The water was crystal clear with the odd Ray swimming by. We went ashore and had a delightful lunch with fresh tuna and Maui Maui. This ended up being our dinner. Then I got to jump in the water and swim back out to the boat. Pretty well made for a perfect day for me!
A short squall came in during the early evening but our anchor held well in sand and the water stayed relatively calm.
Belvanie arrived in the anchorage so we went over to say hi. I swam. David went in the dinghy. They were staying for 5 days or so. We were leaving that night for an overnight passage.
So back to the boat to make preparations. I made some salmon sandwiches along with some chicken cacciatore and ravioli.
Back in the boat to clean the water line - this is actually one of my favorite chores - I get exercise, sculling and kicking to keep myself afloat while I scrub the green growth and odd barnacles off of the boat. It takes one to two hours depending on the amount of growth. Not too bad this time as it was only an hour. David got in with me and ducked dove to clean off the knot meter - few barnacles were preventing it from working.
A light lunch of nachos and fresh salsa - what a treat as fresh tomatoes has been a rarity in French Polynesia.
1530: Motor sailing for the beginning of our crossing and a sunset cruise.
Course 280 True. Speed 4.7 knots
Winds SSW at 6 knots
1700 Double reefed Main
Genoa at 80%
Speed 4.7 knots
Winds gradually increased through the early part of the evening and we were flying at 7.8 knots.
But as the sun went down the rolling seas were causing the Genoa to dump - sail not staying full - so we decided to roll it in. This reduced our speed to 5.2 knots which is not such a bad thing when sailing at night.
The Stars were out in full force, including the occasional comet. No squalls. A couple of short rain showers. A near perfect night - just a bit rolly.
Seas finally calmed down as the sun came up. We finished the crossing in wonderful conditions as we entered Avapihi pass on Huahine.
Geography Lesson cont'd: French Polynesia is made up of 5 archipelagos. We have been to the two most eastern ones - the Marquesas and the Tuomotos. Tahiti is part of the third and largest one - the Societies. Tahiti and Moorea are part of the Windward Islands. The rest of our time will be spent in the Leeward Islands. We will not be visiting the Gambiers or the Australes. Not because we do not want to but our visa is up on the 23 rd of July.
After entering the pass by the village at Fare we back tracked to an anchorage on the SW end of the island. The channel is well marked with lots of possibilities for anchoring.
Not much sleep for either of us last night so we set the hook, had a nice brunch and then went to bed.
I thought Moorea was beautiful. This is even more so.
Huahine is a very laid back island with few resorts but none of the hustle and bustle of Papeete. It is 105 nm northwest of Tahiti. The island was formed by a volcanic eruption and is actually two islands. A bridge connects Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti. Two mountains reach their peaks at 2200ft ( Mt. Turi) and Mt. Ponies Rahi at 1515 feet.
The island, lagoon and reef are absolutely beautiful.
The motus are planted with cantaloupes and watermelon. Cucumbers, taro, yams, bananas and other seasonal fruit are also grown here,
We spent a couple of days at this anchorage. I got caught up on with my swimming and finished cleaning the water line.
The Mahana relais resort is boater friendly, providing us with a place to get rid of garbage, free wifi and tropical drinks.
One afternoon we went for a lovely walk along the beach and found a sacred site or Morae and a girlfriend for Paul's Tiki man.
It is quite a distance out to the reef - we got close but could not find any interesting outcropping of coral til you were actually on the reef. We did not think this was a good idea - to go any further - as our outboard was still acting up. So I jumped in the water for a full body workout back to the boat and David followed paddling the dinghy for his upper body workout! Beautiful water for swimming.
13-Jul-2016
0930 we raised the anchor and headed done to the town of Fare closer to the pass..
Several boats at anchor off the town but there was a little bit too much water for us. We really did not want to drop the hook in 75 feet of water. So we headed over closer to the reef and set the hook in 16 feet of water. I got in the water to check the anchor and we were snaked around a couple of bombies but they were not large and we were sure that we would be able to maneuver off of them when the time came.
The catamaran beside us was also hung up on bombies - coral. This was preventing the both of us from swinging properly. The closest we came was about 50 feet from each other - made for a fitfull night as we were always getting up to see where we were. But our anchors held and in the morning we were pleasantly surprised when the anchor came up without any problem whatsoever.
We did make a dinghy trip into town to provision. I managed to buy another porea - as I had given my last two away to Susan and Heather! But on the way out to the boat the outboard stopped running again! Sol Rebel was kind enough to give us a tow back to the boat.
Tomorrow we will be off to Raiatea.
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