Huahine, French Polynesia

Anchorage off the town of Fare on the island Huahine

Who says you can't go to bed at 7:00pm ?  Because that's just what we did after sailing an overnighter from Moorea to Huahine.   We arrived at day light, as planned by super navigator, Capt John, crossing the 90 mile distance calculated at 5 knots boat speed.  We had following swells that pushed Wizard faster than we wanted sometimes surfing a rolling wave at 7.5 knots!  We were sailing and rolling along at a good speed.   We were not alone...there were four other sailboats traveling our course plus one tanker.  That's more traffic than we've experienced since the Baja Ha rally coming down the California coast back in September!

Perfect rainbow captured after a light rain on way to Huahine

At 4:00 am on my watch I saw the island of Huahine in the distance and slowed the boat down by reefing in the genoa sail.
We sailed up the north coast following the wind around the island with blustery clouds, some light rain. It's a remotely populated island with lush valleys and empty sandy white beaches.. We entered Pass Avamoa and anchored in shallow turquoise colored water off the village of Fare.   This is a popular anchorage well written up in cruiser travel guides so we were not alone.  There were well over a dozen cruisers making the stop here before hopping over to the next island, Raiatea only 30 miles away.  The usual sailing path is then on to the island of Bora Bora.

Turquoise water..it's clear and shallow!

We marvel at the amount of other yachts already anchored here...then try to anchor in what looks likes a sand reef, but is really coral and sand..it takes many tries to secure the anchor .  We both dive in the water to check what the anchor will catch?  Sand over coral, and rock.  Not the best combination for holding an anchor.  After so many tries, John takes the dingy  around for a " look see" and finds a perfect sand patch for anchoring.   My job is to drop the anchor in the sand while Capt. John backs down hard with the boat's engine until the chain pulls straight out pulling on a dug-in- the- bottom-anchor...good.  Finally, safe and secure.

Main street of Fare with a well-stocked supermarket...quiet on Sunday

We venture into town and find the most amazingly stocked super market!  We decide to forgo dinner out and spend the time  to re-provision for our next few months ...beer, sugar, coffee and beer...did I mention beer?  Its  a big item on Wizard and needs to be replenished most often!

Welcome dock at the village of Fare, Huahine

July 27-Sunday- Huahine
Do you know what cruising is?... boat maintenance in exotic places. It's so true.  We spend most mornings on small projects just to keep the boat running and well maintained. Today I scrubbed the waterline of the boat to rid the sludge-growth accumulated in Tahiti. Then I stitched some canvas tears in the dodger.  John re-patched the slow leak in the dinghy...hope it holds...nothing worse than a soft dinghy he says..haha!  We stay all morning on the boat to sit out 25 mph winds! Crazy!  We don't feel comfortable leaving the boat to go ashore.

We snorkeled the outside of the reef.   Its eerie dropping off into deep blue water over a blanket of coral that drops off slowly into deeper blue water nothing-ness.   I kept looking back to see if a shark had noticed us...but nothing...this was a very empty reef!  Hardly  any fish.  Later we learned that the locals have pretty much fished this reef out.

Dinghy ride around the lagoon, up the river and ended on the beach at the Lapita Village Hotel for a beer, toes in the sand and watching the sunset...a short walk down the beach led to the Pearl Treehouse...where we met Ray Marks, a transplant-American surfer-married-Tahitian-turned entreprenuer-pearl farmer.

My new Tahitian black pearl bracelet is hot!

He has a unique pearl store built in a tree house www.pearltreehouse.com filled with black pearls from his pearl farm, the only one in Huahine. Of course, I found a beautiful pearl bracelet with green colored hues that I really liked ..these particular greenish hued pearls come from the Gambier Islands. Ray says the water is colder there and grows these unique colored pearls.


We like this small town and plan to stay a few days exploring before heading on to Raiatea.  We just met a nice young French couple, Alex and Carol who need a ride over to Raiatea.  They have a boat  being repaired in Raiatea and wanted a ride over. This should be fun..more hitch-hikers!


July 30 Monday
Early morning sail away to Raiatea.  we have guests for one day, Alex and his girlfriend, Carol visiting from France.  Alex and partner had the misfortune of being dis-masted in strong winds in the Tuamotus and limped to Raiatea under  a jury-rigged mast. He and his partner have sailed all the way from France.  Check out their adventures on www.ideesdumonde.org.

Alex and Carol need a ride to Raiatea