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.