French Polynesia Part 3B: Leeward Islands
If you're interested in the downsides of sailing into other countries by private boat, this is the blog post for you. If not, it will feel long and tedious...much like learning the bureaucratic red tape for every country we've sailed in. Feel free to just enjoy the pictures instead. We'll have a "Too Long; Didn't Read" [TL;DR] message near the end.
For those hoping to do a passage through French Polynesia, let this post serve as a reason to get a long-stay visa. We opted not to because we were already busy enough before we left Mexico earlier this year, and the process was ridiculously complicated. Although we had no intention of staying a full year in French Polynesia, having flexibility around our departure date would have made all the difference.
The First Domino (by Denise)
Once in a great while, this life is straightforward. Weather cooperates, the bureaucracy is simple, and nothing onboard breaks. It's like the universe conspires to give De Novo a big thumbs up.
On passage to Huahine, it seemed to give us a different finger.
We left Mo'orea knowing the weather was not ideal, but the 90 days on our visa were ticking away and we figured we could turn around if it were too uncomfortable. Once we left the protection of Mo'orea's lee shore though, we decided we would simply live with it. It was 90 bouncy miles--one overnight--so we didn't need to commit to discomfort long-term. Our visa would run out in about two weeks, and we still had the Leeward Islands to explore. Waiting for a better weather window meant waiting another week, so it was worth the schlep.
I remember thinking how much I appreciated Sammy, our self-steering windvane, while on shift this passage. He could focus on steering and I could focus on vomiting off the side. Every ten minutes, I'd check radar, sails, and steerage, and then return to vomiting. Sammy did the rest. Teamwork.
Dave took over for me a couple of hours early so I could pass out (I appreciated him too!). Around 0400, he heard a loud pop from the helm. One of the self-steering blocks for the windvane broke free from its base. Sammy lost control, and Novy started to round up. Dave immediately took over and hand-steered until 0700, when we reached the west side of Huahine. Once we set anchor near the town of Fare, we went to work on a plan.
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| The broken portion of our self-steering system |
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| The blocks broke away from the base |
The best option was to ferry back to Tahiti and comb through their chandleries ourselves. But we didn't want to leave De Novo on her own at anchor here, especially as storms were forecasted to return (ooh, foreshadowing!), so we decided Dave would ferry to Tahiti and I would stay back with Novy. I could also use this time to clean the boat and prep the cockpit for the new installation.
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| Dave heading to Papeete, Tahiti by ferry |
Girl Power (by Denise)
Huahine means "the woman" in Tahitian. If you look south across the bay from the Fare ferry dock, the surrounding mountains are shaped like the curves of a woman's body. Most of the island's known history highlights Queen Teha'apapa, and her prowess as a leader, protector, and warrioress.
So Dave would ferry to Tahiti for a few days, and I would dig deep into my badass feminine powers to take care of our boat. It would be the first time I would attempt certain tasks on my own, such as lifting the dinghy each night and, if needed, re-anchoring in bad weather. The second one concerned me. When the higher winds come, how quickly would I drag into the reef? Would I need to re-anchor at night, in a storm, alone?
Fortunately, the anchor held during the worst of it (35 knots), but I still lost sleep staring at every line of movement on our anchor tracker and checking every unusual noise.
I also lost the ability to cook. Hours after Dave left, our propane system lost power. With his advice, I traced wires around the boat looking for the issue but couldn't find one. At least I didn't need the stove to drink wine.
There was also a problem with the head, but we don't need to dwell on it. I fixed it, at least for a little while.
Despite the setbacks, Dave came back to a clean boat and a woman who pretended she handled the challenges with grace. Leader, protector, and warrioress? Same Queen Teha'apapa. Same.
