Category Archives: French Polynesia

French Polynesia islands including: Marquesas, Society, Astrolls, Tuamotus, and Gambiers

54th Birthday

Birthday Bash

Leave a reply

It’s 6:00am and I am just waking from a restful night.  I relish the quiet of the morning.  The seas are calm and unmoving, the breeze is light, the sun slowly rising, and it’s my birthday (back in January, this post is late).  As I linger in bed, I hear a slight ruckus outside and then the unmistakable tune of Happy Birthday.   Matt is greeting our guests as I stumble outside a little bleary eyed (it’s just 6:15am).  Two neighboring boats came over with a birthday surprise.  They had a super fun rendition of “Happy Birthday” blaring on a little speaker, a large bowl full of hot, freshly baked raisin bread and a cold bottle of prosecco!  Sweet.  I hug each of them before jetting downstairs to put on proper clothing!

We spend the next few hours enjoying the prosecco and bread and telling stories.  Marieke and Thomas from “Scooter” and Mirko and Nikko from “Yum Yum” bestowed upon me the sweetest gift of their company first thing in the morning!

Early Morning Birthday Celebration

Early Morning Birthday Celebration

Matt made a beautiful birthday post it card on our window.  Keep in mind we do not have access to Hallmark cards in the remote islands. – it was touching to see this thoughtful note first thing in the morning.

Birthday BBQ

Valerie and Herve host Sunday fun-day each week and this time it landed on my birthday!  So, we combined the two into a giant celebration.  Over 15 boats showed up to the anchorage (normally we have 5-6 boats) and well over 35 people.  Of course, I did not know most of them and some only spoke French, but they were all very kind and jovial.

We had a ton of tasty foods from all over the world.  Fresh caught Polynesian fish dishes, German and Swiss food, French food, and of course jello shots!

My birthday is one of the rare occasions that I will play volleyball. I am not naturally gifted in sports and tend to make a fool out of myself when I play.  But everyone humored me and our team won (probably a gift for my bday).

Several days prior to my birthday we had lots of rain and a few squalls.  But lucky for me, my birthday was a gorgeous day with just enough sun to keep us warm, but not too hot to wear you out.  We had the most beautiful sunset and moonrise.  That is the moon on the top two photos!

Spoiled Rotten

Valerie surprised me with a new, beautiful sand art.  It is a portrait of Matt and I.  Keep in mind that this is made with local sand and dirt only.  Sure, Matt has a mustache in the image and I have a flavor savor, but you can still see the likeness.  Did you see the detail of my Keishi necklace?

Another local friend, who is a jeweler, gifted me with a gorgeous pearl on a gold chain.  It completely surprised me and knocked my socks off!  Visit her at www.tainakeishipearl.com.

I do not know how to put into words the love I felt today.  From my amazing local friends to all of my American friends.  The love that flowed freely across Facebook, Instagram, text, and emails was overwhelming.  I needed it, cherished it, and reveled in the pureness of it all.  Thank you for filling my soul with so much love!

Bon Voyage to Alan

Valerie and Herve’s oldest son is leaving for France to join the military.  He will be studying to become a pilot and will commit to 10 years of military service.  They had a HUGE going away party and sent him off with a spectacular celebration.

Hiking and Exploring

Matt and I go on a few hikes to explore the islands.  We’ve done these hikes several times, but they never disappoint.

The hike on Taravai between Valerie and Herve’s house and Edouard and Denise is a fairly easy and short hike.  It is about 5 miles round trip on a clearly marked, albeit small trail.  One side is a steep drop off, but easy to navigate.  We come across a few old houses with nothing but a few stone walls remaining, a few small beach coves, and lots of overgrown plants.

We also take a beautiful walk to the lookout point where the “Queen’s Throne” is located.  Most of the walk is along the road and is fairly flat.  It’s not until you get to the last .5 mile that you go off roading and uphill.  But then you are rewarded with such a pretty view.  This entire hike is about 6.5 miles round trip.

The rock “throne” I’m sitting on is called the “Queen’s Throne” and with this view it makes sense!

We visit the weather station and set the weather balloon free in our last blog.  Events from this blog post occurred in January.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.

Meteo Weather Balloon

Up, Up, and Away: Weather Balloon

Leave a reply

Meteo France has a weather station on Mangareva and I’ve always wanted to go to see the process.  It was a little anticlimactic, but cool none the less.  Every day at 1400 they release a weather balloon in 4 weather stations.  Gambier, Marquesas, Australs, and Tahiti.  They also have stationary, automatic weather sites but they are not truly weather stations as there are no people.

