The Society Islands

After the PuddleJump party, we stayed in Mo'orea for a few more days. We swam with sting rays and black-tip reef sharks and enjoyed a tour of a juice factory. We sampled all of their drinks and even bought a few bottles of vanilla and pineapple liqueurs. While anchored in the harbors we had front row seats for the outrigger canoe races. They really move fast and the men have big muscles and even bigger tattoos!

These are the boats crossing this year.  Can you find Emily Grace on the T Shirt?

We motored overnight from Mo'orea (Mo-o-ray-a)to Huahine (who-a-hee-knee) and went into the main village of Fare. We were surprised to find a well-stocked grocery store and a good local market. They had strings of colorful parrot fish for sale hanging from the palm trees.

After a few days at the bigger northern island, we wound our way down the west side through coral heads to Huahine Iti for a few days. There we met a vacationing American who spends 4 months in Huahine every year (for the past 8 or so). He had a car and offered to take us inland to see a few sites. He obviously loves the culture and the people here. He speaks a good bit of Tahitian and French and seemed well known as we moved around. We saw fresh water eels that apparently arrived here with a storm about 400 years ago and are cared for by the locals. Emily got right into the water with these 6 foot long monsters. He showed us some fish traps that have been operating for about 800 years. The fish are carried into a labyrinth by the tides and the villagers collect them every day. Very simple but effective. We hiked up to see several more Marae and some outstanding views of the island.

800 year old fish traps

We went west to Riatea (Ree-a-tey-a) and Tahaa (Ta-a). We spent our 4th of July at the Taravana Yacht Club with several other boater friends and we had a barbecue on shore. We had hamburgers and watermelon but no fireworks. They also had a first rate restaurant and we enjoyed a nice lunch to celebrate Kim's 53rd birthday. We did some snorkeling around these two islands before slipping further west to Bora Bora. We stayed a few nights on a mooring at the Bora Bora Yacht club before anchoring on the west side of a small motu (island) called Toopua with our friends on Whiskers.

From there in Bora Bora, we sat on our floating home and watched a near total lunar eclipse as the sky went dark in mid-morning. Making more memories.

Several boats followed us to Bora Bora for the July 14th Bastille Day celebrations here. They had singing and dancing competitions each night and a nice parade through the town. Emily joined in the Bora Bora Yacht Club float dressed as a pirate. A private (BIG) powerboat put on a 25 minute fireworks display for his daughter one night that we all enjoyed.

Just as we were thinking of moving west again, we had a plastic part break on our watermaker. Since it was not in my spares and could not be fixed with epoxy, we are making arrangements to have the part shipped into American Samoa. After talking to the guy that installed it, I found out it was a known defect and they will ship the new part free. Of course, it may cost us more in shipping since we are out of the continental US! Spectra Watermakers gets a failing grade for not notifying its customers that this part was defective and might break. I would have rather fixed it at my convenience rather than worrying about running out of fresh water at sea!

Oh well. Cruising is fixing the boat in exotic places. Can't wait to see what is next to go.

Tom