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| From Fare, the Tavaiura mountains are said to look like a pregnant woman lying down. To the left is her belly, the middle, her chest and the right, her head. Do you see it? |
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| Obsessing over our anchor track during the worst of the storm |
A Whirlwind in Tahiti (by Dave)
The ferry arrived late, at 3:30. So I rushed across town to the shop as fast as I could while carrying my backpack full of everything I needed to spend a few nights on this island. I got there at 4, just enough time before they closed. I found one perfect block, but there was no price tag on it and it was the last one in stock. I was going to wait, but with only one left I decided to just buy it right then. That was quick! Now I could just enjoy this island until my scheduled ferry back on Sunday morning. Things were starting to look up.
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| The beefy replacement block! |
The next two days were a wonderful mix of catching up with old friends, meeting new friends, exploring Papeete, and buying additional boat parts I thought we might need. There were many meals with friends new and old, including an evening at a swanky restaurant with live music, pancakes in the cockpit of a neighbor down the dock, ice cream in the park, morning croissants at the neighborhood cafe, etc.
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| So urban compared to the other islands! |
After updating Raffi, he saw an opportunity. He had been stuck there with a broken engine, and by the time a mechanic fixed it he was too sick to do an overnight passage. Kristen was now sick too. Raffi thought maybe I could help deliver Wind River to Huahine! With crew, they could handle an overnight passage. I would return to De Novo sooner than the next ferry and he and Kristen would get to see Huahine. Win-win! However, that plan fell apart when we did a field test of the engine repairs and found an issue on his engine that still needed to be fixed. That was failed attempt #2 in my quest to get off Tahiti that day and one of Raffi's failed attempts to get his engine working again.
Buying a plane ticket appeared to be my only option without waiting multiple days for the next ferry. But Tahiti had several more rejections in store for me before I could do that. Raffi came to the ferry dock to act as a translator as we tried to get a refund for my canceled ferry before I left town. They told Raffi to go to the office a kilometer away. Rejection #3. Once at the office, they said I'd need to get this refund over email, not in person. Fine. Rejection #4. There was nothing left for me to do, so I decided it was time to buy the plane ticket. I'd been watching flights online all day. There was a 4:10 flight I figured I could catch. So at 2:15, I tried to buy the ticket, but the online system wouldn't let me because the flight was within 2 hours. Rejection #5. Fine. I'll just buy the ticket at the airport. Raffi called a taxi guy he knew and within minutes, Kristen was handing me my backpack at the marina gate and I hopped in the taxi. By 3 pm I'm at the front of the line to drop off bags. I asked the attendant for a ticket. She gave a concerned look and then explained she couldn't sell tickets there. She pointed over to a nearby office and said I could only buy the ticket there. However, they closed at 1:30 pm because it was a Sunday. Rejection #6. Getting to Huahine that Sunday just wasn't meant to be. While standing there at the airport, I bought a ticket online on my phone for the next day at 1 pm.
After a casual walk home from the airport, I thanked Raffi for his help and for letting me stay an extra night. We went out for a nice dinner at a waterfront restaurant next to the marina, where Raffi swore the burgers were amazing. I asked the server for a burger and was told they were out. The three of us couldn't help but laugh as this island threw rejection #7 at us for the day.
Monday morning I woke up with a sore throat and hoarse voice. It was clear that I was coming down with something. At that moment I was thankful that I picked an afternoon flight so I could have a relaxing morning with lots of time to get to the airport. I just hoped it didn't make me too fatigued to get everything done before our visas expired!
I decided to walk there rather than try to figure out a taxi again. After all, I did the same walk yesterday so I knew what to expect. Along the way, it became more difficult than it should have been, even in the tropical heat. But I kept going. I feared that if I stopped too long my legs would cramp up, so better to just keep going and get it over with. With symptoms worsening, I stopped in 2 pharmacies and 2 grocery stores looking for a mask to wear on the plane and cold medicine for later. I didn't find any in any of the 4 stores.
By the time I got to the airport, I collapsed into a seat. I had 3 hours until my flight, and all I needed to do was walk a few hundred more feet to check my bag, go through security, and get on the plane. I did each small step with long breaks in between. At this point, getting onto the plane felt like a huge accomplishment. Once in my seat, it was a nice feeling to know I could just sit there and I'd be in Huahine soon. I just stared out the window and enjoyed my complimentary juice and crackers. I even dozed off for a bit.
