​To the west of Bora Bora lies two more of French Polynesian islands. The tiny, relatively quiet atoll of Maupiti, with its spectacular Mount Teurafaatiu and surrounding reefs and motus is a popular destination with yachties travelling west. The entry pass is long and notoriously challenging though and with the strong winds that have been blowing for weeks now, generating waves over 2-3 metres, was never going to be an option for us to stop. Even if we managed to get in to the atoll, we might get stuck and it could be weeks before we got out again! Instead we opted to break our journey to the Cook Islands by making a stop at the atoll of Maupiha’a, a bit further west. The Maupiha'a entry pass, while “exciting” is short and relatively easy. Although we have officially checked out of French Polynesia we decided to spend a little time in this "no man’s land".

​We start off with two headsails as the winds are behind us. Winds are low at first but they get up later as we get out of the influence of land, and the swell builds to 2m+. Sometimes the swell smacks us and just exhaust the sails and they snap back hard. Lucky we didn’t have the kite up. Lovely sunset, moonrise around 11pm. Our overnight passage is uneventful, although the wind was up and down a bit. I spot land about 10am and we are falling below course so we furl the genoa to come up head for the north of the island.

The cut is relatively narrow but deep sided and with strong currents at the entrance  pushing us to port as Keith tries to line up. Once we are into the channel it goes pretty smoothly. There are some rocks on the left side as we come in which we leave to port, and then it’s a clear run across to the anchorage. There is one other cat here. We spend the day catching up on sleep and have decided we don’t want to rush off tomorrow to beat an approaching trough. We will stay here, relax and explore while it passes, and then head to Aitutaki.

We went ashore to meet Norma and Harry, the island’s caretakers. We put together a little care package of some food items for them as we heard there is no regular supply ship here and while they are self-sufficient, the extras that yachties drop in with are always appreciated. Norma and Harry work on harvesating the copra, removing it from the coconut shells by hand, soaking it in seawater and then drying it on big wire beds in the sun. They have to wait until there is around 40 tonne of copra before the boat will come to collect it. They never know in advance when that will be, being informed just a few days before. Communications are limited to one satellite phone which is shared amongst the island’s 8 inhabitants. All of their power is solar and they collect their own water, grow herbs, fish and hunt coconut crabs. Norma also collects the tern’s eggs that are plentiful at this time of year.

​There are 8 people living on the island, Norma is the boss of Maupiha’a but her boss is in Maupiti. They have lived here for 13 years and Harry would gladly stay forever – Norma is not so sure. Grandchildren are growing up and its very isolated here. Norma was not shy in telling us that she and Henry are the most productive of the people living on the island, in terms of copra.
 
Later on we took the dinghy over to an old stone dock and walked through to the exterior of the island to take a look at the reef. The wind has settled considerably since we arrived yesterday.

We were joined for lunch with Norma and Henry by a lovel Japanese family on SV Santana (20 year old Catana). Akira and Mayo and their son (7) and daughter (5) are relatively new to cruising. Lunch was a fabulous spread with carpaccio of parrot fish caught by Henry), fried fish and curried coconut crab with rice. Norma had also made some tern’s egg omelettes. It was Delicious, and what an amazing spread. We sat around in the afternoon chatting (I had to translate as H&N don’t speak much English) and watching the kids play.
 
We went to see the terns, walking along the path towards the sea. They are so loud and so many of them, it felt like an Alfred Hitchcock movie! The kids collected lots of eggs which we took back to ITIKI. The challenges of getting eggs through the Caribbean and Pacific have been well noted, so I was certainly keen to try this ready supply. Norma gave us a heap of leftovers food as well which was very generous. That’s dinner sorted, and as it turned out, lunch the next day.

The next day a couple more boats arrived, both that we have met briefly before. Keith dropped over some frozen water for Norma and Harry (their fridge is broken). Went for a dinghy ride down to the south anchorage for a look, passed a few huts along the way. It’s quite shallow right down the very end. We beached the dinghy and walked around the end of the last motu. It’s a lovely, course-sand beach and lots of hermit crabs of various sizes gathering together, checking out each other’s shells. Apparently they can swap shells with each other as they grow and do it in a group so nobody is left naked or homeless for too long. We watch for a while as everyone checks out a fancy looking new home, but it seems it is not practical and it is passed in at auction.
 
We came back via a couple of large bommies in the middle of the atoll but it was a bit too rough to consider snorkelling here. We had some fellow cruisers over for drinks, I made curried eggs with the terns eggs. A slight fishy undertone but otherwise YUM!

After a lovely sunny morning, the weather started to turn and big black clouds were gathering. This is the trough passing over us, which means we will be clear to leave soon. We tried to snorkel the cut but visibility was poor, current was fast and there was nothing much to see. Went over to a nearby motu and anchored there. Some quite small bommies with lots of fish and reef tip sharks circling in the shadows. A little disappointing after Fakarava, but it seems now that everywhere will be!
 
