The lonely Planet describes Huahine as “immaculately tropical and effortlessly Polynesian” A good depiction, I reckon. I would add tranquil and balmy to the list of bliss-filled adjectives that come to mind when dreaming of lil’ Huahine…
Huahine is actually not 1 but 2 islands connected by a bridge. The radio nets had been full of warnings of petty theft in Fare; the main village and tourist trap of Huahine Nui (big Huahine- the northern island) We headed to Huahini Iti (little Huahini) in the south as we had heard about a hard to get to anchorage with azure waters perfect for windsurfing. It ticked our boxes for an anchorage ‘off the beaten track.’ We entered the island’s fringing reef through a pass on the east of the island and cruised all the way south and around to the south west corner. It was a tight and shallow passage and at one point we backed out, anchored, sounded it for 5 miles with the dinghy and a lead line and then cautiously continued edging Tika through….
Above; Kai and Jaiya watching for reefs and pointing out the path…
Above left; we were a tad confused as we we entered the eastern pass. It is always disconcerting when your charts don’t line up with navigation markers. Doubts set in and we start cross checking our logic and the charts in a big hurry. We get concerned we are in the wrong place in a reef strewn area. Something wasn’t right. It wasn’t until we got closer that we realised the port marker had come adrift and was stuck on the reef not far from the starboard marker…. quite concerning really! If a vessel approached with poor visibility and if charts were not accurate or studied well; this could easily land a boat on the reef in a very remote area. We reported it to the radio net controller, who wasn’t too concerned because he had never heard of anyone else coming down here!
Above; lovely views cruising around the passage inside Huahine Iti’s fringing reef.
Above right; a local family’s residence…not a bad spot eh?
Above left; as with most of the Polynesian islands, we had an outrigger riding our wake on the way in…
We were seduced into regular plunges into mesmerising, electric, cyan blue water. So clear! The photograph above and below left was an attempt to show you how transparent it was. We were sitting in 2m of water and the rocks on the seabed were crisp and sharp. There were a number of eagle rays in the area and a swim or snorkel towards the island almost always had us gliding with two or three of these beautiful rays…
Above left; my Polynesian masseuse! I had been struggling with lower back ache and I walked out pain free! His father-in-law has been teaching him traditional, Polynesian massage for 20 years….
One day we dinghied around the headland to a small resort and…voila! about 6 other yachts. We had been wallowing joyously in our private lagoon for days not realising that so many cruisers were so close having entered via the deeper, west coast channel. We played with the very dodgy, super-expensive internet at the resort and caught up with our friends from Ta-b for dinner. As the sun started setting it dawned on us that making the long dinghy ride home in the dark was far from ideal. The passage involved closely following a set of poles that dog legged us around breaking swell and scattered reef and coral heads. It was a little hairy in broad daylight so we certainly weren’t looking forward to the now-dark run home. Luckily we had our gps track from the way in, so, theoretically, we just follow the dotted line on our ipad and we would be fine. It was black. Pitch black. I tried to spotlight each pole with the beam of the torch while Kai’s eyes were glued to the chart, calling out directions to keep us on the line. It was not one of our smartest moves. The gps jumped a few times (it does this when coverage is not good..lags behind and then catches up, putting you in a completely different spot) I saw the coral head with my torch beam just before we hit it. I think Russ saw it at the last minute too because he backed off the throttle- but we hit. With a bang. Ooops. Miraculously, the outboard was fine and we gingerly started her up again and continued on our way. Lesson learnt! Don’t get complacent. Don’t get carried away with wifi and a pleasant meal telling yourself “oh we’ll get home before dark” It was an exciting way to get ourselves back to Tika but ‘if’ the life had have been knocked clean out of the outboard it would have been a long and worrisome row back to land….
Next Post; Raitaya and Tahaa…
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