Day 6: Sailing from French Polynesia to Tonga
Squalls rolled through every half hour last night, bringing 30kn of wind and waves on the beam, robbing us of sleep…(read more)…
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Day 5: Sailing from French Polynesia to Tonga
The sun finally began to creep up over the horizon around 7:30AM, illuminating two large storm clouds: one behind us and one right in front of us. We already had the mainsail prematurely at its second reef, so… (read more)…
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Day 4: Sailing from French Polynesia to Tonga
A loud creak developed in our starboard head. Our biggest complaint about this boat is how the furniture is put together. As the boat flexes, the interior… (read more)…
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Day 3: Sailing from French Polynesia to Tonga
We fired up the generator around 2pm. Despite having relatively clear skies, our solar panels are shaded by the sails most of the day, so we’ve struggled to get charged. Before crossing the Pacific… (read more)…
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Day 2: Sailing from French Polynesia to Tonga
Ray woke me just before midnight to help him reef the main as the wind and waves began to pick up. I strapped myself into my PFD, grabbed a headlamp, and met him at the helm. We don’t always wake each other to reef, but when the sea state is rough… (read more)…
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Day 1: Sailing from French Polynesia to Tonga
We were cutting it close—checking out of the country the day our visas expired. I thought the three weeks I had scheduled between our insurance’s cyclone season restriction end date and our visa expiration would be plenty; who would’ve thought it would take 25 days for a weather window to come along…
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Goodbye, Tahiti
Bora Bora: a breath of fresh air! Sharing what we’ve learned about our upcoming stops on our route to New Zealand… (read more)…
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5 Tips for Sailors Heading to French Polynesia
We’ve spent the past year sailing in French Polynesia. These islands have been our most challenging cruising grounds yet, and we have learned a lot along the way. Here are 5 things to think about if you’re planning to head this way… (read more)…
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April 2025: Behind the Scenes
We turned on our deck light so they could see us and watched in amazement as they pulled up right next to us and dropped their anchor. We were close enough to shout, so we told them we had 300ft of chain out and would absolutely hit them. We were astonished to see them casually put their… (read more…
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