Since we’ve been here several times in the past few years (blots and photo pages are on the site), I haven’t posted any blogs, and may not post any photos, at least from Fare. We do plan to visit other bays, and I’ll certainly post from there.

We departed Fa’aroa Bay on time (0830), with the main hoisted to the second reef where we kept it all day. When we exited the bay’s mouth, we were very close to our departure pass, Passe Iriru du Maire. Deceptively narrow, it lies between two large motus that are widely spaced, but the true pass through the reef is considerably narrower and requires some careful piloting. We motored out of the pass without difficulty and immediately felt the Pacific swells lift us, welcoming us to the Big Blue. Within a 1/2 mile, we had the jib unfurled to first reef and the sails trimmed for our course. We were sailing again!

As a quick aside, we’ve found the charts for French Polynesia extremely accurate. We always buy the newest updates, of course, and have new charts on our main plotter, the Raymarine C80, on the new Simrad NSS Evo2, and my iPad. That’s a lot of redundancy and we like it that way. The Simrad also houses the new (as of last year) forward-looking sonar, and we depend on it heavily in these waters. Down to 50-60 feet, it’s dependable, but in depths greater than that, it loses a bottom lock. We’re happy with the performance since a coral head 50 feet down can do no damage. Having a separate screen for depth also means that we can get detailed bottom information without sacrificing our main chart plotter’s screen. It wasn’t planned, but we’ve come to recognize the utility of having depth and chart on two screens. I suppose is one had one huge screen that would matter and splitting the screen would be fine.

Needing to charge our always-hungry batteries, we kept the engine on, but relied for propulsion on our sails. We passed several other sailboats heading here and there, several to and from Huahine, some to Bora Bora, and one to Moorea, an overnight sail.

The wind was relatively steady in direction but varied wildly in speed, so we had a rough ride until we were inside the wind shadow of Huahine.

From Raiatea, we could see Huahine, of course, so there was little navigation to be done. From the mouth of Fa’aroa Bay to Fare Bay is only 22 nm. We departed at 0910 and arrived at 1400, a five hour run. We noodled around Fare Bay, finding a place to drop the hook, and by 1430, we were checking our location for our night’s stay.

We enjoyed the sail across, with Huahine gaining prominence off our bow and Raiatea/Taha’a fading at our stern. I trolled the entire way, changing lures every hour, but got nothing. Sigh. Getting no data teaches me nothing about the best lures to use.

We arrived at the well-remembered entrance to Passe Avamoa, found the two range markers, and followed them through the reef. There were no spare moorings, so we hunted for a good location and dropped the hook. A strong tug on it gave a power set and then Conni deployed 200 feet of chain: we were home for the next few days.

We splashed the dinghy and motored to the old dock, since the new one has, for some reason, but dismantled. The store was still open so we grabbed some necessities, among them being HInano beer, and returned to the boat for our traditional sundown festivities.

The evening was gorgeous and we sat in the cockpit enjoying the views as the sun set and all color departed the beautiful reefs, and still sat in the dark, watching the stars circle over us. It was cool, we were safely anchored, and all was right.

At some point, I came below and attended to my dishwashing, afterward setting up our Wifi extender. By the way, if I haven’t mentioned it, it’s a great device. By capturing and amplifying distant Wifi signals, we are able to access Wifi when others cannot. I have a bit of work to change settings from location to another, but most of the time I can find a suitable Wifi access point and then use my laptop to share the access. We can use one site for access for any device aboard. I can upload web pages or blogs and Conni can catch up on her politics. At any rate, it’s a worthwhile device to have aboard.

Huahine has been the scene of some minor thefts, we’ve read, so we take the time to lock the outboard to the dinghy’s transom and to lock the gas can to the motor. We’ve never had a single problem, but it’s important to do the easy things to keep it that way. The engine lock simply slips over the two transom toggles and locks securely. The lock is recessed and it would be very difficult to cut. We use a plastic-coated coil of bicycle lock cable for everything else, such as the outboard’s gas can or water jugs we’re filling.

I tried some other lures today, and, again, had no success. I’ve decided to try everything that I have here and see what does and does not work If it doesn’t, it goes home or in the garbage.

I remember that I had my two Alaskan salmon rods aboard, so I can do some lure casting while in the various bays, and leave that heavy trolling rod for offshore. There’s no reason to think that there aren’t edible fish here, and that no reason that we can’t catch them. There are only a few islands that have any rules at all about fishing, and Huahine is not one of them.

We arose early today and motored into town to buy a fresh baguette, since they sell out fairly quickly. We also checked the laundry services, and were able to make another run with our VERY dirty clothing. Our plan is to return for the laundry and have a meal at the Huahine Yacht Club.