Huahine

Well the crossing over to Huahine from Mo'orea wasnt what we were expecting... Leaving there we were going 7 knots and ended going that fast the entire time! We got there a lot quicker than expected which was awesome but the ride over was terrible. My mother was sea sick the ENTIRE time haha and we were surfing/sailing down 20ft waves. Which freaked me out a little bit at times. But the Catnip pulled on through and my father and I sailed her her into the north west pass. On the way we saw some more whales!

My mom rented us a car one of the few days that we were there. We drove around the entire island and checked out a pearl farm! Also we had heard about these blue eyed eels in one of the rivers so we just had to find them! They were longer than me and whats cool is they don't have teeth so they don't bite. We didnt stay long in Huahine and it was also close to the time my mom had to be back in Papeete for her flight to Hawaii so we left her there and headed off to Bora Bora

Mo'orea

Only 30 miles away from Papeete lay a little island called Mo’orea. There are two big bays that boats can anchor in and cruise ships stop there as well. Our journey there was really smooth, we motored the whole way from lack of wind, which was a bummer. The first bay you come upon in Cook Bay and we only spent a day there. The next is Opunohu Bay. Both look very similar because lushes’ peaks surround you. We anchored so far back in the valley that no wind or waves could reach us so it was like a lake all around us.

 

I had read about a turtle sanctuary near this town called Papeto’ai which also had a stingray feeding ground near by so we though lets just go check out the area with the boat and see if we can find a place to anchor. 

We found a nice little anchor spot in 3ft of water in a sandy lagoon. The perks of having a Catamaran ;) Our spot was right in the hub of the area. There were kite boarders zipping by us doing all kinds of tricks. I’ve always wanted to learn so I swam ashore and found a teacher.

Later that afternoon two kite boarders came and hung out with us. Their names were Toarea and Tamatoa. Tamatoa Gillot is a professional kite boarder and has traveled all over the world for it but his true home is Moorea lives here most of the time. Toarea ended up showing us all kind of cool things in the lagoon. He showed us how to get clams and green turbans.

Which are super yummy and showed me how feed fishes the clams so they will swarm around you. Tamatoa ended up taking me tandem kiteboarding and than gave me another lesson the next day. I am addicted to this sport now.

One of the days we all went out on Tamatoas little boat to see the stingrays. There were tons of sharks, fishes, and stingrays everywhere, which really freaked my mom out. The trick to getting the stingrays to rub all over you is to hide a piece of fish in your hand and they sniff all over you. They don’t have teeth but very strong flat jaws.

I was sad to leave our new friends and such an amazing little town but you gotta keep going or you’ll never experience all those other cool places. So we left for Huahine

Tahiti Nui

Ia ora na! (Hello in Tahitian)
Such an accomplishment getting to Tahiti. The place my dads dreamed of for 40 years. Now we can finally say "Hey we've sailed to Tahiti!" So on Oct 7th we came up on to Tahiti from its east side of its little island. The island is made of two islands connected with an isthmus. The little island area is called Tahiti Iti which means "small tahiti" and the main big island which has its bustling capital Papeete is called Tahiti Nui.

 We decided to sail around the south east side to check out Teachupoo. Which is one of the most famous surf spots in the world for its huge waves. The spot wasn't getting its big swells like usual but it was just cool to see it and surf in the area since this was the first place we've been able to find surf!

After spending a few days on the south east side of Tahiti Iti. We sailed to Papeete on Tahiti Nui. Its a bustling little city. It was nice to be able to get parts and supplies that we weren't able to get any where else but we realized quickly we did not want to be there. My mom (Maurene) flew in on Oct 12th from Hawaii and decided she'd stay in French Polynesia for two weeks and travel with us to some of the other islands. From Papeete you can see the island of Moorea. Its only 30 miles and looked pretty so we immediately headed there! 

Fakarava!

So after Nuku Hiva we headed to Fakarava which is part of the Tuamotus. It took us four days which was so nice compared to our 30 days at sea voyage. We had enough fresh food to get us there. The thing about the Tuamotus is that they are all atolls. Look that up on google images for a better understanding but they are all super flat and extremly hard to see untill you are about 8miles away from them. We went through the south pass of Fakarava

And man was it pretty!! The most beautiful place I've ever been.  The water is so clear and you can see black tip reef sharks all around you and tons of fish.

We brought with us one of the friends we made on Nuku Hiva his name is John and he lives in Japan with his wife Tomoko. But gets out and travels every year and returns to his loving wife after a few months. He and I took up the amazing diving opportunity they have in Fakarava. They have a dive called Wall of Sharks and you down about 60ft. You literally see hundreds of sharks grey, meiko, black tip and white tip. It was the coolest dive Ive ever done and I'm still a beginner diver. John has his master diver card and he said he has never seen this many sharks while diving.

And when I said hundreds of sharks I really mean we saw hundreds of sharks!! I was a little sad to leave Fakarava because of its perfect clear what and beautiful corals but Tahiti is next!