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I think it will kill many boats. You can apparently only sell a project boat to a licensed pro, and they will never buy them. There goes the rest of the old trollers. There goes many old boats. What...

It seems absurd to me. Boat owners are forced to pay for a survey before selling the boat? Imagine if this was the case for houses.

The new owner should be liable if they abandon the boat, unless...

We arrived with both the jib and mainsail out of commission, and I felt like a bird with broken wings. To fix the jib I just needed to hang a new halyard block, so I rigged the climbing gear and...

Thunderstorms had been threatening us for days, no lightning really close but we could see it at night in the surrounding clouds. We headed into the last night with the full mainsail up, but had some...

Thirty minutes later, we had the staysail set in place of the jib. We were now within two days of Fiji and needed to maintain speed to arrive at the beginning of the work day to avoid overtime fees...

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The days went by, all merging into each other. We used a rotation of 3 hr watches all around the clock. This gave a...

We reefed and then unreefed the mainsail many times. I had lubed the main halyard with vaseline where it bends around the masthead sheave, mostly as an experiment. I think it helped, but it was not...

Things eventually improved, and the solar panels were very happy to see some more sun. We had a lot of trouble keeping the batteries up on the crossing. The sun was often obscured, and passed behind...

https://photos.smugmug.com/Passage-to-Fiji/i-Qr6n6zq/0/42856a1a/M/GOPR0698-M.jpg

The old man liked to put on his full nerd scout costume. Whitney and I just stood watch from the companionway to...

These were conditions that theoretically I would always prefer to change course and keep all the sails full and make better speed. But in practice, we were trying to make it north, so bearing off at...

The days started to tick by, as we climbed up from 16d 40' S, aiming to run along 14S for a few days until the squash zone blew itself out.
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We set a course to pass south of Bora Bora, and we were off!

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We checked out with the Gendarme on Raiatea, and duly put the last day of our visa as our exit date. There was a big swell rolling in from a passing storm in the southern ocean, winds only 20-25 kt,...

Look at all that carbon that will be in the air soon. We will never plant enough trees to get it all back....

Could probably build it yourself for less than 100k and a year of work. Hire in labor as needed. Still a pretty good yearly salary in savings.

I wear boots full time, and have burned through nearly all of the brands named, most with a "safety toe." I kept getting better and more expensive ones, full leather, etc... but they all sucked...

Amazing, and not just compared to a silly iridium device. Wish it had been ready a few years earlier.

Waitui, but it looks like you can't go wrong!



Yes, as some have noticed there is lots of quaintness with the Iridium. It only pings every 30 minutes if it has good signal, but we keep it...

We made it! Currently sitting in the absolute flat calm harbor at Savusavu, Fiji. We had a good passage, just shy of 16 days. That is a bit slow, we were becalmed for 2 days, and didn't have any...

https://photos.smugmug.com/Society-Islands/i-tpwkdVr/0/33e34057/M/P7140148-M.jpg

Inside the lagoon the water was mostly flat, though we could feel some swell that made it over the reef for the...

Thanks folks. Fiddlehead, I knew there was a term but I couldn't remember it. Don't some people eat them? These would be a meal for a whole family. Might need the tenderizing hammer.

We headed...

Towards the top there were more and more stretches that required a rope to ascend. We slowly put our weight on the old ropes that were rigged up at the critical points and we did eventually make it...

Whitney had heard of a "somewhat challenging" hike up to the top of the mountain, and it is highly recommended that you take a guide. Of course we went it alone.
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I don't think we would have been brave enough to jump in the water with all these sharks, but there was an outrigger power canoe with some tourists and a guide and they were in the water so we jumped...

We left the pass on the far side of Tahaa, heading to Bora Bora. The wind filled in and we had a good sail.

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Our last adventure on Tahaa was to snorkel the coral gardens. We anchored up on the reef side of the lagoon, and rowed in to a little channel between two motus.
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The islands of Tahaa and Raiatea are just over 20 nm west of Huahine. They are sort of one entity, sharing a single lagoon. We set sail for Tahaa. This is from the gopro, using that old realtors...

A little more walking up the hill gave some more great views.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Society-Islands/i-9Pr8FqM/0/c8b25f92/M/P7010121-M.jpg

We headed back to the boat to get all gussied up...

We walked the road for a ways. It was completely peaceful and unspoiled. This must be the least touristed of the main Society Islands, and the people seemed friendly.
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So we left Moorea for the overnight sail to Huahine, about 85 nm.

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Dad got his first dose of tropical squalls in...

Yeah, pretty much. We do make him sleep in the chain locker though....



Oh yeah, I remember that. Didn't realize it was Beveredge reef. I talked to two seperate sailors yesterday who had lost...

Cool, but.... damn. Somebody here knows that boat. Shallower hull than I would have expected. That's a good looking pilothouse.

4 people in a 32 footer is too many people.....

That is an absurd law. So sad.

Sounds like shipworm to me. Stainless and bronze are not generally so active as to put a hole through solid deadwood. Been a long time since her last bottom paint?

Bacon and eggs always feels like a luxury on a boat. Thin sliced potatoes fried in a skillet with an egg cracked over at the end is an easy 1-pot meal, tapatio hot sauce is the crowning glory. A can...

https://photos.smugmug.com/Tuomotus/i-qfHPTfk/0/e4e93b20/M/P6270630-M.jpg

There is an experiemental farm (I think a government entity) and they make spectacular coconut ice cream. It was a well...

The old man arrived, and we headed back to Moorea in a dead calm.

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When it was time to cross to Tahiti, we...

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It was decent sailing, but rolly enough that sleeping the first night was not easy. It never is, but rolling makes it...

https://photos.smugmug.com/Tuomotus/i-qjxG3GR/0/ef75c228/M/P6140022-M.jpg

There is one extended family that has a couple houses on the adjoining motu. Apparently the matriach will cook a group...

Before too long we headed back out to go to another location on Toau. Anse Amyot is a false pass, meaning it would be a pass if the inner end wasn't completely choked with coral. This is an ideal...

Determined not to make that mistake again we set about charting the route from the dinghy. We have a water "resistant" tablet with navionics on it, we rowed around, marking safe water and plumbing...

We pulled the anchor from our private little beach resort on Kauehi and headed across the lagoon to the pass.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Tuomotus/i-fwKnXGB/0/a75ce12b/M/P6080271-M.jpg

It was a...

Good idea. I might try to find something like that. Don't have any gear oil on board, hydraulic transmission....



Congrats! The bow is pointed westward! When leaving Mexico, our plan was just 2...

What exactly is "borer", and how did it get through all the glossy fiberglassing?

Seems like a nice boat.

Jesus you guys, he's talking about the extermination of an entire wing of his family. Give it a break for a minute.

Here, and in many other places we went later, there were little shacks used during the coprah harvest. Or at least used at some point.
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I hope you wanted a whole bunch of glory shots of Julia and the scenery.

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