BONUS EPISODE: Preparing to Leave Bora Bora to Solo Sail to American Samoa

Hello friends, my name is James and this is my 1965 Albert 30 Sloop Tritea. We are on a mission to sail around the world and see as much of this beautiful planet as possible. We are currently working our way through the South Pacific and I can't wait to show you everything we see. All right we're all tied up to the quay, the water is right here which is perfect, and we're gonna go to the Gendarmerie and see about clearing out right now. I think I have 72 hours after I clear out. If that's the case we're gonna do that right now. It's right across the street. So let's go do that. If that works out then we'll go provision, come back, water, then we're all set. And if that's the case then we'll sail out tomorrow morning. So let's go get these official documents dealt with. So the Gendarmerie was closed until three. I went over to the grocery store, did all the provisioning. I spent 190 bucks but I got a lot of stuff. I was really low on supplies so got lots of vittles and picked up some fresh produce from like the street stands. Trying to spend all my coins. I don't think I'll be able to get my coins exchanged. I have quite a bit of cash left too but and I'm going to take a hit on the currency exchange whenever I get to wherever I exchange that money. But it's okay. Now it's a matter of putting the groceries away and we'll do our water now and then in an hour Gendarmerie opens. We can go over, get cleared out and have like all the chores done which is super sick. That means tomorrow morning can be mellow and chill and then tomorrow at noon we can push off and sail for American Samoa. Put the card in, take it out. We got 20, 2,000. Okay, got the water flowing. Get our jerrycans in place so we can fill those up and we should be good and then we go to the Gendarmerie. Okay, there's still a lot more to do here on the boat but we need to get over to the Gendarmerie and try to get cleared out. I'll lock the boat up since we're right here on the quay. Too easy to access to the public and just go get cleared out. Getting ready to recycle everything. I saved up all the glass and the tin and all that and go ahead and recycle it here at Bora Bora and they have a lot of trouble kind of getting rid of trash on these small islands. So you always got to think about that when you're getting ready to like get rid of your trash and you're recycling and stuff like that. So I'm stoked they have these all over the place so they can make sure it gets recycled. So I just got done at the Gendarmerie. It's kind of funny like I filled out all the paperwork in Papeete. I filled out paperwork in Rangiroa and then when I got to Papeete, I finished clearing in filled out all my paperwork and then they told me to make sure and send an email when there was sailing past beyond Morea and that they would forward all my paperwork to Bora Bora or to Rayatea so that I could clear out from one of these locations. So I just filled out all the same documents but he informed me he was like well that was for the clear in this is for the clear out so filled out all you know probably I don't know seven documents and I give it to him and he's like he's like okay I'll send it off and to Papeete and let you know when they approve you your clearance to depart and I was like oh okay I was like when would that be and he was like oh I don't know two days. I don't understand why I had to contact like why email Papeete if they weren't going to forward all the information here it's strange. I thought I was leaving tomorrow but now I guess I gotta wait until I hear from them as to when I can leave. He said if he if he gets clearance tomorrow then he'll email me and he was like otherwise you can come in then if I come in then that's Thursday this is Tuesday now so I don't know it's a little frustrating but I just thought that he was going to stamp my paperwork and then I was going to be able to leave so I'm glad I did it today and not tomorrow because I would have pushed it to Friday. So we'll see now it's time for me to button everything up here and clear off the quay and get to a mooring ball over at Bora Bora Yacht Club. So I've just returned from the Gendarmerie. I got my clear out papers and um took three days to get my papers to clear out which I was shocked I thought I was gonna fill out the paperwork and they were gonna stamp it and I was gonna be done I could leave the next day. It's this Friday I was very stressed because obviously if they didn't get it done today then I would be hosed and be stuck here until next week. Now I have a good weather window I need to leave. I wanted to leave two days ago but the weather is actually going to be better tomorrow anyway so it worked out in my benefit. Um I honestly kept thinking they were gonna like hammer me with some extra charges on clear out. Like I was expecting them to try to bill me two hundred dollars or something. I don't know why but I've read somewhere that some places charge you on to get your exit paperwork and um yeah there was no extra fees. The only thing was they've had a one of these papers folded and they asked me to take it to the post office and buy a stamp and drop it off to mail to Papeete. That was it. So if you're coming here and you're planning on clearing out from the Leeward Islands or specifically Bora Bora make sure you give yourself two or three days before you want to leave to clear out. Had it been a tight weather window that could have been a real bummer but as it is for me it's okay. So today it's not even noon yet so today is going to be spent just getting everything dialed getting my you know my passage berth reset up in the cabin and um getting the dinghy on board the outboard like ready to be stowed forward and all that stuff. Everything else is like ready to go so I'm excited to make way for American Samoa. Thanks for watching. I hope you've enjoyed these episodes of French Polynesia and I look forward to showing you what the experience is like sailing to American Samoa. Thanks for watching. Fair winds until next time. If you enjoy the content on this channel and would like to contribute you can consider joining the Patreon crew. Thanks for watching. Fair winds until next time.