Avea Bay down at the southwest end was quiet, calm, friendly, and we even found a mooring to use. Nice to leave the anchor on deck and repair the bridle. Stout mooring – so when the squalls came, no worries mate. Friendly local residents, a nice resort with fufu drinks, and some good snorkeling. Had the wind been right, a beach a short dinghy ride around the corner offered a setup and launch point for kite boarding. We went over there with our pals from Agape, but the weather didn’t cooperate.
Fare is the big village up towards the northwest end. There’s a seriously well stocked Super U grocery store, electric bike rentals, post office, hardware store, fuel station, and open-air markets. The shell museum is world class and also sells pearls. Ask Isabel how we know. One of the jewels of the village is Izzy’s Burgers, a place where a punter can get a killer good cheeseburger (Angus beef) and fries for around $11. Izzy is a lady who found her way to Huahine from Southern California, and she brought the great burger and fries culture that In ‘n Out is so well known for. We found ourselves in there on two separate occasions, and eventually our full up loyalty card will earn us a free cheeseburger. Not complaining.
We spent a beautiful day riding electric bikes 61 kilometers around Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti (north and south islands). Somewhere down on Huahine Iti we found a great spot for lunch, and consumed the best poisson cru (raw tuna in coconut milk and lots of salady bits) we’d perhaps ever had, as well as some good barbequed chicken and fries. We were sustained! With about 30 kilometers to go on the ride, it was the right thing to do.
We joined the crew from SV Newam 2, SV Taipan and SV Capall Mara for fancy cocktails at the little resort by Avea Bay one evening, paying too much for fruity rum drinks that didn’t even have little umbrellas in them. It was fun, but not a habit to get into.
Today we joined 6 other dinghies with their crews to observe a Polynesian celebration of life for a young friend of ours, tragically killed just a few days ago by a speed boat as he was snorkeling. He was only 14 and leaves behind grieving parents and his little sister. More about Eddie another time, it’s still a difficult topic for me.
At 1700 local time this afternoon we weighed anchor and sailed for Maupiti. It’s about 2300 now and I’m about to maneuver around Bora Bora so we can lay the last 30 something miles of the passage. It’s a quick overnighter and the sailing conditions are good. Plenty of stars out to enjoy, and perhaps now that it’s finally cleared up, I’ll get to see a few remnants of the annual Perseid meteor shower which peaked on Wednesday night. Naturally it was raining and cloudy then.
Maupiti has a single pass for entry and exit, and if the southern swell is greater than 2 meters the pass features breaking waves, something not to be trifled with. We timed our passage to try and have a shot at the morning (0600) and noon slack tide periods, but right now we’re running a little late for the 0600 show time. Looks like we may have to hove to outside the pass and wait for noon, but the seas aren’t demonstrating any southern swell so at least we should get in OK. There’s a maramu coming next week and we want to be well tucked in before the wind and seas pick up.
Maupiti is known for a “cleaning station” where giant manta rays gather daily to let the small cleaner shrimp and fish nibble the parasites from them. Cool opportunity to swim with a crowd of manta rays, so we’re in! We’ve got several friends there already, so we’re bringing fresh vegetables for our pals on SV Sugar Shack and we’re looking forward to some time with our pals on SV Le Pukeko before they sail over the horizon to New Zealand in a few weeks.
It was time to move on – we were gettin’ “itchy”.
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