We said our farewells to Norma and Henry and left in the morning for
Aitutaki, Cook Islands. A 360nm journey. It was a very relaxing time and nice not to be rushing or counting the days. So glad we took the time to slow down in Maupiha’a

Bora Bora - so good they named it twice?! - is the last of the Society islands we officially visit, as we now have very few days left on our FP visa. We have had strong easterly winds for some time now, which makes it a quick trip across the 28nm to Bloody Mary’s anchorage, Bora Bora.

The wind's strenghthened some more as we came around the western side of the island as we hardened up, with wind blowing the tops of some big breaking waves, which mark the edges of the reef entrance. We come through the pass, small motus on either side, and we are greeted by the towering green peaks that have become so familiar. We head around to Bloody Mary’s mooring field. It is howling 20+kts through here and the BBMS RIB is quick to drop by and collect the CPF4000 fee. Pretty steep but we have no choice, its all mooring buoys in Bora Bora (apart from 2, very marginal free anchorages). We head into the gendarmerie and start the French Poly check out process, which takes a few days as paper needs to physically go to Tahiti and back! There are seven forms to fill out! Hmmm - We only had one when we arrived!

Heiva is a Tahitian tradition that celebrates life. The word “hei” means to assemble while “va” means community places. Singing and dancing are the most popular performances during Heiva, but the outrigger canoe races also attract a lot of enthusiastic support. This event brings together Polynesians every year, helps keep the traditions and culture alive, and is a unique and magnificent celebration to behold. Village groups practice all year round for the annual competition, the smiles on the faces attest to the genuine joy of their performances.

Heiva dances were forbidden during the 19th century by English missionaries who believed that these demonstrations were an erotic form of debauchery. There sure is a lot of gyrating, sweating and shaking of tail feathers involved in the dance routines. In 1985, French Polynesia gained political autonomy from France and they started organizing Heiva again. We were delighted to be able to catch a performance, having missed it during our time in Tahiti. Below are a few highlights of the lively and energetic performance.

The town has a festive atmosphere with evening food stalls and carnival games. We came across one of the Heiva teams doing some last minute practice which was fun to watch. We took our seats in the small "grandstand" and enjoyed truly memorable show. The first group was mainly singing with some basic dance moves, a bit like Physie. Such beautiful voices and sheer enjoyment and pride on the faces of the performers.

The second set was the "dirty dancing" with 3 costume changes, lots of hip shaking & ass wiggling from the ladies and knee-knocking from the fellas. Absolutely fantastic. Amazing to think these are not professionals, just regular "village people" with day jobs who do this as a hobbie or pass-time to maintain their culture and keep story-telling traditions alive. Such passionate performances. 

There is a beautiful anchorage on the south east corner of Bora Bora and we decide to go take a look. Although its only a couple of miles from the BB Yacht Club where we are moored, we can't get to it by going around the south end of the island, we have to schlep all the way around the northern end of the island, and down the east side. The wind is quite strong and gusting in the low 20s and we have to motor as we have some tricky navigating to do, inside the fringing reef. There are several motus that surround the island, forming part of the fringing reef and they host the large and luxurious resorts and hotels, with their trademark over-water bungalows.

We pass one of the “free” anchorages which just seems to be in the middle of the channel, not too far from the popular “Manta ray cleaning station”. There are lots of small tourist boats here and plenty of people in the water, and I wonder what the manta rays make of this. Apparently they (the mantas not the tourists...) come here to have the smaller, scavenger fish clean out their mouths for free, in exchange for not eating them!

I wondered why the snorkelling spot had been called "I love Bora Bora" but its pretty obvious when you get there! Underwater the words “I love Bora Bora” are written in rocks. Further on there is a love heart with half a coconut inside, which the fish are feeding on. There are some nice fish, a few medium sized clams and some ok coral, but we have seen alot better. It’s pretty cold in the water due to the strong winds so we don’t go ashore here.

​We motored back towards town in the morning, stopping and filling up with Duty Free fuel along the way. After finalising our check out process, we did a final shop and had dinner ashore. A lovely but very substantial meal! We stopped by the Heiva stage to watch for a while but we were too full to stay for long and headed back to the boat instead.  The next morning, we noticed that SV Cloudy Bay had gone and thought that they must have left overnight. Then saw BBMS RIB pick up Cloudy Bay’s mooring ball and chain. Next we heard on the WhatsApp chat group that they dragged at 2am, waking up dangerously close to the reef with the buoy and chai still attached. Fortunately they could drop the mooring and motor across to Bloody Mary's and pick up a buoy in the wee hours. Yikes! Lesson for us all - always set an anchor alarm even on a mooring buoy!

Keith goes ashore to get a final loaf of lovely French bread, the last we will have for a while, and we head over to the Motu anchorage to spend the day there. Its a bit closer to the exit and this afternoon we depart on an overnight passage 125nm further west. The guys from SV Susimi drop in to say hi. It’s still blowing 20+kts and it is starting to do our heads in but at least we will have good wind to sail with. We have spent 3 amazing months in the incredible and diverse islands that make up French Polynesia, but it’s not quite farewell just yet… so stay tuned for one final, sneaky stopover!