Each of the Society Islands we visited had its own feel and charm. After Moorea, we went to Huahine, Raiatea and the iconic Bora Bora. We enjoyed them all. This is truly a beautiful area to cruise…though not without its challenges! We indulged in the spectacular scenery and waters, but we also waited out some wet weather and high winds, were hit by a charter boat in the night (argh!!!) and helped friends patch their boat up after a mooring broke loose and they hit a hotel. There are definitely ups and downs in cruising!
Overnight Passage from Moorea to Huahine
After two weeks of beach and playtime in Moorea we were ready to move on to Huahine. Only a ‘quick’ 90 miles, (which is funny to me as 90 miles used to feel so long – it was the distance we’d travel during our summer adventures cruising one way from our yacht club to Desolation Sound) we decided to leave a couple hours before sunset to allow us plenty of daylight the next day to make landfall.
We’d been watching the whitecaps beyond the pass all week and were looking forward to a good sail. I asked Gavin whether we should put a second reef in before leaving the pass. “No, it will be fine,” he said. And in all honesty I think one reef would have been fine, had we been underway for a few days and used to the conditions. But there is something I still find humbling after leaving a dead calm anchorage in a protected lagoon to motor through the pass into ocean swells and windy conditions.
The wind was accelerating around Moorea and we had solid breeze in the high twenties and low thirties and some decent ocean swells and wave winds on top. We looked at each other and quickly put in our second reef. I was thankful for the seaworthiness and safety I feel aboard Slingshot as I often am when we are out sailing offshore. Then we had a beautiful overnight sail into Huahine.
Huahine – Lush and Laid Back
Huahine doesn’t have the same glamour as Moorea or the same degree of touristy type accommodations as Bora Bora (at least that we saw) but it had acres of unspoiled incredibly lush forested hills and a laid back feel that we loved.
We pulled up a mooring next to a ‘secret beach’ and our friends on SV Big Finn and enjoyed a couple of days snorkeling at the nearby ‘aquarium’ and the secluded white sand beach meters away from the boat.
Then we moved toward to Avea beach where we waited out some cloudy and windy weather and also enjoyed beach time, the seven year olds leading us on a hike, and some social time with SV Big Finn. We also managed to get a few days of kiting in, with Nathan getting up and sailing on his own a good distance!
We then moved back to Fare where we enjoyed walking through the small town and stocking up at its surprisingly well stocked supermarket. We loved listening to the locals have a ukulele jam session on a mid morning just outside the fish market.
Raiatea – River paddling, a Bump in the Night and Heiva
With some strong wind and weather expected in the upcoming days, we decided to leave the somewhat unprotected anchorage of Fare and sail across to nearby Raiatea. We’d met a lovely family aboard a French charter boat (SV Prana) and with Captain Chris’ local knowledge we anchored next to them in the protected anchorage of Faaroa while we waited out the rain and strong wind. Not long after we’d anchored there, a couple of more boats arrived. One of them, a charter catamaran anchored about 300 feet away. We didn’t think anything of it.
Bump in the Night
Bang! Gavin and I both woke up with a start. Confused, I wondered if the dinghy had fallen off its cradle. We keep it stored out of the water on our midship deck and it sits on two chalks. It’s never fallen off its cradle before but the bang sounded loud, by a large object and close by. I couldn’t think what else it could have been. Gavin poked his head out the hatch and said, “They’re on top of us.”
“What?!” We both grabbed some clothes flashlights and raced outside. We saw a tired 20 year old in his underwear straddling our bow pulpit with a leg either side, sitting midway down the starboard side of his 43 foot catamaran. It had hit our large stainless bow pulpit (what our anchor hangs on and lowers from) midship on its starboard side. There was a large hole about 6 by 4 inches dented into the freeboard of the catamaran.
“You moved!” he stated accusingly.
“No. I think you’ve dragged,” said Gavin.
“When did you get in here?” he asked gruffly, insinuating that it was us that had moved. “I never saw you guys.”
“Before you,” I replied. “We saw you come in.”
Incredulous, we saw that our bow pulpit or boat did not appear to be harmed, the only damage was to their catamaran. It was a black, windy night and we were concerned that they would continue to blow sideways up against our hull and cause more damage – to them and us.
