A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 10/06/2024 – 10/13/2024 

Hi guys!! We posted a new YouTube video and a behind the scenes blog post this week- did ya see them? 🙂

Last Sunday, we- believe it or not- had a third boat drag anchor toward us. This time, we already had the dinghy down, so Ray raced over to see if the Captain needed assistance while I got fenders ready on Sabado, just in case. The dragging boat was actually bringing their anchor up to leave, but their windlass kept tripping the breaker, so the Captain had to repeatedly leave the helm and crawl into the engine compartment – leaving his vessel at the mercy of the wind. He said he had the situation under control, but Ray stayed nearby in the dinghy until they got their anchor up and safely maneuvered their way out of the anchorage. That was the only boat in front of us, so we took the opportunity to pull our anchor and move up as far as we could, hoping not to have anyone else ahead of us for the remainder of the Maramu. We let out all of our chain and backed down hard before resetting our anchor alarms. 

The sun came out later that afternoon, so we took the dinghy to Fare Miti, the floating rum and tapas spot. After being sober for six weeks, we decided to indulge in a couple of ice-cold beers. We quickly made friends, and before we knew it, we were playing someone’s ukulele, rolling our own cigarettes, and snuggling with stray dogs in a nearby neighborhood. After the not-so-warm welcome we’ve had in the Society Islands, it felt good to connect with some of the locals. 

We spent the entire day Monday in bed, recovering from our first boozy night out in a while. 

On Tuesday, I cleaned. French Polynesia is the wettest place we’ve ever been, so preventing mold growth has become a constant chore. I wipe down every interior surface with vinegar and water solution, including the floors, walls, and ceilings, multiple times a week. Ray repaired another portion of our helm enclosure—it’s barely holding on at this point.

The wind persisted, and it rained periodically. As I was plating our dinner, a charter boat squeezed in front of us and dropped its anchor. The wind was gusting up to 25kn, and the crew looked worried. Ray zipped over in the dinghy to say hello. They expressed concern over the depth, mentioning that the boat did not have much chain. Ray picked me up, and we helped them get onto a nearby mooring ball instead. We all slept better that night because of it! 

On Wednesday morning, the water was glossy and the sky was gray. We could see the dark outline of Bora Bora peeking out from behind the clouds in the distance.

There wasn’t a breath of wind, so Sabado pointed in a new direction. We felt a little close to the reef and decided to move in case the wind picked back up. Of course, it started pouring rain seconds later. The wind jumped back into the 20s, so I put on Ray’s raincoat (mine disintegrated in Tahiti) and got to work. This anchorage is incredibly deep, so I got our mooring lines ready in case things continued to build and we couldn’t get our anchor set. The charter boat had left, so there was an available ball if we needed it. Thankfully, we were able to get our anchor to grab. We set all three of our anchor alarms and closely monitored things while the rain continued to pour. The wind died late that afternoon, and I baked some pumpkin bread while we ran the generator. 

The rain finally stopped that evening, and the anchorage was still and silent. We recognized these conditions: heavy rainfall followed by no wind as the sun fell below the horizon… This is what it was like every time we were swarmed by termites. We opted for an early dinner, finishing the dishes before dark, closing up the boat, and keeping the lights off for the rest of the night to not attract them. 

We were pleased to wake the following morning and see no evidence of termites! We used the pumpkin bread to make a delicious French toast breakfast and enjoyed a few hours of sunshine before the clouds rolled in and the rain returned. 

It sounded like buckets of water were hitting the boat, not raindrops. The wind kicked up to 30kn, and we watched in horror as we were swiftly engulfed by dirt and debris from shore, more than we’d ever seen… Was there a landslide? The water was thick with mud, logs, sticks, and leaves. 

Should we use our saltwater flushing heads in this? We could easily clog the intake. We have Sabado set up to switch to fresh water flush, but at this rate, who knows when we’ll be able to make water again? Maybe we should be conserving our fresh water. We should also try to conserve power because running the generator in this could also be problematic… Our minds were racing.

Then, the lightning came. We sat inside, sweating while we timed the thunder and flashes. Just as we were starting to chill, kick back, do some computer work… We saw a bright bolt, and simultaneously, everything vibrated from the thunder. It was right on top of us. Something started beeping, and we both jumped up. Ray went to the helm, and I started sniffing around our electronics, making sure I didn’t smell anything burning. We lost our wind instruments, but they seemingly came back without issue after turning them off and back on again. We ensured we could power on the engines, saw that our VHF was still working, and then checked Starlink, the watermaker, and any other systems we could think of. Everything was responding as usual. We sighed in relief, looked at each other knowingly, and silently pulled out our world-cruising guidebooks. We’re ready to leave French Polynesia. 

We had initially planned to stay for one year, but we’ve been considering cutting our time short for a while now. We’ve been delaying making an official decision, hoping to get back to the Tuamotus, but with cyclone season right around the corner, we’ve decided we’d rather leave while we still can. We have had some spectacular, beautiful, once-in-a-lifetime experiences here that we will cherish forever, but we’re ready to move on! 

We thumbed through our books and reached out to our weather router: the goal is to reach New Zealand before December 1st (our insurance deadline for cyclone season). There are roughly ~2,200 nautical miles between here and there, so we need to get moving. We had a phone call with our weather router Friday morning, and he will be routing us through Tonga once we get our ducks in a row. First, we need to revise our insurance coverage since New Zealand was not originally in our plans for this year. Then, we need to get the boat into passage-making mode: we need diesel, propane, food, set up our jack lines, etc. To accomplish most of those tasks, we need to sail to a different island. Finally, we need to check out of French Polynesia. 

We spent the day Saturday figuring out our next steps. I researched entry requirements for New Zealand. They have strict biosafety and environmental laws prohibiting bringing certain foods (like fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, honey, dried nuts, and seeds) into their country. So, I went through our food stores and pulled out anything we needed to eat before our arrival. I’ve got three large bottles of honey, so if anyone has recipe recommendations, send them my way! We’ve realized that the main hurdle with this new plan is insurance. We have talked to our broker who has submitted the request. We will have to wait for approval before leaving French Polynesia, so everyone cross your fingers we hear back ASAP! 

The weather finally cleared up, and we were rewarded with a beautiful rainbow and an epic orange sunset. 

I hope you had a great week. ❤️ 

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