After a very speedy trip back to Sydney to catch up with family and friends, we flew back into Raiatea.

The small Opoa hotel was a perfect place to enjoy lunch on our last day on this lovely island.

The weather for the next 10 days was superb, the calmest and sunniest stretch we’d had in this part of the world. The calm weather enabled us to anchor over lovely white sand, just off the Coral Garden on Tahaa.

What a beautiful spot. The days were spent snorkelling amongst the coral and many colourful fish. Some say that the best thing about Bora Bora is the view from Tahaa. We’d yet to visit Bora Bora, but they may be right.

The wind came up enough for a slow sail across to Huahine. As we threaded our way along the inside of the reef to Avea Bay we were joined by a local in his Va’a, obviously training for the big race between Huahine, Bora Bora and Raiatea which occurs in November. He had no trouble keeping up with Sea Cloud.

Avea Bay at the southern end of Huahine is such a beautiful anchorage. After months of avoiding coral heads and trying to find a spot with good holding, it was wonderful to drop the anchor in sand holding in beautiful clear water. It was a week of exploring by dinghy, enjoying happy hour and local entertainment at the Mahana Hotel

cycling around Huahine Iti, and driving around the larger Huahine Nui.

Huahine is known as the wild one because of its rugged lush green soaring hills. As well as being a spectacular island, it is also incredibly friendly and laid back.

Unfortunately the good weather ended the day before the Diana and Alex arrived to join us on our next adventures down to New Zealand. We met them at the dinghy dock in pouring rain which continued relentlessly for the whole day.

Provisioning complete, we sailed to Raiatea for the night, then on to Bora Bora the next morning. Luckily the rain had stopped so we could enjoy approach to the famous Bora Bora to check out of French Polynesia.

The good weather didn’t last for long, with very strong winds and lots of rain for our first few days in Bora Bora where we anchored off the very bumpy MaiKai Hotel. This used to be a haven for yachties, but the new management certainly wasn’t welcoming.  We moved to the much calmer and friendlier Bora Bora Yacht club where we met up with a number of cruisers also heading west to Tonga.

Although we haven’t seen much of Bora Bora we are keen to move along. The weather is looking pretty good, so on to Tonga, hopefully breaking up the 1200nm (8 day sail) with stops in the Cook Islands of Palmerston and or Niue if weather allows.