We seem to have arrived in paradise - this place feels like nowhere I have ever been to before.
When we pulled in, my first thought was how "lush" (but not in a Gavin and Stacy way) and green it is. I then thought, that this usually means there is a lot of rain.
There has been a fair amount of rain since we arrived - but the showers last a couple of minutes, freshen everything up, clean the boat (which Crawford is very excited about ) and then they are over. Having said that, my washing has been hanging on ths side of the boat for the last 24 hours, because every time I try to bring it in, it rains.
Normally we would take the washing to a launderette, or most anchorages have a service wash facility if there is no launderette nearby.
In Bequia (Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines) we were so impressed when a young lad in a speedboat came by, asking if we needed any washing doing. I was initially a bit suspicious, but our friends in the anchorage reassured us it was a good service.
Later on, when we were out walking/exploring in the back streets of Bequia (like you do) we saw a Caribbean house with lots of clothes splayed out all over the yard floor, in the bushes, hanging from the trees, on the rooves of the buildings etc - presumably drying off in the bright sunshine.
It was only when we looked a bit closer, we realised the clothes looked familiar - people in the Caribbean don't generally wear ARC T- shirts or "North Sea yacht race" Polo shirts etc.
We had had visions of the "service wash" taking place in a laundry with big washing machines, tumble driers etc, but why wouldnt these inventive locals make use of their natural resources?
Anyway, the washing came back fine, it was nice to be able to give money to the local community, and luckily, no infestation, or insect bites followed. So really - happy days!
When we arrive in any new country, it always takes a good while to "get legal" and locate the all important things crucial to cruising life.
Arriving by boat isn't like landing in an airport, getting your passport stamped, your public health declaration seen and customs form signed. Each country has its own process, and the various government organisations can be tucked away in the middle of nowhere - not necessarily in the same place.
Things can, do, and have often got quite messy in Nauplios's past.
I think our longest, most complicated "check in" before now, was in Curacao (Dutch Antilles) when we walked 25 miles in a day traipsing from place to place - customs, immigration, public health......
Oh well, its all good exercise - and it does stop us getting bored.
We have, in the past, particularly during Covid times, used an agent to help us navigate these channels.
An agent will basically be a local person, who has registered as "an agent" but knows the immigration, health and customs procedures. They always speak English, they will meet you at the dock, and do all the legwork for you, or transport you around to the various offices where these procedures take place, translating where necessary.
Its brilliant! But obviously it does all come at quite a cost. So, we just try to do it ourselves when we can, and when we feel it may be tricky, we will employ an agent.
Here, in French Polynesia, we read the guidance on a very helpful cruiser website. It all sounded fairly straightforward.
We presented ourselves to the Gendarmerie (aka Cop Shop) with our documents. Our French language is not great, and, in true French style, not much English is spoken here. Fair enough.
So, we bumbled through with our instructions. We were told to go to the Post office (just up the street) and buy a stamp. The stamp costs 3000 polynesian francs = OMG how much is that? We had no Wifi and had not yet managed to locate a local sim card so couldnt even work out what 3000 polynesian francs is.
So - to the Post office - found it - closed until 2pm.
Ok - this is the bit I like best - go for lunch, find out, and try the local beer, have a few beers.......
Back to the Post office a little bit squiffy, but excited at our inventiveness of using the spare time to have a nice time - 2.15pm - still shut - hang about for about 20 minutes. Its hot, we are tired, a bit pissed, and starting to get a bit pissed off
Eventually, a local lady comes to post a letter, and we ask her in our best French what the situation is - Apparently the PO closes for the weekend at 12.00 on a Friday. Hmm.
Back to the Gendarmerie, where they shrug and say "come back on Monday"
Oh well, what can you do? - Just have a nice weekend and chill....
Back to the Post office on Monday - the Post office clerk gives us a bit of a blank stare when we ask for a 3000 PF stamp, but we bought one anyway (Having researched over the weekend the exchange rate, 3000 PF = around £21)
Back to the Gendarmerie who told us we needed one stamp for each passport, back to the PO, another blank stare, another 3000 franc stamp....
Gendarmerie - stamps in passport with a little note saying "be in Tahiti by 5/5/23 to formally check into French Polynesia" (14 days)
Now this 14 day thing did spell trouble for us - we do plan to be in Tahiti eventually, (We are allowed 3 months in total in FP) but we have a lot to see and do before Tahiti - for instance the Tuamoto islands which we cannot miss after our Bibby friends have been raving about them for so many years!
In addition, it will take about a week to sail to Tahiti - so.......WTF? The young guy who was sorting out our immigration checked with the old guy and basically, this was the story!!!
Out we go, tail between our legs, gutted! - Thankfully, bump into our friends Sabrina and Curtis from SV Taku who came from Mexico the same time as us - they were all smiles, all checked in, no 3000FP stamp to buy, no 14 day deadline to get to Tahiti.
