We're on a new island! We've not visited Huahine before, even though it's in the Tahiti-Moorea-Raiatea-Tahaa-Bora-Bora circuit. They've eschewed the Bora Bora economy in favor of a quiet lifestyle with fewer accoutrements for tourists. Some cruisers arrive, of course, and they have services for a few of those, but nothing like Bora Bora.

We arrived yesterday afternoon after a 10 hour motor/sail from Bora Bora. We actually made it through the reef in light! Conni had the helm and after a quick tour, we dropped the hook in 35-feet of water, had hors de ouvres and cocktails, then dinner. It was a pleasant night. A Frenchman in an Amel (of course, since he's French) dinghies to us as we were hunting for an anchor location and told us to anchor in a place to seaward of him.

This morning, the wind and seas picked up and we decided to find a new anchorage. After a fruitless search, we returned to the same area but a mooring buoy had been vacated and we grabbed it. Lovely!

We're sitting in the (you guessed it) Huahine Yacht Club drinking beer and looking at the place. It is lovely and I can see and count 12 other sailboats out here. They're not bunched, of course, but they're out there. Personally, I think that we have the premier place, but I hope to post a photo of the boat; you decide.

Conni has us signed up for Internet from a company that advertises itself as being French Polynesia-wide, even as far East as Rangiroa and Fakarava, on our route this time. Sounds good to me.

We're having these odd North winds. For those who went with me from Fiji, don't we wish that we had had North winds? Jeez. They're supposed to kick up to 20-25 kts tonight, but our location offers some protection from them. We're open to seas from the pass, of course, but with the wind pushing our bow to leeward, the seas are breaking on our stern quarter: livable.

We on being here in Huahine for 4 days, leaving on Tuesday and sailing to Fakarava, a 3 day sail. Predictions seems good for that trip.

Will get photos uploaded as I can. Time and bandwidth may limit what I can do. Thanks for your patience.