Photos for this entry are here.

Today is Sunday, July 25, 2010, and we are anchored off of the Private Island Resort and Spa, a Relais and Chateaux hotel, on Tautau islet on the west side of the island of Tahaa.

Since we last wrote, we have spent time on three of the Leeward Society Islands – Huahine, Raiatea and Tahaa. Tomorrow we are likely to set sail for Bora Bora, the final Leeward Island that we will visit before leaving French Polynesia.

On Monday, July 5, we pulled away from the quay at Pape'ete, making the short hop over to Cook's Bay on Moorea to prepare for the overnight sail (about 100 miles) to Huahine. We spent Tuesday on the boat (the dinghy had been stowed for the crossing) getting ready to depart at sunset. Jack and Patricia on “Whoosh” were sailing to Huahine at the same time, so we kept each other awake during the night watches. Our arrival date was July 7, 2010, exactly three years since we left the dock at Oakland Yacht Club in Alameda on 7/7/07! We anchored next to “Whoosh” and several other boats at a quiet anchorage on the southeast side of Huahine near Motu Vavaratea. We spent five nights in that gorgeous spot. One day the two of us dinghied about two miles to the town of Maroe. Another day we took a long dinghy ride with Jack and Patricia of “Whoosh” to Maeva at the northwest end of Huahine. On the way we stopped at an abandoned Sofitel hotel. It was built in the 60's and was apparently hit by a cyclone at some point and not reopened. However, a caretaker is on site and still maintains the landscape. Our final stop, after a sometimes harrowing dinghy ride through high seas across a pass, between fish traps and through very shallow waters, was a collection of pre-European marae (ceremonial stones).

Another big event was the eclipse on Sunday, July 11. There were just three boats in our anchorage for this – we had all waited here for the eclipse since this, being on the east side of the island, was an excellent viewing spot. Denis and Holly on “Tango”, who have a spacious catamaran, invited us all over for a potluck breakfast on the morning of the eclipse. The party started at 7:30 a.m., just as the moon was starting to cross in front of the sun. Denis and Holly had obtained two pairs of blackout glasses which we took turns using to watch the progress of the eclipse. We were about 100 miles too far north to experience a total eclipse. What we saw, at about 8:30 a.m., was an approximately 95% eclipse. It was enough for us easily to see and feel the difference in the light.

On Monday, July 12, we headed around the top of Huahine, anchoring off of the town of Fare on the northwest corner. There we found Stuart and Shelia on “Imagine” and John, Cheryl and Ian on “Sea Mist”, all of whom we joined for dinner at a roulotte in town that evening. Fare was a fun little town with an amazingly well-stocked grocery store. We spent two nights there before heading to Avea Bay at the southwest end of Huahine. The weather was difficult there – raining with high winds. We went briefly ashore to explore but scurried back to the boat when we were drenched in a downpour

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We had better luck at the Te Tiare Beach Resort. We had been advised by John and Shawn of “Active Transport” that they allow cruising boats to tie up to the mooring ball in front of the resort for free (assuming, of course, that the restaurant would be patronized) and were very welcoming. The resort is about 2 ½ miles south of Fare, between it and Avea Bay. We picked up the mooring, dinghied in to a nice dock and approached the reception desk to ask permission to use the mooring. The woman said of course we were welcome and please make use of the pool and beach facilities. We spent two days and nights enjoying the facilities, with the same nice view from our boat as the guests who pay 500 euros per night had from their over-the-water bungalows. We had a delicious dinner at the restaurant one night and a nice lunch at the Beach Bar the next day. We had planned to spend about one week at each of the four Leeward islands and, by this time, had spent eleven nights at Huahine, so tore ourselves away to move on to Raiatea.

On Sunday, July 18, we departed Huahine for an anchorage at Vairahi Bay on the east side of Raiatea. We were disappointed in that. The bay had a film of oil on it and was not particularly attractive. After one night, we moved up to Haamene Bay on Tahaa to meet up with “Whoosh” and “Sea Mist”. “Whoosh” had us all for cocktails that night. Those boats had already been there three days and took off the next day for the town of Uturoa on the north end of Raiatea for provisioning. On Monday, after exploring the town of Haamene, we hiked approximately three miles to the Hibiscus Hotel which we had heard was cruiser friendly. We had planned to have lunch and asked to see the menu. We were told they were serving Poisson Cru (raw fish “cooked” in lime juice – sort of like Ceviche, but flavored differently, with coconut milk and other spices). It was delicious. We probably would not have ordered it but were pleased we had it. Luckily, we got a ride back to town. By the next day, “Active Transport” had arrived. We invited John and Shawn to join us for a hike in a different direction to visit a vanilla farm and view a bay on the other side of the island. This was a shorter hike – one to two miles – but over a small pass. The vanilla farm was interesting. Only some of the vanilla beans were grown there; they also process the beans from numerous other local farms. The processing includes the beans spending alternate days in the sun and in the dark fermenting, for three months.

On Thursday, July 22, we motored the 15 miles inside the reef and around the top of the island to where we are now on the west side of Tahaa. The hotel here is not nearly as accommodating as Te Tiara. When we dinghied over to make dinner reservations, they said they were “full”, both Friday and Saturday nights. However, we are in a spectacular location in gorgeous turquoise waters and with a view of Bora Bora.

The plan is to depart tomorrow for Bora Bora where we will likely spend a week or so before setting sail further west. The Leeward Society islands have been some of our favorite places – amazingly beautiful.

Our current thoughts about heading west are to stop at Suwarrow, one of the Cook Islands which is a national park, and then on to American Samoa and Samoa before heading to Tonga which will likely be our last island group this year before we head to New Zealand in October/November. Many of the boats are taking this route this year, rather than visiting Aitutaki and Rarotonga in the southern Cooks which has been a more typical route in prior years. The reason for this is that this year, in addition to confiscating fresh fruits and vegetables upon arrival, which has been done in the past, the authorities are also removing all fresh and frozen meats. Many of us have freezers full of meat – enough to get us to New Zealand. We're not willing to pay the price of losing it to visit the southern Cooks. This policy makes no sense to us since none of us would take the meat off the boat. When they realize the effect this policy has on their tourism industry (there are 150 to 200 cruising boats out with us, most of which will not patronize the local stores and restaurants this year), perhaps they will change the policy next year.

Our next internet connection, after Bora Bora, is likely to be in American Samoa, so we expect that we will send our next Greetings from there.

Current position: 16 degrees 36 minutes S, 151degrees 33 minutes W

Cornelia and Ed.

s/v A Cappella

We have posted photos of this portion of our journey at our website which you can view at http://www.v42-acappella.org.

We love hearing from you in response to these logs. If you do write to us when we are likely to be at sea, please start a new e-mail so that it won't include a copy of what we sent out. It's just too slow receiving e-mail via radio to get all that back again. Thanks!