1 May 2010
I always think of the Society Islands as a mixture of the Marquesas and the Tuamotus. They have the high peaks and lush vegetation of the Marquesas combined with the fringing coral reef of the Tuamotus. Huahine is one of our favourites. David and I absolutely love this island. After Papeete it is an oasis of peace. We dropped anchor in almost the same spot as four years ago, where the turquoise water of the reef meets with the cobalt blue of deeper water. It was so clear we could see right to the bottom, sand interspersed with lumps of coral, colourful reef fish swimming around and about us. We plonked the anchor down straight into a patch of sand. This time around we did not have to share it with any other rally boat. We spent a long lazy afternoon reading in between cooling off in the crystal clear water. The current was strong. I had quite forgotten. I could swim alongside Voyageur's hull without moving forward. Rewarded with a stunning sunset the island of Tahaa was outlined by the setting sun. After a quiet dinner we went to sleep to the pounding beat of local drummers on the shore in tune to the sound of surf pounding on the reef. A magical, memorable night......
The following morning we motored down inside the reef as far as the Baie Haapu looking for a pleasant anchoring spot, and then back up to enter into the basin of Port du Bourayne. Huahine is actually two islands, Huahine Nui (big)) and Huahine Iti (little).They are joined together by a bridge. We had thought to anchor here for the night, the scenery is quite stunning and reminds us in a small way of Scotland but the space we had chosen was occupied by dozens of buoys which we concluded to be marking oyster beds. The rest of the inlet was very deep so we took lots of pretty pictures and concluded that the best place to anchor was back from whence we came, off the town of Fare.
Susan Mackay