FIRE

We have sailed over to Moorea a few times, and when Stephanie and Nancy came we went to Huahine, but we always managed to return to Papeete, for our visa or for the wind generator. Now we are on our way. Spending time on Huahine was beautiful. We toured the island by car which did not take so long, but the views were spectacular. Once we returned for our visa extension we saw some of the movies in the film festival, which were all well made and interesting. They covered a huge range of topics but all centered around the Pacific islands (Australia included). My dad, Dylan and I went surfing a few times over at the beach break at Papageno in Tahiti. I saw some good improvement, and my board sustained some injuries. After all that we left for Moorea where we stayed for only one night because the winds were just too good to pass up, so we set off again heading for Raiatea in the evening. The wind generator, recently installed, had been doing a pretty good job. We have two solar panels on the stern so we ran the wiring for the wind generator together with the solar panels. Both went throught a 25 amp charge controller (regulator), which was a little small but it was only temporary. Anyways, come a middle of the night rain squall and there's an electrical smell down below. My dad and Stephanie are on watch. I sort of wake up and hope that I can continue sleeping but the smell is only getting stronger so I get up. Out of the back lazarette smoke is sort of billowing out, surrounding Stephanie in noxious fumes. We looked in at the stern but saw no flames, so we reconsidered and my mom and I looked down below. The regulator had melted; it was mounted below the starboard aft bunk. I peeked through the cushions and saw a lot of smoke. I started taking off the cushions and then made way for my dad with the fire extinguisher. He lifted up the board and the fire flamed with new fury from the intake of oxygen. The board was put back after my dad attempted swatting the fire. It took two brains to overcome the complexity of a fire extinguisher, which is locked with a pin. The lever is on top of the handle, not a very ergonomic design so I pushed the lever while my dad aimed the thing. The fire was out, and the whole cabin was covered in white ash that smelled horrible and probably did a number on all of our lungs. The night proceeded as normal.

It took quite a bit of cleaning to spruce up the cabin, but we managed after quite a bit of sleep. This of course is only a side-remark on our ongoing war with ants. We have the worlds smartest on board. They are incredibly quick and they hide. They run into the cracks or crevices that are too small for our fingers. Furthermore, they love damp plywood, so they have hatched some baby ants on board near the condensation from the fridge and other choice places. We have been inhaling more noxious fumes from the penetrating epoxy sealer that makes the wood less inhabitable. So far the war rages on.

We had a great time in Raiatea. I got to paddle an outrigger, which after flipping in the first ten seconds turned out to be really enjoyable. We also ate the best pig of the trip so far.

Right now we are on Tahaa and Benoit, from Makemo, is visiting us. We are on the closing end of our stay in French Polynesia and we will depart soon for the Cook Islands. English comes.
Giovanni