In Papeete, getting more organized….

….for this next chapter of my sailing life, perhaps a full new chapter in my life, as I start venturing towards New Zealand and beyond!

After Tatjana left to return to San Diego, my friend Kevin arrived to Rangiroa, to spend 10 days with me. We cruised Rangiroa on beach bikes and visited Hugo, who Kevin had befriended on the plane from Papeete to Rangiroa. Hugo showed us around their beachfront home and served us home baked goodies! Then the plan was to pull anchor and sail towards Moorea or Tahiti!

We were also hoping to install some boat items, discover Moorea by foot or wheels!! But first we sailed from Rangiroa to Moorea for 48 hours and reached our destination after two squally nights and wet days.

Once in Moorea, we planned to hike mountains, cruise around on scooters and eat delicious local fruit and have some dinners out! We did just that!

We also began installing the water-maker that Kevin had brought. Mostly, I watched and learned while it all started to come together.

After three days, we pulled anchor and motor sailed towards the Tahiti. We entered Papeete three hours later. Upon arrival, we hailed the control port on Chanel 12 to ask for permission to enter and cross the airport zone as our preferred anchorage was on the far side of the airport runway. A very friendly border control gave us the go ahead and we motored in and dropped anchor in 14 meters of depth!

SIDE NOTE……. Unfortunately, the alternator decided to overheat again. Seems the alternator had a mind of its’ own, and ignoring my settings in the regulator. This has been a pattern for a while now, so I decided to contact Arco Zues again to have them help trouble shoot further. I previously had spent hours with them trouble shooting and resetting the regulator with me. After some time on the phone and emails back and forth they had some answers. Without getting into too much detail, they explained to us that the current Electro Maax alternator has its’ own built-in regulator and it therefore has been ignoring or perhaps over-riding my settings in the Arco Zues regulator and venturing way past my settings and therefore causing overheating of alternator and also previous batteries. According to Arco Zues specialists my regulator never was able to control the alternator. This is all now starting to make some sense to me… We even pulled the fuses to see if alternator would stop charging the but nothing changed. I’m now purchasing a new Arco Suez alternator, new Arco Zues regulator and a shunt… Although, costly, I now have some answers and clarity. Endless learning… endless fun!

It’s time for a dip and to check the anchor!