Author Archives: Mark
Confined to the Boat
I have to say this upfront: I love our lifestyle and wouldn’t trade it for anything. Even with our current confinements, I would rather be here than most other places. French Polynesia went from one of the safest places on the planet to dodge Covid to one of the worst in about 3 weeks. We […]
Going Up Hills as French Polynesia Goes Downhill
We recently did one of our favorite things. Renting a car and roaming aimlessly about is as good as it gets. Although we’ve done this numerous times on Tahiti, we still find fabulous nooks and crannies, incredible vistas, and great local cuisine. We are in the minority when it comes to cruisers renting cars. This […]
Heiva 2021
Heiva is a 140-year-old French Polynesian festival. All of the islands in French Polynesia come together in July. Following the Christianization of the archipelago by the London Missionary Society in the early 19th century, a ban existed on songs, games, and lascivious entertainment. This changed in 1880 and in celebration of French National Day, the […]
Belvédère de Taravao
Based on the previous post, I have a feeling you might be expecting to see pictures of Bora Bora and a post detailing our travels there on this update. No such luck. We are still in Tahiti. And, we are going to be here for a little while longer. I have to laugh at the […]
Injections and Bus Etiquette
We have been Covidized. Both of us are now fully vaccinated with Pfizer’s concoction. I know I have said this before here but, it’s worth repeating. The French Polynesian government has done a fabulous job of managing this crisis. During the onset, they recognized some boats (including us) were en route and had very limited […]
Cream Puff Goes to the Spa
This has been our view for the past ten days. It’s awesome, isn’t it? We rented a house high in the mountains because Cream Puff went to the spa and we became homeless. It is that time again when we open our wallets and shell over thousands of francs for the Puffster to have her […]
Sails, Toilet Paper, ATMs, Directions, and Food
Sails Sometimes in life, we have to do things going completely against the grain. Cutting up our old sails was one of these things. It pained me we can’t recycle or donate them. The customs laws of French Polynesia do not allow it. We ordered a full set of sails for Cream Puff last year […]
Jim
Quite a bit of time has passed since my last post. There is a lot happening here, but not stuff you’d be interested in. I did find it within myself to offer up one tidbit of a scribble. Hope you enjoy and I’ll try not to wait so long before the next update. Every once […]
Tsunami Warning
Let’s begin this post with some excitement brought about by being pretty much in the middle of the Pacific Ring of Fire: A tsunami warning. Not a drill; a warning! On March 5th (19:28:31 UTC on 4 March 2021) there was a massive 8.1 earthquake. The center was near a group of New Zealand islands […]
Chinese New Year in Tahiti
Today I saw a young kid hopping while wearing flip-flops. I would need to go to the hospital after I trying this. But, this is not what I am here to talk about today. I just thought is it was kinda sorta cool. By the way, have you ever tried to walk backward in flip-flops? […]
You Pick the Food
For the past few days, we’ve been bombing about Tahiti in a tiny rental car. If you are a regular reader, you know we do this from time to time and explore all the nooks and crannies of places we stay. We try to get the smallest car possible for two reasons. The small cars […]
Top Sailing Blog 2021!
Forgive me while I toot our own horns a little bit. I recently received an email from The Adventure Junkies informing us our blog made a list of 2021 top sailing blogs to read. The Adventure Junkies brings together all sorts of publications to inspire people regarding outdoor activities such as sailing, hiking, climbing, and […]
Wow! 2020 is Over
We began 2021 in the best way. This New Years’ day began with an early morning trip to the reef and a snorkel before breakfast. Taking full advantage of the glassy morning waters we hopped into the dinghy about 6:00 am after a couple of blueberry muffins. Some friends recommended a new spot to us […]
Christmas in Tahiti
Aboard Cream Puff, we have our Christmas bling up. We have collected Christmas tree ornaments from each country where we’ve spent Christmas, and then some. For example, the star on top of our tree is a starfish ornament from Rockport, Tx. Hanging the ornaments on our mini-tree this year reminds me of the places we’ve […]
Dinghies and Cars
Using our dinghy, we are exploring Tahiti’s best snorkeling spots. If you are thinking about living this lifestyle, the best little golden nugget of wisdom I can offer is get a great dinghy with a reliable motor. I smile as I write the word reliable, more to come on this. When we first started to […]
