August 4, 1998-Part 2-Huahini to Bora Bora

Huahine



Click here, for part 1 of this story

On another glorious trade wind day we set sail across a sparkling blue ocean for Huahine, close reaching with flags flying, and watched the island on the horizon grow bigger. Soon we rounded the south end of Huahine and hardened up to sail close hauled on the leeward side, just off the breakers of the reef, until we got to the pass at Fare. The anchor splashed down in gin clear water over white sand off that small, sleepy, town. Fare looked dumpy from the boat, and going ashore, we found it to be so, but the lagoon was drop dead gorgeous.

Somewhere I’d read a report from another boat that said they had found paradise almost all the way to the south end of the island, down inside the reef, so we set off motoring south inside the reef, winding our way carefully from mark to mark, looking for the holy grail of anchoring spots.

Finally, and only after very carefully squeezing through a shallow twisting bit where the navigation aids were curiously missing, we poked our way into a broad and beautiful bay with a white sand beach overhung with coconut palms that stretched out for a mile ahead of us.

Offshore, in the distance we could see the surf breaking on the reef, and hear its steady thunder, but in this unnamed bay, all was quiet. It looked untouched.

We enjoyed our stay on beautiful Huahine but it turned out to be a bit longer than we’d planned. The day after we arrived the wind came up we found ourselves trapped, unable to get back over the shallow spot where we had come into the bay because of wind driven waves which obscured the bottom and therefore the path through, not that we didn’t try. We attempted it twice, creeping forward inch by inch, trying not to touch, and at times we had the engine in reverse to stem our forward progress in the current. Finally, with the keel just inches above the coral, and a three knot tide running, we gave up and returned to the anchorage.

Another boat, Shedir, had also found its way down there and was marooned in the bay like us. Shedir was a fine 49ft sloop flying the Swiss flag, sailed by Marcus and Verena. We spent some time with them and their guests from Switzerland at Huahine, and learned a lot from these two very capable young German Swiss sailors. When we did go ashore we shared exotic cocktails and cold beers, at a little resort on the beach, it was a good time, but we were itching to go.

A week later the wind dropped and we got out.

Raiatea & Tahaa

Next we sailed to Raiatea and came flying in the pass with islands and breakers on either side, and small boats sailing nearby, and found our way to the small marina on the north shore. After a short overnight stay in the marina and a trip to the supermarket, we departed Raiatea to look for some nice place to stay over on Tahaa.

Click here, to see the Carenage at Raiatea.


That evening we motored in a dark gloom deep into the island where a bay penetrated, with rain softly falling and lights reflecting off the still waters, and anchored off a school.

It looked like some place in Washington State, quiet, dark, still.





Further on around the island in the days after we passed close to the shore and saw numbers of small homes or businesses along the water’s edge, and we enjoyed the sightseeing, but again, we didn’t want to stay. We were restless and needed to keep moving. We wandered from place to place like a fickle lover, never finding any place we wanted to be with for more than a one night stand. The last night in Tahaa we anchored off the island’s west side, and could see Bora Bora in the distance. It seemed to call to us.

Bora Bora calling









Bora Bora

Reinforced Trades. That’s what the weather was called, and it meant thirty knots of wind blowing all day and night. We got into Bora Bora safe enough, despite the wind, but all we could do after we arrived was hunker down in a protected anchorage with the other cruisers behind a small island just inside the pass. The wind kept up and more boats arrived and it got a bit crowded.. With the wind and currents we mostly felt we had to stay on the boats, trying to keep from getting too close to a neighbor, and waiting out the wind, and hoping for a chance to go move around to the shallow lagoon on the east side where it was supposed to be the best snorkeling anywhere. We never made it.

Bora Bora peak

In early August 1998, we gave up on the idea of an idyllic visit to Bora Bora, which we had been looking forward to, and saying farewell to French Polynesia, sailed with three other boats for points west.










Fred & Judy, SV WINGS, Bora Bora