370: Boat Work in Huahine: A Big Fail & Two Wins

As we settle into another peaceful day in South Huahini, we take on three boat projects. The first one goes completely off the rails, far beyond our skill set, and we accidentally make the situation even worse. Thankfully, the next two projects go smoothly and end up saving us a lot of money. Afterward, we head to shore to explore beautiful Huahine Iti by bike. Along the way, we meet fascinating locals, hear an unforgettable sailing story, and visit a vanilla farmer celebrated for producing some of the best vanilla in the world. Hey guys, so today we are working on some issues. Actually, I was working on some issues under Admiral's orders down in the engine room. I was working on an electrical problem down there, and then the Admiral mentioned that she saw a loose bolt. And whenever you see a loose bolt, that's usually a problem anywhere on the boat. And I'm so proud of you because you identified exactly where it came from right away. Yay! And where was it? And I wish that solved the problem. So that is from the exhaust, and the problem is it's a stripped screw. Probably by the charter company or maybe, I don't know, screws just don't strip themselves. So then you have to work on how are you going to rebuild this hole up and re-drill it and all that. And while working on getting some screws back in, what ended up happening is these two prongs right here had a ton of corrosion on it, and I ended up pushing up against the wire and breaking these off. So what we're going to try to do is take one of these, and then I'm going to take this and try to wrap it around each one of these and solder it on, which I've never used before. And then this will be back in usable order. I'll just need to reinstall it and hopefully it'll work. Normally, you would take this into an auto parts store. This is something that would be used on a radiator. It's super cheap, but there's not one of those around here. And we've got to get back to Moorea, and we're going to be motoring, so everything needs to be right. We are now at the point where we want to use the soldering iron, but you have to calibrate it using a temperature gun. So that's what we have to start with. Hold on. 96.9 right there. Running cool, baby. So what we have to do is put the soldering iron on this and then take the actual solder and rub it, and it'll just melt onto this. So yesterday we tried to fix our temperature sensor by using a soldering iron. That did not work. I've got enough heat. The other issue that we had when we tried to put this back into the muffler was that it doesn't fit anymore because the fiberglass no longer has threads. So we have pulled out epoxy putty, which is this tube right here. We're going to use this to put a ring around the fixture and then stick that into the side of the muffler and let it set. Hopefully that will be enough to let us use the engine. These types of epoxies and quick fixes are so important to have on the boat. They can be the difference between being able to move and not move, and in this case we would not be able to run the engine without being able to clog up this hole. Yes, there are other alternatives. We could have done a whole bunch of different things. We have never worked with this material, so this is going to be a new one for us here. Let's see how it works. Could you set a time? This stuff allows you five to seven minutes work time, and then in 30 minutes apparently it cures hard, and within one hour the repair can be sanded, filled, drilled, tapped, or painted. So the hard part is now he's got to get in the engine room and get this properly installed. As you can see, this is a really tough spot to get into and squeeze back there. So not an easy fix, but it could have been harder. We just finished with the muffler pair and the epoxy needs to dry, so we're going to go ahead and move on to the zincs, and the zincs are located on our propellers. With the sail drive and the engine, there are a lot of different metals working together, and the problem is you get some electrolysis. So you put a metal on there that's very predictable. It's weak and it's inexpensive, and so the zinc is the thing that's going to get destroyed. These are easier to replace. You want to do it once a year or more often if you are in a marina. One of the worst things that can happen is to be plugged into shore power around a bunch of other boats that are plugged into shore power because your neighbors are affecting you and will cause the zincs to degrade even faster. So our rule is once every year or when they reach less than 50 percent of their overall mass. And we're doing it in shallow water because if you drop something, you can easily pick it up off the sandy bottom. Trick to changing our zincs in the water is this special glue. Here's the old loctite. It worked really well. This is the loctite stick that he's going to use for the bolt. Well this is fun. This is the first time that all of the boats that have been here two years have been together in one place. So we've got Dewey, Anila, Zephyr, and us, and oops. We're really excited to all be in the same place and be able to have some happy hour today. So we're headed into Mahana if the beach sunset grill is closed. Should be fun. All right guys, we are up here on the roof ready to fix a problem