first Reef!
Huahine is definitely a paradise on earth & undoubtably the best
island in the Society archipelago, I guess part of this reason is
because it's alway been over shadowed by it's more famous neighbor
Bora Bora... so being that tourist's, or should i say honeymooners,
never really leave the perimeters of their own reef's.. i guess it's
remained a totally under-developed, which has pleasantly pushed the
local community to for a different source of income.. "Vanilla"....
Vanilla farms are everywhere & when it not being farmed, it's being
dried... so the islands smells of this amazing intoxicating aroma!
Another endearing aspect of Huahine is it's extremely sheltered bays
both Port Bourayne & Baie Maroe are both set within virtually 360
degree of volcanic mountain which lie behind to islands atoll reef...
So sheltered that there considered cyclone hole's, which is good to
know with the on coming season!
Veronica & Myself .. Have been wrestling with the idea of sailing 2500
miles NE to the island Hawaii for this coming cyclone season &
returning here again in March, But unfortunately, we've just
discovered that "Apple" (dog) would have to undergo a further two
set's of quarantine, 1st for entering Hawaii & again for returning to
French Polynesia.. So that's firmly out! & NZ was never really an
option as we'd like to stay cruising the infinite atolls & islands in
the South pacific for another year.. & NZ is a battle to far in the
return voyage.. So the NEW plan is "Apple" the yacht is being hauled
out in Raiatea, she'll be rested into a steel cradle, whilst myself &
veronica take a couple of months seeing family in Europe with a little
snowboarding in LA. Apple (dog) will be staying with local friends in
Tahiti ( thus avoiding any travel & quarantine stresses) I feel very
bad leaving her, but she love the islands, can swims everyday, so I
believe its better than dragging her to freezing cold London just to
sit in quarantine in some remote government unit....
After suddenly confronting the quarantine issue again & doing heavy
research into the weather systems around the south pacific, I can see
that although Tahiti is on the edge of the cyclone region, it actually
hasn't had a cyclone in 10 years & has never had one over a Tropical
Storm Level, unlike the islands more west of FP or even places like
the West Indies who seem to get class 3&4 hurricanes a little too
regularly.. also there's hundreds of other boat cruising the FP'S
through-out the year with two massive charter companies who also leave
there yachts fleets here... So i guess it's a calculated risk..
Oh.. Did I say... Hitting a reef?. We'll it we just a graze it, we
were only doing 3 knots, cruising down the inside edge of Huahine
looking at the surf break, the surf break is supposedly the biggest &
best in the world, it is said that surfing begun here! & when to look
out over the reef you can see why .. massive swell roll in across
3500 miles of open pacific & suddenly hit "Huahine" just amazing & if
as like when we entered there a large SE swell, you basically sail in
along side other surfers! anyway in the middle of watching a set line
up... Crunch.. I was just too complacent!! & Apple luckily slide
sideways off a coral head, but after diving on her I could only see
it was just a scrape on the end of her steel fin keel.. Luckily a
very different ending than has just happened to our close friend
Aedgard on the sailing boat "Lariekoek" who hit a reef around Fiji &
unfortunately has lost everything....
OK..So I just added followers to my Blog page.. Please if you read to
blog & think should carry on posting picture etc!!!! ,,,Please could
you kindly, click on followers , as I'm seriously wondering whether
to continue posting....