I asked Sabrina to help us to try to understand what the situation was.
Not only does Sabrina speak really good French, she is completely beautiful - so when we went back into the Gendarmerie, the young copper,I think, was totally blown away by her amazing smile. I could see him getting all flustered, and hot under the collar. (V.funny!!!)
So we did eventually get to the bottom of it, and it would seem the policy had changed for 3 days (in the time we checked in on Friday) and then changed back again by Monday.
Once again, he went to check with his boss, and it transpired that he couldnt change our visa details or refund us (not massively important in the grand scheme) but he reassured us that we would not need to check into Tahiti within the 14 days, and we now have 3 months to get to Tahiti.
Sabrina - thankyou! We is gonna buy you a huge cocktail when we meet up with you next time xxx
Back to the boat and on with cruising jobs...
We usually need to fill our gas bottles - we carry 3 x 10 litre gas bottles on the back of the boat, and one bottle lasts around 6-8 weeks, depending on the date and walnut cake production on Nauplios!
Refilling gas bottles can also be an adventure -sometimes a local person will organise to pick up all the gas canisters on a certain day, get them all filled, and charge a small amount for the service. This is perfect. But if this isnt the case, it can be a walk/taxi/tender ride away.
There is often a good bit of chat about gas - is it butane or propane, what is the adaptor ? etc etc - luckily Crawford is interested in all of this gas chat and at Cruiser meetings, sometimes, the blokes spend hours discussing the merits of different types of gas containers......Hmmm.
Fuel - surprisingly, now, here, we dont need fuel for the big boat- which is just as well because there isnt a fuel dock. There is a garage, but we would need to fill up Jerry cans and tip it directly into the fuel tank.
I love it that we have travelled 3000nm using mostly the wind!
We carry 300 litres of fuel and used 110 litres on the crossing, so we are ok for a while. As a spare we carry 20 litres in a jerrycan or is it Gerrycan ( wonder why it's called Jerry Can??) We had given Niniwahuni our spare can so we bought a new one and filled it up at the petrol station. Fuel prices not too bad here. We paid £25 for 20 litres in the garage next to the main anchorage on Hiva Oa. (Atuona)
If you followed our blog on the Pacific crossing, and remember the SV Niniwahuni (who could forget that name?) The family and boat are all now together back in Mexico.
Even more goosebumpy feelgood news about this lovely family - a youtuber called Colin who was on below decks !!! ( I love that programme!! ) bought a damaged Catamaran in the BVI after Hurricane Irma (2017) devastated the island and many other boats.
His boat is called Parlay ( anyone who has been on the BVI interline regatta will know the boats always change their name to something funny/rude - eg we changed our boat name from "Bear Necessities" to "Beer N Titties" and lots of other inappropriate examples which other BVI' ers will remember? )
Anyway, Colin bought Parlay, a damaged Cat, renovated it, and is now sailing back to NZ where he is from.
On the way, he has developed a you tube channel called Sailing Parlay Revival - its fun and has a massive following.
https:// www.youtube.com/@ParlayRevival
Colin was in La Cruz when all the Niniwahuni trouble was happening, and is now making a documentary about their story, as a way to raise money for the Niniwahuni family to buy a new mast! How lovely!
Speaking of fuel - In La Graciosa, a tiny island in the Canaries (just North of Lanzarote - I can definitely recommend a visit there! ) to get fuel, there was a process where you park your boat up at the fuel dock, then walk around half a mile up the hill, through the village, to the bakers shop - where the man who runs the fuel dock lives. He may or may not be there, and if he is there, he may or may not be having a siesta - but you tell him you need fuel. He will then hopefully come and fill you up. If not, you go back the next day.
Depending on where we are in the world , we may need a SIM card - our UK providers at the moment, give us 25GB of mobile data to most places we have been to so far.
It seems, however, that French Polynesia is not included in this agreement. We have wifi on the boat, with the Starlink, but we need mobile data for when we are out and about (maps, google translate, accessing documents etc, etc )
So accessing a SIM card in a country where not many people speak English, and the French they do speak is different to the French we learnt at school (only 40-50 years ago!! And I'm not sure either of us were listening) is always going to be a challenge. Luckily Sabrina got first hand information that the providers of the SIM card had ran out.
Speaking of "running out" we were told yesterday that the supermarket had ran out of eggs - for us egg lovers, this is obviously devastating news!
Oh well, its porridge for breakfast, we bought a few bags and stowed it - but now cannot remember where its stowed! The drama!
The last thing we needed is a laundry - doing washing on a boat is ok, but for towels, sheets and big things its a bit of a pain, so its always worth spending the money. We discovered that here, in Hiva Oa, to get a service wash, it costs $50 US. So Ive been doing our washing by hand - which is why it is still hanging over the side of the boat waiting to dry (Since we have been here) Oh well.
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