Our friend and fellow sailor, Kevin, decided to hop a plane from his home in Hawaii and come visit us in the Society Islands of French Polynesia. We met Kevin and his wife, Katie, on the Baja HaHa in 2019. Since then, we have coordinated a couple of rather long passages with Kevin on his own boat, including sailing from Mexico to Hawaii and from Hawaii to Alaska.
Kevin’s flight arrived around 11 one evening and Frank, Amelia and I recruited a couple of friends to join us at the dinghy dock to welcome him…. with water guns and bubble guns! Needless to say, Kevin was a bit surprised by his drenching of a welcome, but it kicked off his visit in a unique way.
We barely allowed Kevin a full night of sleep before we upped anchor and returned to Haapiti Bay on Moorea. Kevin had been keeping a very busy schedule in Hawaii where he lives and owns a day charter business, so we wanted to get him away from the city and into the water. Kevin is an excellent waterman and like us, the water replenishes him.
As we were entering the pass, there were some great surf waves. I took Kevin over to catch some waves one morning, but he was the lone surfer and the waves and current were a bit much. Since Kevin didn’t have local knowledge, he wisely chose to quit before having a problem. However, we did manage to have some great snorkel time by the reef.
We had an amazing full moon and captured these photos early in the moon rise and later after dark.
We allowed Kevin a relaxing day or two in Moorea, then we were off to Huahine, a quick sail of around 90 miles. Huahine is approximately 10 miles long and a maximum of eight miles wide. The population is somewhere around 6,000 and the atmosphere of the island is positive and the people very pleasant.
Our first full day on Huahine, Amelia wasn’t feeling up to par, so Frank, Kevin and I left her to rest on TTR while we walked the street of the tiny village near where we anchored. The day was delightful, with gorgeous plants, a sweet little beach side snack spot and some unique garden work.
Many restaurants in French Polynesia are named Snack something, usually a name, like Snack Louis or Snack Sharon. This one offered cold beverages and a few things to eat. By the time I finished eating, there were four dogs sitting in a semi-circle around me. I’m sure they know a sucker when they see one. I was very impressed as I cut little pieces of chicken for them and offered a piece to each dog on a fork. The dogs were extremely polite and waited their turn between bites without even attempting to grab food out of turn. These are probably all street dogs and they are much better behaved than many pets I know! The sweet little puppy pictured above was all about the chicken but refused any french fries. The other dogs were happy to eat his share of spuds!
As we strolled along the town, we came across so many pretty plants. Here is a sampling:
More scenes from our walk on Huahine:
There is usually a nice breeze blowing from the ocean to keep us pretty comfortable while strolling along. The interesting or beautiful things we come upon keep us entertained. Add in the friendliness of the residents and we had a great time.
The next day, Amelia was feeling better so we decided to take a short hike we had heard about. As usual for us, the most difficult part is finding the trail and in this instance, staying on the path. There were no markers and no cairns to guide us, but we had heard there was an area on the hike that was once considered a sacred location.
In French Polynesian history, open air temples called “maraes” were used for religious ceremonies. The maraes were built of coral and stone. The one we were looking for was not restored and all that remained was a stone floor near a cliff overlooking the lagoon where Ticket to Ride was anchored.
We spent another day exploring by dinghy before heading toward the main town of Huahine where Amelia would catch a ferry back to Tahiti. Thankfully Amelia had her own form of communication because I don’t think the phone Kevin tried was working properly.
Once in town we learned there was “youth Heiva Event” and we were game to attend. Turns out it was supposed to be a dance contest and car stereo speaker wars…. definitely a youth event. There were only two dance groups and one was, uhm, maybe not quite ready for prime time. Of the two cars in the competition…. one seemed to loose power, so that was unfortunate. Still, it was interesting to see the event and enjoy a very local event and see the closeness of the community.
Once again, the posted time of the youth event was slightly different than the actual start, so we supported the snack bar before the event. Afterwards, we walked back to town and had dinner at the Huahine Yacht Club – a place we ended up enjoying several times!
Sadly, the next day Amelia packed her things and left TTR for Tahiti. It was strange to see her pack all of her belongings after living on board with us again. But not to worry, we will see Amelia again in Tahiti.
Next on our schedule was a tour of Huahine. There are people who love tours and those who don’t. I happen to love taking tours of places so I can get an overview very quickly. The tour we took on Huahine was really fun. We had the option of a full day or half day tour. Our half day tour was longer than expected and a delightful overview of this captivating island. I’m not going to give away the trades of the tour, but here are some photos from our day.
Our time with Kevin was evaporating, so the next day we sailed 30 miles to Raiatea/Tahaa. We packed so much into that two days! The first day we visited Taputapuātea, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Taputapuātea is located at the center of the “Polynesian Triangle,” a vast area of islands between Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand. This area was a cultural, political and intellectual crossroads for the Polynesian Triangle and was the expansion and convergence of networks of lineage and sovereignty extending on a considerable scale for centuries, according to the literature from the site. The subject is too large for this blog, so please consider researching it on your own.
The following day we hopped in Day Tripper and took a ride up a river to a concrete dock to access the Botanical Gardens. The area was beautifully laid out and well tended, so we spent quite a while there. A few favorite images.
As we were leaving, a man yelled at us from the opposite bank. Using his intermittent English and my equally intermittent French, we learned that he has an organic farm and he invited us for a tour. We had a blast and tasted so many delicious fruits. We also were able to buy a few items we watched him pick and give to us. (I regret, I have forgotten this kind man’s first name.)
He pulled lychee fruit right off the trees and gave them to us, explaining that he had many different varieties of lychee. It was delicious and we could taste the differences between different varieties.
After leaving the farm, we explored the inlet as far as we could in our dinghy. Frank harkens back to his Louisiana days and always wants to see how far we can explore in our dinghy. Sadly, I’m afraid we sort of ruined the ambiance for the kayakers who were on an eco-tour. But we moved away as quietly and quickly as we could! And we saw some beautiful scenery.
There were other fun adventures while Kevin was with us on Ticket to Ride, but these are the highlights. It was so good to reconnect with Kevin and spend time exploring these islands.
I know we will once again share an anchorage or passage with Kevin as he is a sailor and waterman through and through. I am certain more sailing is in his future and we truly hope we have the chance to share more adventures together.
WOW! This was a long, photo filled post. Thank you for spending your time with us. We hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of these islands. They are truly amazing. Wishing you good health and fun adventures!
Ticket to Ride 