Tahiti

Has anyone charted in Tahiti before? I know this is a BVI thread but there is no thread for Tahiti. Feel free to message me if you have any recommendations for places to visit in Tahiti. We will be on a Sunsail Catamaran in April.

Certainly not me--- but " SunsetSammy" from the SXM (I think) forum at TTOL did a sail vacation there, and our own Mike Kneafsey spent some time there on his circumnavigation.

Sunset_Sammy and kneafseym are both in the TTOL user list, so you could PM either of them here through the forum.

Although Mike Knefsey may have chartered in Tahiti, it was Mike Beswick who did the circumnavigation around the world.

We chartered there about 6 years ago. Visited Raiatea, Tahaa, Bora Bora and Huahine. We didn't make it to Maupiti. We had a great time, but found the location was not without it's challenges.
We are planning to go back this fall, so will also be interested in more recent info.

Yes, Colleen, you are right. Thanks for making that plain.

Do you mind elaborating on the challenges?

We found the anchoring more challenging than in other places. The lagoons are almost always too deep to anchor a charter boat, so most anchoring is on the shoulder of the fringing reef. The lagoons shoal very rapidly which can make the approach tricky. The sun should be high behind you, but length of the passages between islands make it difficult to always anchor that early. A lot of the anchoring is in passes with strong currents. Throw in a squall from the opposite direction and things can get interesting. The holding isn't always good. There is coral everywhere.

6+ years ago, there were few moorings and those you couldn't always trust. Things may well have changed.

Hi... Yes we went to Tahiti while doing a circumnavigation on our cat but it is now around 9 years ago so I don't have any recommendations for bars, restaurants etc. Tahiti and the other Society Islands are wonderful but with quite different sailing from the BVIs. We didn't actually go to Ra'iatea or Taha'a which is the cruising ground that is nearest to the Sunsail base, we spent our time on Tahiti itself, Moorea, Bora Bora and Huahini which are all beautiful but quite a way apart with essentially open ocean conditions between them. Unless things have changed you'll be anchoring almost everywhere, often in deep water. Hopefully Sunsail have equipped the boats with enough chain to be able to deal with this!

Sorry I can't provide any info on the area around the base but one thing I can say for certain is... bring money, lots of it! I've never been anywhere in the world as expensive to buy provisions as French Polynesia.

Have a great time.

I haven't been to Tahiti yet, but will be sailing there from the Marquesas at the end of April. We'll be sailing in Tahitit and the Society Islands most of May, finishing up in Tonga in early June.
Fred has sailed in Tahiti if I'm not mistaken