Wow!Sailing through the Society Islands reminded me of Jurassic Park. We spent 12 days sailing a Moorings 4000 from the base in Raietea. We went to Tahaa, Hauhine and Bora Bora. The El Nino winds made the last 4 days very challenging. We had 50 knot winds one night on anchor. The place is "all or nothing" when it comes to water depth. Most cruisers are anchored 30 meters, but our boat only carried 150ft of chain. So finding a spot was difficult. Mooring balls are few. We did a lot of scuba and snorkeling and saw countless sharks. Very cool. I loved the trip and welcome any questions from those considering this location....
I prefer cats for my purposes (kids). The water in French Poly is very deep. The charts have anchor symbols and those spots are generally 10-35feet deep. But, I was directed by locals to some cool spots that we loved (except they were like 80 feet). The water drops off rapidly from the shore and a lot of spots that are shallow enough to anchor have coral heads everywhere so it can be tough. As far as a mono vs cat: you will not be able to go anywhere in a cat that you can't go in a mono. Sunsail has a nice fleet of lagoons. They have several 500's. If I went back I would get a bigger boat. The open ocean sails were rather rollie and we got beat up pretty good on our 40' cat. The cardinal markers inside the lagoons are great and it is really hard to run into trouble. The water colors are unbelievable and certainly aide the skipper in navigating away from trouble. Hinano beer is rather good and ice was plentiful.
will put together a proper trip report and attempt to learn how to post pictures. We took over 1000 pics along with some great video (including a 10-12ft lemon shark that we encountered while scuba diving outside of the Bora Bora Passe.)... Huahini was the highlight for us. It feels remote and is void of tourists, we anchored in a little bay within the lagoon that had a great little beach and did not see another boat for two days. It was hard to find a spot (except the east side of Bora Bora) to anchor anywhere in less then 65 feet without dropping in coral. They should really equip the charter boats with more chain. Having 150 feet and 50 feet of rope really makes it difficult and painstaking to find spots to settle in. You are either in 8 feet or 65 feet, there is no in between. The cruising yachts all carry a ton more and it a tease to venture into where they are and think you can drop. The charts for these grounds leave a lot to be desired. There are many sunken water lines and electrical lines that do not appear on charts nor are they marked otherwise. The Moorings charts are black and white and require some careful study and highlighting to ensure the shallows are identified. But the Cardinal Markers are very good and if you keep the green right return in mind and the red markers to island side while inside lagoons it is rather straight forward.
The best time to go is August. The weather is perfect, except for the El Nino cycle we may now be in. We had nice 15knt SE winds to start with little rain. By the end of two weeks we had steady 25knts and a particular 12 hour blow that reached 50knts and 18ft seas. Sailing to the islands are all beat and run. We had 26knts from Raitea to Huahini with 10ft confused seas. With wind on the nose the waves were on the beam, the quarter and the bow. That was a bumpy day. Distances between islands are around 25 miles.. And you never lose sight of anything. It took our boat 6 hard hours to motor back to Raiteia from Bora Bora. The winds were 30knts and the seas were 18ft and confused. We were pinned the night before in a bay on Bora Bora with 50knt winds and that had us sailing on the anchor at 3-4 knots before I dropped a stern anchor to offset the backwinding. We had to turn the boat in the next day and none of the cruisers that I spoke would dare venture out. So I called the base and told them I was not coming and to send a skipper to bring her back if they wanted. For $120 they did and I flew the 28 miles for $80. Best deal ever. Before I head out in those conditions I need some instruction on handling a cat. It scared me a few times when we got hit on the beam and i have no idea of the limits of a cat except that it feels like a shoe box to me.
The BVI is still my all time favorite as it has it all and arguably more. After anchoring in the deep waters of Tahiti I am even more keen to begin searching out and anchoring in some of the more remote spots in BVI.
The big dif between Tahiti and BVI for me, the skipper was: once you get briefed you are really on your own. Weather reports are sketchy. There are many remote spots to explore and few boats are around so you really have to nose around before dropping the hook to ensure good anchor condtions. The water is really deep and drps off to 40meters rapidly from the shore line. The charter boats carry 150ft of chain which is short for these waters. Provisioning was no problem and ice was available every a few days. The people are very nice, but we did not have a to interact much as we were remote much of the time. The sailing was big when crossing to other islands compared to BVI. Deep water for sure, like 9000 ft etc. There are more fish then BVI while diving. Lots of sharks, rays and hard coral. The water colors were even better then BVI and most comparable to Anagada. The topography in Tahiti is awesome, huge ragged peaks and thick green tropical palm filled cover. We enjoye meeting cruisers who are living the dream and were able to peak into that life. Thet just hang in a nice anchorage for days on end. While we just keep moving every other with sn ambition to take it all in. I drink to much rum to hang out with out dicipline or agenda. You really need to get into the mindset of hanging out with little social scene for days on end while in these waters. You really won't find many othrs that are chartering here and therefore there are many spots to party at; BBYC is one of the few.
Here are a few pics
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