Here we are, only five days from leaving. Our agent in Papeete has acquired our duty-free-fuel permit and our bond exemption letters. French Polynesia, as it turns out, doesn't wish to return visitors to their home countries, so if one does not have a return ticket from French Polynesia, one pays a bond equal to that ticket's value. Our agent paid the bond and we pay him a lesser sum for the exemption.

Our crew, Nathan Zelgler, will join us in Papeete (5/10) after we've prepared the boat and sailed her to Papeete. We'll probably fetch our new outboard there, too. Those of you who have been following know that we bought a 2014, 4-cycle, 6 HP Mercury short shaft outboard from STH in Papeete: it was easier than trying to ship one from the US but more expensive.

Nathan will tour Tahiti, Moorea (18 nm away), and Bora Bora (130 nm away) with us (about a week's worth of sight-seeing), then we'll check out of French Polynesia and head for the Cook Islands (542 nm). That's about 5 days for us and another crew makes a huge difference in the duration of our watches.

Nathan leaves us on Rarotonga on 5/25 and we'll stay a few more days, leaving for the single-island country of Niue, about 587 nm away. We'll arrive about 6/3 and we'll spend a few days resting and exploring Niue.

On 6/6, we'll leave Niue for the Kingdom of Tonga island of Vava'u, an island in northern Tonga, about 232 nm away.

We'll rest and explore Vava'u for a few days, then head for Fiji by way of Lakeba in the Lau Group of islands, about 280 nm away. There's no marina so we'll just anchor in the lee of the island using our new anchor.

After resting the night, we'll leave for Gau Island, about 111 nm away, where we'll again anchor in the island's lee and rest the night. Fiji is a mere 120 nm away from Gau, so we'll arrive in Fiji on or about 6/19 or 20. We've got arrangements made to leave the boat in Vuda Point Marina in one of their famous hull trenches. They have holes dug in the sand and they gently lower the boat's keel into the hole until the hull rests on tires surrounding the hole. No falling boat!

We leave for LA from the nearby Nadi International Airport.

So, that's the trip. Of the nine weeks, two are spent preparing and dismantling the boat (Raiatea on one end, Fiji on the other), and three weeks spent in crossings. Although it's not the 23-1/2 days it required to reach the South Pacific but it's a lot.

Back to packing...