Last of the French Polynesians.. (Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea)

 

I’m writing this as the rugged peaks of Moorea slowly shrink behind us. In front the sun is setting on an almost cloudless sky.

We’re headed for Huahine. We set off from Cook’s Bay around 2pm this afternoon, motored out through the pass in the reef and motor sailed until the wind rose sufficiently to have us gliding along under wind power alone. 6ish knots as I type.

We’re in for a starry night: no moon and no clouds - could also be a little colder than we’re used to. Not that I’m complaining - we quite enjoy the close to permanent summer we seem to be be having…. Despite it actually being Winter here!

Just after dinner we got buzzed by a Learjet - an exhilarating break of the monotony - albeit a very fast one! He dipped down to what seemed like one or two hundred meters above us, then whizzed on rapidly rising as we waved at his disappearing tail.

Other than a very minor squall around dawn, we both had a good night and snatched a little sleep.

Breaching whales in the distance greeted us as we skirted around the Northern end of Huahine. First impressions: lush

The anchorage at the town of Fare was packed, and deep. The Gingers who’d arrived yesterday had told us they’d had difficulty anchoring. Not wishing to have either close neighbours, or to spend time struggling to drop, we decided to head down the coast within the reef to a less populated spot further South (Baie D’ Avea). There we took a buoy right on the edge of the reef. It’s quite shallow.. and we know this.. but didn’t realise it was shallow enough that come bedtime, when the wind shifted we actually scuffed bottom. It’s only sand, so no harm done, but we did relocate as soon as the sun rose the next day. We were helped to our new buoy by Omar, a nice Israeli/London guy from a boat called Cinammon - a catamaran who we’ve been seeing around since the Caribbean but hadn’t yet connected with.

The Gingers also had a less than perfect night and headed down to our anchorage shortly after breakfast.

Rainy day - did very little other than scrub the deck. Had sundowners over at Cinammon with: The Gingers, their guests, Philippe and Krystal (line handlers), and the Dutch couple Bard and Kim from Tranquility (who we’ve joked we are stalking… they’re everywhere we go!)

We’re once again back to being concerned about the amount of gas we have.. thankfully we still have around 3 weeks worth, but fill ups of our specific Calor gas bottle are now few and far between and definitely unavailable at one of our next stops: Suwarrow. We’d read that there’s a possible gas station here on Huahine in the main town of Fare which may be able to help. To get there, we booked a moped from the hotel on shore and the next morning headed off along the coastal road to see some of this lovely island and try and get some gas. The island is truly gorgeous; a lush jungly interior and palm tree filled coastline. Made it safely to town with me driving - Chez might not quite agree that it was safely, but we got there in one piece regardless! Sadly not luck with the gas, but we did tour the little town and had an only partially unsuccessful shop at the large Super U in town - baguettes yes, but not much else. Collected a couple of coconuts on the way back, these going in the footwell of the bike as our bags were full by that stage.

I contacted a marina on the next island: Raiatea, who confirmed they can refill our gas - yay!

Left early the next morning, dropped our mooring buoy and headed off. At the same time in another part of the world, Old Trafford specifically, rain is slowly killing England’s chances of a come from behind victory in the Ashes.. as one journalist described it; ‘they’re once again drinking in the last chance saloon!’

As we neared the pass through the reef to exit Huanhine we saw an utterly spectacular sight:

As the sun rose begin the hills, humpback whales are breaching high out of the water - like playful dolphins making massive splashes as they landed. I marvelled yet again at how lucky we are to see such sights.

We motored the half day over to Raiatea in light unsailable wind. The passage marked by a very low frequency but quite large side on swell that made the short passage a less than enjoyable ride. The pass through the reef at the entrance to Raiatea is wide, we made it through without issue. Found a good mooring buoy only a short way in to which we tied up and flopped for a siesta after our early start.

Nice bay, no roll to speak off, and other than the cockerel chorus in the morning, it’s very peaceful too.

There’s a jungly river which leads down to a botanical garden at the end of the bay. We took the tender down there for a look see - a lovely way to spend a morning, pottering along surrounded by overgrown palms and an occasional shack/fruit seller. The botanical gardens were nice in a slightly manicured way, well worth the visit.

We caught up with Helen and Steve on Cerulean for sundowners on our second night - tuna ceviche for dinner, some lovely rum punch, a quiz, a bit of soldering and lots of laughter - they’re good people.

Dropped the mooring lines the next morning and headed anticlockwise around the island. Struggled to find anywhere suitable in town to stop, so headed on round to the marina where we hope to get some gas and found an available mooring buoy. Skipper not feeling too good today: suspect too much coconut or possibly a little too much rum punch last night!

Dropped gas off at the local marina, then began walking into town, hitchhiking we stopped a taxi who happily haggled himself down for us. In town we shopped and headed to the gendarmerie for checkout. Meeting Omar (From Cinnamon) along the way.

Trudged the long hot walk back to the marina weighed down with shopping and were both glad to be back on board for a rest and a cuppa!

Spent another couple of lazy days on the same mooring buoy waiting for our customs clearance to depart. This eventually came - after us having to again walk to the Gendarmerie and give them a gentle nudge.

Whilst we’ve been here (or possibly way back when we were in Ragiroa) we seem to have collected two long sleek sucker fish.. they come out from their hiding place under the hull every time food is discarded overboard - so far we’ve discovered that they like: rotten bananas, tuna offcuts and stale bread!

We’re heading off at dawn tomorrow - waving goodbye to French Polynesia.. it’s been wonderful - I recommend it as a holiday / cruising destination for anyone - the people, the beauty of the islands is (so far) unsurpassable. I’ll draw this one to a close there…