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Maururu Tahiti

Wind Generator sporting new tail

The wind generator with its new tail

Monday 21 August 2017
16:25.60S 158:40.80W

Well it’s been a while and I know a few of you have been waiting for an update knowing that we are back aboard “Morgane”. We have been a bit busy and haven’t had time for writing blog entries or much else except work for that matter. As well as working on “Morgane” we have both been working remotely on our land jobs.
To cut a long story short we flew back to Tahiti from New Zealand at the end of June.

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Time out in Cape Town

Cape Town from Blouberg Strand

Cape Town from Blouberg Strand

A couple of pleasant but busy weeks in Tahiti saw Morgane cleaned, maintained, and prepared to be left alone on the hard at the Tahiti Nautic Center . Morgane was very professionally hauled out and parked up by Yvan and his crew. Read more ›



Does it rain in Paradise?

23:06.75S 134:57.98W

SunriseAukena by .

Sunrise over Aukena with rain clouds brewing

Yes it does! The last week has been very wet but only slightly cooler than the previous couple of weeks. We have been swimming every day but that is about all our outdoor activities have been limited to Read more ›



Ready for the off – almost!

the repaired heat-changer

The repaired heat-exchanger

Sunday 07 February 2016
41:39.14S 073:03.62W - Marina Costa de Huelmo

We eventually got the heat-exchanger back from the shop on Wednesday; not exactly as good as new but I wasn’t going to let them keep it any longer. They had welded up and machined the corroded area but with insufficient weld so the rubber O-rings sealing the ends of the tube stack were not working. I sealed it all up with rubber gasket compound and let is set over-night. Read more ›



Heat-exchanger woes or “that looks expensive”

A distant island on a calm sea in Golfo Ancud

An Island in Golfo Ancud

Last Sunday we motored into Marina Costa de Huelmo with the intention of staying for a week to ten days. We planned to start the servicing and provisioning prior to a short trip across the Andes to visit Paula`s parents to say au revoir; which would also renew our visas for Chile allowing us an unrushed exit from Chile. We would then return to finish stocking up before departing Chile for Polynesia. Read more ›



Making the bed for an engine

The old engine bed with repairs.

The start point. You can see the patched up engine bed – I bolted on the aluminium t-section in the channels to stiffen it.

The back story – Some readers may remember that we had a problem with “Morgane’s” engine bed while we were in the Chilean channels on our way north ( I wrote about it in this post ). The repair that I made then had held for the rest of journey to Valdivia; but one of the reasons for staying in Valdivia over the winter had been to make a proper repair. Repair is rather a poor way to describe what we had to do; rip it all out and start again is what we really had to do. Read more ›



Cockpit Extension

Cockpit as drawn by Christopher James Harris.

A section of one of the original plan sheets showing the original cockpit concept.

When ‘Morgane’ was designed she was drawn with a small cockpit, a deck hatch as an entrance companionway, and an aft cabin. This would have given a deep and protected cockpit with a high bridge-deck (the black line on the drawing) between the cockpit and the companionway. Getting from the cockpit to the companionway would have been scary in any kind of seaway.

As far as I know she wasn’t built like this; instead the builders dropped the bridge deck to the same level as the cockpit seats and sloped the companionway hatch (red lines on drawing). This made a much more protected bridge deck but made building the aft cabin impractical as it removed the head-room in the access way behind the engine. They instead opted for a hatch in the deck outboard, over where you see the double bed in the plan, and formed a lazarette (a useful place on a boat where you store junk broadly equivalent to a garden shed!). Read more ›



Return to Valdivia

dinghy in misty morning light

Early morning in Marina Estancilla

I flew out of Cape Town on 28th August;  leaving the crew to make the final preparations to “Pelagic Australis” for her pre-season delivery trip to Stanley. Skip wrote about that on the Pelagic website here.

Paula met me in Santiago where we had rented an apartment for a few days via the Airbnb network. Read more ›



Is spring coming? – some news from Valdivia

Morgane's saloon

The fruit of much labour

An update from Paula.

Here in Valdivia spring seems to be arriving, even though it’s very early. Maybe is el niño, I don’t know… still rains every day, but the days are getting longer, the birds are getting louder, and the trees are flowering. All these is good for the soul, as the winter is long, grey and wet around here. Chris has been away for… I don’t know… two months? too long anyway! And I’m missing him very much. We needed the coins for continuing with our adventure, and so he left. Being away for so long is not easy, and I trully hope we won’t need to do it again. Read more ›



Ready for the off

So we finally were ready for the ‘off’ on New Year’s Eve; well we were not really ready but at some stage you just have to go – so we went. A thousand apologies to all those friends and family that we didn’t get to see to say goodbye to, but things were a bit hectic. Read more ›



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