As we mentioned we purchased a new tender in Tahiti – 14′ fiberglass center console boston whaler type boat. We had not done any sea miles with this boat in the cradle, so when we started to roll on our way to Suwarrow I noticed the tender had shifted in the cradle and was now resting against the rail of Gray Matter. I was able to secure the boat with a block and tackle we had from our sailboat (the same one we used to hoist the anchor in Mexico – handy thing to have onboard).

When we arrived Suwarrow I realized the stainless cradle support on the outboard side had broken. It looks like the weld failed on one support which caused the other weld to fail.

Wow – what do we do now – in the middle of nowhere there is certainly not a stainless welder.

After spending a night to think about it, we went ashore looking for a tree we could possibly use as a temporary support. Remembering this is National Park in the Cook Islands – might not be easy to find a tree laying around. Charlie the assistant ranger took one look at what we needed – pulled out his machette and felled a 6 inch round “hardwood”. According to Charlie this is “very strong wood”.

I fashioned two supports from the tree – drilled holes in the wood to take the supports for the cradle rail, flattened the tree on one side with a grinder, and lashed it to the stainless cradle support. Pictures are worth a 1000 words here.

It looks and feels much stronger than the original “design”, we may use the rest of the tree to reinforce the other side – who needs a stainless welder when you have trees?

Proves once again, anything is possible and a bit of patience and thinking can solve most any problem no matter what the resources. And Gray Matter has a piece of Suwarrow with her for the upcoming voyages.