A few days earlier than expected, I received a call from Marina Taina with good news—they had a berth available for me. There was just one problem: I had already installed the new alternator, but without the correct belt it wasn’t operational yet.
That meant undoing a couple of days of work, removing the new alternator and reinstalling the old one so I could motor the boat to the marina.
As departure time approached, I found myself feeling a little nervous. Marina Taina requires boats to back into their slips and perform a Mediterranean-style mooring, or “Med Tie”—something I had never done before. The maneuver involves reversing into a narrow space between other boats while securing lines to concrete mooring blocks. Without bow thrusters, it’s not exactly the easiest task.
Fortunately, with crew aboard the marina service boat and helping hands from my friend Uwe, and another cruiser on the dock ready to catch my stern lines, everything came together. Despite it being my first attempt, I managed to get the boat safely into the slip without any drama. It was another new skill added to the growing list of lessons that seem to come with life afloat!
For the first time in months, I’m tied up somewhere that feels almost “luxurious”. Fresh drinking water is available right on the dock, there’s a fuel dock nearby, a laundromat, recycling and waste facilities, two restaurants, and even a shopping mall within walking distance.
After months of carefully managing every drop of water, planning fuel usage, hand-washing clothes when necessary, and making do with whatever facilities happened to be available in the Tuamotus , these simple conveniences feel like absolute luxuries.
Simplicity has brought about amazing personal growth and taught me what is truly important in life. Living with less has helped me appreciate the essentials and find contentment in the everyday. Having said that, convenience feels pretty good today!
Four loads of Laundry first…
Of course, I wasn’t at the marina just to enjoy the comforts of civilization. In addition to waiting for my family to arrive from Norway, I had a long list of jobs to tackle, and one of the biggest was provisioning for the journey ahead.
With New Zealand still months away and no certainty about where the next well-stocked grocery store might be, it made sense to do the bulk of the shopping here in Papeete. The goal was to stock the boat with enough canned goods, dry foods, and essentials to last the next four to five months.
It’s a strange feeling filling shopping carts with months’ worth of food. Every item has to earn its place onboard, balancing storage space, shelf life and weight. It’ll be a heavy boat for the next 3 weeks with four extra people on board, full tank of diesel and water and four months of food!
Now Breakfast! And a Kaffe Latte …
And tonight….clean sheets😉
Sailaway Sarantium 