Huahine

Farr Gone Blog
Stuart Cannon
Tue 7 Jun 2011 23:42
Warren warned me. He said to hang on a few days and wait for the big wind to die. I've never been good at listening to common sense and took off anyway. I mean how bad can twenty knots be? Well we had 25 apparent while we were doing 10 and 12 straight downwind. The waves were very, no extremely large and roared like freight trains through your living room and several managed to break into the cockpit others miraculously breaking only a meter or two behind and sliding underneath. The bow of the boat would point alarmingly downwards and then hesitate before breaking free of the shackles imposed by the water and surfing over it's bow wave and throwing up spray like a speedboat on steroids. Concentration was required as the boat wanted to broach in either direction and a couple of times I failed to hold it and a wild round up occurred. The boat though was great never giving a hint of the bendy toy nickname Beneteaus so often get. It felt reassuringly stiff and solid at all times and when hit by a rogue wave from the side the shudder could be felt in everything but there was no issue. We just kept flying on making a mockery of the sailing advice to leave in the evening for a daylight arrival at the entrance to the reef. We covered the 80 nautical miles in just over eight hours so it would have been easy to leave early morning but there is nothing normal about Farr Gone or it's crew.
Raoul, my Polynesian crew and guide was great before and after the trip but was a bit freaked by the size and power of nature and decided sleep was the best option. As I had to hand steer most of the way my arms and shoulders are still feeling the workout and that's after having slept most of yesterday.
Huahine is beautiful. I much prefer it to Tahiti or Moorea as they are much more developed. This is more like the south Pacific paradise you hear about. The boat is anchored in a beautiful cove which is so steep sided it prevents even the sat phone from working for more than a moment so I've dinghy"d into Fare the local town which is small but charming. Unfortunately occasional showers and wind squalls are spoiling things a little but not too much. I'm having a beer in the local bar overlooking the water and using their wifi. Life isn't too tough.