Raiatea

The day we left Huahine for Raiatea was not the "best" weather day. It was rainy and windy and there were very large waves/swells in the small 20 mile channel that separates the two islands. It is comforting to know that this boat thinks nothing of this type of conditions and that weather watching is just a formality. Georgia is feeling the effects of not being on the boat regularly so spends the trip down below trying not to be too sick. It is not one of my better days either as through what I have done or what I have failed to do I leave a path of loss and destruction. I didn't put every thing away for the trip so there was a gouge in the teak floor from a falling object and "my" dive suit blew overboard because they weren't properly stowed and I burnt the bottom out of my frying pan making lunch. That's three bad things right? Well, no. I was able to scrub the burnt stuff off of the pan. Once we reached Raiatea our search for a quite place to anchor near the town of Uturoa resulted in our dropping and retrieving the anchor no less than four times (once was by the airport runway and the officials made a personal boat trip out to ask us "MOVE" in the polite way that only the French can do) and during one of these times, I managed to whack the anchor onto the boat and that big chip in the gel coat was number three for bad things. We did find a reasonably quiet spot though and we even had internet so we could all catch up on our business. Day two - we rented a car to tour the island, we were going to rent scooters again, but it looks like rain and it did rain. The island is lovely of course, not very commercialized, there are a couple of small resorts. We did stop for lunch in a quaint little resort on the south of the island, Opoa Beach Resort, very nice lunch and very nice little resort. We did some roadside shopping - gathered some papaya from trees that we are positive were growing wild???? and an avocado and some pommelos. Stopped at one of the little "magasins" and bought some bread (baquettes - really hard to make toast from these). It is still blowing at the boat when we get back and raining. Day three - we head south in the lagoon in search of a quiet anchorage and we do find a perfect spot and wonder of wonders, when we head out for a snorkel adventure, we actually find a beautiful coral garden with multitudes of colorful small fish and live coral! Day four - we suit up and go diving in our coral garden, there is a drop off to 60+ feet and we have a really good dive. There is even an eagle ray here, though very shy, we only catch glimpses of him. I do have a second dive suit, so am lucky to not have to dive without. The diving in the Society Islands has not been very good at all so this spot warrants a second dive the next day and it is just as interesting the second time around. Day five - we moved the big boat around the west side of the island and had to scramble to find a shallow enough anchorage before the daylight left. The bays look lovely, but they are very deep and have very shallow reefs extending into them, so you need the light to be able to see the variances in the water depths as deep to shallow is immediate and we would run the boat aground using our depth sounder. But despite the rush, we managed, as we always do, to get the job done. It is raining and raining and raining here. We mop up the boat and close the windows/doors then open them all up again, hide the outdoor seating then set it all up again. The rain is getting tedious to say the least. Well we are diving anyway so salty wet or rainy wet, I guess it doesn't matter. When the sun does peak out it is definitely beautiful and today the whole afternoon has been gloriously sunny. We have watched waterfalls be born in the last couple of days. The evenings are quiet dinners on board and sadly a series of really bad movies, but good wine makes up for that fact. Tomorrow, we will head back to the north end to stock up on supplies and do a wreck dive before moving on the Tahaa which is the second island in the same lagoon as Raiatea.

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