Back in the South Pacific!

Greetings from Taha’a, the “vanilla island.”  

Our Return Journey 

We closed up and left our home in California on March 19.  We have temporary tenants living in our house.  This all happened at the last minute.  They moved in March 29.  Our friend Bev is handling the details.  They are the granddaughter of a neighbor, and her fiancé.  Our neighbor approached us and asked if our house might be available because her granddaughter was moving to town from New York City with plans to buy a house in the area within a year, and meanwhile they wanted to live “in the country.”  They were desperate to get out of apartment-style living; apparently they were paying $2500/month for a 500 square foot apartment in Manhattan with one window, and that window looked out to a brick wall.  She has a good salary for a marketing job that she can do remotely on the internet, and he is a jack of all trades, nice to have around the house!  The best part was that Rick literally walled off our library and master bedroom/bath and made it inaccessible to the tenants.  That meant I didn’t have to move all my stuff out of my closet and the dressers – that made it doable for me at the last minute. The rest of the house is pretty well void of a lot of personal stuff anyway, never having completely moved back in after our last tenants.  I did move Mom’s antiques out, though! Meanwhile, we are getting a nice little extra sum of money every month, as long as it lasts.  The lease is for six months, month to month after that.  They seem like a very nice couple.  She is in her early 30’s but quite mature, and he is in his late 30’s with a New York City accent and a confident demeanor. We like them both.  And as we told them, if they screw up, we know where their grandparents live!  Haha!

Meanwhile, Linda, Rick’s sister, gave us a ride down to their mom Poppy’s house where we stayed for two nights.  The day in between, we took Linda and Poppy to see the Paul Gauguin exhibit at the De Young Museum in San Francisco, gave them my tour of San Francisco neighborhoods, including the view from the top of Twin Peaks that they loved, and then took them out to dinner at the Cliff House. (Gauguin has new meaning for us because he spent much of his life on Hiva Oa in the Marquesas where we made landfall). I think it will be a day we will all remember. I am most excited about the fact that now, Poppy and Linda have plans to return to the De Young for the Monet exhibit – maybe we helped to inspire them to venture out and tantalize their minds with something outside of their immediate concerns of health and family.

Linda dropped us off at the Marin Airporter bus on the day of our flight, for an hour long or so bus ride to SFO.  We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare.  We weren’t allowed to complete our check-in on line because, the system said, we had to demonstrate proof we were leaving French Polynesia.  Since we didn’t have flights out, the airlines have been told they need to make sure we were not planning on becoming undocumented immigrants!  We showed them the letters in French I had just received via email that indicated our requests for extensions of our long term visas were in progress, and those seemed to satisfy the non-French speaking airline worker.  We could have had problems had I not arranged for an agent to apply for the extensions while we were in the US, or if the agent hadn’t sent us the confirmations of the extension process before we left the US for French Polynesia.

Our excess baggage is always a issue, returning to the boat with all new pieces and parts.  I got two free 50 pound checked bags because of owning a United credit card, but then had to pay $100 for an extra bag.  United limits only the size, but not the weight, of our two free carry-ons, so I stuffed them with heavy stuff that could still get through security.  But the airlines in Tahiti to the little island of Raiatea had more restrictive carry on limits, so we emptied and gave away one of our carryon bags (no room for it on the boat anyway) and paid extra for the weight of an extra duffle bag.  The fee wasn’t that much, though, and Air Tahiti was really pretty accommodating, all in all.  I even got to carry on a little “guitarlele” that our daughter Sarah loaned me.

Back in the airport in SF, we finally got to use our two free United lounge passes we get to use once per year.  Of course, the lounge in the international terminal was full because it was lunchtime, so we had to go to the other United lounge 15 minutes away in the domestic terminal, but still, it was nice.  We had a free lunch there, and could have had free alcoholic drinks as well, although it was a bit early for that so we passed!  I hate drinking before getting on a flight, or even drinking much on the flight – it seems to make the jet lag even worse, and makes me less able to cope with the after-flight details.  The lounge had big comfortable armchairs, charging stations, and a view to the outside.  

