Miles Travelled - 10nm
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| Ile Mahea looking toward Raiatea |
Left harbour approx. 10.30am after a quick technical rundown by Jerome on the boat. We headed for Ile Mahea on the east side of Tahaa and anchored on the west side of the Ile in about 5m of water. We stayed a little further out than a few other boats anchored there but played it safe for our first day out. The breeze was light from the NE around 10 knots and we had to motor there as it was pretty much on the nose. The channels seem to be well marked & we followed the chart carefully not taking any notice of the plotter as the accuracy in these waters isn’t that great. The water is very clear and you can see shallow water vs deep water very easily, along with any bommies. There is no real snorkelling to be had in this area but the water is terribly inviting and we couldn’t wait to jump in for a swim. Had lunch here and took to the dingy to explore the outer of the ilot. A private island that you couldn’t walk on so we just explored slowly by dinghy and were in awe with the clarity of the water. We couldn’t circumnavigate the entire island due to reef on the side of the Pass Toahotu.
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| Ile Mahea - stunning clarity of the water! |
Departed after a few hours and headed to Point Toamaro where the Taravana Yacht Club is located. This is a very popular place on Tuesday nights (Polynesian night) so we had Jerome book a mooring ahead for us. Quite a few boats here when we arrived at 2.30pm and we only had one motor functioning for the better part of the motor around to the bay. Reported this in to Jerome and before we knew it – which took us by surprise - Brian & another staff member where with us and changed the fuel filter. This seemed to do the trick from the limited amount of motoring we did to test it out. We had a few beers, a bottle of white wine (Yellow Tail from Australia) then took a dinghy ride around the bay to the nearby motu (which again was private) we went back to the boat and promptly fell asleep waking at 6.30pm which was just in time to get ready and head into the yacht club for dinner & the show.
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| Taravana Yacht Club |
We were met by Maui (not sure if I have the spelling correct) who owns the restaurant with his American dad Richard and he served us a ready made rum punch and we had a bit of a chat. The local Tahitians were playing music in the background – ukulele, Guitar, drum and singing & swaying to the music. Next up dinner was served on a central table which consisted of Mahi Mahi, chicken & spinach, Poisson Cru – which looked like coleslaw - made from Tuna & sashimi (ultra thin slices of fresh tuna). Really nice fish. Had a bottle of French red to wash it down which was OK but as usual lacked flavour that Australian wines have and we had a lovely dessert.
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| The entertainment begins |
The show started not long after with Polynesian dancing and they had some of the crowd involved in a Pareo tying exercise which was entertaining. The guys then came up and put on a show with the firesticks and then group dancing. It was all very entertaining. The cost for us was 6000XPF each (about $75 p/p). At the end of the night the dancing started with a disco ball and good music. We had a complimentary port and beer & headed back to the yacht dropping into bed by 11pm which was a late night for us!
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| And continues... |
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| The crew. |
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