Week 95: Bora Bora to Huahine (82nm)

We covered three islands in this very sociable week, meeting up with friends old and new in several spectacular anchorages, alongside a visit to the sacred marae at Taputapuatea in Raiatea – the ancient centre of Polynesian culture. 

Monday, 29th June: A relatively quiet day spent on board because the wind was howling due to the latest Mara’amu wind system. But, a bit of time to potter about is often welcome. Alec had found a beautiful empty spider conch shell on the SW side of Raiatea, and I made it my mission to clean it up. We learned this involves a lot of soaking in bleach solution and a lot of scrubbing with a wire brush – but the results so far are very satisfying. There are some unexpected flecks of green appearing in the shell, which I think could look very cool once its all done! In the afternoon, we spent a happy couple of hours discussing our latest book club read with friends over video chat, and then headed over to Catherine Estelle (Aaron, Nat and doggo Malvo) for a tasty BBQ.

Tuesday, 30th June: The wind continues, so we hunkered down and found more indoor jobs to do. Alec reglued the bridge of his guitar, which had pulled off for the second time (we think the heat and humidity on board is to blame) and sorted out a few broken lights, while I worked on some video editing. In the afternoon, the wind started to ease just a touch, so we all jumped at the chance for an outing. Nat suggested we head to a great pizzeria they found on shore for dinner, and offered us a lift in their big dinghy. We never say no to pizza! News got round to our friends on the NW side of Bora, who decided to taxi down and join us, too. That made for a party of 9! We headed in a little early to make use of the restaurant’s wifi before dinner (and get a cheeky happy hour cocktail), and then enjoyed a wonderful evening in the company of the crews of Catherine Estelle, Influencer and Amazing Grace. Alec tried a goat’s cheese and honey pizza, which I was initially sceptical of but turned out to be extremely delicious. This place might have made the best pizza we’ve had in Polynesia! It was also a great opportunity for us to pick Matt, from Influencer,’s brain a bit more. He is the Elan dealer for Australia (a handy person to know for two people with an Elan they are looking to sell in Oz!) and shared lots of useful knowledge on the market and what sort of value we might expect. We eventually managed to make all the pizza disappear, and then waddled back to the dinghy to head to our waiting beds!

Wednesday, 1st July: How is it July already? I feel like I say that every month, but really. Only five more months left aboard Serenity – that feels so crazy. Anyway… left our little windy paradise on the SE corner of Bora to check out the W side of the island. That meant snaking back through the narrow, shallow channels we’d carefully navigated on the way in. We were feeling very confident as we could follow the track we made on the way down, but the weather was a LOT spicier. And, the visibility was reduced, so even from the bow I couldn’t see hazards until they were close. That made for a rather nerve racking few minutes – 20 knots pushing us sideways through this tiny gate while I squinted trying to see the spots of reef!! Thankfully, we made it through unscathed and had a lovely sail the rest of the way around. Decided to moor up at the yacht club as it was closest to the start of the hike we hoped to do, and managed to grab the last free mooring ball. I don’t think the mooring company has quite got its calibration right though as we quickly spun scarily close to another boat. Thankfully Alec is ever resourceful and he expertly deployed our kedge anchor off the back to hold us in a safe spot. We popped into the Yacht Club in the afternoon for a scoop of ice cream and to see if the wifi was any good, and then retired early to cook up the last of our Mahi and finish the remaining episodes of our latest TV series – The Trial of Christine Keeler.