The owner of the Airbnb rental picked us up at the Tahiti airport and drove us to his place.  I didn’t arrange for anything fancy because I figured we were arriving at night and leaving the next morning – just $45 US!  The owner lived in a separate building from the one where there were several rooms for rent and a common area, kitchen and large bathroom.  We were the only ones staying there at the time.  There was no air conditioning, and I had forgotten how hot it is here!  But there was a ceiling fan in the bedroom, and the shower had good water pressure, so we were fine.  I had hoped, though, that the location would have been more convenient to the airport.  The map made it look like it was fairly close, but in reality, it wasn’t.  It was up some hills and meandering roads, and the final turn was down a dirt road that I didn’t recognize in the daylight, to a house with no street address. The owner gave us a ride into downtown on his way to work because we needed to go to a government office, but getting back to his house to get our bags and then getting to the airport, turned out to be a bit of a hassle.  We ended up getting a bus from downtown to the airport, and then a taxi round trip from the airport to the Airbnb and back.  Thank goodness for being able to mark the spot of the house on a map program, even though the road wasn’t actually on the map program!

Thank goodness as well for our new GoogleFi phones.  It was heartbreaking to give up our iPhones, but the GoogleFi plan was by far the best, almost the only, international plan for data and phone calls for extended stays overseas. For full functionality, we had to go Android.

The only hiccup happened when we arrived at the Tahiti airport for our short flight to Raiatea.  Because Rick and the taxi cab driver had already closed the back of the car after loading the luggage at the Airbnb before I had a chance to put my last small bag with the other luggage, Rick suggested a put that last small bag with me in the back seat, while he sat in the front seat.  I also had my purse and a small luggage carrier with me.  When we got to the airport, I took my purse with me and fetched a luggage cart while Rick and the taxi cab driver unloaded the luggage. I arrived back with the luggage cart to see the taxi pulling off with my small bag still in the back seat.  It had all my special stuff in it that wouldn’t fit in my purse – my iPad, my new contact lenses, my extra eye glasses, all of the chargers and international plugs for our electronics, my toiletries, the books I was reading, all my travel accessories, and everything else I considered so essential that I wouldn’t trust it to checked baggage.  I was so upset that my blood rushed to my face and my heart started to race. Rick went searching for a way to get in touch with the taxi driver while I just pushed the cart with the rest of our luggage into the airport, sat down, put my head in my hands and cried.  Fortunately, on her own, the taxi driver came back when she saw my stuff in her back seat. Crisis averted, but I was still reeling from the mishap for quite a while.  

Our Arrival and Boat Recommissioning

The flight to Raiatea was only 45 minutes, tarmac to tarmac. It is only about 130 miles but since it across the water, there aren’t many options but fly.  The owner of the bungalows where we were staying, picked us up at the airport and let us grocery shop before taking us to our sweet bungalow overlooking the lagoon.  The place is called Sunset Beach Motel.  It is set in a coconut plantation, with lots of green grass, bright flowering plants, and fruit trees.  The Motel even has a fruit stand near the reception that always has fruits from the plantation available for free to guests.  I got several bunches of bananas, a few pumplemouse and even a giant avocado there. Each bungalow is large, with sleeping for five, on ample grounds to protect your privacy.  The cabins are older styled with lots of dark wood and simple appliances and furnishings – like something you might find at a summer resort in Wisconsin that was built in the 60’s.  No air conditioning, again, but the fans helped a lot.  I really like the place and it is only about $100/night.  I love the large front porch to watch the sunset, but unfortunately, the mosquitos and gnats were out in force the whole time except perhaps in the midday sun, so I mostly enjoyed the outside by looking at it through the sliding glass doors from the inside!

The Motel is within walking distance and rowing distance from the place our boat was being stored, the Raiatea Carenage, so that worked out perfectly.  The first day, we inflated the dinghy, and from then on, we rowed back and forth, carrying supplies each time we came to the boat.   

The boat at first appeared to be in pretty good shape.  We had hired a caretaker who did an outstanding job in cleaning Cool Change to look spic and span when we arrived.  We debated about having the hull painted with antifouling, but Rick really wanted it done so I acquiesced.  He also wanted to have them move the water line up – something I was concerned about because it increases the complexity of the job and we knew nothing of this yard’s competency, but Rick insisted.  Well, long story short, it got screwed up, some of it may not have been entirely the yard’s fault, and we will just have to live with it. Also, Rick had to clean out the outboard motor carberater to get the outboard for our dinghy to start.

After we got the boat back in the water, it seemed like one thing after another started breaking, all in the first week, almost as if in protest the four months we dared to take her out of her natural environment and place her in air instead of water.  First, I turned on the breaker to the water pressure pump to take a shower and … nothing.  The pump had seized.  Fortunately we had a spare, and Rick replaced it.  I would have died without the ability to take a shower!  And that wouldn’t have been the worst of it – we also need the water pressure pump to flush the watermaker after every use.  No water pressure pump = no watermaking! Our tanks are so small that we would constantly be in search of places to refill our water tanks if we didn’t have our watermaker.  

