27 September 2024 –Tahiti
It was not a bad day when we woke and it was calm. We had a text from Sean to say that he had landed and would let us know when he was in a taxi.
We prepared breakfast of delicious fruits of papaya, pineapple and banana. Sean arrived having flown from the UK. He looked remarkably fresh and ready for the adventure. It did not take long to briefly show him around Stormbird and then we had a relaxing breakfast.
Jerome the rigger then came round, as since we have put the mainsail on again we have had creasing when we have furled in the main. We had the main in and out several times and adjusted the halyard tension and vang tension etc. After about an hour we got to a situation where having adjusted everything when we brought in the sail with the outhaul (rope pulling the back of the sail out) loose and it furled in better. There was not much more we could do. The sail repair man collected the Bimini which needed repair as the boom had been rubbing on it and the stitching had come away. He will hopefully have it back by Monday late pm.
Sean is an ex-BA pilot having flown for 38 years and retired about a year ago. He sailed with Charles Robinson who joined me on the Galapagos to Marquesas trip and who had recommended him. He has mostly sailed in the English Channel and with some tall ships. This will therefore be a new experience for him.
He was quickly set to work with polishing the steel work. I had to deal with all the paperwork in order to leave French Polynesia. This was quite involved in filling in a number of forms and then going online to update the original form online I had completed when we entered French Polynesia on 22 May 2024. I also had to send copies of passports and crew lists etc to Tahiti Crew, the agent. This took most of the morning but when I had finished I cleaned the cockpit. We then had lunch. Sean by this time had polished most of the steel work. Keith had been working down below etc.
After lunch we decided to give Sean a local tour – well Carrefour was an obvious venue which we had to show him as that’s where we will be doing some provisioning. When in the centre Keith and I managed to get our haircuts which you will see from today’s picture. Whilst I was having a haircut Sean and Keith did the shopping and then I took over and we took the shopping back to the boat. In case we had not shown him enough we took him to the local Mobil petrol station to show him some gas bottles!! We have an issue we need to get us some gas to get us to New Zealand. We could not find a solution so we will have to do that tomorrow. Sean has therefore had a grand tour today of Tahiti!! We will show him more tomorrow.
We returned and had a bit of a break. It was very hot and then we had a quick drink. We then showered and went ashore to Casa Blanca and had supper. This was enjoyable and we were showing Sean the area etc. Today’s picture is of the 3 of us at Casa Blanca and chatting away. We had an enjoyable supper.
We hire a car tomorrow and then we will see some of the island before the ladies arrive on Sunday. All is under control but I need to sort out the gas situation as a major priority.
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 then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com