Author: sailawaysarantium

To this …..

And a new day filled with scrubbing and organizing …..items sealed in plastic bags…

… is lovely!

Farm to table Pumpkin Coconut soup with lots of koriander! And the pigs are happy to receive the compost every day!

Now it’s time for a bath in the blue ocean!

Sails are down, folded and stacked! The boat inside is getting crowded! This afternoon I’ll be going through the engine!

Shopping!!!!

I’ve been shopping online for new sails and items needed (and bling) for the boat! “Mack Sails” and “Island Packet Parts” In Florida, are owned by Colin Mack and Travis Blain who are half brothers. Their parents started “Mack Sails” a long time ago and passed down the business to their sons. Colin left “Mack Sails” and started “Island Packet Yacht Parts” after Island Packet stopped building boats, and as a result, parts became difficult to find. Colin is a wealth of information about island Packet Yachts, so I’ve been picking his brain. They are making new sails and putting together a nice package which will be shipped to Apataki for when I get back here in beginning of March!

This place is amazing! The owners Pauline, Alfred and their son Tony, of this boat yard got it all figured out! From, hauling boats, growing an amazing garden, running a coconut farm and raising pigs and chickens. All our compost, we give the pigs and we collect (buy) two eggs a day for breakfast! Alfred runs the tractor (and oversees the haul-out), while two to three workers situate the boat on the trailer. Tony does boat maintenance, weld and repair fiberglass! While Pauline runs the office! Pretty cool place!

And now the work begins…

Sails need to come down, chain inspected and remarked, all safety gear packed away, through holes plugged, top up engine fluids, cover hydro-vane, clean fridge, things away from the walls, lubricate window seals, open all cabinetries and floor boards … I have heard lots of stories about people coming back to boats with a thick layer of mold inside. The boat yard provides a service where they open hatches and portholes x times a week, to get the air flow. I’m considering having them do this.

But I also swim in this lagoon and I have it all to myself!

Oh I almost forgot, I petted a 7 foot long Nurse Shark today, while swimming! They are so tame! They just sit on the sand beside you while you pet their heads! This is why they call them “their dogs”!

Just another regular day at the beach!

… this is always a super stressful event!

It was suppose to take an hour but two hours later we’re still in the water! Yikes! Here is how it went!

Now, a stiff drink!

And look what already arrived for me…

And MIXED EMOTIONS…. I thought I was ready to hit land and to be off the boat. Today, I am not so sure. As I untie the mooring line and look back at some folks’ sail boats, S/Y Sovmorgon (Sweden/Finland) and S/Y Apnea (Germany) and wish I wasn’t done for the season.

Before untying Sarantium, I jumped into the dinghy and headed towards the house on the beach, that belonged to Valentine and Gusto, to say hello and thank them for letting me to squat in their bay for the night. I had read on NOForeignLand that to use their mooring buoy one could either pay $5 or eat at their restaurant for $60. I would have liked the meal, however, I wanted to make slack at Apataki pass this afternoon, so $5 it is! As I pulled up the Valentine welcomes me and we chat. Turns out Valentine is the sister of the two women who had cooked for us on previous two atolls. AND when I told her I was heading to Apataki to haul out she said, “Oh, Toni is my cousin, who owns the boat yard. We have a package for him if you could bring it, that would be lovely”. Small world! She invited me in and showed me their outdoor kitchen and restaurant. Turns out her Swedish flag was in rough shape. Everyone brings their flags to these family restaurants for decoration. And I just happened to have one in my back-pocket. I wrote “S/Y Sarantium and todays date. Gusto fetched the package, which was a water parachute, that is used to bring up something heavy from the ocean floor. We chatted some more and then it was time for me to head back to get ready for my last sail of the season. I told them, I would be back next April/May to eat at their restaurant. What a great start of my last sail of the season!

The sail to Apataki was the typical prevailing Eastern Wind. Again, since I was in no rush to make the 15.00 slack and only had 18 nmiles to go, I raised 3/4 of the main sail and unfurled the Staysail. Sarantium glided through the water at 4-4.5 kn. My best crew member (HydroVane) at the helm.

Four hours later we pulled into Apataki, where children are jumping off the docks, swimming, laughing and all playing together in the water, all ages… like if they have have no social media. They all wave to us! Every atoll is like this!

I left Nanaimo on July 24, 2024!