that we have. Our zipper when we were lifting the sail had a line connected to it and it got stuck inside the boom. When the reef lines were going in. So I broke the zipper thanks to our friends on Nanook. We have a new zipper but we've got to put this on by cutting off. We're going to try cutting off this melted part, slipping the zipper off, and slipping the new zipper on. So we'll see how it goes. So Brown is cutting the part of the zipper that has been melted. One piece has been cut off. Wow, that was fast. That was quick. Let's hope the new one goes on just as easily. All right babe, let's see if it works. Last step hopefully is to clamp on these steel zipper toppers from Sailrite. Thanks again Nanook. That should keep the zipper from coming off. Beautiful. That's great. All of these little shortcuts and ways to fix things. It's all a part of the learning process. We're in this beautiful famous anchorage here in the south of Huahine. We did not get down here whenever it was here. We also didn't cycle the lower half which is called Huahine Iti whenever it was here. Boy, the hills were insane and to get to Iti from the upper island would have been a pretty rough ride. So we are going to cycle it today. A little bit windy, but it's going to only get windier in the next few days. This resort is so beautiful. It is just very simple. We're allowed to eat here. We have to make a booking at reception for dinner and then they have happy hour as well and these are the options. Brown's talking to one of the guys staying here at the hotel talking about the boat. This is Marianini. It's hard to believe a place so beautiful is so dark with sacrifice of, they think, 16 human beings in such a brutal manner. Beautiful garden. They do a fantastic job keeping this up. They live across the street. Oh wow, this is beautiful. This is cool. It's a turtle and then in the middle is a star and then on the end is a manta ray. Just at the entrance to the bridge there's this beautiful park here with great views of the island of Kauahini before you cross over the bridge which is right in front of us to get to Kauahini Nui. We just arrived at this vanilla farm. This one has been talked about on No Foreign Lands. We're going to go ahead and get a tour and see if we can buy some vanilla products from them. There's one of the flowers that they hand pollinate. I'm going to see if it has a smell. I'm not going to touch it because I'll probably ruin this guy's crop. No smell. No smell. Man, it looks like an orchid, doesn't it? It's beautiful. I think it's in the orchid family. So the flower only lasts one day. Only lasts one day but the best moment to pollinate is early in the morning because the flower is very open. The pollen falls and you have ants inside and the ants are going to eat the pollen because we have no chemical product in the vanilla. It's just natural. We need the ants for all the insects. We have made just a natural fertilizer. Organic. Organic. With the coconut. Coconut, the tree and the eggs. Okay, the shell. The shell, eggs and the banana. Okay. The advantage of the coconut, when it rains, you keep water and no need to put water every day. Keep water maybe for three or two weeks. So one flower makes one bean. Yeah and one flower lasts one day and the best time to pollinate in the morning. How long after you pollinate the flower does the bean grow and nine months? So nine months later this grows and then you have to dry it for how long? Maybe four to five months. We don't put vanilla every day in the sun. We put every three or five days when the weather is better. When it rains, we don't put vanilla in the sun. At the moment, we already put vanilla in the sun. Okay. Maybe we put vanilla in the sun for one to four hours in a day. Oh wow. It's similar when you go in the beach when you stay in the sun. Yeah, yeah, you burn. You burn. Yeah, yeah, right. The aroma is amazing. How many years have you been growing vanilla? 25 years at the moment. Wow. And then after three, four months, it's ready to sell. Four months. We finish, but not finish. You dry and then for one month, you dry in the wind. After then, not finish, you put vanilla. Okay. It's a long process. Wow. No wondering why they're so expensive. Much more difficult than I thought. Does vanilla grow year-round all the time or is there a season? All the time because when you started to grow vanilla, you cut the vanilla maybe for half meter, one meter, and you wait for three years. After three years, the vanilla stand around. Arrive three years to the season begin to June to December, the flower is open. Okay. But after then, every year, the vanilla give the flower. How many beans per plant per year? That one is approximately maybe one bean to 100 beans. Where do your vanilla beans go to? To Europe. Oh. Europe, France, and Canada. To a food company, and then they sell retail. Yes. Many vanilla insects. Okay, so different stages. Yes. Okay. We work over here. It's small. Started as small. That's amazing. How many beans do you ship in one month? Over here for one month to buy? Yeah. 10 kilo, 10, 50 kilo, 15 kilo. For one kilo, we need 150 to 200. 