One employee puts out the modem box which has all the sensors (temperature, wind, barometric pressure, GPS, etc…) about 20 minutes before the weather balloon launch.  We could not go into the area where he inflates the balloon but assume its like any other inflation (smiley face).

The employee attaches the balloon to the modem box and unceremoniously lets it go.  No big aha moment or “ta da” or anything.

It was a slightly windy day so the weather balloon took off rather quickly.

Weather Balloon

The weather balloon is about 1 meter in diameter when it is launched and expands to become larger than a house.  It will continue to slowly expand as it climbs up, up, into the sky.  It will continue to ascend until 30 kilometers (21 miles) before it explodes. 

The temperature was -11 at 6 kilometers!  Man, that is cold!

The data collected by the weather balloon is transmitted by satellite to the local weather station, then transmitted to Papeete (where all the weather is collected and centralized) and then sent to Paris – Meteo France (weather).

Each modem costs approximately 18000xpf (pacific francs) which is about $180.00.

Views from the weather station which is situated about 1/4 of the way up a mountain.

On the way back to town, I captured the view of the Rikitea Anchorage (at Mangareva).  Can you find Sugar Shack?

In our last blog post, we bring you into our many boat projects..  Events from this blog post occurred in January.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.

Boat Projects

Leave a reply

We have time on our hands as we wait for a weather window and as we wait for storms/squalls to pass.  So, we fill those gapes with a few boat projects and general maintenance.  Just in case you are wondering, we do work as well as play. 

Jib Roller Furler Pin

There is a rather large shackle that holds the tack of the jib to the furler (very important).  The pin inside the shackle had weaseled its way out and was almost lost.  Thank goodness we caught it.  We had to unfurl the jib to release the pressure from the shackle in order to get the pin back into place.  Once inside, we zip tied it to secure it.  Yes, the bottom shackle is twisted as it is designed to be a 90 degree shackle.  Although, we never did understand why there are two shackles here.

Jib roller furler pin

Jib roller furler pin

Sail Bag

Our sail bag (which holds our main sail) has a panel with “Sugar Shack” stitched on each side.  The letters were starting to come off so we decided to take off the two panels and stitch the letters back on.  A lot easier said than done.  The panels were stitched on to the main sail bag and had an adhesive 2” tape around all four edges.  The stitching was rather easy to cut and remove, but the adhesive was a mess. 

We removed as much of the adhesive as we could (we did not want the sticky stuff on our sewing machine).  Then Matt began the slow process of sewing on each letter.

We had to remove the sail bag in order to sew on the repaired panels..  That is another huge project as we have to secure the main (which weighs in at 300lbs) using the lazy jacks, then remove the sail bag.  The sail bag needs some reinforced stitching and then we can put the panels back on.

About a month later, we had calm weather conditions and began the process of removing the sail bag.  Matt secured our heavy dacron main using the lazy jacks (the lines that hold up the sail bag).  He had to remove the reefing lines and a lot of other stuff to get the sail bag free. I must say hat it looks so naked without the beautiful sail bag!

Matt sewed the sail bag’s weak spots and made a few small repairs before sewing on the two panels.  We laid out the sail bag on the deck in order to properly place the panels.

And she is all repaired.

Washing Machine

Yes, we have a small wash/dry machine on the boat.  It is a 2001 Splendide WDC 1024C.  I have to be honest I love it.  We don’t use the “dry” portion of the machine as it takes too much energy/power to dry the clothes.  The spin cycle is so good that I can hang the clothes in the sun and they will be dry in an hour or two.  Having a washer is a true luxury on the boat. Well, frankly anything beats washing clothes in a bucket!  The only downside to the washer is that I can only run laundry when we have full sun (it takes a lot of power), full water tank (which means running the watermaker), and light wind (to dry the clothes).  It’s a lot to ask of Mother Nature. 

But I can usually do a full load of all our clothes every 2 weeks.  Of course, we do wear our clothes several days in a row (don’t gross out – we live on a boat!).

The Problem

There is a small 110v water pump that evacuates the water from the machine.  It has been on its death bed for about a year and we keep it limping along.  The machine is 21 years old after all.  Matt took it apart 8 months ago and fixed the fan that keeps the pump cool.  Each time I use the machine I test the fan to ensure it works before starting a new load.

