Archive for 2010|Yearly archive page

Fixed it! (again)

In Helena, Voyages on 29/10/2010 at 06:13

We did it! Last Thursday we received the watermaker and installed it ourselves. This involved Rolf sitting in the engine room for 8 hours, Boukje handing screws, tools and drinks and the two of us using a hammer 🙂 to change some of the parts. But as I said: we did it, and it works perfectly! Now we can make 60 to 75 liters of drinking water an hour. It’s amazing.

The same day we were busy fixing the watermaker, Arent and Matty and their captain Mike arrived back in Raiatea (still waiting on repairs).  And because the wind was now coming from the north (just where we want to go), we had plenty of time on our hands. So we enjoyed some nice days catching up and being tourists on Raiatea with them.

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Under the ocean

In Voyages on 23/10/2010 at 02:29

The waters in French Polynesia are among the most pristine in the world. All islands here are amazingly steep with depths upto a few kilometers just in front of the coast. This means that the clean and clear water from the deep ocean surrounds these islands. Obviously this brings superb diving conditions and since we both enjoy diving, this is definitely a good thing. Read the rest of this entry »

Relaxing in Moorea and Huahine

In Helena, Voyages on 23/10/2010 at 01:36

We did indeed leave Tahiti the next day. Happy to finally be sailing again, we set course for a relaxed trip to Moorea. Moorea is a nice small island that lies about 20 miles west of Tahiti. We had been seeing it’s mountains in the distance for the last month. Now that we got there, it turned out to be as nice and peaceful as it had looked from busy Papeete. We anchored in quiet Cook’s Bay, went for a dinghy snorkeling trip around the north coast and hiked our way up the mountains towards a beautiful view of the coast.

After all that relaxing we set sail for Huahine. Or so we thought… Read the rest of this entry »

A month in Tahiti

In Helena, Voyages on 07/10/2010 at 19:49

This last month in Tahiti we’ve made use of all the time we had to wait for parts to arrive, by improving the boat and playing tourists. As we’ve not been keeping up the blog (sorry), here’s a short impression of our activities in the last month.

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Sailing again: the plan

In Voyages on 07/10/2010 at 11:15

Well, it seems today we will finally be able to leave Tahiti. The replacement for the new rotary drive is installed and working, the watermaker is fixed and someone is welding the reinforcement for the davits right now while I’m typing this post. In a few hours we’ll be on our way to Moorea, about 20 miles from here. Then we’ll go on to Raiatea, where we’ll be able to meet up with Mattie and Arent again as they are still there waiting for repairs. After that we want to go to the Northern Cooks and Samoa. When we get to Samoa we’ll decide where we’re going next; either to Tonga and on to New Zealand or to Tokelau, Tuvalu and up north to the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.

 

Happy birthday to me

In Crew on 23/09/2010 at 21:16

Even in paradise there are good days, better days and very special days. As Monday was my birthday, Rolf made it an extra special day. It all started with breakfast in bed (well actually cake in bed) and a boat full of balloons and flowers. Followed by lunch in Papeete in lovely CafĂ© Verde (highly recommended if you ever get to Tahiti). After that I finally got my surprise: a visit to the Deep Nature Spa where we received a Bora Bora deep blue massages which “includes a moisturizing effleurage applied using marine purses, relaxation techniques and Polynesian know-how” and an accompanying facial. After three hours we were indeed deeply relaxed! And not up to the fancy dinner Rolf had planned as the grand birthday finale. So we ended up going home and having a real McDonalds birthday party with French fries and a strawberry milkshake. A perfect ending to a perfect day. Read the rest of this entry »

They’re off…

In Crew on 17/09/2010 at 23:00

Yesterday we waved goodbye to Matty and Arent, as they set sail on their new boat. They’ll be helping deliver the catamaran to Australia. Their first stop however is Raiatea for some repairs. So we’ll probably catch up with them there, as we are hoping to leave Tahiti in a few days as well. We wish them both a very good trip and thank them for all the help and fun on board.

Goodbye and thanks for all the fish!

Louise & Catootje

In People on 10/09/2010 at 22:42


Happy news from back home!
Two new additions to our family arrived last week. On September 1st Louise Catherina Klinker was born, daughter of Boukje’s brother Pieter and his wife Sylvia. And on September 3rd Catootje Brink arrived, daughter of Rolf’s brother Jacco and his wife Carien. Both little girls and their parents are doing well, and we are looking forward to seeing and hearing them on skype soon…

The S-word

In Crew on 25/08/2010 at 22:22

As of Sunday evening the 15 of august the Helena has been a non-smoking boat. I know you probably won’t believe me if you have ever met any of the men on this boat, but it was a mutual and voluntary decision to quit. Okay, I must admit that I did pressure Rolf into it, but after about 6 months of me nagging about it he was quite ready to give up. Arent and Matty however quit because they wanted to themselves.

Although it sounded to me like a good plan for them to be able to do this together, it unfortunately doesn’t really seem to work that way. Read the rest of this entry »

Adventuring in Ahe

In Voyages on 25/08/2010 at 22:21

From Manihi we went to the neighboring atoll of Ahe. A pretty, smaller atoll, where you can almost see the other side of the lagoon. On this atoll there seem to be houses on almost each motu (the small islands that together form the ring of land around the lagoon). We anchored near the main village, which consist of one street from the lagoon to the ocean and three crossing streets. As you can image, there’s not much going on here. People are either hard at work on their motu’s somewhere else in the lagoon making copra (dried coconut for oil processing) or pearlfarming or just hanging around on the few available streetcorners.
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