Itchy Foot and her crew love Mo’orea and we snuck in a short visit before heading to Huahine. Mo’orea is like Tahiti’s younger, friendlier and much more beautiful sister. My parents visited many moons ago and said it was magic then and it is still magic now. We couldn’t help but visit a few of our favorite places, including the Allo Pizza truck. We had a wonderful day of adventuring when we took the dinghy to Sting Ray City outside the Intercontinental Hotel. It is wonderful to swim with these gentle and graceful creatures. And our visitors Clive and Fi will be amazed to read that we got there in ten minutes (it took us 45 minutes last September). We had to replace our outboard and now we can plane around which has made a huge difference. So, sometimes when stuff breaks it does you a little favor. On our way over to swim with the stingrays, we were delayed by the dolphins who really liked our improved bow wake. I think they might even have clapped. But seriously, watching them from the dinghy was amazing! Seeing dolphins always makes me squeal like a little girl and it was extra special to see them so close. The sting rays would not be outdone and we seemed to get lots of cuddles. It might have been the sardines but I can’t be sure. We revisited the cute village of Tiahura for lunch and treats, there is a divine dress shop I spent my birthday money from Jon’s parents there. The last day we were there we finally managed to track down the blacksmith and got to visit his workshop. They were very friendly and loved chatting with Teo. Airborne spoiled us rotten and fed us yummy lasagne and salad. When we got back to Itchy Foot we were set to set sail for Huahine.
The passage was smooth and we were happy to arrive at lunch time the following day. Our friends on Larki came and picked up Teo so he can play while we got a very indulgent nap. Those one-to-three night passages are always hardest as the body clock seems to finally learn what it should do around day four. And there always seems to be quite a lot of tidying to do once we get settled in a destination.
Huahine is a beautiful island and very laid back. It reminds me of a California surf town. There are lots of breaks on the reef and lots of surfing to be done. The surfers always bring with them a quiet enthusiasm for the nature of a place. It has lots of unassuming establishments whether they are the pharmacy, post office or tourist shop. We enjoyed the happy hour ashore, the decent free internet outside the police station and the well stocked hardware store and food shop. On Fridays there is live music at the yacht club and we danced our socks off, well we danced our flip flops off.
We did go and visit the shell museum with the very lovely collector and curator, Frank. He took the time to share his collection with us and tell us about the gems in his collection and he also gave us some safety tips as there are a handful of cone shells that can kill you if you mistreat them. We were there for a couple of hours and very much enjoyed ourselves. Some of the kids even traded with him and others gifted him shells he didn’t have yet.
There were lots of kids boats anchored in the bay and the VHF radio was busy most mornings. A blog post about how different kids use the radio and organize afternoons is forthcoming. I might even be sneaky about getting some audio clips. As the group gets larger, the group splinters a bit and the social exercise of finding the way begins. Transmitting on the VHF should follow certain, strict rules and focusing on that often leads to some very funny exchanges. With the lack of body language, it is much like be misunderstood in a text message.
We unfortunately did not do a lot more sight seeing. We had lots of projects on the go and after boat school each day there was a flurry of excitement. The sewing machine was out and getting lots of attention. We have new fender covers and Itchy Foot has had a cockpit upgrade, too! Plus lots of small mending jobs are completed. Jon finished a project for an upcoming 50th birthday and we even got to the post office. There were lots of trips to the beach. The dads and boys even had a barbecue there while there was a ladies night happening onboard Calle II. I love those evenings! Teo was thrilled to hang out with the kids from Panacea and Alice from Moody Fin. It was hard to tear ourselves away but Bora Bora awaits, we simply couldn’t just skip it.