Tahaa, Apr. 22, 2004 - Apr. 24, 2004

Ile Tahaa is directly north of Raiatea, within the same coral reef, and is the less developed of the two islands. While Raiatea is visited by cruise ships, has an airport, and the main town of Uturoa with grocers, hardware, banks, restaurants, doctors and lawyers and the like, Tahaa is still mostly farms and fishing villages. The route from Raiatea to Tahaa winds between a number of large coral beds but is well marked and quite wide.

After a short sail, we made our way into Baie Hurepti, on the south west corner of the island. We bumped the bottom a couple of times while trying to anchor further in towards the north end of the bay; the chart said it was five to ten metres with a mud bottom. Turns out it was a little too shallow and the mud bottom had a few hard projections. Fortunately, no damage was done to the boat although the bay turned out to be not so great for swimming because of all the silt and mud brought in by the river draining into the north end. So we came out further, circled around near where a large blue, steel motor catamaran was anchored in the shallowest safe spot, over a rise with 75 feet of water then looked for a spot nearer the shore. The drop-offs are extreme in this bay so we were forced to find a spot near some houses, north of a narrow spit of coral, in 88 feet of water. After dinner it started raining, but this did not deter Chris and Julie from going ashore to look around. When I went back to get them it was dark, windy and raining hard, and they were not in the place I had dropped them off. After a bit of searching I found them and got them back on board to dry out.

The blue catamaran turned out to be our acquaintances Graham and Cathy on the Bounty Bay, the charter vessel that we had met in Mangareva, Gambier in February. From where we were anchored we could see the chop kicked up by the tidal current in the pass through the reef to the south. In the morning Stephanie and I went over to visit the Bounty Bay. As before, Graham was a fount of local knowledge and gave us the lowdown on the best snorkelling and diving spots as well as a place with a good happy hour. Since early the next morning was going to be the next daylight slack water in the pass, we decided to stay another night in Baie Hurepiti. When Stephanie and I got back to the boat Julie and Chris had all their gear packed and were loading up the kayak. They were worried that we were not going to get to Bora Bora in time for their flight back to Tahiti and had decided to go ashore and take the ferry that afternoon. We managed to convince them that, since their flight was on Sunday, and this was Friday, and it would only take six hours to sail there, we were not really pushing the envelope. Stephanie and I went ashore for a bit of a walk-about and found the bucolic atmosphere much different than Tahiti. You are much more likely to see a pig or cow on the road in Tahaa than a bus or truck, although we managed to hitch a ride in the back of a Land Rover the few miles over the hill to a one-street town at the end of an east-facing bay. We turned from gazing at the whitecaps in the bay in time to see a young girl ride by carrying her dog in her bicycle basket.

There are a number of small motus between the island and the reef; one of the larger ones is home to a five star resort called Le Tahaa. So, after lunch we went over to Le Tahaa and anchored nearby on a shelf in 15 feet of crystal clear water. We went snorkeling amongst the motus next to the hotel where the underwater scenery - the coral and reef fish was the most profuse and beautiful we had ever seen. We had intended to go for drinks at Le Tahaa that evening but the bar was closed (on a Friday night!) when we got there so we just picked up a bucket of ice and returned to the boat for our own cocktails. It was my birthday, so we had invited Graham and Cathy to come over for dinner. Stephanie made a wonderful chicken dinner, we all drank Ti Punch, wine and champagne and had chocolate cake for dessert. After dinner, the boys faced off against the girls in a game of Taboo, a game where you have to get your teammates to say a word by only giving verbal clues that do not define the word. Despite, or perhaps because of, their extremely competitive play, the girls were soundly trounced by the boys.

Early the next morning we raised anchor and motored south to the pass. Julie, who was cooking breakfast, got tossed around a bit as we went through a rather choppy section of water where the current was boiling at the entrance. Like a true sailor, she managed to weather through it and produced a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. While I enjoyed the hot meal, the crew once again proved that the start of a passage, battling through swells away from a rough pass, is not the best time to try to eat a large meal of eggs and greasy bacon. No one spewed, but the green faced did not finish their plates.