We did an overnight sail from Moorea to Huahine which was about 87 miles. We wanted to leave Moorea before higher winds were supposed to fill in on the next day. It worked out perfect but now we have really gusty winds that are going to be here a few days. It's best to stay put in this beautiful slice of paradise until they subside a little.

The anchorage is one of the better ones we have been at with a hotel that we can use for happy hour, dinghy dock, food, car rental, and happy hour. Then there there is a shop or two and a place or two to eat at down the street. Did I mention the hotel has a Happy Hour?


Huahine is not very well known but that helps keep it off the beaten path. It does not have as much tourism or high end resorts that we saw in Moorea but that makes it a nice island. It's a place to come to if you want more of a low key vacation without the hoards of tourists and touristy prices. There is a little town (called Fare) that has a few restaurants, gift shops and other necessities.

The water is so clear and the island is extremely clean and friendly. People yell from their cars as they pass by the Polynesian greeting of 'Ia ora na!

This island is actually composed of two islands inside one barrier reef and we are anchored at the south island which is a few kilometers away from Fare, the main town.

We had a lot of fun exploring this island on our scooters. We went around the entire island and everywhere we turned, it was beautiful

A few days ago, we saw that our friends whom we met in El Salvador were on their way here. It's always fun running into cruiser friends, comparing notes on our trip and then having fun on land together. Running into cruiser friends was common cruising around Mexico but not in French Polynesia so that makes it even more enjoyable.

We went with Eddie and Terese to a dinner buffet and Polynesian show at the hotel in our anchorage. The buffet was excellent and we all stuffed ourselves! After that, the show started which we could tell was a local group of ordinary islanders and they were having fun too. They even got some of the audience up to dance which was amusing.


The following day we rented a car together and toured the island where we happened to come across a fair/competition that was all about yams. Yes, yams. These are not like any yam I have ever seen in a supermarket they were HUGE! These farmers were competing to see who had the heaviest yam in each of the 9 varieties there. Apparently, yams are very important culturally because this food is versatile and can last several days that were necessary for the Polynesian inter-island ocean voyages. We don't have any yams with us but maybe we should. We could go around the world on a single yam.



Our next stop will be Ta'haa Island which is about 30 miles so we plan to do a day sail there when the winds (and seas) subside a little.

Although we wanted to stay longer in Moorea, it was time to think about leaving for the next destination, Huahine Island. Wind was going to be very strong soon but we had a weather window for a smooth ride. We would leave at night which would give us a chance to swim with the stingrays in the morning.

So, in the morning, we took our dinghy over to the area where the tour boats go and an area where the stingrays are known to hangout. We went early in the morning to avoid the tour boats. This place was amazing! As soon as we got there, we saw the big UFO looking shadows going by under the dinghy.

That wasn't all though there were black tip reef sharks as well. These guys were a little more shy than the stingrays.




On the way back to our boat we stopped to snorkel on the underwater tiki's. This was no big deal; more of tourist thing.


After a morning doing those fun things, we went back to the boat to prepare for the overnight trip to Huahine. We will miss Moorea. Sadly, we have to push on with our visa time running short.

Well, it's been a little while since the last blog but that is because Tahiti wasn't anything special. I mean it was nice, well developed, and parts were certainly beautiful, but the main thing for us was a taste of a city life again. After sitting in traffic, in our rented car, for three hours to get from Papeete (the city) and back to our boat, we had enough.

We explored, visited MacDonald's, shopped at Carrefour (fantastic selection of groceries), and of course some gift shops and boat stores. Papeete is just a city with no special architecture but just about everything one desires. We did have a nice beach side beer and a decent meal at a restaurant. We got that out of our system. We are good to go now.

We did the short trip over to Moorea and this is what we pictured in our minds as French Polynesia - Just beautiful everywhere we turn. And think whatever you want, but we enjoy the more touristy, upmarket stores.

In the other islands (except Tahiti), there was this feeling that people didn't really care about making money. For example, when ordering food at a place (there are no restaurants per say), it was either take what they have, or order from a limited menu with a sorry, we are out of that.

Here, in Moorea, there is competition and drive for service and quality. Most people speak at least some English too...bonus.

Today, our first full day here, we took our electric scooters out so we could cover a lot of ground. It was a lot of fun to use our scooters to see Moorea. These things can go up to 20mph and 40 miles on charge so we went all over.


We had a nice lunch, went up into the interior a little and then back down and over to the Hilton Resort where we made reservations for tomorrow - dinner buffet and Polynesian dance show. It will also be our anniversary dinner.

I can tell Moorea has enough to do here for a while. Unfortunately our visa's are expiring on July 10 so we will need to move on.

After two false starts, we finally departed Tahanea Atoll for Fakarava Atoll on Friday at 4am. We had planned to leave on Wednesday night around 9pm, sail through the night, and arrive for the first slack tide at Fakarava in the morning. Squalls started rolling through so that was a no go. The weather had changed and it was not very good for the following day either with lots of rain. We figured we would leave the following day in the morning - the pass was not looking good and due to the unsettled weather and wind. Oh well, not a bad place to spend another day.

Finally, Friday looked good. We decided to leave at 4am so we could catch the morning tide at 11am in Fakarava. If we missed that window we would have one more before night time. We left successfully although it was a little nerve racking because it was completely dark out with no moon to light the way.

In order to make the tide at Fakarava, we would need to average 7 or more kts the entire 50 mile trip which meant we might need help from the engine, depending on wind and conditions. So, we motor-sailed, using the big genoa to help move the boat.

Anyway it turned out that we were worried about nothing. We motored directly into the pass at the exact moment of slack tide with 0kt current.