But the people on board didn’t appear to be moving or taking any action. They didn’t seem to know what to do. So Gavin suggested, “Can you turn on your engine and slowly move forward? Your anchor might have dragged on top of mine.
Still, no one took charge on their boat and we were staring at them in surprise. The twenty year old stayed where he was, and another twenty- something came out of the cockpit to look at what was happening. There were other folks shuffling around in the shadows.
“Daaaad,” yelled the first one, “can you start the engine?”
“Do you have any bumpers?” I asked, concerned about their slow progress and that the wind would blow them sideways and our hulls would start scraping together. Gavin dug for our bumpers in our bow locker.
“How much scope did you put out?” I asked as he was (now moving a bit faster) tieing bumpers to the side of his hull.
“70 feet” he said.
“What?” I replied, hardly believing my ears.
Gavin said, “We dropped our anchor in 50 feet of water and we have 200 feet of scope out.”
“Yes, but we dropped in 40 feet of water over there.” he replied indignantly, clearly not realizing the problem.
“Um, you need at least 3 to 1 out here at a minimum depending on your anchor size and preferably at least 4 to 1 or more,” I said.
We were met by silence. It dawned on me just how clearly inexperienced these people were and I was concerned that they were not going to be able to maneuver their boat at night in these winds away from us and safely re-anchor again. Putting 70 feet of scope out in 40 feet of water (not even 2 to 1) is a sure recipe for dragging, especially when strong winds are forecast. Wow.
Slowly the folks on board began to move and they pulled forward away from our boat. Luckily the anchors were not entangled.
We watched as they motored into deeper water away from us into the night and Gavin and I went back inside with beating hearts. We were lucky, we realized. Gavin has always said that we have a big pointy bowsprit when I’ve expressed concern about folks dragging back into us. This bowsprit protected us from damage and lengthy delays that we could have experienced in trying to get our boat fixed here.
We took pictures of the boat as it motored away, noting its name and port, and immediately wrote down what occurred. We were surprised that they didn’t apologize but we realized they were likely in a bit of shock and had obviously not had much experience in anchoring. They woke up with a bang too and they had damage to deal with.
Late the next day they came over to us (after saying that their insurer told them they must come over and speak with us(!) and apologized and we exchanged details.) Our lesson from this experience is that we will be very cautious when anchoring near charter boats in future. Or, at least have casual chats with them to get a sense of anchoring details and experience. Yikes!
River Paddling
The next morning we joined SV Prana and paddled part way up French Polynesia’s longest river. The locals prefer no noisy outboards so we loaded on to the byte with paddles (no mast) and took our time paddling up the river. Because of all of the recent rain, the river was full and it was slow going! We loved stopping at a local farm where Chris introduced us to ‘ice cream’ fruit and we scampered through thick mud and lush green bushes and grass.
Kiting, Byte Sailing and the Coral Garden
The next day we waved goodbye to our new friends (they were on a shorter timeline being a charter) and anchored in the protection of a motu just inside the pass. We spent a beautiful couple of days, swimming and exploring and Gavin and I even had some amazing kiting sessions with wide open water. Gavin was racing upwind and I had long stretches of steady sailing. It was fabulous! Julia got a lot of experience paddleboarding here and enjoyed paddling in the bay on her own to the beach and back.
From here, Nathan and I had our best Byte sail yet! We sailed 14 miles from the East side of Raiatea to the west side of Tahaa. We were giggling and surfing waves the entire way. What a fun day we had. Of course we were racing Slingshot and it was fun to surf along beside each other.
Sadly, the well known and celebrated coral garden on the East side of Tahaa was full of a seaweed bloom, which made for unpleasant swimming, with seaweed and slime floating everywhere. Though we did sea a very large moray eel and plentiful fish. It was sad to see the impact of the seaweed. Folks who’d been here mere months ago said that the area had gone downhill fast. We are sad to see the amount of coral bleaching. More and more areas are dead with the warming ocean and it is alarming to see these effects immediate and up close.
Heiva
Our last stop was to the main town in Raiatea to see Heiva. Heiva is a month long celelbration in the Society Islands with several catagories of dance and performance with a final championship at the end of June. We were so lucky to experience a glorious performance at the stadium at Raiatea. The pride and confidence of the performers and the powerful drumbeats had us all mesmerized. Nathan kept asking, “How do they move like that?”