I untied the docking lines and motored out in Newcastle Channel without solid plans. It was time to leave this part of the world. I wanted more, yet simple, wanted to see the world from a different angle and truly learn about myself, to see what I was capable of.

The following month, I got to know Sarantium, not only how she sailed but also, what systems worked well and which didn’t. I re-did some electrical wiring, continued to replace old equipment and learned how to use the systems. I sailed from Nanaimo to Victoria as well, toured the San Juan Islands. My son, David, hopped on and sailed around Victoria for a couple of days. That was special.

I said good bye to Canada, on September 5th and sailed south with two women as crew, who I had met briefly. We were all excited. As the captain I was nervous as I had never sailed out into the Northwest Pacific Ocean with the intention of NOT coming back.

I was the captain! I was responsible to get us “there” in one piece. Not knowing where “there” was, made me excited but also a bit uneasy. Was it the next port? Was it San Fransisco? L.A? Or, Ensenada, Mexico? Turns out it was Crescent City, an armpit of the USA.

I had a lot to learn, not about sailing necessarily, but being the captain. My preference in leading, is typically a flat style, meaning I ask a lot of questions, share decision making, and am open to suggestions. I tried to make everyone onboard, feel that their opinions and knowledge were valued. What I learned was that people mistake this for being not experienced and not knowing what to do. Today, I am a different captain. I am way more assertive. I call all the shots around safety and in regards to sail change. I plan ahead; reef early and always avoid being overpowered. I do not let others change my mind in this regards. I have also learnt that no one takes better care of the boat than the owner of the boat. And I am the captain of my boat!

As I sit here in one of the most beautiful atoll in French Polynesia, I reflect on the year that went by. The experiences I have had. The places I have seen. The people I have met. Everything is truly amazing.

Today, I snorkeled the most beautiful reef. Tomorrow, I pull anchor to start the sail to Apataki Atoll. Next week I haul up.

What a year! I dreamt, I sold, I retired and I sailed away on Sarantium.

Thank you for reading!

Goodnight…from another piece of paradise.

…to describe my day🤍

I have been looking across the sand bank to a white beach for a couple of days now… Today I decided to forgo my morning snorkel and swim, and instead head into the beach with warm bread, Camembert, some coffee, yoga mat and a book.

On my way over I saw more rays … they are so cool! There are very few sharks here. I have a feeling they tend to be where people are… there are only 14 people who live here. The locals here call them, their dogs. In Fakarava, population of 800, sharks were everywhere.

It might be the most incredible water I’ve ever seen…

a day of swimming around the anchorage…

…. This time to the atoll, Toau! To my surprise, the wind is delivering more knots than predicted so we raised the sail right away in Rotoava and sailed past two Super Yachts. One of their tenders is longer than my boat!

We had beautiful wind and slight outgoing current pushing us through the pass without using the engine. I didn’t even have it running in neutral. Sarantium sailed straight as an arrow through the pass on a beam reach and continued this way all the way to the pass of Toau!

The incoming current was scheduled aprox 6 hours later so we had some time to kill outside the next atoll, Toau . The sail from Fakarava to Toau only took 2 hours at our speed of 5-6 knots. At the end we dropped part of the mainsail and rolled in the Genoa and let the staysail out… we needed to slow down to wait for slack tide! We slowed down and sailed back and forth outside the pass entrance to catch the slack. The entrance is really shallow and water rushes through there at an outgoing tide.

A pleasure boat, with a helicopter on the roof motored right towards us so I tacked away from it… and then it also changed direction. I decided to call them to see what their intended destination was; to continue past me or to go into the pass entrance. They answered and said they were heading into the pass. “Ok, I’ll tack back to original direction then as it’s too early for us to enter the pass with large standing waves” they answered “oh, is the tide going in or coming out right now?” 😳… this is when you know you got a big boat. How do you not know??? …tide was ebbing and current running MAX at 6 knots. I said “ looks like your boat can handle the standing waves, I’m waiting until slack, see you in there” ha! The captain laughed and said “have a great sail”I was amused to watch them go in and to see them slow right down as they too was affected by the strong current! An hour and a half later I set my engine to full speed and we surfed in on the large surf waves! That was fun!! I zigzagged in between corral heads and sand banks and finally anchored in 5 m off water! Another great day!!

Manual bilge pump broke and that’s not good! Feels good to have a working one just in case …🙈

Now it’s time to pick up fruit and veggies … the ship is here again!!!