After a last minute decision, we arrived in Huahine, the first of the Iles-sous-le vent (or Society Islands) yesterday early morning.

The weather forecast was predicting strong winds for next week with high waves and we thought that it would be a more comfortable passage from Moorea if we left before the blow. The sea state usually remains choppy for two or three days after a blow which meant that we would have to stay another 8 days in Moorea before finding good conditions to sail over to Huahine. Moorea is a very beautiful island but we got itchy feet and wanted to explore another island!

Anyway, we left Moorea at 4PM last Thursday. The sea was perfectly flat, not much wind so off we went motor sailing. It was beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky. We watched a beautiful sunset and the sky soon filled up with millions of stars. The milky way was just an amazing sight. We arrived at the North West entrance of the pass of Huahine lagoon at 8AM yesterday. We weren’t enthusiastic about the anchorage near the pass by the main town of Fare so we followed the inner channel towards the South of the island. Huahine actually consists of two islands, Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti linked by a bridge. We saw loads of bays on our way South and breathtaking views and some sceneries have a strange similarity to the Scottish lochs.

We found the perfect anchorage, right down to the South of Huahine Iti in the Baie d’Avea. There is a long but narrow white sand beach, loads of tropical trees of all different species including palm trees of course. On the sea side, beyond the coral reef we can see Raiatea, Taha’a and even Bora Bora. Photos attached. The water is so clear that despite being anchored in 11m of water, we can perfectly see our anchor lying at the bottom. Very few boats around so it is total bliss! Photos attached (it was laundry day today so you can see our sheets drying on the foredeck!).

We took a dinghy ride to the village on the other side of the bay, got tangled a few times in between big coral heads but found the little shack  (originally a 40 ft container ) acting as the village shop. Mike sweet talked the lady shop owner and got her to reserve a baguette for us this morning.

We don’t know much yet about this island as we have not been ashore exploring yet but it surely looks very beautiful, untouched and very green. Will report later! Think we will hire a Vespa scooter to tour rather than a car. Vespa’s are all the rage here on the islands.

This is not far from paradise!

Love

Mike and Catherine