Hello All from Apataki,

The problem with anchoring is that even when you find a patch of sand there are always coral heads. The good news is that even if you drag your anchor will hook onto a passing reef. The bad news is that your anchor gets "hookered" on the coral, and the chain gets wrapped pretty good as it courses its way across the sand and coral heads. The trick that we have found is to tie some buoys to the chain. We have found that this works great, as the chain floats above the coral and doesn't get "hookered". Jumping into the water and having to get the anchor "un-hookered" is not unusual.

Shannon's parents were able to arrange for the Icom M802 to get repaired in Tahiti, so one less thing on Loyal's "when you return home list".

We had a great time 'sharking' with a stout piece of rope that we tied to the bones or skin of the fish that we caught. The trick was to be able to hold onto the rope as the shark tried to untie the knot, (with his teeth) that was holding the fish to the rope. Talk about a feeding frenzy!

Well, time to try another fix on the mainsail. We are just trying to be able to have it functioning enough so that we can last without having to install Battcars out here in the middle of the Pacific. Even with the mainsail double reefed the sliders still just pop out. So right now we just sail under Genoa alone. Sure makes life easy!

Update: The way we corrected the mainsail this time was to remove the strong-track from the mast (just had it all removed and it feels great!), and put the sliders directly into the mast. Since we now have metal cars directly against the metal mast we "lubed" the cars up with diaper rash ointment. Works great so far! Smooth as a baby's bottom!

Courage