A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 10/13/2024 – 10/20/2024

Hi friends! We’ve been pretty busy and didn’t get the chance to post a YouTube video this week. Check back next week! 

Last Sunday, we decided to pull our anchor and motor from Taha’a to Raiatea. We hopped onto the fuel dock, topped off our diesel tanks, and filled all our jerry jugs in anticipation of our passage to New Zealand. We were still waiting for our insurance to approve our last-minute change of plans, so our preparations were premature. Still, we figured even if we didn’t end up embarking on the passage, having Sabado fueled and provisioned up couldn’t hurt. We anchored in Fa’aroa Bay for the night. 

Monday morning was beautiful, calm, and sunny. 

We planned to leave that afternoon for an overnight trip to Moorea, where we would provision. The forecast showed little wind and 6ft seas on the beam, so I prepped some food to minimize my time in the galley. We were running low on groceries, but I managed to put together something for lunch and dinner. We left that afternoon and made our way out of the lagoon. With only 10kn of wind and rolly seas, we used the main, jib, and one engine. We probably could have sailed if we were willing to hoist the gennaker, but we hate listening to that sail flap in big seas. 

We had left our fresh water level near empty since we could not run the watermaker in the runoff from last week’s storm. We had 13 gallons in our tank but had planned to replenish our supply while we moved between islands. We fired up the Spectra, which showed super low output and higher than normal salinity. Ray changed the filter and inspected the feed pump. We began to worry that the lightning had damaged it during the storm. We let it run for a while, desperate to put some water in our tanks, then shut it off. I took the helm while Ray did some tests on the system. 

There were squalls on the horizon at sunset, so we reefed the main out of an abundance of caution and continued motor sailing through the night. Ray sat inside, researching the watermaker issues.

During my second watch shift, Ray crawled into the engine compartment that houses our watermaker with a headlamp. Twenty minutes later, we were making water with standard output and salinity levels. Since we had had an engine on, we weren’t concerned about power, so we let it run for a few hours. It turns out that the motor speed control board on our watermaker is programmed using a magnet, and it appears that the EMF from the lightning storm had wiped its programming. Ray was able to reset it with a magnet! In hindsight, this is probably what happened to us years ago in Florida. We had been through numerous lightning storms that summer but didn’t know nearly as much about the system as we do now. Back then, we spent hundreds of dollars to replace the motor speed control board entirely. I guess you live and you learn! 

We arrived in Moorea at sunrise. This is our third visit, our second time arriving at sunrise, and it is truly a sight to see. The steep, sharp mountains illuminated by the golden morning sun are spectacular. It reminds me of our sunrise arrival in the Marquesas after our 27-day Pacific Crossing. There is something so magical about the dramatic green mountains coming straight out of the sea. 

We dropped anchor in Cooks Bay and promptly went to sleep. Overnight sails are tough with a two-person crew. Adjusting to sleeping in shifts takes at least three days, so anything less than that is exhausting. We slept until noon, did some mindless chores, then returned to bed. 

We hit the ground running Wednesday morning. With no idea when we’d hear back from our insurance company, we had decided to prepare as though we’d be leaving early next week. Ray topped off our fuel tanks using our jerry jugs, then refilled them at the local gas station. I went to the grocery store and cooked a few meals to keep in the freezer. I like to have a variety of fully cooked meals ready to reheat quickly while underway. My galley was a cluttered mess all day! 

We watched the sunset and cheerfully commented on the lack of rain we’d had since arriving. 

While we were washing the dishes from dinner, we saw a damn termite. We’d thought they only swarm after heavy rainfall, but we were wrong. Thankfully, we had already closed our hatches to keep the smoke from the trash being burned ashore out of the boat. We turned off our lights to avoid attracting more and spent the rest of the evening sitting in the dark, chatting and playing on our phones. 

I laid in bed Thursday morning, still half asleep, listening to Ray walking up on deck. I dreamt he had gotten approval from our insurance company and was running our jacklines in anticipation of our passage. I got up, excitedly poking my head upstairs, searching for Ray, only to see him hunched over looking for termite remains in Sabado’s nooks and crannies. Bummer. I sipped my coffee and shaped the sourdough I’d set out to proof overnight. Barely an hour later, we got the approval email from our insurance broker. After a brief moment of celebration, we got straight to work. We had assumed that any island with an airport would have a customs and immigration office to check out since that’s typically how it’s been everywhere we’ve traveled. However, upon further investigation, we learned we couldn’t check out from Moorea. Checking out is also a 2-3 day process here, so our options were to take the ferry back and forth from Tahiti multiple times, having to pay for eight taxis total, or sail to a different island. We chose the latter. Having no desire to return to Tahiti, we opted to head back to Bora Bora. Bora Bora has been our favorite of the Society Islands, and we wanted to depart on a good note. 

We left Moorea the following day, motor sailing toward Bora Bora. Despite a promising forecast, the wind came from a different direction and never really filled out for us. Beyond the monotonous drone of the engine, it was a lovely night illuminated by a bright moon. As the sun rose, we were greeted by the easily identifiable outline of Mount Otemanu. We had arrived in Bora Bora. 

We hopped onto a mooring ball Saturday morning, chugged some coffee, and took the dinghy to the Gendarmerie to begin the checkout process. We were surprised to find them open on the weekend! The officials were very kind and helpful as we navigated the confusing forms and fired off questions about the timeline. We will return to their office on Tuesday or Wednesday for the final step. We stopped by a wine shop before returning to Sabado and spent the rest of the day lounging around, sipping chilled rosé and taking in the view. This is not a bad life! 

We’ll spend the next few days watching the weather and preparing the necessary paperwork to arrive/stay in Tonga and New Zealand. The processes are much more complicated than our leisurely “show up and fill out a form” experiences in the Caribbean. Maybe there will be a future blog post about it… 

I hope you had a great week. ❤️