On the Hard in Raiatea

June 26, 2008--We left Huahine on Monday and enjoyed 20 knots of wind on the beam for our crossing to Raiatea. We had some company, the Maltese Falcon, and since we didn't want to make them look bad, we decided to take our time for the crossing (just kidding). We sailed through the pass and then got our sails down and tied up. We continued around the northern end of Raiatea and over to the northwest side to CNI boatyard. We picked up a mooring ball, and when we were all settled in, we hopped into the dinghy and went in to the office to make sure that we would be pulled the next morning. Everything was set. We relaxed for the evening but got up early so that we would be ready to pull into the breakwater when the yard called us. Around 10 o'clock they were finally ready for us. We pulled up to the ramp, and then the yard workers took over. A trailer was in the water, and they had to get the keel centered on the trailer, which turned into quite an ordeal. It took about 2 hours before the boat was out of the water and on stands in the yard.

I will write about our yard experience in the next day or two, but right now I wanted to get some pictures loaded while we seem to have good internet service so we hope that you enjoy them. To see them, click on the link for Picasa at the bottom right.