Week 96: Huahine (12nm)

We had a somewhat lazy week in terms of miles covered, as we nosed our way up and down the west coast of Huahine. The majority of the week was spent in Avea Bay on the south of the island where we continued to recover from last week’s fish brine disaster, reconnected with our friends on ZAN and Taipan, and then explored the rest of the island by bike including a ‘memorable’ encounter with the islands sacred freshwater eels.

Captain’s log

Monday 6th July: Laura headed into the town of Fare for some groceries whilst I continued to try and remedy the greater fish brine disaster (see last week’s post). We then headed down towards the protected Avea on the south of the island ahead of the next windy spell (convincing our friends on Taipan to follow us on the way past), where we grabbed buoy and headed into shore for me to buy Laura an apology lunch. Martin from ZAN met us on the dock and so we had an enjoyable time catching up with him and Cheryll on their Tuomotu experience, before then checking in with Fergus and Nev on Two Drifters who were also in the bay – it was shaping up to be a social few days!

Tuesday 7th July: We decided to host another BBQ as part of our efforts to work through our unfrozen Mahi Mahi, and so spend most of the day preparing the food (although did find a short gap for some snorkelling that included some baby clownfish). The weather was meant to deteriorate through the day, but thankfully the rain just about held off and we were able to have a fun evening with our friends on ZAN and Taipan.

Wednesday 8th July: The winds started howling and so we spent a quiet day aboard catching up on some life admin and tv. The bay was fairly protected, but even so we were getting 25-30 knots regularly, which makes the boat feel very agitated and I was glad I’d taken the time to dive on the mooring buoy the previous day for some solace. The cured Mahi tail had finished it’s spell in the brine and so we transferred it to the spice rub without any further instances of spillage (thank God!).

Thursday 9th July: Had an amazing day touring the whole island on e-bikes with Martin and Cheryll off ZAN, who kindly treated us to lunch as a thank you for our BBQ and the small things I’d been helping Martin fix. Highlight of the day was Laura’s encounter with the sacred eels, which I’ve detailed in full below in our Story of the Week.

Friday 10th July: Whilst I offered a bit more technical support to ZAN (the case of the light that won’t turn off…an unusual problem for sure), Laura replaced a couple of the zips on our saloon cushions that we had been living with broken for years, and did such an amazing job as they look better than the originals. We also managed to finally get the cushion covers from the fish brining clean and dry (after a brief hunt for a couple that blew off into the sea) and the foam isn’t far behind. Finished the day with a fun evening on Taipan as they hosted us for a return dinner, and we enjoyed absorbing even more of their unpretentious cruising wisdom via their wonderful storytelling.

Saturday 11th July: Moved 3nm back towards Fare after ZAN alerted us there was a spare buoy in the secluded spot of Hanaiti, and then had a fun if somewhat low key day checking out the baby fish at the nursery, cleaning the port side of the hull and monitoring the weather for our window back to Moorea. With nothing promising in the next 24 hours, we decided to stay put, and once the locals left the beach around 4pm we headed in to enjoy it for ourselves with a beer before bed.

Sunday 12th July: Still no improvement in the weather and the cell phone service was deteriorating which was making it difficult to get new forecasts. Just as we were discussing whether to return to civilisation, a variety of boats turned up who were either friends, or friends of friends, so we decided to hang around for one more night before we left. It was a rinse, dry, repeat of the previous day, although this time we cleaned the starboard side of the hull and there were more people on the beach for the sundowners 🙂

Story of the week: Laura vs. Sacred Eel

Huahine is similar to Tahiti in that it is two very close but separate islands (Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti) that are connected in the middle, and given our positive experience with e-bikes in Moorea we decided it would be fun to rent some more and complete a figure of eight around the two islands to see the sights. There were a number of interesting spots that Laura had identified as worth checking out (including stone fish traps, Marae, an art gallery / ice cream store and a distillery) but we’d heard the number one attraction was visiting the sacred eels and so this was what we based our final route around.

The river where the eels live passes through a small village and as we were parking our bikes a friendly Huahinian pointed to where it was best to see the eels. Whilst they clearly get a lot of visitors, it was refreshing to see an attraction that hadn’t been roped off and monetised and we headed over to the suggested spot on the banks. Our friends on Influencer had warned us to bring some tinned fish as that is what the eels most like to eat, and we were glad we’d listened to them as the eels only emerged once it was clear we had some food with us. They slowly started to slither their way upstream and the size of them gave us all a moment’s pause – they were huge, of a similar girth to an Amazonian anaconda although much shorter in length.

Before the eels emerged, we had been debating whether to get closer to the water, but with the monsters revealed Martin, Cheryll and I all decided that we were quite happy up on the bank. Laura, however, was adamant that the eels were friendly and that you could feed them by hand – she had seen photos of Sydney off Influencer doing it and had also confirmed online that the eels had no teeth. So she scrambled down and the eels quickly converged on the sardines she held out for them as she stroked and fed them. After only a few minutes she was nearing the bottom of the tin and there must have been over ten eels around her, but this was the point when Laura realised you can’t believe everything you read on the internet as she got some ‘first hand’ experience regarding the eels teeth status.

In its excitement to get the sardine, one of the eels had got its mouth around a couple of her fingers and gave them a definitive nip. Laura instinctively pulled her fingers out, which caused a number of nasty lacerations down each side of the fingers. Feeding time was definitely over!

Although initially shaken, Laura recovered quickly and we cleaned and bandaged up her hand as best we could. Our next planned stop was a gallery, where Laura hoped to do a better cleaning job in their bathrooms; however the owner insisted on providing more first aid when she heard what had happened (Laura wasn’t the first eel bite she’d heard of – apparently the local tip is to try and not jerk your hand back…). Feeling less worried about the infection risk, we then continued onto lunch where we met up with some ZAN’s friends, of which Lyn off S/V Domini was a nurse who had brought her supplies when she’d heard about the bite. Twenty minutes later, Laura emerged with a thoroughly disinfected and bandaged hand, and could now laugh about the story she’d earned with her exploits.

Returning to the eels, we are now cautious about sharing any more information, as we know all our online sources have some glaring inaccuracies. They are reputed to be sacred as their presence is believed to improve the quality of the stream water, which was one of the few sources of fresh water on Huahine. It is said that whilst they appear to have blue eyes they are in fact blind. We have also read that local mythology suggests that the eels represent the ancestors of Huahine (in which case we are glad Laura took no retribution upon them). But only one thing is certain – THE EELS HAVE TEETH!

Parting thoughts

S/V Taipan is one of the boats we’ve been lucky to share some anchorages in recent months, as we’ve greatly enjoyed David and Kris’ company and hospitality. They bought Taipan in 2001 and set off to circumnavigate Australia in 2004, and now 17 years later they find themselves close to circumnavigating the world. They’ve certainly found lots of detours along the way and have sailed to more places than I can count. I started to realise the gulf of sailing experience between us when it became apparent that these two Australians were far more familiar with sailing in UK waters than I was.

What was most inspiring was when we discovered their true ages, as we had guessed them to be at least a decade younger than they were – it is a true testament to the cruising life style keeping you active and young at heart. There is a good interview with them on Noonsite (another way you know they are in the upper echelons of cruising status) for those interested in learning more about them.

Whilst we have now parted ways, we are hoping to reconnect with them in Fiji. If we don’t, it will probably mean that they have decided to extend their sailing adventures by another year, and so there will be a silver lining in that we will get to enjoy reading of more of their adventures when the UK winter starts feeling oppressive!