Raiatea -- Our New Home Away from Home

On October 7th we sailed for Taha’a, which normally would be a nice downwind sail, but we ended up motoring the whole way given the prevailing light wind conditions. As was the case with Huahine, we decided to come in an east side pass (that would normally have high surf in a strong easterly wind) and explore some of that side of Taha’a we missed during our first visit. We entered through Toahotu Pass and anchored just north or Moto Mahaea in about 20 feet of water. 

Anchoring out on the flats is like anchoring in the middle of the ocean.

Anchoring in the Leeward Islands can be a challenge, since the water inside the reefs can be up to 100 ft. deep, and within a few feet can transition to 5-feet deep on the shelves of the reef.  We typically try to find someplace 20 to 30 feet deep which reduces the problems of shallow bommies (coral heads) around the boat. I always snorkel over the anchor chain and anchor to see how well it’s set, and at times we buoy the anchor chain to “float” it over a bommie or two.  When anchored out on the shelf, or flats as I like to call them, it’s rather disconcerting since it seems you are anchored in the middle of the ocean with only the surf break from the reef separating the two. Once you get used to it, however, it’s very cathartic just floating out in the middle of nowhere on crystal clear water.

The hidden bonus of this anchorage was a very strong WiFi signal. When we tried to log in for some reason the system didn’t ask for our password. We normally pay about $150 for 100 hours of Internet, and when it’s slow the time goes quickly without us accomplishing anything online.  For a techie it was Internet heaven.  We typically have about 50 to 100 iPhone apps waiting to be updated at any given time, along with updates to all our Mac apps, so we had a downloading field day.

As usual, we did some snorkeling, boat projects, SUP’ing, and explored the two large bays in the dingy. We did get a short walk in but we need to make a more concerted effort to get more aerobic exercise when ashore.

I love this little island located between Raiatea and Taha'a.

Since both Eye Candy and Flying Cloud will be hauling out at the same yard on Raiatea this cyclone season, we needed to talk with the yard manager to figure out the details. On Oct. 10th we motored the short 5-mile distance through the inner lagoon (Raiatea and Taha’a are inside the same barrier reef) to the Carenage on the west side of Raiatea. We luckily got a mooring ball (it’s very deep to anchor here) and dingied into the yard to get things figured out. We are still uncertain as to how they are going to haul us out (whether the Travel Lift will fit our boat without us having to take down the forestay) and where they are going to put us, but Dominique the manager says don’t worry, we’ll figure it out when we haul you out.  We did decide to rent an AirBnb for a week after we return to the boat in March 2017 since we’ll be sanding and putting on new bottom paint and the showers/bathrooms are terrible in the yard. 

The Raiatea Carenage Boatyard:  This will be our new home for the next five months when the boat is hauled out for cyclone season.

We ended up walking up to the airport with Eye Candy to both buy our tickets from Raiatea to Papeete for when we leave on Nov. 17th. Ironically we’ll be then flying back to San Francisco to catch a flight to Hong Kong; it’s actually a lot cheaper for us to fly that direction. I’m one of those rare people who actually look forward to a long international flight since I can sit back, watch movies, and have people feed me without having to do the dishes. Perfect.