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| Almost there! |
Seven Days from Visa Expiration
At the airport, Dave was lying on his back on the one bench that had a fan aimed at it from above. He needed help getting outside into the bed of a local's truck. Thank you kind locals! Once on De Novo, he fell asleep immediately and didn't wake until well into the next day.
Meanwhile, I was worried about our time. We realized we'd be leaving for Samoa straight from here. But we had multiple days' worth of repairs and pre-departure work to do, and Dave was bedridden. Huahine to Apia was about a ten-day passage, our second longest trip ever, and we'd need to be in good health to take on such a passage. A good weather window wasn't looking realistic. Good health even less so.
Six Days from Visa Expiration
Since we had extra tests onboard, we decided to test for Covid just to rule it out. Positive. Shit. If you knew us when we initially got Covid, you'll know it hits us hard, despite our vaccinations and boosters. Those people who say Covid was just a cold? They clearly never met our immune systems. And in an interior space of less than 200 square feet, it was only a matter of time until I was sick too.
We texted our friends in Papeete so they could pick up tests as well. Kevin: positive for Covid. Raffi and Kristen: positive with Covid as well. A cruising family in the marina had it. The misery set in for all of them as well. This strain was a bad one, and we worried we could have spread it to locals.
Armed with my mask and hand sanitizer, I walked to the gendarmerie to discuss our situation. The officer was sympathetic but directed me to the office in Papeete. I tried calling them but couldn't get a human. I wrote to our cruising community on WhatsApp for advice, and most suggested we check out and then hide out in a more remote island further west and avoid all human contact. We weren't thrilled about the idea of breaking the law though: if caught, the fines could be astronomical and we could lose our boat. But if we leave in bad weather while sick, we could lose a lot more.
I called Tahiti Crew, an agency in Papeete that helps traveling sailboats with the ever-confusing bureaucracy here. They said ideally we would petition for a visa extension in person in Papeete (not going to happen). We could do it from Huahine, but the process would be more complicated. Immigration would need a letter from an accredited doctor and passport photos for their file. Would a copy of our actual passport photos suffice? No.
Five Days from Visa Expiration
Fortunately, one of the two doctors on land had drop-in appointments. He confirmed Dave had Covid and wrote a letter on his behalf, stating that he was too sick to travel for two weeks. We scanned the doctor's note and emailed it to Tahiti Crew, along with some close-up pictures I took of Dave looking deathly ill in front of our lee cloth.
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| This should pass as a passport photo, right? |
Dave's fever spiked at 102F (39C). Tahiti Crew became the intermediary between us and an ever-demanding ministry of immigration. First, they needed letters from us explaining why it would be unsafe to leave by boat with Covid. We had to explain symptoms, comorbidities, and the need for strength and mental clarity at sea. I wrote both and just had Dave sign his. Done.
Next, Dave's "passport" pictures in front of our lee cloth weren't good enough, and they needed one of me as well. Ok, we took new ones with a white background. Still not good enough. We would need to go to town and find a place to get passport pictures taken. So Dave...with a highly communicable illness...with a fever of 102...would need to get across the bay to a town that doesn't have enough supplies to treat a Covid outbreak...to get his picture taken?
Even if he could, there were no passport photo services on Huahine. Only on the island of Raiatea, 22 miles away. So to prove Dave was too sick to sail, we would need to sail somewhere else to take new passport photos? Oh and now we had to mail them too. All of this was starting to feel impossible.
Fortunately, Tahiti Crew agreed, and their director spoke to the American consulate on our behalf.
Meanwhile, Dave spent the afternoon working on diagnosing the problem with our propane system. The inability to make any warm food while sick with Covid was a strong motivator! After tracing all the wires and disconnecting the only other thing on that circuit (the propane sensor), he figured out it had to be a dead propane solenoid.
I started to feel a tickle in my throat.