Next, I found hot water in the bottom storage compartment of the head.  Apparently, a hot water hose had decided to just disintegrate. Rick was able to close off the hot water to the head as a temporary fix.  Next, our stereo decided to fry.  We smelled something burning, and the next thing we knew, the stereo wouldn’t turn on.  Then the bilge pump and bilge pump counter lost their electrical connection – that is a real safety concern.  Fortunately, Rick took the bilge pump controller apart and put it back together again, and after finding a little spring on the sole that had apparently popped out of the fuse holder when he took it apart, he got it working again.  The only thing else that we have found so far was that the three solar panels we left out to keep our batteries charged have apparently bit the dust as well – they look like heck, all spotty and streaked, and are producing no power.  Fortunately, the Solbien solar panel company is shipping us replacements, no questions asked. Meanwhile we have to run our engine more often than we like, to restore power to the batteries.  I hope that most of what was going to break, has already broken!  I hate to think of what may go next!  

Being Back on the Water

Meanwhile, being on anchor has been wonderful.  We are both reminded of why we love this life so much.  There has been no moon, so the stars in the night sky have been brilliant.  There are no bugs out on the water so we can enjoy the evenings outside without fear of being bit.  The water is 84 degrees, think bath water temperature.  We have gone snorkeling several times, and have seen a turtle, manta rays, parrot fish, angelfish, butterflyfish, and lots of other fish we don’t know the names of yet.  You can stay in the water for hours, until your fingers shrivel up into prunes.  Just to cool off, we dive off the side of the boat into 15 feet of aqua-colored water so clear you can see the grains of sand on the bottom. 

We also just hung out on the east side of Taha’a for a while, where there is lovely shallow water to swim and anchor in, and many motus. We dinghied over to one motu with a restaurant, but found out from a sailor moored there that the restaurant is available only by reservation. The sailor was a kind gentleman, a Frenchman who spends most of his life on his boat.

After too many baguettes and brie last season, we are being much more health conscious in our food choices this year.  There are three good grocery stores in Uturoa, the principal city on Raiatea, and between them you can pretty much find most things you want.  I am perfecting my recipe for Poisson Cru, and have expanded my menu repertoire to include sushi with fresh tuna, carrot, cucumber and avocado, and fresh tuna salad (a lettuce and vegetable salad with chunks of seared tuna with an Italian dressing).  For protein, we are buying only fresh tuna and frozen chicken at the store these days – no more red meat.   We are buying as many fruits and veggies as we can find, even if sometimes we have to buy frozen veggies. Our daily snacks include Pumplemousse (grapefruit) or some Poisson Cru for lunch.  We still have our rum, mango juice and sparkling water cocktails at night, but we measure the mango juice and rum to keep them under control!  I think we are doing pretty well keeping the calories down so far, although it is hard to tell because we have no scale and no full length mirrors.  And all my clothes are intentionally loose so it is hard to tell if they are looser or tighter!

Having taken French classes at home this visit has helped my French somewhat, but my success in real communication has been spotty so far.  I am going to keep studying and listening and who knows, maybe it will improve.  Inevitably so far, most people’s English has been better than my French, but at least they are patient with my attempts, and if they don’t understand something I say in English, then I try to find the words in French. My best success at interaction in French is actually when they don’t speak Elglish at all, yet are interested in communicating with me. Little by little …

Time has definitely slowed down in the short time we have been back in Raiatea.  The whole time I was home, I couldn’t make the time to read even one book, and now I have completed Becoming Michelle Obama in less than two weeks.  A great book, by the way.  I love her.  What a wonderful American success story, the both of them really.

Plans and Choices

I was beginning to worry that we were loosing grasp of our “no plans” proposal for this season. I wanted to follow a loose plan of exhausting our visits to the leeward islands of the Societies (Raiatea, Taha’a, Bora Bora and Huahine) before perhaps sailing through Moorea and Tahiti to the Tuamotus by late May, early June.  That was it. But plans were having an insidious way of sneaking in.  For example, in our first week, we managed to lose into the ocean at an unknown location, the cable we use to lock the dinghy. In a panic, Rick ordered a new one that will be brought to us by some friends arriving to their boat at the end of the month. So, plan #1: be around Raiatea at the end of the month to see our friends and pick up the cable.  In addition, there is a boat sailing from Mexico that is carrying some wood protectant for us, given to him by some friends who bought it for us in the States.  He is arriving in Tahiti, 130 miles away, at the end of the month also.  Plan #2: be in Tahiti at the end of the month to pick up the Cetol. Then, we got word from our agent that our long term visa extensions were approved, and that we had to come to Tahiti within 30 days to pick them up.  Plan #3: be in Tahiti by April 24.  Then Rick’s pursuit of the solar panel replacement suggested that we may have to be in Tahiti to get them through customs. Plan #4: be in Tahiti at some future unknown time on the date the panels are released from customs.  