Once we cruised in and found our anchor spot, we explored a little on our dinghy. This area is not the touristy area that is at the north end of Fakarava. The southern end is the pass that has famous diving/snorkeling.

Unfortunately, snorkeling or anything much was not going to happen for the next 24 hrs because a weather trough developed that brought us lots of rain and 30+ kts wind through most of the following day.

We were fortunate to have left Tehanea when we did at 4am because our neighbor there left at 10am (the next tide), shooting for the tide in Fakarava during the afternoon. Unfortunately, they were slow and didn't make it for that tide so they were stuck outside and could not make it into Fakarava due to the crazy breaking waves and wind. They had to spend the entire night at sea waiting for a good opportunity to enter the pass. They eventually decided to go up to the north pass but this wasn't any better and they wound up turning a 6 hour trip into a 30 hour trip dealing with huge waves and wind.

I'm not sure how we manage to avoid really bad situations that others don't. Is it luck or skill? Maybe a little of both. The weather was not predicted so it's not like it would be easy to avoid but somehow we did.


Today, Sunday, the wind finally calmed down around noon and we did the snorkel through the pass. This was a spectacular snorkel. To snorkel the pass, you hop into your dinghy and go to the entrance of the pass.

It should be done just after slack low tide when the current starts to move inward slowly. Then, jump in the water and hold onto the dinghy line so it floats into the lagoon with you.

What a snorkeling experience! I am an avid diver with hundreds of dives but this is the first time I really did not feel the need for SCUBA gear. In fact, there really isn't much beyond the shallows unless you want to do a shark dive which is very popular here. The fish and coral colors have a lot more variety to them than any other place I have been. The water was crystal clear and, yes, we saw several sharks that were probably the biggest we have seen so far.

We plan to leave this anchorage and travel up to the north end of the island, on the inside. This is where we can provision and prepare for the two day trip to Tahiti.

For the past few days, we've been in Tahanea Atoll. This atoll is uninhabited but there are about two shacks we saw here for the locals to come and stay when they are harvesting copra (coconut). Although it is uninhabited, there were several boats here and a few came and went while we were here.

We had a beach barbecue with the other boats which was a lot of fun. Everyone brought something to share and Crystal made a salmon dip which everyone loved.


We also met some friends we met in Nuku Hiva, Wolf and Doris from Austria. What a surprise that was! As we were walking through the trees and shrubbery, we heard some chopping which turned out to be Wolf trying to cut a coconut open. It's a lot of fun to keep bumping into people we met previously.

The favorite thing here for everyone to do was drift snorkel in one of the three passes. We hop into our dingy, and go over to the pass when there is an inbound current. We then jump in the water with snorkeling gear on and holding a line from the dingy. The dingy and us float with the current as it takes us through the pass. We just relax and watch all of the different coral colors and beautiful fish go by. Then we repeat, again and again.

The coral needs needs crystal clear water for sunlight and it also needs the nutrients that in flowing current brings. That's why there is more variety of coral in the passes.

Aside from the snorkeling, we went and ate fresh coconut again. It tastes a lot better from the tree than buying it somewhere. We used our machete that bought in El Salvador.


Then there were some boat repairs we had to do while here - our dinghy popped a seam and we had glue it back and we discovered our ocean port holes (windows) were seeping water. In some areas there was quite a bit water of accumulated so we had to take them all out, clean them up, put new sealant on them and put a new weather seal on them. Fortunately, we had everything to do the job but it took a long time for the sealant to cure.

Now it's time to leave. We are going to one more atoll, one of the more popular ones with some tourism called Fakarava Atoll. It's about 50 miles which could be done during the day but we will do it at night because we need to time our entrance to the atoll. We will enter the atoll around 10 am tomorrow morning.

This is our first visit to any kind of atoll. We were expecting crystal clear water, white sand beaches and coconut trees just like we see in pictures. This place did not disappoint. There was all that plus more - a cute little village with the friendliest people, pink sand beaches, and not only clear water, but different shades of blue water. There was lots of coral heads as well which are beautiful to snorkel on but a little dangerous if you're trying to navigate around them.


The first three nights we spent just inside the pass to the lagoon. In this area, there was a nice little village with a few grocery stores, a craft market, a couple places where you might get something to eat if they were open, and the obligatory church.

We then ventured down to the easternmost part of the lagoon - the windward side and two hours motoring. This is the side of the island where all the waves pound and erode the atoll. When you get to this side of an atoll, there are no trees left and very little land. The waves pound against the remaining lava rock and fresh ocean water is able to enter the lagoon causing outflow in the passes on the other side.

The coral that used to be on this side of the island thousands of years ago has been turned into sand or just sits as piles of fragments. There is also some red volcanic rock and due to this mix of coral, sand, and rock, there are many colors in the water.

We did morning walks along this side of the island which lasted for several hours. During the walk today, we sat under a coconut tree and drank the juice from a freshly picked coconut. I'm confident that we would not starve on tropical island as long as there are coconuts. Check that one off the bucket list!


Later in the afternoon, we met up with two Swedish couples we met here and had drinks on the beach with a campfire made of coconut husks. Turns out that burning coconut husks also keeps mosquitos away although there doesn't seem to be very many.

On this end of the island, nobody lives here but a couple people come out to harvest copra. Two guys harvesting copra joined us for sundowners. they were very friendly but we could not communicate with them very well. Even the Swedes who know French had difficulty communicating so they did not speak French very well either. I'm not sure they could speak very well at all but, oh well, it was fun!

Copra, by the way, is sun dried coconut meat that is sold as the raw material for coconut oil. This is probably the biggest and possibly the only crop on atolls like these.

Tomorrow we will try to navigate our way through coral heads, back to the anchorage outside town for one last night before we leave this atoll to go to our next one, Tahanea.