A Plan at Last
29 May 2020 | Cook's Bay, Moorea
Graham
Oh boy..... Have we been going round in circles. Leave now for Australia? Leave later for Australia? Stay here? Hell, let's go to New Zealand instead? Anyway, after much discussion and analysis the current plan is to stay in (Covid19 free) French Polynesia until August or September then head to New Zealand, hopefully via Tonga if they are allowing transits by then. In the unlikely event that NZ remains closed we will just shoot through to Australia then, probably heading for a landfall near Brisbane. The main thing that pushed us in this new direction was French Polynesia allowing us to sail between the different archipelagos. This happened much faster than we anticipated.
There are a number of benefits to this plan; we spend longer in a Covid19 free area, Janaki gets to finish her dental implant in a safe place, we get to see parts of French Polynesia we have not been to yet, we possibly get to stop off enroute to NZ, we get to see parts of NZ neither of us have been to AND we get back together with Jeff and Molly on Chanticleer, who we lost in Panama (a big deal).
Interestingly, having a 'firm' plan has significantly reduced our stress levels and we are both much more optimistic about the future. We still have some serious sailing to do but we feel good about both our and the boat's readiness and we have a few more months to get fitter.
We are currently in beautiful Cook's Bay (pictured) on the island of Moorea, very close to Tahiti. We will go back to Papeete on the 8th for Janaki's next dental appointment then head up to the western Tuamotus for about six weeks before coming back to Papeete again to complete a much needed electrical update that will be the subject of a technical post to follow.
We think a lot about our friends scattered across a troubled world and hope you are all well and finding good things in this mess.