Off to Sea the Wizard: Raiatea, French Polynesia

Sailing inside the reef in Raiatea

We had a choppy, rolly sail under whisker-poled genoa over to Raiatea. The weather was bright and clear. Winds at 10-15 knts. We enjoyed our French "hitch-hikers, Alex and Carol.

Alex and Carol

Maybe we'll meet again? We had no clue where was to be our first anchorage once inside the Pass at Teavapiti...and on the way in the pass,

a call from "Double Diamond" a catamaran we met way back in Fatu Hiva, Marquesas, called on the VHF to say "Hi, we saw you on the radar"...we chatted and they suggested an anchorage up the way, Marina Apooiti where we might take a mooring. Perfect. And it is...

View of island Tahaa from Marina Apooiti

Lunch is poisson cru of fresh raw tuna...my favorite!

Marina Apooiti is a small marina offering some dock space for traveling yachts and several moorings at a reasonable rate of $25 @night that included showers, laundry, Internet and restaurant. It's also the home of Tahiti Yacht Charters, so there are many catamarans waiting to be chartered. What else do you need? We immediately sat for lunch at the local restaurant...poisson cru was fabulous..but, the $7.00 beers turned us off!

Marina Apooiti

Time to explore... we rented a car and drove around the whole island of Raiatea. It was tropical, wild and green with lots of shallow bays. The only big town is Uturoa, where locals go for official offices; post office, gendarmarie and shopping... we checked out of French Polynesia today with the gendarmerie...stamped our passports...we are officially out of the country, but we will visit a few more islands on our way out...

The local open market

Next we stopped at the Marae de Taputapuatea. This is a stone structure, one of the preserved historical sites that was used in sacrificial ceremonies that has great significance, even to this day, the locals come to offer gifts and receive direction from the "gods".

Marae Taputapuatea

John inspecting the wood carvings that are offered to the "gods"

Standing in front of a still very used alter with modern "offerings"

Offerings

Shells placed as offerings on a lava stone

Lots of power circling these ruins....Vahine Sue feels the power!

Trees were a very important element to the marae

Trees were a very important element to the ancient marae. They were planted surrounding the stone structure to house the birds who were the messengers to the "gods".