16:44.17S 151:29.25W

Raiatea is called “The Sacred Island of Polynesia” and is thought to be the earliest islands settled in French Polynesia. From here Polynesians sailed on to inhabit all the islands as far as Hawaii to the North and New Zealand to the South.

On our first night arriving here back on 21^st August we heard the song of humpback whales ringing through the hull, a truly amazing experience just before going to bed, what a special lullaby and welcome!

We then anchored in Faaroa Bay to explore Apoomau river, the only dinghy-able jungle clad river in French Polynesia. It was beautiful and very tranquil. Here Andre showed us around his garden and loaded us with fruit and vegetables, a little further downstream we visited a vanilla farm.

Our second visit was an urgency, when we found Kahia flooded with sea water and discovered a leak in the water-silencer (remember Mark and Jane when this happened back in Brighton?), well we turned around, switched the engine off and took 14 Tacks back from Tahaa to the West coast of Raiatea, where the boat yards are.

Here the repairs where successful and we had the opportunity to see Rick and Connie (Rhino) again and had a lovely time together, as well as other sailors, still doing some work on their boats.

Now Rhino is on the hard and Rick and Connie back in the USA until next season, readapting to “land-life”.

Our 3^rd visit brought us back from Bora Bora with the sure-seal shaft leaking, which has now been well repaired with a more important improvement of the water-flow lubrication to it. (It should be a minimum of 1 gallon/minute on engine tick-over, increasing with engine speed).

We did other jobs on board, were able to catch up with the family on Skype and yesterday evening Sam and Marilyn (Catharpin Blue) very kindly invited us out to dinner, which was a real treat after days of working on Kahia and a wonderful way of spending our last evening in French Polynesia.

After 4 months, we are now getting ready to sail away and work our way towards the Kingdom of Tonga, a passage of about 1200 miles.

                                                                                Rick and Connie on Rhino

                After a fun dinner at Mimosa Snack Bar, all back in the marina with just one key! Kahia celebrating one year away. It was also Blue Moon (second full moon of the month)

                                                                                with Sam and Marilyn, a lunch break in Utuora