Every month, we publish a list of things we dealt with while living full-time on our sailing catamaran. We hope these monthly behind-the-scenes reports give you a better idea of what boat life is really like! Here is the roundup for November 2024:

• Our cockpit drawer-style refrigerator was not latching closed. The spring had rusted and broken in half, causing the top portion to droop. We purchased a replacement handle/latch for $57.00.

• I polished our stainless steel once.
• One of the fans in our saloon began whining, so Ray took it apart, cleaned the carbon out of the motor, and lubricated it.   
• We inspected our interior after another month of termite swarms in the Society Islands,  looking for evidence of termites, and found none. 
• We purchased two sail drive seal replacement kits for $75.00 each. 
• We purchased two flexofold prop kits for $120.00 each. 
• We spent ~$500.00 on airfare to pick up parts from the USA. This is common practice here as supplies are minimal, the customs process for shipped packages is lengthy, and, believe it or not, it is more expensive than a round-trip flight to Los Angeles. 
• We discovered water in our starboard sail drive during an overnight passage from Bora Bora to Moorea. We hauled out to address the issue and were surprised to see severe wear on the shaft. We are still out of the water and working to resolve this issue, but we will publish the total costs and details when we get the final invoice. Join our Crew or become a VIP for real-time updates as we navigate this unexpected complication. 

• We were caught off guard by unforecasted high winds ahead of our haul out. We tried a new approach at the yard’s recommendation: I brought our port-side bow and stern line midship to be thrown simultaneously as we pulled up perpendicular to the well. We could then pivot in with control despite the high wind speeds. It was odd and nerve-wracking, but we pulled it off without even a fender coming into contact with the concrete slip. 

• We purchased 320ft of galvanized chain for $1447.40 (including delivery). This will make anchoring in the deep waters of French Polynesia safer and easier for us. We marked every 20ft and attached it to our anchor. 

We hope you enjoyed this month’s behind-the-scenes report!