landfall after 28 days at sea alone! I'm in love with French Polynesia already! [ep 167]
July 17, 2025 · 19 min · 422K views
What this video covers
Lauren Landers completes a 28-day solo Pacific crossing aboard her Beneteau Oceanis 510, Mako, arriving at Fatu Hiva in French Polynesia. The passage produced a list of mechanical issues she works through on arrival: a loose bolt on the wind generator causing rattling, a spinnaker halyard wrapped around the forestay and jib halyard foil, a water maker leak between the filter housing and high-pressure pump membrane (she reroutes the hose using a quick-connect and taped guide line), a jib tack Allen-key bolt that came undone, loose bolts on the Hydravane and dinghy fittings, a toilet needing an O-ring, a leaking skylight hatch, and a broken boom car whose aluminum end sheared off and shed its ball bearings. Fellow cruiser Ian from S.V. Isla supplies a replacement boom car, then goes up the mast to reseat a furler collar that had slid down the spar — traced to another loose bolt. The hull bottom is fouled with gooseneck barnacles and needs cleaning. Ashore at Fatu Hiva, Lauren hikes to a waterfall through dense tropical vegetation. Tiger sharks and manta rays are reported at a nearby anchorage. Twenty-eight days of continuous motion loosens bolts throughout the rig; a post-passage inspection of every fastener is essential.
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