Thursday, 2nd July: We set our alarms early in anticipation of a big hike up to Mt. Pahia, one of the main peaks of Bora Bora. But, Neptune had other ideas. About 5am it started bucketing down with rain, and didn’t let up until nearly 8am. And even then, dense clouds remained steadfastly parked across all of Bora Bora. We delayed the start of our walk in hopes it might clear up, but after another hour watching the sky decided to admit defeat. This hike was reported to be very steep and all the guides I’d read cautioned against doing it after a rain since that could make it dangerous. Not to mention there’d be no view at all from the top thanks to the clouds. So, not worth it! Instead, Alec and I set up shop at the yacht club (they make an excellent coffee) and worked through some of the usual backlog of life admin. We wandered down to Bora Bora’s main town, Viatape, about a mile south of the yacht club, for lunch and a mooch, though there really wasn’t much there. But we did find a little “snack” (the French Polynesian designation for a cafe) to grab a bite and a small grocery store for a few essentials. As all the boats we knew in the mooring field were headed off in different directions the next day, everyone planned to meet at the yacht club for happy hour. Much to the displeasure of the club, we commandeered pretty much all the furniture in the bar to create one giant table. In addition to Catherine Estelle, Influencer and Amazing Grace, there was Italian boat Milanto, their friends Ariel, and a cat called Sea Lover (all ex-World ARC boats). Hunger for dinner finally dragged us away about 8pm, and then Aaron and Nat came round to Serenity for a big bowl of pasta and an evening of games (pics below – the only ones I managed to take of the day). At one point, Aaron noticed that the cat we’d met at the yacht club, Sea Lover, was having a party. So, we decided to dinghy over to say hi, and were promptly invited on board where a raucous evening was already underway. Much rum was consumed while listening to one of the guys sing and play guitar and getting to know our new friends. Eventually we realised we needed to get up early to sail, so headed home, but I think the damage was done – tomorrow might be rough!!

Friday, 3rd July: With sore heads, we dragged ourselves out of bed early for our sail back to Raiatea. Catherine Estelle had decided to just up and leave in the night while they still had energy – not sure how they managed that (note: they made it Maupiti safe and sound in the morning)! Our prep was going surprisingly well until it came time to pull the kedge anchor back up, which it was strongly opposed to thanks to a sticky clay bottom. Between Alec and I, it took a solid 15 minutes of hard winching to pull it and the rode inch by inch back on board. We were both dripping with sweat after! But actually it made me feel much better, so I guess it worked out? Anchor safely up, we headed out the pass, set the sails (our first upwind sail in I don’t know how long) and settled into the groove. Serenity was humming along nicely and we of course chucked out the fishing lines (now that we had eaten the rest of the Mahi!). Alec went down to have a snooze before lunch and I was on watch.

I was lazily keeping an eye on things when all of a sudden there was the unmistakable whirr of a fish hooked on the line – bzzzzzzzzzz – swiftly followed by the unmistakable whirr of a SECOND fish on the other line! The extravagant jumps and splashes of our quarry confirmed we had two big Mahi! We had always heard people talk about “when you hit one, if you leave your lines out, you’ll get more” with Mahi, because they hunt in packs, but we’d not experienced this before. The one on the rod was smaller, so we decided to pull it in first and let the bigger one tire itself out for a while. Alec worked the rod and soon had our first fish at the back, which he brought on board swiftly with the gaff. I held the line while Alec made to dispatch it with the winch handle. But this fish was having NONE of that. One bonk and it went BALLISTIC. In the fray, the fish hook became lodged in Alec’s thigh, I got a fish tail the face and it cracked my ankle (leaving a sizeable bruise!). After it hit me in the face I got mad and managed to grab its tail while Alec sat on the head to subdue it. Of course at this point we were both covered head to toe with fish, as was the cockpit. So much for the smaller fish being easier. We eventually managed to quell it and remove the hook from Alec’s leg. A few buckets of water helped with the worst of the cockpit mess, but then of course we remembered we had another BIGGER Mahi on the other line. We reeled him in with trepidation. After what the small one had done, we were taking no chances. I dug out a bottle of gin and the tail rope and prepared for battle. We hoiked the big fish on the back and quickly dosed him with vast quantities of gin. Then we waited, ready for the fight… which of course never came. This fish gave barely a half-hearted flap. Maybe it was the gin? Anyway, thankfully fish #2 proved much less destructive and we soon had both hung on the transom. WOW! The wind had died at this point, necessitating a long afternoon on the motor, so Alec decided to process the fish straight away. He expertly filleted while I packaged, making an efficient team effort. Within an hour we had both fish in the fridge, including the whole tail of one we kept in tact to try a curing recipe. In total, we had NINE kilos of fish! Fingers crossed we find some other boats to give some to soon…

