It was hard to decide to
leave Moorea but in these days we would love to spend a month on
every corner we visit. On the other side we are always happy to see
something else...so we just flow with the 14 knots wind that pushes
Lazy Jack along the 90Nm to Huahine. “The Woman Island”, titled
like this because arriving there on the early ages someone swore he
saw some woman open leg's shape in the mountains. I don't know what
to say about this impression, but definitely I don't have the same
whiskey on board. This island is practically unknown to tourists,
there are only few family accommodations and for some reasons it's
really hard for them to have a regular people flow like the other
islands. The result is obviously amazing desert turquoise water,
excellent snorkeling, perfect anchorage for LJ and beautiful
landscape to explore by kayak or MTB around the island. Only sail
boats often stop here for mainly two reasons: firstly that's the only
stop between Moorea and Raiatea, secondly, and I swear I'm telling
you with very low voice tone... the waves!!!!
Huahine has some of the
best waves in Polynesia, someone also told me about angry locals and
unfriendly vibrations in the water. As usual I prefer to report what
my experience teaches me, and I can definitely tell you about the
beautiful time spent in Huahine's water, surfing amazing and nearly
mechanic waves on a razor sharp coral reef. The water so blue to make
you think the fins of the board will not pass through while the
little lips covering you are trying to push your mind to remember
that moment for the rest of your life. The five or six locals surfing
with us were practically exciting us to take off as many waves as we
wanted to, giving us some tips and pushing on Alice's fear of the
reef, singing and helping her to find the good feeling and finally
get her wave! We had the smile on us all day long, even when I saw
her standing on 15 cm deep reef after a wipe out with a overhead set
coming straight on her ;-(
When she managed to take
herself out of that nasty situation she only told me; “I tried to
dive but I touched the bottom and I understood I was fucked!!”
You are always my hero my
darling!!! Diving 15 cm was a hard decision!!!!
A bit more of navigation
with the trade winds that are still caressing us and we are already
exploring Raiatea. We actually started from the biggest bay on the
eastern point, where the only navigable (by canoe or dinghy) river of
all French Polynesia meets the Pacific Ocean. Even after years of
traveling, I'm still surprised of the nature of this place. Fruits
are everywhere, flowers are incredible and still untouched by the
crowd. Vanilla plantations and nice people are the non plus ultra
of this magical part of the world. Alice was almost kidnapped by a
Polynesian bull, who turns out to be the pirogue champion of
Raiatea!!! He's only 21 and teaches at school the national sport of
Polynesia. Big surprise, he lets us all try his flashing new pirogue
and that's how we discovered Alice's next sport!! Pretty difficult at
the beginning, you can very easily flip upside down and find yourself
in the water without knowing how! We say goodbye to the champion and
his island and set the Volvo Breeze to the very close tiny Tahaa. The
captain heard about a wonderful mooring right in front of an
exclusive resort: Le Tahaa, that makes part of the Relais
et Chateaux resorts. We can simply say “WOW”: the dream is
real. A private island covered by a flourishing vegetation, gorgeous
little bungalows on a crystal clear water, white sand beaches and one
of the most exciting snorkeling so far. A coral garden in a shallow
transparent water and all kinds of little, colored, cute fish that
seem curious and at the same time totally conscious that nobody will
hurt them. We are thinking of leaving a copy of our resume... Who
knows!!!
Smooth and relaxed we set
the sails and go for the only 20nm from Tahaa to Bora Bora. The most
worldwide known island of the french Polynesia. Here tourism is a
present in a box where everybody already looked inside once in life.
Hotel rooms built on top of the blue water with exterior spa on
private terraces overlooking the emerald mountain right past the
lagoon. Restaurants with good food and buoys right in front for the
yacht to attach without even dropping the anchor. The only hard thing
for us is the weather!!! Since our super nice friends Shishi and Furu
joined us in Papeete, rain is unfortunately pouring very often. You
know, after all we have seen till now, we can't really complain,
however these places change so much with a little sun ray that
everybody gets really exited when we have the chance to take a good
picture or walk somewhere. The only good thing of this weather: off
shore wind and correct swell on the pass. Obviously I couldn't lose
the chance to surf the Bora Bora pass, even if nobody was there and
is not marked that it's surf-able. Anyway, to make the long story
short, my friend Mike R. and I tried to enjoy as much as we could
the scary lefty!!! Result was not bad, so I guess if someone wants to
try that, just make sure to avoid the coral head right where the wave
becomes hollow and starts to barrel, and you'll have a very decent
ride!!! Otherwise you can also decide to rent a bike and do the
island tour, 32km of fun!! Not like riding waves but at least you'll
see that Bora Bora is not made only of luxury resorts and
honeymooners hotels. The locals are friendly, traditional dances are
still alive and the vegetation makes your eyes confused about what
direction they have to look. But be careful to look to much here and
there, it could happen to step in one of the thousand coconut crab
that are always sneaking everywhere, some of them are real monsters
of 5kg and I'm not joking: a 5kg crab is a bloody monster!!!!
P.S.
If you hear about someone
in Bora Bora looking for a catamaran that broke three buoys in three
days, please don't think we are criminals. Just to let you know, we
heard a story about three guys that were on the internet at the
Maikai restaurant when a dive instructor asked whether the boat that
was flowing with the wind half meter from the other boats was ours.
Fortunately these lucky fellows could jump on their dinghy and arrive
at the boat and pull back ten meters before the reef could crash his
port side. So they decided to go on the other side of the bay,
theoretically more protected, and take an other buoy, but in the
middle of the night TRAK again: the buoy's rope explodes and that
catamaran started to move around again with no control. The most
fantastic thing was that trying to take the next buoy, the 35knots
wind pushed the boat too close and the propeller melted with the
rope, so for a few minutes they where receiving 35kts and the only
thing holding the cat was the actual propeller attached to the rope.
Luckily, someone told us, that there was a team of German guys and a
kind of Italian surfer (still don't know if an Italian can be a
surfer, but this is the story we heard) ready to help the cat's
captain. This Italian boy in the middle of the night had to dive,
with 35kts wind and his screaming girlfriend, who was scared to see
him crunched like a hamburger while he was trying to cut the rope
from the propeller. Apparently the hero made it, handling the
situation and also returning to his beautiful woman on his legs!!!!
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