Damien, accompanied by Andrew, an Irish hitchhiking boat met in the Gambier, sails to Tahiti during the girls' brief stay in France. It takes them 9 days (including over 24 hours of calm) to reach the Society Islands archipelago with somewhat capricious weather but better luck with fishing!
Libertaire drops anchor on June 9 in front of the village of Vaiare in Moorea for about ten days. The good weather allows for nice walks between coats of paint before reuniting at Papeete airport, where we’ll only stay 2 nights in front of Marina Taina.
We anchor for a few days at the entrance of Cook Bay in Moorea, well protected from the strong forecasted Southeast wind, the famous "maramu." We take the opportunity to visit the distillery and local fruit juice factory with a tasting, then head to the beautiful neighboring bay of Opunohu, dominated by Mount Rotui, and spend a few days in front of the small village of Papetoai. The blacktip sharks and stingrays, accustomed to the many tourists here, let us approach easily—enough to break the myth of the big bad shark for the girls! We reunite with our friends from the sailboat Elora, whom we met in La Graciosa in the Canary Islands at the start of our journey almost 3 years ago!
On Friday, June 28, favorable winds allow us an efficient night sail to the island of Huahine, 80 miles west. We spend a week in Avea Bay with cloudy, windy, and rainy weather and have the pleasant encounter with the family crew of the sailboat Tao, coming from Noumea, our destination for early October. We exchange lots of information while the kids play together. The good weather finally returns, and we spend a night in Fare, the island’s main town, where we attend the beautiful spectacle of Polynesian song and dance at the Heiva. The Heiva, a celebration of Maohi culture, takes place every year in July across the Polynesian archipelagos with many festivities. The swaying of the dancers, the muscularity of the performers, and the woven plant costumes are impressive.
We leave the next day for Uturoa on the island of Raiatea, 20 miles east, where our friends from the sailboat Mektoub have arrived with their children the same age as ours. The hike up Mount Tapoai offers a lovely view of this pleasant small town, which also allows for good provisioning for our continued Transpacific journey. The Heiva festivities here also feature a beautiful dance program.
We plan to take advantage of the good weather to visit Tahaa, the vanilla island, before continuing to Bora and then Maupiti as soon as the weather allows.