Author: sailawaysarantium

What a treat it has been to be tied up at the dock. I’ve gone through the boat from stern to bow—decluttering, organizing, and cleaning every corner. With company on the way, it was time to pull out all the bedding and give everything a thorough inspection. No matter how hard you try, every boat develops its own distinct aroma after months at sea, so everything went through the wash again and all the beds were made up fresh.

Sitting back afterward and seeing the transformation from a cluttered cruising boat to clean surfaces and organized spaces was incredibly satisfying. With the work finally done, it seemed only fitting to reward myself with a piña colada at the restaurant just one minute from the boat.

Most of the cruisers here in the marina are French, though there are also a few Swedish, German, American, and New Zealand boats mixed in. It’s always interesting to see where everyone has come from and where they’re headed next. Most never leave here.. I definitely would like to come back here after the refit in Whangarei this fall!

Unfortunately, my family from Norway won’t be arriving quite as planned. Their trip has been delayed by 24 hours after a bird strike on their aircraft in Los Angeles. Not the start they were hoping for, but thankfully it was only a delay and they’ll be here soon enough.

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😉

After spending hours coordinating with Arco Zeus to purchase and ship a new alternator, it became clear that working through one of their distributors would be the faster route. The team at Yacht Riggers in Florida stepped in and made the entire process effortless, handling the purchase and shipping quickly and efficiently. What had been a frustrating task was resolved with professionalism and speed.

The Arco Zeus alternator arrived in just four days, which meant it was time to roll up my sleeves and tackle the replacement of the “old” one. Truth be told, the old alternator wasn’t really that old, so rather than consigning it to the scrap pile, it’ll be stowed away as a spare—because you never know when a perfectly good backup might save the day!

Once again, I found myself tackling a job I’d never done before. Replacing an alternator was completely new territory, but that seems to be the theme of this voyage—every project is a learning experience. With unwavering support and advice from Kevin, now back in N.A., I carefully disconnected the wiring and began removing the old alternator, one step at a time.

My hope was that the new alternator would simply slide into place where the old one came out. Of course, boat projects never seem to work that way. The power stud on the new alternator was positioned slightly differently, which meant I had to pivot the alternator away from the engine. That small adjustment created a bigger problem—the existing belt was now too short. What I thought would be a few hours of work quickly stretched into several days, thanks to the weekend and the inevitable wait for shops to reopen.

Looks like it is time for some fun…

La Orana!

Waiting for company from Tromsø, Norway in Papeete has its’ perks! Life slows when you spend time in a small space, bobbing for weeks. I’ve had time to explore Tahiti with folks from my homeland, old friends from La Paz, Mexico and sailors from the Sunshine Coast of BC. The sailing world is small! We seem to run into each other every so often and then make plans to share a rental car, chase waterfalls and hiking trails. We chat about crossings, boat parts, cool places we have been to and where we want to explore next!

I’ve been journaling, reading and fixing odds and ends!

Parts, for the (almost installed) watermaker, is in the mail and should arrive the end of this week! I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some incredibly warm and generous locals. I found, “Poly Insustries” a machine shop down at the big international port here in Papeete. I brought them a leaking high pressure valve, in hopes they could help. They took a look, asked me some questions and said they would see what they could do. They called me the next day and I jumped on the bus across town to pick it up. To my surprise, they didn’t want any money for it, and said “just happy to help”!

I find people here incredibly friendly and helpful, especially if you say a few words, Hello (La Orana) and thank you (Mauruuru), in Tahitian! I’ve had free rides on buses, when my bus card on my phone didn’t work! The bus driver one day, had her two young children on the bus with her; her one-year-old in a car seat, strapped in, sleeping and her pre-schooler sitting beside and reading a book! Women do what needs to be done!

My new alternator (and regulator, pulley, shunt) is arriving tomorrow. It continues to amaze me, how efficient the customs and authorities are to clear incoming shipments to cruisers. The difficulty is dealing with courier companies in the USA to actually ship it. I found that DHL is the most reliable and quickest whereas, UPS down right refuses to send anything to Tahiti. Once, shipment arrives here in French Polynesia, the Customs office moves packages quickly to pick-up locations. This is of course, as long as you have the correct paperwork, such as boat registration document, clearance papers, and of course a passport. Most of my shipments have come from Florida and on average, it’s taken 3-4 business days to arrive.

I’m a bit nervous about the installment of the alternator, but been told “it’s not that difficult” 😳 We will see!!

Two more weeks and there will be five of us, sailing around on Sarantium, in the South Pacific!

Mauruuru!

….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!

