Weather Helmed

an adventure in renewing the spirit and living the dream…on a sailboat

Weather Helmed

Entries Tagged as 'Tuamotus'

This is the life – Part II: Slurpee Returns (Rangiroa, July 11)

July 11th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Adventures in the Dinghy, Famous Firsts, French Polynesia, Life on the Boat, Somebody likes us, Tuamotus

Yesterday Jon walked around for approximately ten hours, beating a path along the lagoon edge, knocking on doors and miming the story of our missing dinghy.  By the time he returned to the boat, bumming a ride from another cruiser, all of Rangiroa between the two northern passes knew that Syzygy had lost its tender.  […]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·

This is the Life (A real-time post! Rangiroa, early A.M. July 10)

July 10th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Adventures in the Dinghy, Famous Firsts, First Mates, French Polynesia, Funny, Oh Crap., Our Route, This sucks, Tuamotus

It’s not often that I get to post something as it’s happening.  But, this morning, I got up early and wrote something up because it’s actually kind of exciting for me to share something immediately instead of always having everything be post-dated.  So, this is what happened last night and what we are dealing with […]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·

Celebrating 4yrs (!) with drinks, hermit crabs & fish in Apataki (July 1-7)

July 10th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Cheers!!, First Mates, French Polynesia, Life Lessons, Life on the Boat, Our Route, shoe-cruising, Shore Excursions, Somebody likes us, The Crew, Tuamotus

After spending a week in Northern Toau (Anse Amyot), the longest we’ve stayed in one spot since Nuku Hiva, we were ready to go.  Actually, we were ready to go by about day 5, but the weather (as previously noted) was not cooperating.  Finally, it cleared up enough that we could cut loose from the […]

[Read more →]

Tags: ··

Nightlife on Toau (Toau – northern anchorage/Anse Amyot June 22-30)

July 9th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Cheers!!, Fellow Cruisers, French Polynesia, Funny, Our Route, Shore Excursions, Tuamotus

The moon shone round and bright in the evening sky and the water sparkled under the stars. We pulled our dinghy up to the short wooden dock, noting that we were the first crew to arrive for dinner.  “Are those lobsters?!?!”  I asked hopefully, pointing at a table on the porch stacked with spider-like objects.  […]

[Read more →]

Tags: ···

Reunited with s/v IO (Toau -southern anchorage June 19-22)

July 9th, 2010 · No Comments · Fellow Cruisers, French Polynesia, Life on the Boat, Our Route, Tuamotus

We showed up in Toau just ahead of a low pressure system that was moving through the area.  We set our anchor, letting out almost all 250 feet of our rode, but laughingly never getting more than 20 feet from our anchor as we successfully wrapped ourselves around a couple of coral heads.  Anyway, we […]

[Read more →]

Tags: ··

Full Disclosure – Four Months In

June 19th, 2010 · 21 Comments · French Polynesia, Introspection, Life on the Boat, On Faith, Our Route, Passages, Random Thoughts, Tuamotus

After posting all those photos of these amazing places, is it really fair for me to say that I’m still not convinced this cruising life is all it’s cracked up to be?  🙂 I’m constantly aware that what I post on here, for the most part, really only shows one side of this strange life […]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·····

Tahanea – another awesome atoll (June 11-14)

June 17th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Beautiful, French Polynesia, Our Route, Tuamotus

As the sun rises, the horizon recedes. Blue fades into blue and islands of palms float suspended in the sky. After Makemo, we had a better idea of what to expect in the atolls, but, still, we were again overwhelmed with the absolute beauty of Tahanea.  There was one other boat here when we arrived […]

[Read more →]

Tags: ··

Makemo – Our Private Paradise (June 8-11)

June 16th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Beautiful, French Polynesia, Our Route, Tuamotus

After four days of uncomfortable, miserable sailing from Fatu Hiva, just when I was ready to throw in the towel and tell Matt I would be ditching the boat as soon as we got to Tahiti, we arrived at Makemo – anchored all alone in our own spectacularly beautiful, private little atoll in the Tuamotus. […]

[Read more →]

Tags: ·