S/V L'ORIENT

L'ORIENTals everywhere.........hang on to your hats. The authorities in French Polynesia are reverting to 1930s fascist tactics and close to EVICTING foreigners. Despite our 28 day sail here and the fact that we legally checked into the island, we're expecting an official announcement soon that we have two options: 1) Get the F_ck out of French Polynesia 2) Sail your boat to Tahiti, anchor it, and be "repatriated" to your home country via chartered airliners The only exceptions are people with residency here, or people who have been in French Polynesia more than a month. So, we are out of luck. While our residency permit is complete and was accepted as sufficient, it wasn't received in time. The other problem we have is that even if they didn't finalize our eviction (probably a 10% chance at best), the whole Pacific is locked down. No inter-island travel within Polynesia is allowed, and every island is locked down between here and Australia (with the od...

L'ORIENT with genoa and ballooner, a fast ride Well, we didn't exactly cross the finish line first, but our "L'ORIENT RULES" stipulate that any boat crossing the finish line with more than 2 crew or without a functioning clothes washer are disqualified. Ta-da. We win. Sailing into the setting sun Anyway, it was a wonderful passage.......truly a journey we will never forget. Note the south latitude- crossing the equator  Despite it being chronologically 28 days, 8 hours Kirstin and I agree that it felt like about 8 days, tops. Why ? Not sure. Maybe not seeing land for 28 days or other boats, for that matter did something to our perception of time. The endless empty space does something to the senses, maybe. All the sails up and L’ORIENT sailing herself In terms of the boat, L'ORIENT performed well. Very little in the way of damage.......just a generator cooling pump and battery charger (both quick repaired). No ripped sails, no b...