We had a laundry list of things to do, errands to run, and projects to complete when we arrived in Tahiti. It is always a love/hate relationship for me as it is a necessary evil to be here. It is the only place where you have full access to stores, services, and products in French Polynesia. So, instead of truly enjoying the beauty of Tahiti we end up running around with our heads cut off.
The Priorities
Long Stay Visas – Carte de Sejure
There are a few things that take priority over others. The most important is obtaining our long-stay visa. We technically don’t need a full year on our visa, but you can’t just ask for 3 months. So, we had submitted our paperwork 2 months ago to start the process of renewing our carte de sejurs. We worked with Tahiti Crew agency and they were able to procure our visa renewals on our 3rd day here!
We were able to obtain an extension for our boat visa due to required safety work that needed to be done on the boat prior to making the Pacific Crossing from French Polynesia to Fiji. Thanx to Raiatea Carenage for helping us with our boat extension!
Now, both our boat and our bodies can stay here until 11 July 2022!
Life Raft and Anchor Shank
We had a new to us life raft and a new anchor shank delivered to Tahiti while we were in Gambier. A friend of ours kept them in storage for us and we had to retrieve both items as soon as we arrived.
Life Raft Certification
Coming up next week is an entire blog post on the life raft certification process. Super cool and interesting so don’t miss out on reading it! Our life raft is a safety item that needs to be serviced and certified before any major ocean crossing.
Duty Free Fuel Certificate
Before we leave on our long passage, we will need to top up the fuel tanks. Which means loads of money. One great benefit of being a yacht in transit is the duty-free fuel certificate. This gives us up to 40% discount on diesel (not gasoline).
Not Priority Items – Albeit Still Important
Provisioning
We will be hauling the boat in a few weeks so we don’t need to provision with meats, produce, or perishables. However, we do need to hit the big box stores to get the bulk items we use every day. That includes stops at:
- Maxi’s
- Polynesian Trading
- Cash Club
- Carrefor
We also have to make several boat purchases which require multiple stops to:
- Nautisport (3 visits)
- Ace hardware (both stores)
- Sing Tung (marine)
- Ocean 2000 (marine)
- Shell Fuel (2-stroke and oil)
- Sewing shop
A few miscellaneous errands
- Vini (local cell service) we had to extend and prepay for our wifi service one month
- T&M Creations (creating jewelry with local pearls)
Additional Errands
- Floats: We’ve been carrying around 8 pearl farm floats to use to float our chain when anchoring around the coral in the Tuamotus and Gambier. I removed the lines and shackles and then found them new homes. Got them off the boat!
- Propane: We did not need to refill our propane tank, but our friends on Bella needed to some to fill their tank. So, they filled their tank and two of our camping bottles. Then they exchanged our partially empty tank for a full one! So nice. We will sell this tank to another cruiser before we leave French Polynesia.
- Sea Shells: I’ve gathered a huge collection. Partially because I need to share but also because we are not technically allowed to bring sea shells into Fiji. So, I packed up tons of sea shells and sea treasures to bring back to my sister in CA.
- Re-stuff and set pillows. Trying to purge unused items. I found two pillow stuffings hidden in a cabinet. I removed the sad stuffing from two of my salon pillows and replaced it with the new stuffing.
I know this was a super boring blog post, but I wanted to share all aspects of cruising and that includes boat projects, errands, and basic boring work stuff. Fun right?
After this week it was time for a treat….
In our last blog we unveil and inflate our life raft for the first time. Events from this blog occurred in March 2022. Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.