After the long passage from Chile, the plan was to keep NDS Evolution in Mangareva for a few weeks. Alejandro’s wife, María José, would arrive, new crew would fly in to join the boat, and some of the cleaning and maintenance needed after a passage could be completed.
NDS gets a thorough scrub after a month of sailing
The current travel situation, though, means that plans need to stay flexible – we found that out firsthand.
Even though the boat itself was cleared into French Polynesia by the officials in Rikitea, the same officials are not allowed to give people entry stamps in passports because of the temporary covid rules in place. With these new rules, boats are allowed to stop in Gambiers but the people onboard are not actually allowed to officially enter French Polynesia until they arrive in Papeete on Tahiti.
Looking out over the anchorage at Rikitea
We learned this because Gaspar and Francisco (the captain and Alejandro’s friend) flew to Papeete 2 days ago – they were eventually able to leave French Polynesia, but the immigration people were not happy. Immigration has now sent a strongly worded message that they will not make any more exceptions and will not allow anyone else to leave the country without the boat and people first arriving in Papeete to finish immigration.
It’s not all work – enjoying a drink on the flybridge
Since Angie and I, as well as the deckhand Nacha, were all planning on flying out of French Polynesia before the boat was going to arrive in Papeete, we must all sail to Papeete to clear in, so that we are allowed to leave the country.
So, this afternoon we pulled up the anchor and are now en route to Papeete. While it would have been nice to explore more of Mangareva and some of the other islands in the Gambiers, its also nice to be at sea again. We’re enjoying a steady 20 knot breeze over the port quarter, the sea temperature has warmed up to about 80F (26.5C), so the air temperature is exactly perfect.
A few more days of this – all’s well
It’s about 1000 miles between Mangareva and Tahiti. We have a good weather forecast with consistent winds behind us, so it should take us 5-6 days to arrive. It’s just 4 of us onboard, so we have a few more watches and even more space now.
So this is the silver lining of the new covid rules!
