Bula is the friendly greeting of hello that is used by the smiling Fijians. With quarantine and testing complete, we went into the town of Nadi to restock our supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. The marketplace was lively and it was refreshing to see the freedom with which the Fijians were able to move …
We had met Tim, Gizmo’s owner, and Chris, her captain, in the lineup at Ha’apiti and had spent enough time surfing and hanging out that we knew we’d vibe well with them as crew. We also knew that, once in Fiji, Tim’s main focus would be on scoring surf. On top of that, there were …
Living on a boat takes a lot of forethought and preparation — studying weather, planning routes, arranging for provisioning, watering and fueling, making contingency plans — but sometimes it requires the flexibility to adapt quickly to new and unforeseen circumstances. Our plan was to sail back to Tahiti, hand over Aldebaran toKristian and Sabrina (who …
Huahine is actually two islands separated by a narrow strait (cut, as the legend goes, by the god Hiro’s canoe). On our first day we rode bikes around the north island, stopping at some of the many marae (sacred sites built for religious ceremonies) at Maeva Village along the shoreline of Lake Fauna Nui. Maeva …
Approximately 90 nautical miles from the Opunohu pass, Huahine makes for a perfect overnight sail. Billy climbed the mast to install the new wind vane and into the engine compartment to install the new starter. The forecast was calling for breezy conditions and building swell, but the sky looked clear so we made a group …
During our time quarantined at anchor, we only made brief weekly trips to shore for provisions. So, once the inter-island travel restriction was lifted (and after we’d gotten plenty of waves in Tahiti), we decided to sail back to Mo’orea to stretch our legs. The hiking on Mo’orea’s north coast is epic (as we’ve mentioned …
Hello and welcome back for our 2nd edition of Pacific Dispatch. The world has certainly been upended during this pandemic, and we hope this finds you all well and doing your best to thrive during these challenging times. We have been on the move since the end of our lockdown experience in Tahiti. After 40 …
It was almost surreal when quarantine was ‘relaxed’ here on April 29th. French Polynesia’s COVID prevention measures were extremely effective: there were only 60 cases on the is-lands, no deaths, and there hasn’t been a single new case since May 5th. Though they were slow to lift bans on inter-island travel, suddenly we had the …
THE EXPEDITION CONTINUES: Aldebaran post confinement Read More »
The world was changing rapidly while we were in Fakara-va. We arrived back on Tahiti to growing international news of Coronavirus and local rumors of a quarantine. We decid-ed to head to Tahiti-iti’s south coast largely because of the swell forecast but it proved to be a fortuitous decision for reasons other than the surf. …
QUARANTINED IN PARADISE : 40 day confinement at anchor Read More »
Our time in Mo’orea drew to a close. We sailed back to Tahiti to prepare for our next expedition: we had accepted an offer to be delivery crew on S/V Antares, a 70’ custom Croatian monohull. We would be sailing from Pape’ete to Fakarava, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and one of about 80 gorgeous atolls …