Society Islands French Polynesia

We returned from Malta and re-joined Sunday Island in Morea and re-united with my Sister Gina, her husband Fraser and son Fred. My Mum had also joined us for a few weeks onboard. After Gina, Fraser and Fred departed enjoyed a beautiful down wind sail with Mum through the day to Raiatea where we sailed through the Atol up to the northern island of Tahaa and anchored off the coral gardens.

The next morning we dived on some reef and explored the local area. Mum and I took the tender across to Tapamu bay to do a shop. However the only shop in the area did not have any fresh food, and only took cash, so we settled with Rose wine and cheese (Tre’s Francais) and visited the local Rum and distillery and craft beer brewery. We enjoyed mums last night at anchor, and followed up with a spectacular snorkel through the coral gardens the next morning. Whilst the coral was bleached, stressed and not looking good, the fish life was phenominal. I saw the a 1m long puffer fish and Max and I discovered Bobbit out of its hole…. Anybody who has watched David Attenborough Blue Plannet will know the scary Bobbit! Mum was stoked with her last snorkel in FP and her week with family. We motored sailed our way down to Caranage Anchorage in Raiatea where I took mum to the airport in the tender.

The next couple of days we spend doing maintenance, school and shopping, before returning to the Coral Gardens to settle in for a week. A focus on kids school, work and admin was required so we decided to stay put for a week of snorkelling amongst the corals and fish, school, work, and study.

The wind turned to the North West which is quite unusual for this latitude in the pacific and we decided to make good use of it to sail south and check out some waterfalls in Raiatea. We anchored in a nice bay and explored the surrounding area. Unfortunately the waterfalls could not be accessed without a guide because it was on private land. The guide charged $200 each, so our budged declined the adventure. We headed up to an island just inside the Raiatea pass and spent a couple of days snorkelling around the island. I went for a dive to search for a Catalina sea plane and also dived the pass.

Some big winds were forecasted from the SE so we sailed back to Tapamu bay, visiting a few pearl farms along the way and enjoying some very good tours while we weathered the strong winds. We remain in Tapamu bay watching the weather for our ten day passage to Tonga, however the pacific weather and ITCZ are very unstable so we need to patience as the weather systems keep being pushed up from NZ resulting in Westerly winds every few days.

Around the corner from Tapamu bay Mobular rays (Manta rays) come to feed every morning, so we have been enjoying some great snorkling with these Manta rays in the morning before school and study. With any luck the weather will settle in the next week allowing us to sail to Tonga.