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Today it is raining in Papeete, and we are so relieved to get some respite from the unrelenting heat! It's the perfect kind of day to chill out and give a bit of an update of what we have been up to over the last 16 days.
The passport debacle
I won’t go into too much detail here but in summary, we ended up rescheduling our flights 3 times due to visa processing and passports being misdirected by the courier. We ended up getting our passports 22hrs before our flight on 5th January! In the weeks leading up to our departure, it felt like the universe was teaching us the first lesson of life at sea – patience and being prepared to change plans at the last minute.
Sad goodbyes
I really hate goodbyes which is why I was happy we were able to slip away from New Zealand without too much fuss. A couple of days before leaving, I was wandering around our garden looking at the tomatoes, spinach, and rhubarb we wouldn’t eat, and it really hit me that I was giving up life on land. How am I going to cope without the luxuries western life provides us? Were we doing the right thing? I guess I won’t really know the answers to these questions until we’ve truly settled into our new yacht life.
I am incredibly grateful to our friends Suzi and Deano who helped us prepare for our travels and supported us emotionally. They made our lives so easy, and I don’t think we would have moved out and made it to the airport on time without them!
So much luggage!
We condensed our lives into 4 boxes, 2 suitcases and 2 guitars. Thankfully Air New Zealand checked our luggage in from Blenheim all the way to Papeete and they were incredibly helpful and patient (someone may have packed too many clothes, and one suitcase was rather overweight).
Surprisingly we came straight through customs at Papeete. Having clear boxes helped to show we had nothing to hide, and they waved us through.
Hello again Agápē!
For our first night in Papeete, we stayed in a hotel as we arrived at 1:30am. After a few hours kip we were eager to get to Agápē. We sorted out the marina fees and checked out our girl. She was as wonderful as we remembered, and we set to transporting all our stuff, one box at a time (the marina doesn’t have any trolleys!). After a couple of hours of hard slog, we had everything on board. Agape has so much space and storage it made it easy to stow all our personal items.
What do you mean we can’t go sailing?
As much as we would love to throw off the lines and head out to sea, we need to complete thorough checks on Agápē before we venture out into the big blue. If we have a failure, we need to have a plan on how we might address the issue and where to find the stuff to fix it. This means the Skipper and Chief Engineer (aka Marc) is checking is everything mechanical, electrical, gas, hull etc. and I’ve been cleaning like a crazy lady! Every single locker and storage area has been cleaned and checked. I’ve also refitted the kitchen and have been provisioning by foot. It’s a 40min round trip to get food (and beer!) and every other day, I’m lugging 15-20kg of provisions back to Agápē in my backpack and shopping bags.
Doing the mahi
We have several significant repairs and improvements to do before we leave Papeete. It certainly hasn’t been unicorns and sailing yet! It has been 8 – 10hr days of getting stuff sorted! Sourcing quality materials and tools has been one of the greatest challenges.
The biggest project to date has been reconnecting the holding tank (for the non-boaties, this is where you store poos and wees when at anchor or mooring). We were astounded that it appears to be “common practice” in French Polynesia for yachts to not use their holding tanks. We plan to anchor in some pristine marine environments and dumping raw waste into anchorages is not how we roll! We also know that in other Pacific Islands, this practise will not be tolerated.
The previous owners had disconnected the holding tank by removing half the waste pipe. The reconnection process involved wrestling out the old pipe and manoeuvring 9m of new pipe through the bilge and around the saloon. We were so stoked when Marc successfully reconnected the holding tank! Unfortunately, during testing, we found out that the holding tank leaks! So, we emptied it and literally chipped away petrified pooonly to find a significant crack and Marc is now prepping for repairs. It’s a smelly, revolting job but it must be done.
Over the last two weeks we have certainly been doing the mahi and showing our unconditional love to Agápē. Marc is still nursing an injured arm and ankle but is managing to crack on - he really is a legend! We’re hoping that we’ll get out to play real soon.
The upside is it that living aboard means we are getting super familiar with moving about and due to the significant ferry wash in the marina, our sea legs are developing too. We are still smiling and appreciating this is all just part of our journey.
Nice work getting that holding tank sorted! Smelly but necessary 💩 Good luck with the remaining fix-ups and look forward to hearing of your sailing adventures! ⛵️
This is sooooo cool to see - you guys are fully keeping it real.. love your courage.. what a beautiful boat. Love T