Ups and Downs in Bora Bora!
Our next stop in the Societies was Bora Bora. This was one of the few islands I’d heard about before researching our South Pacific plans in more detail. It is known as an exotic destination for honeymooners and I was curious about what we would think about it given the beautiful and more remote and lesser known islands we’d already visited. Would it be touristy and crowded? Would the new anchoring and bouey restrictions frustrate us?
Bora Bora turned out to be a highlight of our trip so far. Though we had to wait out some rainy weather, we are so glad we did. Bora Bora in glorious sunshine and calm conditions should not be missed!
We ended up leaving Raiatea early because strong winds were in the forecast and we didn’t want to be stuck in Raiatea. There were some beautiful hikes that I wanted to do on Raiatea and Tahaa but we didn’t have time. Next time!
There are newly implemented anchoring restrictions in Bora Bora in which folks are only allowed to use boueys in certain locations. As well a $100 US per week fee is charged for the boueys and water and garbage service.
When we arrived, there was a strong wind forecast (into the 30’s) and we asked the bouey manager if we could anchor in the protection of a particular motu and told him that we would prefer not to use the boueys because we’d rather trust our own anchor only. To our surprise, he agreed. Perhaps as our boat is a bit larger so our overall tonnage is more, but we were thankful. As our friends later realized, the moorings in Bora Bora are not to be trusted!
The weather was grey, windy and rainy, but we managed to find ways to entertain ourselves, hiking to the World War II cannons, feeding gigantic hungry pigs and exploring the island.
Nighttime Drama
We decided to anchor in 68 feet near Bloody Mary’s restaurant for the night when the strongests winds were forecast. We’d anchored there the night before and felt comfortable with our set and movement. We set our anchor alarm. Then turned on the VHF just before going to bed. We turned it on to hear a familiar voice crackling on the VHF.
“Pan Pan, Pan Pan, we need assistance. Can anyone come to our assistance?” We gasped when hearing this and listened with sickness in our stomachs as the drama unfolded.
We were some number of miles away and too far to get to them to help. It was a dark night and the wind was howling.
It turned out that a kidboat we know, SV Archer (a family boat with three boys) on their outremer catamaran had gone to dinner at Bloody Mary’s only to return to not be able to find their boat at the mooring they’d left it at out front of the Bora Bora Yacht Club. What a horrible feeling that must have been.
To make a long story short, they found Archer had broken free of its mooring, slalomed through the anchorage (without anyone noticing or hitting another boat!) and blown across into a hotel on the leeshore where pilings were pounding into the hull. To the great efforts of nearby cruisers and quick thinking by Seth, Captain of Archer, they set a kedge anchor and managed to pull Archer off of the hotel and motor to a nearby dock for the night. Best of all, there was no water ingress and the damage wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.
The next day we motored down to them to offer help (Gavin has some good skills when it comes to boat fixing and repairs!) and over the next day, Gavin helped Seth fiberglass over the large hole in the the deck. Overall Archer was lucky to get through the ordeal with the little damage they have. But it still means delays and repairs required in Raiatea. We are rooting for them and confident they will get all repaired and be back to cruising in no time.
Glorious Bora Bora – It was like anchoring in a giant swimming pool!
After the poor weather passed by, we were treated to a glorious week enjoying what we imagined Bora Bora would be like all along. Crystal blue water, kiting and spectacular views. It ranks highly as possibly the most beautiful anchorage of our trip to date!
Nathan went for daily sails in the byte, played with friends and we all frolicked in the impossibly blue water. We even enjoyed a day at the decadent St. Regis Resort, playing with the water toys, soaking in the spa and enjoying the gym and pool. Wow! We had fun with SV Flocerfida and SV Silver Heels and SV Archer at the St. Regis. Fun times! The kids loved having friends nearby.
We loved Bora Bora and did not find it to be too touristy or crowded. The hotels are spread out on the motus and we managed to motor around the back side of Bora Bora into the anchoring field with specactular views of the mountains in the background. The beach was long and sandy and we could have spent longer here. We celebrated our good fortune to make it to this dazzling spot with friends aboard and sparkling wine we’d brought from home. If there was ever a spot to rejoice in, this was it!
But alas, soon it became time to move on again as a weather window and the cook islands beckoned! Next stop, Suwarrow!