Well, we cleared up the long term visa pickup in Tahiti by visiting the government offices here and discovering we can pick up the renewals right here in Raiatea.  The guy with the Cetol could maybe pass it on to another friend who is heading our way, if their schedules intersect.  The cable will be easy to get without changing our plans if we don’t have to go to Tahiti right away.  And if it works out that we do get the solar panels replaced, we may have to go to Tahiti, but that might correspond with the time we would pass through there in a couple of months anyway.  So, back to minimal plans! It is such a sense of freedom to wake up in the morning and do exactly what you feel like doing at that moment, whether it be reading; going for a swim or snorkel, or a dinghy ride; or moving on to a new anchor spot, maybe even a new island.  Sometimes we need to go to the store to replenish provisions, or move because the weather requires better protection, but mostly, we do what we want!  I may look into scuba diving lessons, or maybe not!  Haha!

Speaking of plans, already we are starting to rethink our plan of bringing the boat home at the end of this season.  I am really struggling with the idea of not bringing her home yet. Rick seems to have little struggle with it at all – his thoughts are more along the lines of staying out here as long as it is fun.  He doesn’t think twice about overnight passages, even several day ones, now that we have completed a 27 day passage.  

For me, not so much.  I still don’t have any real fondness for overnight passages.  The first several nights, I am still trying to adjust to the sleep deprivation, and if I get past that, then I am reminded of the bumps and bruises acquired during the days and nights of the more rambunctious seas.  On a day sail, you can plan ahead to avoid those days or at least they are short enough to be tolerable.  On a long distance sail, you just have to bear it.

On the other hand, overnight passages really do offer some of the most romantic moments associated with world cruising. As long as the ride is comfortable and the weather is pleasant, I love the night watches all alone in the cockpit. They are some of the most life-affirming moments I have ever had. Passages also appeal to the planner in me, and to the “McGuiver” in me, and that whole life-confirming thing about independence, freedom and self reliance. I like the interaction with nature in its most primitive form – there is not much in the middle of the ocean that has been touched my human influence. But do I have it in me to do several more week-long or more passages to get to Australia? I am not sure.

Some of our options include the following:

1. Stay in French Polynesia all season, with just a few overnight passages, hanging out in the Society Islands and the Tuamotus, revisiting areas we liked and visiting new islands we haven’t seen before.  Then get ourselves and the boat to Tahiti to send Cool Change back to Ensenada on a transport ship in January, 2020.
2. Stay in French Polynesia all season as above, but then leave Cool Change on the hard again like we did this year. Fly back next year and postpone the decision of what to do next until then.
3. Spend only the next three months in French Polynesia and then start sailing to Australia in July. This would entail several overnight passages, at most 10 nights at once, possibly, crossing another 4,000 miles of ocean.  Get to Australia by October/November and then either sell Cool Change there or have her shipped back to Ensenada in January on the same boat that would have carried her from Tahiti.
4. We had originally planned on sailing Cool Change to Hawaii and then Seattle and then home to SF, but I don’t think that plan is on the table anymore.

I guess the biggest questions are when we want to leave the South Pacific and how much of it do we want to see on the sailboat before we leave here.  

As to timing, it is really two questions: how much time do I still have as able-bodied, and is there anything I would rather be doing during those able bodied years?  I find myself saddled with a sense that I have precious little time left on this earth, and there is still so much I want to do that I can’t afford more time here in the South Pacific on our sailboat, wandering blissfully through days, weeks, months and seasons.  Time passes here as though one is in suspended animation.  Before you know it, a season has come and gone.  It will be five years this August since we began full time cruising, and that was my original goal.  Ok so I am “only” 67, and my sisters have proven to me that I can hope to be substantially active well into my late 70’s.  In fact, my oldest sister is 11 years older and she doesn’t seem to have slowed down one bit.  Except maybe her knees.  But overall she is fine.  

