SV Erica's travels: Society Islands, French Polynesia ( 27th August to 23rd September)

Warm balmy tropical weather, a cooling sea breeze at anchor, spectacular reef breaks, calm crystal clear aquamarine lagoon water offset by deep blue in the depths, lofty breath taking peaks, fascinating lush fauna, fragrant flowers,white powder sand beaches, tropical fish in coral gardens and exotic pearls.....
120 islands spread over 5 archipelagos..
We would like to spend more time here in French Polynesia but we need to head south for the crossing back to New Zealand in November.

We arrived in Tahiti from the Tuamotus on the 26th of August and spent a week in the Papeete marina where we welcomed Ralph's wife Colleen aboard. She flew in from NZ to meet Ralph after his long voyage with us from Panama since the end of May

Ralph wasn't fully recovered from his illness so we didn't go far afield, just walked to the market and around the town

After 3 days with us we waved them off on the ferry to Moorea to begin their holiday together and we prepared our floating home for the next stage of our voyage.

After leaving Tahiti island we spent a few days in Moorea island where we met up with Ralph and Colleen for lunch aboard in Cooks inlet

We waved goodbye as we passed their hotel

While we were in the marina in Papeete we met a lovely family from Oregan on SV Baku and when they arrived in Moorea we shared an exciting episode with them on the reef in Papetoai with stingrays and black tip reef sharks

An overnight passage of 83nm took us to Huahine island.

The wind was howling down the valley to the anchorage off the village on the NW side and since all the mooring bouys were taken, the holding on the edge of the reef not good we decided not to leave the boat to go ashore. So instead we anchored in sand off another reef and left the next day for the twin islands of Raiatea and Tahaa. These 2 islands share the same lagoon.

Entering the passage between the reefs..

We found a lovely anchorage beside the reef across from the village of Uturoa. It was a very narrow and shallow pass beside a motu but we skimmed across with a few inches under the keel. Having a centereboard is a huge benefit meaning we can go where shallow draft catamarans venture.

On the left upper part of the photo you can see the motu (small island) and us anchored....

Cathy unloading the shopping trolley into the dinghy

We were entertained watching many reef fish, local boats traversing the pass and kite and windsurfers.

After a couple of days we sailed across the lagoon to Tahaa island renowned for its vanilla plantations and anchored in Baie Hurepiti for the night.

Now the 11th of September saw us heading to Bora Bora island (25nm) with lots of charter catamarans. After passing the reef we saw a large whale surface to the obvious delight of the people on the catamarans. It is still wondrous to sight them but we have seen so many in our travels now that we tend to keep our distance after 2 direct hits in Madagascar and Sth Africa.
The reef surf and subsequent spray as we approached the pass into Bora Bora lagoon were spectacular but hazy for good photos.

The entrance

Mt Otemanu rises out of the lagoon majestically.

We motored in to the village of Vaitape to check out the services for future use then headed across to the eastern side of the lagoon.The lagoon is surrounded by reef and low lying land giving excellent shelter but a pleasant breeze rising over the top.. Again lucky to be shallow draft and able to poke into places many can't go.

The next day we headed in the dinghy down the lagoon to look at the stilted hotels projecting out across the bay. It would not normally be an anchorage we would choose preferring solitude instead but we needed to careen (clean the bottom of the boat) of weed and slime and this site with shallow water, white sand and good visibility was ideal so we upanchored and headed for the exquisite little bay.

To each side of us were stilted hotel chalets, behind us the mountain peaks and in front palm trees and white sand housing more chalets and hotel facilities.. We are told they are in excess of $2,000 per day.