Running thru Raiatea, Trippin' thru Taha'a

Our progress west through the Society Islands

​Our French Poly visa clock is ticking very loudly now but we still have a few more islands to go! Raiatea and Taha’a are twin islands surrounded by a fringing reef, which is similar to Huahine except that the islands, and the gap between them, are much larger.

​We have had strong, gusty winds for some time now and it is starting to wear thin, as well as deprive us of sleep. Nevertheless we are ready to set off again. We bid farewell to Huahine and with a forecast of 15-22 kts we raise the main, but sadly its 5 gusting 6! Hoisted the Parasailor instead, but still not enough wind so we snuff it and motor for a bit before launching it again. We manage to hold it all the way to the pass to enter our next island destination, Raiatea. There are small motus (islets) either side of the pass and it’s a spectacular entrance through the reef. We anchor in Faaroa, a sheltered bay which is directly in line with the cut. It’s a deep bay, low at the head and very green surrounds, except that the water is very brown from silt and mud coming out of the river. We are both tired and will explore tomorrow.
 

Our path around Raiatea (South) and Taha'a (north)

The next morning we took the dinghy up the long, winding and shallow river. It’s quite beautiful, lined by lush vegetation and trees with gnarly roots and the reflections on the water are something else. We disembark at the dock of the the small Jardin Botanique (Botanic Garden), wander through the lovely garden and start heading up the road passing a few locals selling produce. Our destination is a viewpoint up in the hills where we should get a great view over the island. It’s quite a hike along the road and turns out to be pretty steep but fortunately at the turn off we are offered a lift by a friendly local who is on his way to the shooting range. He takes us all the way up to the Belvedere de Faaroa which is great as it would have been quite a schlep! We walk and find the track which takes us up along a ridge to a viewpoint. It was a steep climb up some steps with ropes to help us along some points, but well worthwhile. Spectacular! We can see down the west coast of the island as well as back to the bay where we anchored, and its a lovely sunny day.

Fantastic views of the west coast

Funky Rock Formations

​Heading back down we stop at another viewpoint, which is looking directly back to our anchorage. The hum of cicadas accompanies us on our walk, which always reminds us of  home. Heading back down the hill we were planning sticking a thumb out for a lift, but all the cars are coming the opposite way! We make a stop at the Randonee de Gambross, which is a very small picnic area with some interesting rock formations, and we can rest our legs for a bit. We end up walking all the way back to the Jardin Botanique but at least it was downhill. We could stop at a few roadside fruit stalls to buy some of the lovely fresh fruit and veg, grown in people’s back yards. We head back to the boat and when we get there the anchor alarm is going off, ooops, we are sitting on the muddy bottom! After holding well all through the night the anchor has given way in the soft mud at the river mouth and ITIKI has drifted into the shallows. We get the engines going and manage to move off slowly. Hmmm, that could have been worse! We had noticed that the charter boats tended to anchor further east and closer to the north shore. They may have moorings there or maybe they know it’s better holding.

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The Pool

​We decide to head south down the east coast, staying inside the reef, and end up at an anchorage called “The Pool” on the southern end of Raiatea. It’s just by a private motu, which doesn’t give much protection from the easterly winds, but its quite lovely and the water is crystal clear. There is a small coral garden just behind us which I spend some time exploring.

​The next morning we continued up the west coast or Raiatea, to the anchorage off the Village Tairineneva, a 14nm hop.

Firstly we motor gently across a tight, shallow channel over coral and rocks, back to the main passage. From there we followed the channel inside the reef  before heading outside of the reef to bypass a gnarly-looking shallow bit, before coming back inside the reef again. Anchored to north of the motu and there are a couple of other boats here. We have strongish winds but at least it is consistent. Sometimes the current is stronger than the wind and we end up side on to the wind.

Church on the water

​There is not much to do here and we read that the locals don’t like boats anchoring here, so the next morning we moved north to the anchorage at Motu Tau Tau. Motored inside the reef, passing the gap between the Raiatea and Taha’a islands. It’s quite wide and wind funnels through here and we don’t seem to get a lot of protection even when we turn the corner and are directly behind Taha'a island. As often happens the strong easterly winds wrap around the islands. We anchor to the north of the bungalows with 2 other boats. There is another anchorage to the south and which ends up with 9-10 boats, so seems we chose well. We are seeing a lot of charter boats now and they do tend to stick together. Took the dinghy over to the motu and snorkelled without fins around the shallow coral garden. It’s looks pretty good and the water is clear and shallow and teeming with fish. Check out the video below to join me under the water...

​In the morning we took the dinghy to the beach and walked along the shore of the middle motu, as far as we could to the west side. Got in the water for a snorkel, found a gap in the coral and started drifting. It was quite fast at first and had to stop myself a couple of times, grabbing onto some dead coral. It’s difficult to steer without fins, but as it is so shallow they would have caused a bit of havoc. Its shallow enough to stop on a rock or sand patch, stand up and look for a gap then get back in the water and head for it. The flow rate slowed as we got further along and there were sand patches. As I got all the way to the end of the channel and coral garden I saw a huge ray swim under me, pretty freaky.

Anchored on the edge - Motu Tau Tau

After lunch it got a bit bouncy in the anchorage so we decided to take a look in the bay opposite, on the main island of Taha’a. Picked up a mooring buoy which looked a bit ordinary, and then the boat in front of us left so we moved to their buoy. Went ashore for a look, but sadly the rhum distillery and tapas bar was closed as its Sunday. As time waits for no man, or boat, we set off the next morning for our final (official) island of French Polynesia, Bora Bora, which is 28nm to the west.