This really should be the end of the day here, but we had set our sights for the day outlandishly high. We had about 10nm to motor through a reefy channel to our destination anchorage, which Alec managed while I made water and cleaned up the rest of the fishy mess. We arrived just as the sun was setting, but some grumpy-looking locals zoomed over in their boats and made it clear they were not okay with us anchoring there. So we quickly zipped north, hoping to find a spot somewhere else. Thankfully, we spotted the ONE mooring ball in all of SE Raiatea, just north of a sacred marae site, and gratefully tied up just before dark. We still managed to find enough energy to put the fish tail in brine to start curing, after which we slept for a good 10 hours!

Saturday, 4th July: After such a crazy day yesterday, we decided to have a very slow one today to recover. Alec and I pootled about on board, doing a few little jobs and what not, but mostly taking life easy. After lunch, we had a bit more energy, so decided to go into shore to check out the important archealogical site there – the marae of Taputapuatea. This was the centre of Polynesian civilisation before the arrival of Western explorers, and remains a sacred place. See the Story of the Week below!

Sunday, 5th July: We were up early again to cast off and get sailing to Huahine, the last of the Societies we’ve yet to see. We decided to try to sail it, even though it was pretty much dead upwind. Partly because we wanted to prove to ourselves we could still sail upwind, but also to save a bit of fuel. We managed to sail about halfway, but then the wind started to build and adjust direction to make it a true slog. We decided that we’d rather sacrifice the fuel than arrive at 6pm, so motorsailed the rest of the way. It was a fairly uneventful journey as we weren’t fishing (no space in the fridge!) and we nipped through the pass just after lunch. We found a spare mooring ball off the main town of Fare and soaked up the rather stunning view. We spied a boat on another mooring nearby who was a friend of a friend so popped over with a sizeable chunk of fish to say hello. Lyn and Julian off Domini were lovely and we had a great chat about our seasons so far, before they invited us to come back for a drink that evening with a few other boats. Delighted, we headed quickly back to Serenity to sort out a few bits and pieces so we could return for sundowners. Ah, but, it was not to be… We were in “max efficiency mode” tidying and sorting out food and what not, and Alec went to grab some beers from where we store them under the bed in the aft cabin. However he didn’t realise he’d put the box with the brining fish so it was partly on the lid to the storage. So, when he lifted the lid, the box tipped right over and spilled a good 4-5 litres of fishy brine all over the cabin. It soaked the cushions and went right through to the sail and food stores underneath the bed. And it smelled delightful. Well, there was nothing for it but to rip the whole cabin apart. We had to cancel on drinks, as we had a big job ahead. Floorboards, our spare genoa, bottles of beer, bags of grains and other food stuffs, etc. all had to get a good rinse and be laid out on deck to dry. Thankfully I have been extremely paranoid about weevils (after we found an infestation on arrival to Tahiti) so every food item was individually double-bagged in ziplocks and completely waterproof. The only thing we had to throw away was a little bit flour; everything else miraculously survived unfishified! Once the contents of the cabin were removed, we mopped out all the bilges (where the brine had collected) and then bleached and vinegared every surface, whether it had been splashed or not! Even still, a bit of a pong pervaded, so we opened the windows, turned all the fans on high and hoped for the best. By now, it was past 8pm and we were exhausted. We crossed our fingers it wouldn’t rain in the night and crashed into bed, hoping to have a better day tomorrow.

