7 July

Raiatea, Society Islands July 7th.
We are now in Raiatea on a mooring buoy in a picturesque anchorage in the channel between this island and Tahaa. Bora Bora is in sight 20 miles to the north west. Getting here, however, was not quite so easy.
We motored over from Huahine on July 5th as the winds were light and directly behind us and all was well going through the pass through the reef that is common to the islands of raiatea and tahaa and past the small town of Uturoa. We spotted a small marina and went into it to see if they had a slip for a couple of days and while turning around in the main channel my engine decided to quit and would not restart. I dropped the anchor quickly which fortunately held and we were stuck in the channel much to the dismay of the marina manager who was very angry indeed. We got a tow out of the marina and anchored on a reef in about 15 metres which was fortunate as the lagoon is quite deep in most places (25 metres plus) making anchoring difficult. I changed both primary and secondary fuel filters but this did not remedy the problem.
The only Volvo rep for this island is on vacation for another 2 weeks and I may have to get the tech out from Tahiti with the Volvo diagnostic computer to try to find out what the problem is. None or the other diesel techs want to touch this complex electronicly fuel injected engine. I did not think where I was anchored was very safe as it was quite exposed and I rented a mooring buoy 4 miles to the west which is more protected and had to sail off the anchor and get onto the buoy under sail alone. It took two attempts but we got it done with my green crew without hitting anything. The saga continues with the Volvo techs in Tahiti today and I should know soon how long the engine will be out of commission.
Meanwhile, I've been stuck in worse places and we will enjoy our time here on Raiatea before going on to Bora Bora.