Today turned out to be the kind of day that just flows from one good time to
the next. A day that could have possibly been forgotten mixed in with so many of
a high standard, today somehow went out of its way to shine a little brighter
and leave a mark.
To start, the weather was perfect. Blue sky, fluffy tradewind clouds and a
great cooling/ sailing wind kept the players comfort factor high. The object of
the day was to sail the 25 miles between Huahine and Raiatea, find a protected
spot to stop and get a few jobs off the maintenance list.
We were anchored off the sleepy little town of Fare, well protected behind
the reef, in the north of Huahine. Bec was up early and headed ashore to grab
some fresh bread and fruit for breakfast. She also found a store that had beer
on special, this could only be a good sign!
George jumped out of bed at the sound of the returning dingy, quickly put the
tea on (as he had sleepily agreed to do) and tumbled overboard to kick his body
into gear. 15 minutes of preparing the boat for sea ( dingy on deck, loose gear
tied down, breakables put away) and an easy anchor raise in the shallow water
had us heading out the pass with tea and tropical delights in hand.
The conditions were favourable but lively, and before knew it we were sailing
between the breakers of one of Raiatea's 10 reef passes. The contrasting water
colours made it unnecessary to consult the many navigational tools we have on
board. A foot note in our guide book lured us into a protect bay, which at it's
head is Polynesia's only navigable river
Anchor up, anchor down, all before lunch, if only the whole Pacific was
dotted with an island every 25nm!
More fresh delights washed down with a beer for lunch and we were off in the
dinghy to explore the river Faaroa. Whilst not quite the river from Conrad's
"Heart of Darkness" we proceeded upstream under oar power passing banks lined
with all nature of tropical fruit and foliage
The peace and tranquillity being disturbed only by the odd insect, we finally
were stopped by the first rocky rapids.
During our gentle down steam drift we stopped to admire a hand made wooden
outrigger canoe and were greeted by it's owner, an elderly Polynesian farmer. A
gesticulated bilingual conversation followed, our new friend speaking Raiatean
and us English, but with small amounts of information exchanged.
As we went to leave he proceeded to hack at a large banana palm landing the
huge hand of over a hundred and fifty bananas right into our dinghy, leaving us
shocked but happy. His generosity was the topped off with some green drinking
coconuts, saying something about that “they were very good to take to sea in a
small boat.” We thanked him profusely in English and French and continued our
drift all the way home to Avalon.
Passing a second British flagged vessel in the bay we stopped to say “hi” and
offload some of the quickly ripening bananas. That lead to the obligatory “come
aboard for a drink” so our perfect day in paradise ended with sailing stories
and a G+T at sunset.
We never did get to that maintenance project not wanting to ruin the buzz.
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
