There is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of ‘em, it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always something else to do.
Huahine, Society Islands.
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Monday 24th July, Apu Bay, Taha'a, Society Islands.
We've hopped over to the twin islands of Taha'a and Ra'iatea (they share a common lagoon) and now, as promised in the last blog, I'll continue on from Moorea and go on and on and on about how lovely Huahine was.
So, tourism Moorea
completed, we upped anchor for an overnight sail up to the delightful island of Huahine. We
were following the four masted sailing cruise ship Wind Spirit, all
lit up, for most of the night and it was a perfectly lovely and
uneventful sail. We arrived first thing in the morning to find both Silver Chief
and Cerulean sailing away before we got there. At least the dolphins
were happy to see us. And both Salty Ginger and Audacia (our two raft
buddies for the Panama Canal transit) were in harbour.
Huahine has definitely been the highlight of the Society Islands so
far and well up there in highlights of the entire trip. It's hard to
put your finger on exactly what's so good about this little island
(population about 6000) but everyone just loves it. It's very pretty
obviously, a lush green island surrounded by clear pale blue water
over a coral reef, but aren't they all? Huahine has just got a
lovely atmosphere. And a bustling little town, Fare, with it's main
street lined with market stalls and with a bunch of roulottes (food
trucks) down the end. And it has a Yacht Club! I'm pretty sure this is the first yacht club we've been in since Sint Maarten. And the yacht club has a happy hour which has made us very happy.
Unnervingly clear and shallow-looking water under Gráinne's keel.
That's Gráinne right there.
The supply ship heeling under the weight of the Bastille Day Hinano beer delivery.
The yacht club and its dinghy dock.
We got to Huahine just in time to enjoy the big weekend of Heiva - July 14th a.k.a. Le Quatorze a.k.a. Bastille Day. There was a fantastic atmosphere in town with everyone throwing themselves into the Va'a (outrigger) racing. It was lovely to see all the youngsters as well as the adults all dressed up and really going for it.
Parents supervising as the kids carry their va'a to the startline.
Always time to pose for a photo.
Watching the racing from the shore.
Karl at the main stage. They sure know how to decorate a stage in these parts.
The 14th was also all about dressing up and partying. We joined in a little.
Holiday regulations: you can buy alcohol from 0530 in the morning, just not after midday.
Party boat.
Karl looking distinctly underdressed compared to the locals for a Le Quatorze lunch at the yacht club.
Even after we got back to the boat from the celebrations in town the events followed us.
After spending Bastille Day in Fare we went down to the south of the
island for the rest of the long weekend. Huahine, sort of like Tahiti, is two islands,
joined by a very short bridge: Huahine Nui and ....you've guessed it (if you've been reading the Tahiti blog)... Huahine Iti. And Huahine Iti is the quieter one where you just hang
out and relax and do nothing. We moored in the most perfectly
beautiful Avea Bay. It's so gorgeous it looks fake. Straight out of
Hollywood in the technicolour 50s. We did alot of sitting and staring
at the beauty, a bit of snorkeling (we saw an octopus! It was
swimming and then it started pretending to be a rock. Very cool.) and
then indulged in the traditional Sunday Ma'a Tahiti - a big buffet lunch
of all conceivable Polynesian dishes.
One of Karl's GoPro productions of our trip down to Avea Bay. It got a bit shallow at times! And watch out for Amazing Snorkeling Karl at the end.
Moored in a little piece of heaven in Avea Bay, when we swung in the right (or wrong) direction we had just about 10cm under the keel. Eeek.
Perfecting my ray impression while looking for rays.
Karl at Chez Tara for the Sunday Ma'a Tahiti.
Lunchtime entertainment while you queue for the buffet.
Avea Bay - so perfect it can't possibly be real.
After that little sojourn we headed back up to Fare to wait for a weather window across to Taha'a & Ra'iatea. We had to wait a few days which meant we just had to go to the Yacht Club happy hour a couple of more times....terrible.
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Well now, it's been an interesting couple of months hasn't it? We've been vaguely keeping track of happenings in the rest of the world by listening to the BBC World news on the radio with breakfast each morning. It had been very gloomy there for a while but now things seem to be becoming more optimistic. Apart from the economy of course, that's completely screwed. I think it might be our fault; last time we took a year off to go travelling we had the Global Financial Crisis and swine flu so there seems to be a bit of a pattern there. Sorry. We've had a very different experience of the pandemic here, almost the opposite of what you've all had. There's no covid-19 on the island, no lockdown, bars and restaurants are open and parties have been know to occur. On the other hand we've completely missed out on what seems to be a fascinating online lockdown culture due to the limits of internet here. Jamestown is sqeezed into the valley ...
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