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.
Get link
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
-
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.
Photo courtesy of Moonshiner Monday 13 th November, Rivergate Marina, Brisbane, Australia. Brisbane!!!!!!!!! We're back! Very exciting and very weird at the same time. We docked at 1800 last Wednesday, got checked in and allowed ashore on Thursday, found a microbrewery, caught up with the Masters, the Chens and half the crew of Matilda, had a Bunnings sausage sizzle, took the Citycat to town, visited West End and now I'm packing to head to Perth on Wednesday. All a bit hectic really. Karl sets the world record for dock to sausage sizzle. Leaving New Cal, after we checked out of Nouméa, we headed down the lagoon to Amédée island, right beside the channel, to position ourselves for a quick getaway once the weather was right. Amédée is a tiny little island with a very impressive lighthouse opened in 1865. It was manufactured and assembled in Paris for structural and wind testing, then disassembled and shipped to New Caledonia where it took 9 months to reassemble on Amédée. Durin
Wednesday 3 rd June, in the middle of the South Atlantic, one week out of St. Helena. Disaster! One week into the transatlantic trip and we lost a sail this morning. We've been in light winds most of the time so have had our beautiful colourful MPS (like a spinnaker), Gayboy, flying and pulling us along at fabulous speeds (I've seen the instruments claim we're doing 7 knots in 6 knots apparent of wind) for the conditions. This morning there were lots of squalls around but the overall forecast was for winds up to 15 knots so we (foolishly) decided to leave the sail up. Then in a squall Rover's steering wasn't quite up to it, the boat heeled and the clew of the MPS dragged in the water ripping the bottom strip most of the way along the foot. Panic stations!!! Not fun. Not fun at all. Thankfully we retrieved the sail without further damage to it, the boat or ourselves. So now we're back to the old fashioned poled-out genoa. Lesson learned (won't f
Wednesday 25 th October, Nouméa, Nouvelle Calédonie. Bonjour a tous! We are once again back on French territory and enjoying all the civilised treats that come with that. We're anchored in the harbour off the capital Nouméa just waiting, waiting, waiting (along with lots of other Aussie boats) for the elusive weather window back home to Brissie. In the meantime we're keeping a close eye on the lovely Lola – a cat 5 cyclone that's hitting our neighbour Vanuatu at the moment. She's forecast to weaken before she gets to us so let's keep our fingers crossed. I guess it was to be expected – we did get that late season cyclone just after leaving Mooloolaba in May 2019 so it's nicely symmetrical that the Universe has thrown this early season (earliest on record actually) one at us too. All that's missing now is another earthquake. Grand, soft, Irish day in Nouméa. So we escaped Fiji and had, shock horror, a perfectly uneventful passage to New Cal and, shock ho
Comments
Post a Comment