22 September 2024 – Moorea – a Pottering Day

Before I start today’s blog -I am looking for one crew from Tahiti to Tonga – who would need to be in Tahiti by the 30th of September 2024 latest. If anyone is interested please email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com or WhatsApp me on 0044 7931360372.

After last night’s rain torrent, it was great to wake to a dry nice day. It took a while but the sun came out and it was great to dry everything out. We had breakfast of bacon and eggs and then enjoyed our coffee. There are two churches near where we are anchored and we heard the church bells and the singing from the church which was nice and to remind us that it was a Sunday.

We went ashore and I showed Keith the snack bar which was closed but the fruit lady was there and we bought some avocados, papaya and pineapple. We then went to the supermarket and got what we needed including fresh bread and returned to Stormbird. We had noticed a small boat called Labyrinth anchored nearby and thought it may be John whom we had met in Panama and also again in Tahiti and it was and so we had a chat and then invited John for supper.   

Men love pottering about on boats so that’s what we did.    We returned and I worked on a torch which would not stop flashing and which had got wet when we came back last night. I could not get it to stop and realised it was a problem with the swich. I decided to leave it in the sun and hope it would solve the issue. Luckily it did and it is now working again.

We had a nice lunch of prawns and garlic and bread and cheese and salad. I had a siesta and Keith started on the mammoth task of provisioning. He spent hours getting everything out, documenting it and working out what we needed.

I decided to clean the hull above the water line which had a few marks here and there from fenders etc. This took me some time going along each side of the hull and 62 feet takes time if you are cleaning it all. Once I had cleaned off the marks I got rid of any rust stains which linger from various parts. I then had to get rid of a few carbon stains from the engine and generator exhaust outlets. This all took time and effort and I was glad I had done it. I then tried to give the dinghy a bit of  a clean. It gets heavy use and needs a bit of tlc from time to time.

The afternoon went and Keith was still up to his neck in tins etc but he was nearly finishing. We therefore decided to reward ourselves with a swim. The water was lovely and refreshing. We were in deep water and it was clear because we could see our feet but little else as we were in about 24 meters of water.

John came at 5.00pm as agreed and we had a great time chatting to him. He is a 72 old man who lives on his 30-foot boat and he left the UK in 2011 and has no intention of going back. He has 5 kids who he brought up on his own when his wife left when the youngest was 3. He goes around the world slowly and works here and there to earn money and he is very good company and he has great stories to tell.

I was cooking and was doing my lemon chicken dish and the gas cylinder ran out at some point so I had to change it over. We therefore had a delayed supper of lemon and garlic chicken in wine with rice and broccoli. Not bad if I say it myself. We had a tin of tropical fruit for dessert. John left and we had had a good evening.

We put the engine on to charge the batteries even though solar had been quite good during the day but it was not enough. We look forward to tomorrow when we will hire a car and explore the island again (at least for me). It had been a good day and pottering is good for the soul.

The picture of the day is a selection of par of Cook’s Bay.

Crewing Opportunity Year Two

In year two I will be going from New Zealand in early January 2025 across to Sydney and up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025. I will need some more crew.

If there is any interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

The blog will continue as we move through French Polynesia and beyond. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com