So, last week, Ya set sail again! On the 24th of June, Ya reached the Tuamotus: the breathtaking island of Raroia. Read on Peter’s and Andrew’s adventures below!

The trip from Nuku Hiva to Raroia:

Thu Jun 19 2025 00:48:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Farewell lovely people in Nuku Hiva

Andrew (new crew, see next Sunday’s blog) and me are ready to go. First, it took a little while to get the Iridium working, but from the moment Andrew took over, it was set and done in some hours.
Peter has been ill, with an ongoing ear infection. And also because the ship needed more maintenance, all in all it took nearly 3 months before Ya was ready to leave. Perhaps the long stay is also to blame on the nice people here:)

Vai Nui (translation: ‘Endless Water’ , or ‘Ocean’) has become a friend of Inge and me already from the start. Now, when I kissed her goodby, she said goodbye with a pot of her delicious home made jam. Also thanks to Henri, who actually grows al the fruit this jam is made of.

Jef, or Jean Francois, we had een great time with so many chats, about politics and about private things. Pori, so many Sunday mornings we have spent on the Petit Quai making music. Thank you so much for teaching me the Marquesean song “Mamao te Koekoe A Otahi”, I will play and sing it forever. The lady of the Snack always gave me that bit of extra vegetables on my plate, and now I can’t even remember her Marquesean name. Marie-Therese of the fruit and vegetable market, although I am 10 years younger, I always loved our flirting and making jokes!

Now, Andrew and me made the ship ready within half a day. Unbelievable, so quick as everything changes from a boat in a bay to a sailing adventure. It is going so fast because Andrew is so experienced, things on boats don’t take long for him. We will have plenty wind, we will have a great sail this week to the Tuamotus.

Pirate on the high seas?

Fri Jun 20 2025 04:54:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Behind us we saw a beautiful , modern and regatta shaped black saisl. A black tower on the water. It was following us. Finally a pirate, after al these years of sailing the world? We called him on with our radio. He answered. The name of his ship is Goose. And we are Ya, which is Chinese for ‘duck’. We are smaller. He is much faster. To stay friends -you never know if he would attack us- Andrew said he would take pictures of his boat. He overtook us in the blink of an eye. Barely enough shutter speed on the camera.
He did not attack us. Andrew asked on the radio: “why the black sails?”
“Oh, I had to renew them and I wanted to go for the cool pirate look.”

We ate Spaghetti Bolognese.

Squalls

Sat Jun 21 2025 22:14:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

It started last night, in Peters watch. It appeared to be a weird mix of squalls and the rest of a front passing by. And, often with wind stills.
The next morning Andrew took over. A heavy rain squall came. Andrew became soaking wet. So what do you do then? Take a shower. Wash your clothes. Catch some extra water for you-never-know.
Peter woke up, and followed this great example.
Now, the tradewind has come back and we don’t smell each other (nor ourselves). And we are clean!
Today a three course menu. Salade, Greek inspired, white cabbage mix a Provencale, and as a desert a mango, slightly fermented.

Good day

Sun Jun 22 2025 07:19:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

Yesterday After dinner we sailed pleasantly. A steady tradewind in Andrews evening watch. Time to read a good book. A steady trade wind in Peters night watch. Time to read a good book. The next morning, time for Andrew to throw some fishing lines out. The trade wind continues, the Ya goes straight as she goes. Inge at home helps with the unsolved problem to get the daily message (like this one) on the internet. Peter fixed a hatch cover. Nothing broke down today. The trade wind continues. We ate Russel Faun today, a Scottish dish. A good day.

We got in!

Tue Jun 24 2025 11:25:00 GMT+0200 (Midden-Europese zomertijd)

First try was done by a 13 meter yacht but the waves and current were madness and he went back. 2 hours later it looked much calmer. He tried again and yes. We did the same. But we have one engine damaged. Let’s find out what it is. We are on anchor before the tiny village of Raroia.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raroia