I was fortunate enough to be invited to crew aboard Andromeda from Taina Marina in Papeete. The Grand Soleil is owned by Jorge from Spain and is part of the 2014 World ARC rally - a 15 month circumnavigation by a fleet of about 40 boats. My Spanish is restricted to pleasantries and Jorge's English equally limited so it wasn't ideal. We sailed to Raiatea and Tahaa and enjoyed a couple of superb social events. Onto Bora Bora where I joined a German boat called Polaris, also on the ARC Rally to Tonga. The owner Michael has a good command of English and he had aboard two German girls whose English was fluent but sailing skills non-existent. Between us we safely sailed to Tonga with much hand steering aboard his lightweight 47' Hanse which was lost in 20 knots of wind to an autopilot which veered off at right angles from the track! In Tonga Michael was heading South to Tongatapu to collect family and friends which would have made me crew number 7 which I felt would be cramped so at the invitation of the owners of Alpheratz, I joined the boys from Maine (Thomas, Bradley and James) aboard their Swan - also rally participants. We sailed to the remote and deserted island of Suwarrow for a few days, onto Nuie, followed by the Vavau Islands in Tonga. In each of these places we explored the islands on paddleboard, with scuba tanks, by motorbike and on foot. A truly fantastic time meeting some fascinating characters everywhere we went.