Jinxing is not something that we want to risk doing on Matilda, however, we are in really good shape after getting all of the broken parts fixed in Papeete. That is all the broken parts that we know of, undoubtedly there are many that we don’t know about yet.

Apparently, the cause of our system-wide crash on the first night of the 3,000 mile passage from Galapagos to Marquesas, was a lightning strike. This was discovered and fixed by a technician in Papeete who showed us all the burnt connectors. He was able to replace and restore everything so now we have  – working radar, working wind instruments, working depth gauge, working tachometer and a brand new dinghy that we christened “Joey” to replace our old leaky one. Our rigging was tightened and our generator and engine got lots of attention from the skipper.

It goes without saying that the boat was scrubbed and cleaned, although it was a fool’s errand. The first trip out of Tahiti to Moorea we had large swells swamping the deck and windows with sea water which puts us back at square one for cleaning.

Matilda is part of the 21st century again as we now have internet from our brand new Starlink dish. This is monumental and a huge game-changer. We should be able to get internet on our boat wherever we go, as long as Elon doesn’t decide that “yachts” should have to pay a ridiculous premium for service at sea. We have not watched a movie, show, sports event or the news since December. We feel like we are living very “large” right now.

Our time in French Polynesia is almost up but we are discovering  that the best may have waited til the end. We loved Moorea and the Veuve Cliquot beach club. We are officially in our favorite ever anchorage on the island of Huahine known as “the wild one” of the Leeward Islands. The water is bluer than I have ever seen and the snorkeling right from our boat is amazing. We still have Raitea and Taha’a to visit on our way to Bora Bora and reportedly they will deliver some stunning anchorages, too.

Our work resumes as we continue our journey around the world. We depart Bora Bora on May 17th with the World ARC fleet and head first to Suwarrow in the Cook Islands, (690 nm) and then  Niue (540nm) followed by Tonga (230 nm). Suwarrow and Niue closed to outsiders 3 years ago due to covid concerns. The World ARC fleet will be some of the first yachts to arrive in these places since the Covid closures.