Next Stop - Raiatea
26 August 2014 | Utaroa, Raiatea
Pam
We entered Raiatea via Passe Iriru, part way down the east side of the island, and into Fa'aroa Bay. We planned to paddle up the Faaroa River; a navigable river is unique in Polynesia and we had heard this one was very interesting. Faaroa Bay is deep, so we opted to pick-up a mooring buoy off the old Sunsail Charter site and were still in 100ft of water. It was late afternoon, but as the weather was lovely, we quickly launched the kayaks and headed up the river. It was lovely and tranquil paddling upstream through mangroves, bananas, and coconut trees, with glimpses of the peaks, and lots of birds. As I paddled along, I heard a loud commotion up a tree and could just see several large birds which sounded like chickens. I quickly dismissed that idea, as chickens aren't normally found high up in trees (or are they...???). I came around the next corner and to my surprise found a Bantam Rooster 30 foot up a tree munching on a bunch of bananas!!! Not something you see every day, but I have the pictures to prove it. The next day we sailed up to Utaroa, the second largest city next to Papeete in the Societies, and tied up to the Town dock. As you can imagine, it was a little hair-raising as we had not docked since the end of March! Just locating the lines stored deep in the lockers and tying on fenders was a challenge. Our friends on Chara were at the dock to grab our lines and Ted made a perfect docking - I was impressed! We had been warned that theft was an issue, so we were careful to remove any valuables from the deck (especially fishing gear) and kept the boat locked when we were away. That being said, aside from the first night when a fellow came by late in the evening, we had no problems. It was quite fun being right in the center of town with grocery stores, artisan shops, restaurants, banks, post office, hospital, roulottes and an ice cream truck all right at our doorstep. Chara stayed an extra day so we could spend some time together, before they went around to the Carrenage to have their main furler repaired. Raiatea has two boatyards and storage facilities - the best in Polynesia - so it is the best place to have work done. Sequoia arrived the following day. Their generator was not working and after many days trying to fix it, Carl had given up trying to figure out the problem himself. They needed expert help and Raiatea was the place to get it. Carl was hankering for Chinese food and as Raiatea has a fairly large Chinese population, there are several Chinese restaurants there. I had noticed the Emerald Pearl, but thought it was closed; however, that afternoon we found someone who assured us it would be open that evening, and we had a very good meal there. One afternoon Jan and I met an elderly lady, who owned a gallery; she provided us with lots of interesting information about the various tiki, carvings, fish hooks and shared some fascinating legends. Before we left Raiatea, we took the opportunity to hike up the small mountain (1000 ft) above Utaroa with Carl and Jan and had marvellous views from there - we could see Bora Bora, Tahaa, Raiatea and Huahine. The colours in the lagoon between Tahaa and Raiatea were amazing. By this point, we were almost out of time on our visa, so decided it was best to check out of Polynesia in Raiatea and then carry on to Tahaa and Bora Bora. The Gendarme told us that as long as we were out of Raiatea by the next day - "he didn't care". A number of boats are in the same situation and the officials seem sympathetic to the cruisers (we are spending lots of money in their communities). In addition, it is a French rule (not a Polynesian rule) and the only Customs boat had gone up on a reef several months ago in the Tuamotus (previous blog), so no one is really checking the cruisers. It was prudent to keep a low profile and we changed our name on VHF (the Gendarmes do monitor Ch 16), but we had the sense that as long as one didn't overstay too long, it was OK.