However, during my last load, the machine would not evacuate water.  Fiddle sticks!  We had to drain the water into a bucket and out the window, spin the clothes, and then remove them. The machine is bolted onto a 1” piece of wood which can’t be removed.  So, in order to access the back of the machine, we have to unscrew the wood from the cabinet. This after I remove all the cleaning products from the cabinet of Course.

Splendide WDC1024 Washing Machine

Splendide WDC1024 Washing Machine

Matt was able to access and remove the small motor (which by the way is no longer manufactured).  There are two problems.  1) The seal is broken so there is a small leak from the water pump.  We can’t fix this as we would have to destroy the pump to get to the seal and we don’t have a seal replacement. 

The other issue is that the fan is moving side to side and it is not supposed to.  The bracket that holds the bearing in place (which holds the fan in place) rusted and broke (see 2nd image on right). Hmmm.  Well, we can’t get a new bracket or bearing so we improvised. Matt stuck two pieces of pvc behind the bearing to keep it from moving.  This is only a temporary fix!

INSERT 5 COLLAGE OF WATER PUMP

We are working with Splendide to find a used water pump for our machine.  We found several on eBay but none would fit our old machine.  The thought has crossed our mind to buy a new Splendide but all of the new models are too big to fit our small cabinet. Drat!  Just our luck, we find one brand new part at an RV parts store.  We buy it and ship it to Wayne who is visiting soon.  Sweet luck!

Watermaker

Another joy on our boat is our fresh watermaker!  We are so darn lucky to have one onboard so we don’t have to retrieve fresh water from shore in jerry cans.  We have two pumps on our Spectra watermaker, but one of them decided it had enough of us.  Matt tried to repair it and it just won’t have anything to do with us.  Lucky for us, we were able to find a replacement and have it shipped to Wayne  as well. In the meantime, we are only able to produce 50% of the volume so we are running it a lot more than usual.

Windlass 

The windlass raises/lowers our 100m of stainless steel chain and our 60lb stainless anchor.  It is fantastic to have this done with a push of the button as opposed to by hand (can you imagine my biceps if that were the case?).  While we were trying to raise the anchor from an anchorage that was 18m deep, the windlass stopped working.  It would not go up.  Farfignugin!

Matt removed everything from the locker and proceeded to remove the motor.  After an hour, he cleaned everything, switched the up with the down (which was working), and put it back together.  This way we at least can use it to bring up the heavy chain and anchor.  To make it all go down we can do that manually in a controlled free-for-all type process.  Not ideal, but a temporary fix.

Matt realized that it was not the motor that was broken, but the relay.  We don’t have a spare one of these.  So, we get back online, order the part and send it to Wayne. Thank God Wayne is coming!!

Small Boat Projects

Table Runner

I decided we needed a new table runner for our cockpit table.  I found beautiful fabric in Papeete and went to work. Of course, Matt had to complicate (and yet improve) my pattern.  Not bad for a small project.

SUP Cover

The new stand up paddle board is very huge and it has been baking in the sun since we bought it about 2 months ago.  We’ve needed to make a cover for it – and now is the time!  We had some extra white fabric under the master bed that would work.  It is not sunbrella, but it will do for now (at least for the first iteration).  The cover fits snugly with a little extra padding on the tip and the side.  We left the fins on and the part of the board showing for photo purposes only (smiley face).

Other Completed Boat Projects

  • Replaced zincs on port prop
  • Cleaned Propellers
  • Repaired window leaks (port large window, starboard above nav station)
  • Salon Fan (this is dead and needs to be replaced)
  • Repaired freezer door trim

Pending Boat Projects:

A boat is always a work in progress (like a house).  In addition to the washing machine, watermaker, and windlass, here is a list of a few more outstanding boat projects:

  • Lazy Jacks – inspect and tighten
  • Main Sail – repair rub spot (port side stern)
  • Paint Bilge
  • Clean Engines
  • Paint Engines
  • Freezer insulation repair
  • Repair master bedroom leak

Keep in mind, that our beautiful home is over 21 years old and she has been across many oceans.  She is truly in excellent condition for her age and we are continually being praised for her beauty and good condition.  So, even though it looks like a lot is broken, it is just “normal” boat projects.

We spend the New Year celebration in Taravai with an authentic Polynesian BBQ in our  last blog.   Events from this blog post occurred in  January 2022.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind our adventures.