We Finally Stopped Rushing… Life Aboard Got Quiet

After a week of illness swept through the crew aboard Sailing Big Lost, daily life at Tahiti’s Airport Anchorage slowed down. While neighboring cruising boats began scattering back toward the Tuamotus, the family chose to pause and regroup. Instead of rushing to keep pace with the fleet, they enjoyed quiet days watching turtles swim past the hull, playing games, and completing small chores before crossing over to Moorea.

Cruising routines in the anchorage brought both community and minor obstacles. Sleepovers with neighboring cruising boats were arranged by dinghy, with daughter Maddie heading to shore in foul weather gear. However, an attempted dinghy run into town had to be called off due to heavy chop and strong tidal current in the lagoon. As Connor observed after turning the small tender back toward the catamaran, “Our dinghy is just too small to battle big waves and current.” With cruising season progressing and plans underway to leave the boat in French Polynesia for a month while flying home to the United States—their first trip back in more than two years—the family focused on getting Big Lost shipshape.

Departing Tahiti Airport Anchorage

Departing the Airport Anchorage in Tahiti requires clear coordination with aviation traffic control. Because the navigation channel passes directly across the extended runway threshold of Tahiti’s International Airport, vessels must contact Port Authority via VHF radio to request crossing clearance before proceeding toward the Papeete Marina channel.

Big Lost hailed the port controllers as the catamaran reached the midpoint of the airfield, requesting clearance to cross in roughly 20 minutes. As an incoming aircraft approached, the port controller gave clear instructions: “The runway position you are right now. You stop everything they call you back. Do you copy?” Connor immediately brought both engines to idle and acknowledged over the radio: “I copy. I have stopped. Full stop. Standing by.” Once the flight landed and clearance was granted, the catamaran motored through the pass and out into open water.

Crossing to Moorea and Spotting Whales

The passage between Tahiti and Moorea covers a distance of 20 nautical miles toward Moorea. With near-calm wind conditions, the crew kept the diesel engines running to power across the channel. Without a tight passage deadline or an overnight schedule to meet, the family relaxed on deck as the high volcanic peaks of Moorea grew steadily larger on the horizon.

Midway through the crossing, humpback whales surfaced right in the vessel’s path, blowing spouts off the bows. Swimming with humpback whales had been a top goal for the family since arriving in French Polynesia, and seeing them surface in open water confirmed that the pods were active in the waters surrounding Moorea.

Measuring and Calibrating the Anchor Chain

Once tucked safely behind the reef under the mountains of Moorea, the crew tackled an essential maintenance job: recalibrating the ground tackle. In a few weeks, the family plans to move Big Lost south to Phaeton Bay, where she will sit on anchor for a month under the care of a local boat sitter while the family travels back to the United States. Knowing the precise scope deployed on the seabed is vital for leaving the vessel safely unattended.

The electric chain counter had failed earlier after the anchor chain backed up against the windlass, knocking off the counting magnets. To resolve the discrepancy, Connor hopped into the water with a 100-foot measuring tape to physically verify the rode. While exactly 100 feet of chain had been fed out into the water, the digital chain counter display read only 50 feet. Armed with the true manual measurement, the crew recalibrated the instrument display and planned a more secure mounting location for the magnets to keep them from being knocked off during future chain jams.

Dinghy Errands and Watermaker Troubleshooting

Living on the hook in Moorea meant running all domestic errands by tender over the shallow coral bommies. The crew made the trip across the lagoon to an office dock, paying a 5-dollar disposal fee to drop off a bag of trash before heading off to pick up groceries. Transporting provisions, balancing full bags into the dinghy, and handing supplies up to the deck completed the routine provisioning run.

Back aboard the catamaran, an unexpected equipment failure disrupted the quiet afternoon. The vessel’s Schenker watermaker shut down abruptly due to a high-pressure block. Fresh water self-sufficiency is critical while living at anchor, particularly ahead of a month-long haulout or unattended mooring. Connor and the crew remarked on the untimely hiccup: “Because apparently Big Lost didn’t get the memo that this was supposed to be our slow week.”

Working in the forward sail locker compartment, the crew manually released all residual pressure from the reverse-osmosis system, cleared the high-pressure lock, and restarted the pump cycle. The pressure valve adjusted as the system came back up to normal working pressure, and production settled steadily at 102 liters per hour. Relieved that the desalinator was functioning properly again, the crew left the sail compartment hatch unlatched for observation while settling in to enjoy their remaining days in Moorea.

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