Wind was slow to build but once it reached Sarantium’s sails, it never left. We set the sails for a deep broad reach and at times, wing on wing. Three gybes later and we arrived to Rangiroa 24 hours later… a steady south easterly 12-15 knots made for a lovely but sleepless night! Good night!

After three days of snorkling amongst sharks, sting rays and reef fish, at Toau Atoll, wind kicked in and it was time to leave for Rangiroa. We motored out of the lagoon amongst the hundred corral heads lurking underneath the hull of my boat at 4.5 to six metres depth. Once that challenge was complete, timing the pass was next. With an outgoing tide one gets a nice push through the channel, however, swell meets current, and standing waves is the result. We were an hour early for slack tide, but with binoculars I didn’t see a reason not to venture out. I definitely could have waited the hour. At one point I’m sure the prop was fully out of the water.

Once out, wind was light at 7 knots but with all sails up, we managed to start sailing north west towards the largest atoll in French Polonesia and apparently the second largest in the world. We have 120 nmiles to go and with any luck we will reach Rangiroa by noon tomorrow. Out! And a sleepless night will follow!

So, it takes visitors to get me out of the engine “room”. My friend Tatjana’s arrived from San Diego at the same time as most of my repairs were completed! Unfortunately, around the same time the wind disappeared. Stuck in Rotoava is not so bad. We rented bikes, hung out in coral gardens, dove with sharks and visited neighboring boats!

After a few days, wind arrived and we pulled anchor to go to the south part of the atoll where we booked a day of diving. I had read amazing reviews for “Sharkwall” and as it turns out it is a UNESCO site!

Goodnight…

It has been a week now since I arrived to Fakarava. My days here have had a healthy balance of work, R&R and socializing. As I arrived to Fakarava, I noticed that my fairly new (2 year-old VIctron Supercycle 170A) batteries overheated while motoring for 5 hours in through the Fakarava Channel. I noticed this as I dropped the anchor. Of course, for me, it is a reason to panic, but after getting talked off the shelf by a friend and calling marine stores in Papeete, I realized that it is just money. Having said that, the concern is WHY the batteries overheated. Marine services sent three new Victron AGM Deep Cycle batteries on the cargo ship COBIA III, which arrived 4 days later together with a ton of Fruit and Veggies. Double Score! While waiting for the batteries, I changed the oil, fuel filters, dropped laundry off, filled propane tanks and began filling the water tanks with water from the desalination system in town. I soooo want a water maker…

Transporting batteries from COBIA III was entertaining, but with some proper “deadlift-form” I managed to lower them into the dinghy and lifting them onto the boat. It took some thinking and visualizing how to lift the old batteries out on my own, but at the end I mangaged to install the new ones. I still have to figure out why the old ones overheated. I have a feeling that my alternator regulator, ARCO ZUES, was poorly caliberated. It is a good reminder to always make sure to keep a close eye on items that were set up by others and really understanding your equipment on the boat. But at the time of installment of the alternator, I left this up to the installer as I was overwhelmed with getting soooo much on the boat ready for departure. LIVE AND LEARN!

With this done, I am now getting the boat ready for sailing. A friend, Tatjana, is arriving from S.D. to join me for three weeks. Our plan is to sail from Fakarava to Rangiroa via a few atolls. I am excited to have company!

It has not just been about work… Every morning I walk, gather coconuts, swim, have lunch with folks from other boats, share stories and de-clutter Sarantium. Every day I go in to fetch water, I meet people from all over the world; Belgium, Toronto, CA., and a ton of Danes.

My Day…. above!

Warning: This post is boring!

So I have had a slow drip from the stuffing box for some time now, which I have known. Part of the reason for neglecting this was because I didn’t know where to even begin.

For those who don’t know what a stuffing box, it is the is a mechanical seal assembly used to prevent water from leaking around a rotating shaft, such as a boat propeller shaft. Some water needs to be present to cool the shaft, provide lubrication of packing material and keep it from overheating. It works by compressing packing material around the shaft using an adjustable nut, allowing the shaft to move while creating a tight seal.

The slow drip turned into a fast drip once back in the water and I knew it was time to do something about it, as my bilge was fuller than normal this morning. With the encouragement from my good friend over the phone, I started to hammer away to loosen up the locking nut and packing nut. Since the stuffing box is in an awkward tight place behind the engine I also checked off my yoga for the day. After a few hours of loosening the locking nut and tightening the packing nut, I managed to stop the leak. Tomorrow, I will run the boat in gear to make sure I haven’t tightened it too much and as a result overheat.

As soon as I think there is nothing more to learn, Sarantium throws me another opportunity to learn!

The lower nut is the packing nut and the one directly above is the locking nut, which does exactly that; blocks/locks the packing nut from moving back.