Sailing Boot Camp
This sailing boot camp is merciless. It must be like the astronauts, learning to live in a zero-gravity environment. Well, not that extreme but I find I must quickly develop brand new skills in everything I do. Lesson 1 – Learning How to Shower on a Moving Sailboat The most effective way to shower is while sitting on the toilet. Otherwise you need a helmet, knee and elbow pads. The toilet seat has now become loose from the abuse. Once you have almost mastered the skills of showering or peeing on a bouncing toilet, Sailing Camp raises the bar. How about you do all that but without the fresh water?…
Day 1
The day starts with a quick trip to the market for the last-minute fruits and vegetables and gratuit good-bye mosquito bites. The shower mesh bags end up working well for this project. All four of us wedge ourselves into the non-American-size Pierre’s car and head to the immigration office at the airport. We wait, and we wait, and we wait. The immigration officer must email some document to the Port of Papeete to clear us for departure and then get it emailed back. Arnaud warns us that an email here can take up to an hour to reach the destination. Turns out he is not joking. I ask if it…
Meet the Crew
If somebody would have told me a year ago that I would be crossing the ocean(!) on my own sailboat(!) for two weeks(!) with no breaks(!), I would have thought: 1) Wishful thinking. 2) Too scary. 3) What’s the point? Our dear non-sailing friends and family had even more thoughts: So how do you cross the ocean? What do you mean you sail at night? You can’t anchor? Is it really that deep? Aren’t you afraid of crashing into other anchored ship? Aren’t you afraid to sail in the dark? When do you sleep? What if you need to get out? What if you don’t get along with the rest…