Karl & Kara Go Sailing

Tuesday 1 st August, Vaitape, Bora Bora, Society Islands, French Polynesia. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. August already and we're still in French Polynesia and rapidly crossing islands off our onwards itinerary as we run out of time. Cook Islands? Nah. Fiji? Nope. Vanuatu? Cancelled. At least we've finally made it to the island of Bora Bora (population 10,000), our last French Polynesian island. We've started the checking out process with the local Gendarmerie who will send all the (considerable) paperwork to Tahiti where it will get processed and then sent back and we'll pick it up on Thursday. Easy. Then it'll just be a matter of making the most of the last of the baguettes, poisson cru and long French lunches while we wait for a weather window. Death by a thousand forms at the Gendarmerie in Vaitape. So part of the reason we're still lingering in this part of the world so late in the season is that after being tempted by Huahine we then got distracted by the ne...

  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 t...

  Monday 17 th July, Fare, Huahine, Society Islands, French Polynesia. A lovely Monday afternoon here in Fare when we were supposed to be sailing over to the neighbouring island of Taha'a but the forecast got less and less optimistic and this morning, after an early departure, there was just not enough wind so we turned around and here we still are. There are a lot worse places to be trapped I can tell you, a lot worse. The island of Huahine wasn't even on my radar a couple of weeks ago but friends recommended it and then of course Karl couldn't resist ticking that box. And it has turned out to be a little gem of an island. We've been in the Society Islands since the end of June having left the Marquesas and sailed right on by the Tuamotus (gasps from all the sailors) straight to Tahiti. We had planned to stop in the Tuamotus, they do tend to make the all time favourites lists amongst sailors, but the logistics were driving us nuts. The passes through the reefs only ...