Moorea to Huanine

July 30, 2014,  Moorea to Huahine

We have checked the weather reports repeatedly.  The storm that everyone was waiting for seems to have passed to the south.  There are still strong winds but they should die down today.  Huahine is about 100 miles away which means an overnight sail.   If we leave around noon we should arrive the next morning, hopefully not too early.  The day looks beautiful.  There are light winds and scattered clouds.  We head carefully out of the pass and discover that we are in for a rocky ride.  There are huge swells and not much wind.   After about an hour the wind picks up.  We put the main sail up but take it down before very long as the wind keeps building.  By late afternoon Alan decides that we should reef the mizzen too.  This is always a challenge.  The boom is guide a bit longer than the boat which means that we cannot reach the first reef point.  to tie it down.  So we decide to double reef.  Even this takes some doing.  I get the sail down and the forward reef point tied but I cannot get the back one.  I get the sail all bundled up but the wind rips it out of my hands before I can get it tied.  Eventually I take over steering and Alan gets it tied down.  It is not pretty but it should hold and it is certainly easier to steer now. 

The seas are still huge and coming crossways which makes the boat really rocky and very hard to steer.  Every once in a while a wave will come from a different direction and crash right into the cockpit.  We had started out in shorts and t shirts since it was such a nice day but I finally pull out our foul weather gear again.  At least it is not raining this time but we still have all the portholes and hatches closed to keep out the spray. 

Alan has decided that he will pull an all-nighter and steer the whole way, which is a good thing since I am seasick,   I stagger through the boat to the head where I find a patch and stick it behind my ear.  After about 20 minutes I feel it kick in.  I now have a very dry mouth with a funny taste in it but at least the nausea fades.  Unfortunately, I am also very sleepy.  I manage to get some dinner together for Alan and rouse myself about once an hour to make sure he is OK.  Other than that, I sleep.  Finally about midnight, I feel well enough to take over for a couple of hours so that he can get some sleep. By morning the waves have died down quite a bit.  We make landfall about 10am and enter into a lovely calm anchorage with about 10 other boats. 

Once we have anchored, I realize that I can take off the patch.  Turns out they are designed to last for 3 days and it takes that long for the effects to wear off.  I am just really sleepy and lethargic and still have this weird taste in my mouth.  This is the first time I have used one of the patches when we were not on a long passage and I did not realize how much it affected me.

Huahine turns out to be our favorite place so far.  It is hard to say why,  There is just a very relaxed, friendly feeling here.  It feels like “real Polynesia”.  There are the same lovely green hills and dramatic rock formations that we have seen on other islands, maybe not as drop dead gorgeous as Moorea but still beautiful.  There is a charming village here that looks like something out of the old west.  A wharf with kids diving off of it into incredibly clear water.  There is the best supermarket we have seen so far, with better prices than Tahiti.  A little restaurant right on the waterfront calls itself Huahine Yacht Club and has cheap beer, a happy hour, very good food and live music.  The clientele consists of a handful of cruisers and lots of locals.    Just a little way along the road is a lovely hotel with charming bungalows set among lush gardens.  The lobby is absolutely stunning with high vaulted wood ceiling and an elegant display of local artifacts.  We take the dingy for a tour around the bay and a couple of kids in outriggers decide to surf our wake.  We have great fun steering in circles for them.  Darn, Darn, Darn, I want to stay here for a week or two.  I want to visit the ruins and see the other anchorages, but we have no time.  Our visa is running out and we still need to get to Raiatea and Bora Bora.