Hooray for Huahine, tee-hee in Tahaa
Serai
Jason and Emily Willis
Sun 22 Jul 2007 23:52
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16:38.5S 151:30.9W
Huahine gets a big gold star as best island visited
in French Polynesia so far. It really is a little piece of paradise! Our bay was
out of this world - I could happily wake up there every day of my life and never
get bored of it. We were blessed with having some good friends around us too,
which made it even better.
With so much good company, we decided to have a
little cocktail 'hour' on Serai. Drinks were served on the aft deck at 1730,
along with hors d'oevres provided by each boat. We all did a lot of laughing and
had a wild old time, ending with myself and Susie (S/Y Barraveigh) jumping in
the water and also me knocking over the cockpit table along with everything that
ws on it! It made a hell of a mess! Needless to say we were all slightly worse
for ware the following day.
Lonely Planet said that the restaurant in our bay
was the best on the island. We pumped up the kayak and took a peek inside. It
was a really lovely place and very Polynesian. We decided to have a farewell
meal there with S/Y Sifar and S/y Barefeet, as the latter and us may well not
see Sifar again for quite some time, as they are pushing ahead to Fiji and not
planning to stop en-route. We dinghyed ashore for 1800 and then ate at 1900. The
meal was good, although not that plentiful.
As gorgeous as the bay was, we decided to leave the
following day early;ahead of us a 25 mile sail to Tahaa and Raiatea. There was
not much wind, so we motorsalied all the way. Then just as we dropped our hook
the wind picked up and it blew about 25 knots all night! We had anchored just
off a reef, thinking we would get protection from it, but the waves were coming
over the top and we had a very sloppy and fitful night. Great! Up early
the next morning, we up anchored and out of dodge, choosing a nice downwind sail
anticlockwise around Tahaa. We had a leisurely 3 hour sail inside the lagoon and
around Tahaa. Its a beautiful island, but a bit sparce on decent anchorages -
they all seem to be deep or riddled with coral heads.
I write this anchored in 50 feet of water down the
very end of a large bay. There is not much swinging room, due to shallow water
on either side of me. It seems the best place I can get though, so we will just
have to hope the wind behaves itself, at least in terms of direction! We
are currently debating whether to even bother with Raiatea, and simply head over
to Bora Bora where we can get water and hopefully some fresh food before the
next big hop to Raritonga.
Till the next time.
Lots of love
J and Ems xx
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