We got up and decided to first have a breakfast before we go ashore for food shopping.

There was, after an little bit of rain during the night, a beautiful blue sky day.

After breakfast we lowered the dinghy into water. I added a bit of air to make it a bit faster because it’s s distance to the dinghy dock.

We got a good docking spot on the N side dinghy dock. I threw the anchor out to keep the dinghy away from the wall. I watched it and saw it stays nicely away.

We walked to the shop where Inge made reservation for bread the day before. She likes to eat the industrial made bread.

With the full load of what we need we walked back. At the small fruit and vegetable market close to the dinghy dock Inge wanted see what she can buy.

I saw Ralf sitting in the coffeeshop area with Austrian sailorsi know from Tahauku Bay, Hiva-Oa, thus I walked over to them. Inge also came and we talked for a while.

It was a good time we had.

When we arrived at the dinghy dock I saw already out of the distance that the stern part of MaRe’s dinghy lookes strange – the front part was hidden by by other dinghies.

When we finally arrived at the dinghy I saw that the front part has almost lost its air.

Shock!!!

I went back to Ralf and asked if he could help. He agreed as well as the Austrian sailors.

The plan was to put it on the sandy beach only about 10 – 15 m away and have a look to see if it can be fixed.

Ralf, who has the bigger dinghy brought Inge, me, and all purchased stuff to MaRe. There I took what’s needed to repair a dinghy and we went back to the beached dinghy.

Pretty quickly we found that a bonded seam was leaking. It’s the seam at the spot where we always step on when getting in and out of the dinghy.

One problem comes seldom alone. The clue in the repair kit was dried out although the tube was still originally sealed. As problems never come alone, it was already Saturday afternoon and all shops were closed.

The new plan was to bring the tender back to MaRe, put it on her bow and try to repair it. To bring it back Ralf wanted to pull the dinghy, while I kept pumping air into the leaking tube.

Dinghy back into the water and quickly through the – fortunately – very low surf. With the anchor I secured the dinghy from being blown back into the surf. In between always pumping air into the tube. With the outboard motor running, I pulled in the anchor and started my way home. Ralf caught up with me. So with one hand at the motor and the other hand on the pump I drove our injured dinghy.

When Ralf caught up, he took the bow line and towed me towards MaRe. It was quite a distance which felt much longer now. With Ralf towing, I could now use 2 hands to pump air into the damaged tube.

When we arrived at MaRe I first secured the outboard motor and took it out on MaRe. Then external tank and all the other things. By then a big part of the air was out.

Next I pull the flattening dinghy up at the PRT stern top top secure it. We connected the bow line to the genoa winch. Inge at the winch and I at the dinghy’s stern we got it up into the area of side deck and outer cushion.

After a sandwich break – thanks Inge for that especially today – we could move the dinghy along the side deck to the bow.

After a break I repaired it and in the evening I pumped up the front tubes.

What will be the result next morning?

The end of relaxed Saturday.

Fortunately I’m already in the process to order a new dinghy from a dealer in Tahiti…