Tahiti and Moorea 2. Huahine

We motored back to Tahiti from Moorea and anchored, at the third attempt, near Marina Taina. We were quite close to a catamaran so Jeremy set up two angels (weights to shorten the scope) on the anchor chain. Our friends, Chris and John, from Sara II came over and we decided to hire a car together. The next day, Jeremy and I collected my package of medication from the post office. (Thanks to my neighbour, Ruth and daughter, Emily.)

Our trip round Tahiti in the hire car was a great day out. We stopped at most of the places of interest, including the restored Marae Arahurahu, the international surfing beach at Teahupoo and the blow hole at Papenoo. We all enjoyed lunch at an Asian/Polynesian restaurant and finished our circumnavigation by watching the sunset from Belvedere Fare Rau Ape, a high point above the capital, Papeete, reached by a winding single track road with steep drops on one side. Unfortunately, we ended the day in a traffic jam caused by roads being closed for a cycle race. We just had time for a dash round the Carrefour superstore to collect heavy goods while we had the use of the car.

Soon we were in Moorea again, intending a quick stopover. We motorsailed around the exposed south coast and entered Passe Matauvau in strong SE winds. Two attempts to anchor in winds approaching 30 knots ended in dragging off the reef, so we hurriedly made sandwiches and headed back out to sea and eventually to the safety of Oponohu Bay on the north coast. We met up with our friends from Lison Life and spent an evening aboard the catamaran,Troutbridge, where Pete told us how his anchor had dragged and put him on a reef, resulting in 3 holes in the bottom. He’d been hauled out in Tahiti for a month having repairs done.

Jeremy and I have both been ill with sore throats and bad colds. Obviously, city life is bad for us! Hence, we stayed in Moorea for a week until we were fit enough to face the overnight sail to Huahine, another Society Island, encircled by a lagoon, fringed by a reef.

So, here we are in Huahine, coming to the end of our 8 day stay here, feeling much better and thinking we’re in a warm Scotland as it has rained for two nights and a day, almost non-stop. Before the rain, we spent two nights anchored on the east side in the lagoon with only one other boat. We enjoyed drift snorkelling ie holding on to the dinghy painter and letting the current take us slowly over the reefs. Amongst the usual corals and reef fish, I saw a turtle and Jeremy saw a shark. We motored round the north end of Huahine, bought provisions in the surprisingly large supermarket at the main village of Fare, had lunch ashore and motored down the lagoon the next day. We had a walk ashore and eventually found Marae Anini after asking twice. There were no signs. The marae is unusual as it’s built from large blocks of coral, still rough to the touch after nearly 300 years. We saw two large sting rays as we snorkelled from the boat. Then the rain started. Still, we’ve filled our tanks and Jeremy’s tested the bilge pumps with our excess of water. One didn’t work, so he’s trying to repair it now. Soon we hope to travel 20 miles or so to Raiatea and Tahaa. As we’re still in French Polynesia, au revoir pour maintenant.