Kailani Capers: Huahine

I woke early this morning and decided to update you all on what we’re up to.
There’s quite a bit of blustery wind and cloud, but the sound of the birds and calm in the bay is lovely. Well….except for the cacophony of the roosters and chickens. In every bay in the South Pacific, we wake up to the cuck-a-doodle-doo of our fine feathered friends. It’s something I’ll always remember – the sound of chickens, and the smell of burning coconuts and rubbish.

We’re anchored in Avea Bay on the southern end of Huahine. We arrived on the 21^st of May approaching the island at 0800 or so in the morning. It was a 90 nautical mile passage. We left Cooks Bay in Moorea around 1500 on the 20^th. We’d planned to leave a bit earlier, but Bill decided it was prudent to inspect the rig before departing. We’ve done a few miles now and haven’t checked out what’s going on up the mast….so…..up he went. It ended up being a brilliant idea. The staysail halyard has been rubbing against a cotter pin at the top of the foil causing bad chafing of the rope. You’ll see from the photo, there wasn’t much life left in the halyard – if it had broken we would have had a hell of a time re-running the line through and out the mast again.

Bill up the mast

Damaged halyard

We cut off the damaged end and re-attached the snap shackle, then repositioned and replaced the cotter pin. It really didn’t take long to do, but it saved us a lot of misery. I’m so grateful Bill is so thorough – even though it drives me crazy sometimes!

So back to the trip. The overnight passage was pretty nice. I know we’ve been complaining about discomforts on these passages, but this one was pretty good except again our 17 ton boat was going too fast, 6 to 7 knots instead of 5, so Bill rolled in the genoa to reduce our speed. Even then we managed to stay ahead of a catamaran which remained on our stern for the night. We had a nice 15 knot wind from the ESE for our 308⁰T NW heading. We had clear skies and lots of stars, with the half-moon rising around midnight lighting our way to Huahine. We passed a lot of ships so had to keep a diligent watch but it kept it interesting.

Approaching Huahine

We approached the island at the northern end then turned south to enter the Avapehi pass on the western side. We were greeted by a pod of dolphins. They’re much smaller here than in the northern Pacific and the ones in New Zealand. Sorry, no pics – we were too busy navigating the pass! There were quite a few catamarans moving about as we entered the reef. The leeward islands are a popular cruising ground where Moorings, Dufour, Sunsail and other charter yacht companies all have bases nearby. So we’ve left the remote areas of the Society Islands and are now in the “Club Med” region. One cat we passed was full of people around 50 years old – they were men (wearing shorts) and one woman (wearing nothing at all). Hummm. Mind boggles.

We headed south after clearing the Avapehi pass more nerve wracking for me than for Bill for a change. Some places on the chart showing depths of a mere 3 meters. We draw 1.8, but it’s still too close for comfort. You never know how accurate the charts are for these areas. For example, some of the shallow 3 meter spots didn’t exist at all. Makes you wonder about the ones that DO exist but aren’t’ marked. Bill suspects they indicate a rock or coral head, but whatever! It still makes me nervous!

We checked out the island along the way since we were transiting the entire west coast. There aren’t really any other anchorages here to our liking. They’re all 25+ meters deep without landing places for the dinghy, or a sandy bottom with lots of coral heads to catch the anchor on! It’s a beautiful island though which isn’t very populated. The main town of Fare has a mere population of 650 inhabitants. The island itself is actually made up of two islands; Huahine Nui in the north and Huahine Iti in the south separated by a narrow shallow channel contained in a reef. (Remember the castle, moat and wall analogy). Overall, the island is about 9 miles from north to south, and 6 miles east to west.

It seems Captain Cook came here a couple of times. On one visit in 1777, his sextant was stolen by an islander. Then the missionaries appeared in 1808 to teach them some manners in the name of Protestantism. Huahine put up quite a fight against the French as they wanted their island to be theirs – not someone else’s…. What a surprise! They did a pretty good job of fighting them off. It was the last of the leeward Islands to become attached to France in 1888 – which was 40 years after Tahiti. The island was annexed in 1897 but the French didn’t accord citizenship to the inhabitants until 1946 – I guess they had to make them pay for all that resistance somehow.

Enough of the history lesson and back to sailing! We passed a number of lovely islets and golden sand beaches. The protective reef here is quite vast unlike the Tuamotus and inspires a feeling of safety. This island is typically known for surfing, not boating. The waves are quite dramatic crashing off the reef 1500 meters away while we’re anchored in calm waters.

We made it to our bay around 1100. With only two other boats here, finding a spot wasn’t difficult. Later, a charter catamaran came in and anchored very close to us. There were 4 German couples onboard. Too funny, playing German Schlager music and having loads of fun (all in the nude) before dinghying off to one of the two restaurants in the bay (not in the nude). We considered following them (also not in the nude), but decided against it since it was my birthday! In Moorea Bill asked what I wanted for my present, and I said “A FISH!” And that’s exactly what I got! Yummm. Bill purchased it the day before from the Bonito Boats so it was as fresh as you could get. We had filets for the BBQ and prepared Poisson Cru (fish marinated in lime juice and coconut milk). It was beautiful. There was even some left for sushi the next day. Great present, eh?

Tourist outrigger

Kailani at anchor in Avea Bay

Sunset in Avea Bay

There wasn’t much in the bay, just an expensive hotel and a little restaurant called Chez Tara. We ended up spending a bit of time there, you can see why…

Bill at Chez Tara

View of Kailani at anchor from Chez Tara

May 25^th was the Fete du Mer. We didn’t know what the heck it was, but we reserved a table at Chez Tara for the event. They advertised a buffet of Polynesian cuisine which was fantastic and bountiful. We ended up joining another couple who we thought were from Australia from their accents. Ends up they’re from Zurich! What is it with us running into Swiss people all the time! Anyway, someone explained that Fete du Mer was a type of mothers day, and mothers are really celebrated here! In addition to the food, the ‘mothers’ paraded themselves through the restaurant in their self made gowns. There was also a competition for the prettiest head flower wreath. I don’t know how they judged it, they were all so spectacular. And each one was hand made too. Clever shielas!

Chez Tara decorated for the festival

The buffet

Kids playing in the bay

Yea, we were pretty happy

We walked to the store one day hoping to get some fresh food. Ends up they only had basic dried goods and beer. Well, we enjoyed a beer.

The general store near Avea Bay

We had to bake our own bread... the shop had none left!

The "bus depot'

The headland in Avea Bay

A few days later we left Avea day and headed north Fare – we were ready for more life. On the way, we ran into Toni and Steve on Knot Tied Down who we met in Cooks Bay, Morea. They were heading south to join us, and there we were heading north! They turned around and both boats anchored outside the “town” of Fare. We had a fantastic night feasting on perfectly BBQ ‘d rump steaks from NZ and managed to demolish a few bottles of red. When we finally noticed the time, it was after midnight. Next morning the neighboring boats gave us a good natured hard time – and we deserved it!