100 beans. Okay. That's amazing. Thank you for explaining all that. The aroma in your house is amazing. It is amazing. Wow, it smells so good. My brother do honey, not me. Okay. The honey is over here. We need honey for pulling the flower of the fruit. Every fruit over here, we have the mango. Right. This is Tahitian vanilla. Is it the best vanilla? Yes. What makes it better? Because it's the best vanilla in the world, because the parents of the vanilla Tahitian, the vanilla is not come from here. Okay. It came from Mexico. I didn't know that. The first arrived vanilla is from Mexico. Okay. And the second is the Burbon. When the vanilla arrive here, we create a new species. New species. But the parents of Tahitian is Burbon and vanilla Popona. What makes people want to pay more for it? Because the advantage of the vanilla, you can cook in three time, one bean. One vanilla for me, three vanilla for Madagascar. Okay. No way. Okay. It's different. And the quality is better. So more concentrated, better quality. So when you cook this in like a cream, do you slit the bean? No need to open, no need to cut by the middle. Just put vanilla in the milk and you do infusion maybe for one to three hours. Sometimes some people infusion for 12 hours. One liter of rum just need one. And how long, and how long to let it soak? The best, the best moment is nine months. And then can you reuse? Yeah, you can use when the rum is finished. Okay. You reuse the... Make another one. Another one. And for three times. No. I have in a bottle at the moment, 10 years. So every year. Yeah. No way. Yes. Oh, it's... Wow. He's a good salesman. Yeah. It's the second, the first time in 2020. Okay. Rupert has just humbly told us he has the certificate for the best vanilla in the world. He won this year and in 2020. We are received by the president, Macron. Oh, it's so nice to meet you. That's so cool. Over here, the economic, we live in a tourist. We grow vanilla over here. Yeah. We have maybe 100 people to grow vanilla. Yes. But the production over here, we are four to 10 times in a year. Four to 10 times the amount here. Over here in a year. But normal people dry vanilla over here. Okay. But after then, Taha'a, Rayatea and Tahiti come over here to buy vanilla. Okay. And we dry in Taha'a, Rayatea and Tahiti. So they come here to buy it. Yeah. My vanilla is from here, but some people, because in, in the vanilla, we have two category people to, to, to work in the vanilla. You have the farmer, the people to dry and people business for export. To sell. Oh, okay. And me, we work in a tree. Okay. You do all three. Yeah. But some people only do one. For dry vanilla, you need license for the, for the government and you pay the tax. When you grow vanilla, no need pay to tax. And people just buy vanilla by people to dry. So the economy for Taha'a is, is basically all vanilla. But the economy here is tourism. Okay. We're eating the fruit of the cashew. I had no idea you could eat that. Oh, it's got, it's got a little, uh. We're eating, uh, the cashew fruit with our friend Martine, who lives here. No, no. No, no. Oh, that's. Yeah. Right, right, right. This is amazing. Right, right. Yeah. Merci. Merci Martine. Bye. I had no idea you could eat the fruit. That's cool. It's got a little funk taste to it. Like, uh, a little durian. So we just stopped by this guy's house who had a 2008 catamaran in his backyard, front yard. That was definitely a weird one. Have no idea how it came up, but he said they brought it out of the water. Not like cyclone related. So I would think there's a story. I have the name of the boat. After returning to Blown Away, we did a little research and learned that in July 2017, the Govatos family ran aground on an unmarked reef in South Huahine at night aboard this catamaran, Tandamaleka. The family was safely evacuated by helicopter and salvage efforts began. However, the damage and risk were so severe that the plan was to tug the wreck out and sink it in deep water rather than attempt a refit. Videos about the incident were made by Sailing Nahoa and Zatarra. Apparently a local asked for the boat to be towed onto his land in the lagoon as a place to live. But judging by its current condition, it seems the boat has been fully abandoned. It's hard to see a vessel that was once so full of life reduced to an empty soulless shell. Wow, this is pretty exquisite. The views are out of this world. We're sitting here staring out in paradise. After a nice 20 mile bike ride, we were just going to go back to the boat. But how do you pass this view up? Drinking a cold Hananu, cheapest one I've found in French Polynesia, and listening to the palm fronds rustle in the wind. It's just amazing. We can definitely see the allure of Huahine now, especially the south. Huahine ET is definitely much less busy with traffic on the road, which was really nice. The roads are in great condition, so we enjoyed biking it. It's so charming and interesting up here. All these things, if you look close enough, that you can stop and notice. And that's where the admiral comes in because she noticed the little things. This place has to be the most beautiful restaurant setting that I've ever eaten at. And the food's cheap. Make sure to hit that subscribe button. This really makes a difference with the algorithms. Otherwise, our video just gets lost. If you make a comment, that's even better. We want to hear from you, what's on your mind. Thank you so much for watching. We really appreciate you. And we wish you were here.