Well, this might as well be the best motto for my stay here!

Big shopping before the departure!

We started in the beginning of April from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was a beautiful day and we expected one nice and easy journey. We almost got it…

At the second or third day we have noticed that our batteries are not holding enough charge overnight even though they were only two years old, I bought them in 2021 from Panama. We started charging the batteries by using the engine but then we checked which of the 4 batteries still have some life in them and we disconnected the other two. Then (thankfully I kept my old batteries from my bow thruster, the one I don’t use anymore) we connected to two smaller batteries in parallel and the situation improved.

Then it was an uneventful sailing until one night on a bigger swell, my steering wire snapped. While Kosyo and Sophie were steering by the emergency tiller I managed to replace the broken wire. It happened two or three more time until finally we replaced the whole wire and it was fine since then. Also, Kosyo reprogrammed the autopilot so that it would be less sensitive and would be working less – two benefits – first it works less, so consumes less power and second it puts less pressure on the steering (maybe).

 

At some point during the crossing while we were maybe a thousand miles from any land we noticed that we were frequently visited by these birds called boobies. Let me tell you, these are some really pushy birds covering all of my solar panels with sh.t to such an extent that the panels stopped working at some point. So, one of the main excitement during the day was to push them away with the fishing rod or whatever long stick we had. They would circle back and then go all the way back to us :).

 

Some days were really lazy and relaxed…

Some days Kosyo will pretend that he is actually working? Not that anyone really believed him anyway…

Some days we would have visitors… 

And Kosyo would (almost) risk his life with his camera to film them :).

We got lucky several times and we caught some fish and then we had sushi or Sophie cooked some kind of a very complicated Argentinian dish.

We even crossed the equator (duh) and sent a message in the bottle but nobody has received it so far. Anyway, after 21 days we saw a land – Hiva Oa! It was a nice green island with very calm and friendly people. We checked in and immediately bought some ice cream!

 

After a few days there we sailed to Nuku Hiva – the main island of the Marquesas. We met our first group of guests!

After a three and a half days sailing (a bit rough because of the side swell) we arrived at Takaroa, Tuamotus and then Rangiroa to this…

After a few days at the main anchorage we moved to the Blue Lagoon – a little paradise.

 

We even fed the sharks…

And our local hosts fed us…

Someone got lucky and received a hat as a gift!

Amazing view…

As in the postal cards…

A few days later my new crew arrived and we sailed to Tahiti, the main island of French Polynesia. After around 30 hours of rough sailing we anchored in a place called Venice point, cool and safe for the night.

We rented a car with them and visited some places. Not a bad place this island…

Yours truly 🙂

We sailed to Moorea next, a real gem close to Tahiti. We anchored in Cook bay on the north part of the island.

Nice hike to the three pines as they call it.

Aaand a romantic swing… I don’t know if my server could handle it 🙂

One of the most famous animal in French Polynesia – I’ll leave it to you to choose which one is it?

A new crew joined me at Tahiti and we sailed to Huahine – an easy 18 hours or so sail. This island quickly became my favourite island. Several reasons for that – peaceful and quiet, good places to rest, beautiful scenery and the most important – plenty of hot peppers! Here you can view my first attempts at paddle boarding.

You did not think that I’ll miss showing you my peppers, huh?

Borrowing some papaya and bananas 🙂

We moved to Raiatea next and guess what – everybody wants to have a photo with the winner of the annual banana running contest!

Initially I also thought of signing up for the next year competition but after trying the weight of it, decided to leave to the younger folks – let them have it!

Cool hikes on Raiatea.

Some of my favourite fruits here…

A nice rainbow at Bora Bora, to be honest it’s my least favourite island, too noisy and too many restrictions to my taste.

Next I had an international crew – Bulgarian-Canadian. We spent a really nice time with them, Simon even tried surfing even though the local surfers sometimes were very protective of their waves. I did not even know there’s such thing :).

We also went to a nice dinner together, I had to put some nice pants for the occasion.

A cool couple came to visit me afterwards – they’re Bulgarian scientists who live in USA. I’ve known Vassil for ages, we went to the same physics school together. They have been sailing for years now in various locations around the world, they have even sailed here a few times but with me it was much less stress and more lazy. So, they decided to visit me again in March! Vassil has this obsession with the maraes here – the sacred places of the Polynesians.

Next I got a cool female crew. We talked a lot about various topics – even about Arabic and Islamic culture. Well, we also enjoyed swimming, hiking and Arabic cuisine. I tried to teach them some things about finance but I think they know very well what to do!

Another sunset, another cocktail…

My son came with his mom to visit me, he’s much better sailor than me but unfortunately he happened to stay here in a really bad weather – raining almost every day.

With my fantastic friends – Christine and Michel from S/V Inia. They taught me so many things and also they’re the only French couple here that tolerates my French and are kind enough to let me practice it. These guys have sailed the South Pacific for 17 years!!! 

Me doing my daily Duolingo session. I am at 1500 days streak now! How cool is that, huh?

Moorea fire squad even have surf board and jet ski in their arsenal!

Me and my favourite fruits! A lot of them! Imagine when they start ripening all at once!

This young guy at the marina at Moorea was a very good storyteller – in other words he was lying through his teeth :)!

 

Of course, at some point my windlass motor died on me, so I had to clean it and repair it.

My daily exercises are (as is my Duolingo lesson) unavoidable. I do them without a single missed day for several years now.

Sometimes the mainsail halyard gets entangled and it’s a bit annoying.

The mother of my children :)!

At the end of my stay here, I would like to say – I love French Polynesia :)! I love these lovely smiling people, I love how green the islands are, how much water there is (it’s raining very often), the beautiful colours of the water, the reefs that protect the islands and allow for some really cool and safe anchorages… I love that everyone says Iorana (hello) with a big smile, tasty fruits… Almost always I managed to hitchhike a vehicle, people are so nice and helpful. I also love the fact that they tolerate my really bad French and they smile at my efforts. Every Sunday there’s a church service and although I did not attends any of those, I met nice people at the gatherings after the services.

The only thing that I did not like is how strangely poor is the food delivery service to the smaller atolls in Tuamotus and also in the Marquesas. I know it’s far, I know it’s difficult but my impression is that it’s just a matter of bad planning as it was during the communist times. I cannot imagine that someone would enjoy this but I’ve talked to some sailors and they seemed to find it amusing, maybe because they have never experienced any shortages in their lives. Not for me, thanks! So, for the sake of these lovely people that live in the other archipelagos (other than the Societes), please try to improve the food delivery services.

Oh, one more thing – please make good ice cream available on the other islands – not only in Tahiti… Very important!

Thank you French Polynesia for hosting me for an year :)!