Story of the Week: The Marae at Taputapuatea i Opoa

Eastern Polynesia was settled late in human history; the first known activity is only around 1000 CE and the development of the culture’s emblematic marae not until the 14/1500s. But, in the short time between that and the arrival of Western explorers, the Ma’ohi (also spelled ‘Maori’) people settled the vast maritime area known today as the Polynesian triangle. Raiatea, and specifically this site at its SE tip called Taputapuatea i Opoa, was both physically and spiritually the centre of the civilisation. They did not map it as a triangle, though; instead the maritime routes between the islands were plotted out by the “great mythical octopus” Tumu-Ra’i-Fenua (who also guarded the pass allowing entrance from the sea to Taputapuatea). His tenticals stretch north to Hawaii, through all of French Polynesia, East to Easter Island, Southwest to New Zealand and West to Tonga and Samoa. We found this somewhat amusing because, with eight flexible legs, the “octopus” map gives a lot of leeway – choose any distance and direction and it works!

The site of Taputapuatea features four main marae as well as several other platforms and structures (foundations of important houses, an archery platform, some small temples, etc). But the marae are the focal point. Each one consists of a large, rectangular, paved courtyard, with a narrow stone platform, or ahu, at one end (typically the end butting up to the sea) about 2m high. The platform was the most sacred part of the marae, and typically only the priests or most senior chiefs were allowed on it. It would also normally be decorated with carved wooden poles (a bit like totem poles) appealing to different gods or forces. Marae were the gathering places for a variety of events – from religious ceremonies and rites to celebrations, festivals, political meetings, etc. Each marae at Taputapuatea was for a specific purpose. The smallest, Tau’aitu, was purely religious. There, priests watched over images of the gods, consecrated sacred rites (including human sacrifice) and decreed religious laws. Two others, side by side next to the beach where visiting canoes landed and were launched, were respectively centres for the ruling lineage (Tamatoa) and the lesser lineages who were sent out to settle other islands and expand the empire. Finally, the enormous central Taputapuatea marae was the most important of all. It was dedicated to the god of peace and war, ‘Oro, and was where political alliances were forged and special ceremonies performed. It was also the centre of the expansion of the culture – a stone from the Taputapuatea marae would be taken to form the centre of a marea on a newly settled island. This then tied all the marae, and populations, together.

It was a bit strange to walk around this relatively small area that had been so incredibly important to the Polynesians – you realise just how different the culture was! It also made me feel a little sad to see how little was left; the Christian missionaries who came in the 17/1800s banned and/or destroyed anything remotely related to the local’s original religions. And its really only in the last 50 years that the islander’s heritage has been once again allowed and celebrated. They have been recovering sites and artefacts, but a lot is gone forever. Still, Taputapuatea is the most complete site in the islands and it gives you a bit of a feel for what their world would have been like!

Parting thoughts: The Hotels of Bora Bora

I have always had a picture of Bora Bora in my head as being the pinnacle of luxury. I imagined secluded properties spread out along private beaches where the rich and famous could get away from the rest of the world. Considering that the starting price of a room at any of the resorts was north of £1,000 per night, the picture in my head seemed like the least one could expect. But, reality was entirely different. The picturesque Bora Bora accommodation is one of these huts on stilts over the water, which would be stunning, except for the fact that they are actually packed together cheek by jowl. Your own little slice of paradise is little indeed, with no more than maybe 2m either side between yours and the next hut. Each resort had as many as 100 huts, and there was only a brief gap between where one resort ended and the next began. So in one view you had at least +300 rooms. Is that supposed to be… private? Secluded? Luxurious? Of course I didn’t see the inside of any of the rooms, and I’m sure they were beautiful, but in my opinion no amount of fancy bed linen or well stocked minibar would make up for the broader set up. For four or more figures per night, I wouldn’t want to be squeezed together like sardines! Honestly we had it much nicer on our boat. Maybe we’re getting spoiled by sailing life, where we regularly have entire anchorages to ourselves… But, I mean, this is great news – I’ll never feel envious of some celebrity going to the Four Seasons in Bora, because I know it ain’t worth it!