View of our olympic sized swimming hole (you could fit the whole olympic games in there)
Well, we are almost done with French Polynesia, or more accurately French Polynesia is almost done with us. Our two years in paradise are coming to an end, and we are slowly making our way to the west. We may have mentioned that while Kirstin and I are welcome to stay here, well, forever......L'ORIENT is going to be taxed $28,000 on April 10 if we are still in these waters. You can bet we will not. Ironically, our exit from Polynesia will involve a voyage between two "double named" places........Bora Bora to Pago Pago (which you all surely recognize as the teeming metropolis and capital city of American Samoa).
In early January we sailed west to Tahiti because we needed so many things. In the Tuamotus, there are no chandleries, big grocery stores, etc. Fruit is a luxury. Fresh vegetables are the stuff of impossible dreams. You get the picture. And true confession- after so much time off the grid, we DID act like stereotypical Americans and went to McDonalds in Papeete (just once). Supersize me. We did a remarkable job finding almost everything on Kirstin's list in Papeete at the hardware store, auto parts store and chandleries. It felt like the boat was well stocked again.
Click on pic to watch video
Tahiti wasn't quite done with us as we got walloped by an 8am 50-knot squall while at anchor. A category-1 hurricane packs a minimum of 74-knot winds, so when you're getting close to that you've got a problem. Quite the way to start your day. At least we stayed anchored - in the video above you can see a catamaran motoring next to us into the storm after dragging his anchor. It was being captained by a guy wearing only his underwear so he clearly had other morning plans as this super-squall hit.
These tiki boat revelers didn't get an accurate weather report- thunderheads ahoy.
We said goodbye to Tahiti and headed to Moorea for some easy to acquire fuel and OK, one more shot at the best pizza place in French Polynesia. Then on to Huahine, which we had never actually stopped at for a variety of reasons. One reason was that there have been two assaults on cruisers in the past several years. Readers may recall that we came very close to being hit in Moorea in 2021 by a monohull dragging through the anchorage by a sailor who we subsequently found out only had one eye due to an assault in Huahine. That knowledge stays with you and makes you doubt the wisdom of a visit.
One of two very nice restaurants in Huahine- OK things are looking up !
The main drag in Huahune- and a large grocery store.....our kind of place
The dreaded double rainbow- that means lots of rain and confusion regarding where the pot of gold is
And check out that dinghy dock!!!
But as we've learned in 18 years of sailing, it's important to form your own opinions and luckily we did that with Huahine. Did we possibly save the best for last? Huahine has been a very pleasant surprise. The people are friendly to a fault. The island is quite possibly the most stunningly beautiful in French Polynesia.
The luckiest horse in the world- he could have been born on the Russian steppes
View near our anchorage
More of Huahine's perfect coastline
Of course every perfect island comes with a perfect private beach, just for us
The restaurant scene is fantastic and there's even a huge grocery store here. As I write this, we are anchored inside a coral reef which is ringed by turquoise water which is more evocative of a swimming pool bottom than the ocean. With no light pollution and clear skies at night we actually saw two satellites cross each others path while a shooting star was visible.
Kind of a strange Keebler elf house- made more curious if you saw the size of a typical Polynesian
Our other "go-to" restaurant.......with parking for crabby in 2 ft of water out front
If you look carefully, you see our convenient dinghy parking place
We've been able to scuba dive here and saw an amazing assortment of fish and even a few eagle rays. All inside a protected lagoon so we had little to fear from the current and wind. We toured the island by renting an electric Moke - kind of a metal golf cart. Huahine is quite a thrill to drive around - almost no traffic, great viewpoints and some pretty steep roads. It was when going down one of the roads that we realized the Moke does not have the world's most effective braking system.
Look mom, no doors, no airbags, and if in an accident.....no chance
Touring the entire island
Polynesian cultural exhibit
Huahine even has a museum!
Huahine has a similarity to other islands here - hotels either stopped during construction or now closed. The Sofitel and Royal Huahine are two such stories. The Sofitel's concrete contractor clearly showed up as the only thing built was the swimming pool and pilings for the over water bungalows. The Royal Huahine is a gorgeous resort that closed during Covid but now is for sale.
The Sofitel's loss was our gain
Lots of concrete but not much else...
Want to buy a resort ? - totally shuttered
When we get misty eyed at the thought of leaving here (seven weeks hence), the sobering realization is that we need to be planning the eight day voyage to Pago Pago. It's cyclone season in these waters (New Zealand just got hit this past week). So we're busily fixing things (something seems to break every day) and starting to get our heads around the administrative minutia of changing countries. It was nice not to show our passports and fill out blizzards of paperwork with each new entry. French Polynesia, all told, is the size of Europe and we were able to sail all across it without checking in at each island.
Moke Love
Next up are American Samoa, Western Samoa (which we've been calling "Regular Samoa"), and Fiji. We will probably never again stay within the borders of a single country for two years (as we have here), but in our sailing experience this is certainly the only place where we would not only do that again, but probably stay longer if possible.
