the motor mount.  There should be some pictures on the blog that show the damage.  This is a serious problem that needs to be fixed before we leave for French Polynesia.  The big issue is how long it will take the parts to fix it.  There is good boat yard across from the Marina were the work will be done.

We found out this morning that there are no spares available and it will take 7-10 days for the engine manufacturer to get the replacement parts.  This plus shipping time, hauling the boat, repair time, etc., etc, pushes us out to the time window to do the trip now.  Who knows what else they will find when the repair is underway.

We are now figuring how to handle getting the repair done, but are planning to keep Acacia in Hawaii till next spring and are planning to do the trip then.  It’s still a lot closer to French Polynesia from Hawaii than from San Francisco

Becca and I are working to finish the other projects and figuring how to arrange for getting the work done when the parts do appear.  We will fly back to San Francisco early next week.  Keeping the boat in Hawaii will force us have to come check on the boat periodically while he boat is here.  Sort of like having an small apartment in Hawaii on the water

I will probably send another update when the engine work is done.

Bob