Four days from Visa Expiration
Finally, good news: the consulate also agreed and convinced the local government to agree they would begin to process our application without the passport photos for now. But we would need to send them the moment we felt better.
Dave spent the day taking apart the old, corroded solenoid-regulator assembly, then reattaching it while bypassing the solenoid. By the end of the day our stove worked again! We celebrated with a nice warm can of soup.
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| Done! Not perfect, but good enough! |
Three Days from Visa Expiration
Good news: Dave no longer had a fever. Bad news: I was much worse.
Since the checkout process can take up to three days, we should have been checking out now. We weren't.
We realized we could use a passport app on our phones to take the appropriate photos. So, Dave took pictures of us both, edited them a bit, donned his mask, and printed them at the phone/general/printing store in town. He went to the post office and dropped them off, asking them to be sent by airmail to Tahiti Crew.
Two Days from Visa Expiration
Now my fever was spiking. That day was a blur. Dave spent the day working on installing that double block purchased in Tahiti, the one part that started this whole chain of events.
One Day from Visa Expiration
Tahiti Crew asked us for our Air Tahiti tracking number. Dave looked through his receipt. No tracking number. It turns out the post office did not mail through Air Tahiti at all, and Dave suffered a lost-in-translation snafu. The post office is for non-urgent mail, and it was estimated to arrive in Papeete in up to two months(!). Instead, he would need to walk to the airport and send it by plane. The airport is an 8-kilometer walk, roundtrip.
Expiration Day
Dave, still symptomatic, walked to the airport in high heat and humidity. He arrived 45 minutes later, at 11 am, and it was locked. A security guard told him it would open at 3 pm for the 5 pm flight, so he walked all the way back. Then he turned around and did the walk again a few hours later, arriving right at 3 pm. This time he got a receipt with a tracking number and assurance that it would arrive in Tahiti later that day.
Now we wait...
Finally, back to cruising...
The next morning, we were granted a two week extension on our visas!
This window gave us the opportunities to recover, complete our repairs, and prep for the next passage. We couldn't leave French Polynesia until we received the rest of our official paperwork. So once we both tested negative, we emerged from our isolation on the boat. We had a week to explore the area like we wanted to when we first arrived.
We enjoyed the heck out of Fare. We hung out with the kids diving off the dinghy dock and ate more chow mein than our bodies could handle. I'm convinced French Polynesia has more Chinese food than Polynesian food. Chinese food is a staple. They even put chow mein in their baguettes and eat it like a sandwich.
Further south, we re-anchored in Plage Hana Iti for a couple days and tried to hike. I was still fatigued so it wasn't pretty.
The Huahine Heiva Festival was happening then too. Hieva is a showcase of Polynesian culture through dance, music, art, and sports. We had the opportunity to watch two evenings of music and dancing, and they were the highlight of our time here. Villages across Huahine send their best to compete in front of local judges and win the festival's awards. Had our block not failed, the series of dominoes wouldn't have fallen and we would have missed the Heiva Festival altogether.
We checked out of the country in Huahine and sailed to Taha'a to stage for the crossing. Here we explored a couple remote towns and did some of our best snorkeling. Three days later, we received our final extension paperwork from Papeete, and we left for Samoa one day before our extensions ended. It wasn't an ideal weather window, but it was the best we had. We didn't land in Samoa next, but that's a story for another post.
TL;DR: A steering block exploded. Dave went to Tahiti to replace it while Denise watched the boat. Dave was stuck in Tahiti for extra days as every hope to return was dashed. He brought Covid back and it hit them both hard. They worked to get an extension but there were many hoops to jump through. With the work of Tahiti Crew, their extension was finally granted. Once they were better and completed repairs, they had about a week to enjoy Huahine and Taha'a before setting off for Samoa.
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| The cruising community is awesome. Thank you, SV Lucky Dog for the card and sailing friends from Whatsapp communities that offered trips to the pharmacy in town. |
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| A shipwreck on the reef and a reminder things could be worse |
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| Enjoying the last three days of French Polynesia in Taha'a |
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