But as for me, I am mostly fine right now, but I do already have both hips replaced, as well as my right shoulder, and my left shoulder is now showing some serious signs of bone and cartilage loss.  I listen longingly of the hikes to waterfalls that cruisers my age are making on these islands, but my lower back and my hips just can’t take long hikes any more.  My teeth are a constant maintenance project, every year going back to have work done that I hope will last until I am home again.  I need cataract surgery in both eyes, but that has to wait until I am home again for a decent recovery period.  My hands sometimes feel arthritic.  My loss of estrogen due to surgery 10-15 years earlier than the average woman haunts me as the moment my body started growing old, and I just can’t help shake the feeling that I have few precious years left as able bodied. 

On the other hand, I look at myself today and the truth is, aside from long walks, I am still able to get around just fine.  Furthermore, while I could be doing something more strenuous if I were home like bicycling every day or something, the sailing lifestyle does require you to maintain your nimbleness – some say it is a lifestyle that keeps you young.  But then when I was home this time, I saw what the sun damage has done to my skin – my cleavage is no longer attractive because it has wrinkles, my neck has miraculously transformed itself into lizard skin, and when my tan fades, I am left with age spots everywhere.  So there is this whole aging thing, making me feel like I have to hurry up and get on with my bucket list beyond full time cruising.

As to what is on that bucket list, well, there are things I want to do at home, and things I want to do elsewhere, more traveling, that is.  I want to spend more time at home so I can see my family and friends more – after all, all the beautiful places in the world cannot fill my heart like the joy of loving and sharing with people I care about.  And none of us will live forever.  This thing of being in a different hemisphere for such a long period feels so far away from my loved ones (besides Rick, of course, who is my life).  I do have a tendency to follow through on goals that require routine better at home, like establishing an exercise schedule or loosing weight.  I would love to start rafting easy rivers again, and maybe start cycling.  There is also the long list of medical stuff I need done.  I should really do that cataract surgery, have my shoulder looked at, and replace some teeth with implants.  And I really enjoy our home – the view of the river, the hot tub, the wineries close by, our big bed, my own office and workspace, all the room, the electronic conveniences, the good internet, all of it.  And then for a longer term time investment, I would love to get back into throwing pots again, before my back can no longer tolerate leaning over the potters wheel or my hands get too arthritic to shape the clay.  

As for traveling more, the options are boundless.  I know one of Rick’s first priorities is to get a travel trailer and truck, and drive around the country visiting friends and relatives, from Washington State through the midwest all the way to New Hampshire and Annapolis. That would be a lot of fun.  But I also want to spend months in Europe, maybe studying French near Paris, wine tasting in Burgundy, and then some time visiting Rome and London as well as the Italian and English countrysides.  We have even talked about renting a canal boat for a few weeks through the canals of Europe.   We have always talked about going back to Southeast Asia – I want to see Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong, while I am still physically able enough to get around in the world-traveler mode that Rick and I prefer, versus the tourist mode: buses instead of taxis, shared Airbnb’s versus fancy hotels, etc.  We like to spend more time in a place by spending less money each day, versus spending a lot of money each day and having the vacation last only a few weeks. Besides, part of the spiritual satisfaction I get from traveling is to immerse myself in the diversity and richness of other cultures. We find we can better do this by being more in touch with the day to day life of the residents when we use their transportation, eat where they eat and live where they live.  But especially in the third world, that takes an able body. The good news is that this could all be done in chunks of time from three to six months, spending the rest of the time at home doing the stuff we want to do there.  

In preparation for more travel, Rick and I have seriously discussed options for creating revenue and more security for our property without the renters actually living in our home.  This would have to be something we do early on, to make it worth our while, so we wouldn’t leave the house again without some rental income. Rick has talked about digging a new septic tank and leach lines to build a studio apartment upstairs in the barn to rent out while we are gone, and/or rent out a travel trailer in our property as an Airbnb.

So, with all these ideas and plans, hopes and dreams, with the limited but unknown amount of time we have left on this earth, is it so unreasonable to assume that our time sailing in the South Pacific should be coming to an end after this season? Or is every other experience after this going to pale by comparison, and are we going to have regretted getting our sailboat all the way over here, just to send it back after two seasons without having explored further than just French Polynesia? We met a guy in the boatyard who sold his boat, cried all night, and then bought another one just like it the next day. Rick says he doesn’t want to be that guy!  There are the Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and finally, Australia to explore, that have thousands of islands between them, all possibly as different and inviting as French Polynesia. These would all have to be done in one season, however, because our insurance requires we got out of the way of cyclones by the time cyclone season begins in November.

As some of my friends would say, this is truly a “first world” dilemma.  It is like having to choose between caviar and escargot when everyone else in the world is beating back the mobs for their turn for a handful of rice. But it is my life, the only one I am certain I will have, time is running short and I want to make the most of it!