After getting our first feel on French Polynesia in Rangiroa we headed to Uturoa Marina (next to Uturoa Town), in Raiatea to embark on the sailboat adventure.

We chartered a Beneteau Oceanis 41′ sailboat from Dream Yacht Charter for 9 days. I researched a lot before choosing them and it seemed that DYC is the cheapest option among the global companies (compared to Moorings and Sunsail). The general feedback I read online is that both Moorings and Sunsail offer great support (specially concerning rescues and in-boat repairs) and boats in great conditions. We weren’t going for more than 35 nautical mile passages, so I figured it was worth saving about 800 USD. You can see more of the boat on this Boat Tour Video we made.

At the end of the day the boat was in tip top conditions, although not the headsail, and I had two extremely experienced sailors ready to answer the phone 24 hours a day (and they actually did!). The headsail wasn’t much of a problem since we had at least 10 knots of wind every day (usually ~15 kts and up to 27).

Raiatea’s Village

We arrived at 9 in the morning and took a 5 minutes ride to the Uturoa marina. It was the smallest airport I have ever seen. All of our provisioning was waiting for us on the boat. We had until the briefing at 12:30 PM to organize everything and attend the briefing. Since we had time, we decided to go to Uturoa Town in Raiatea grab a bite and look for cheaper French wines.

It was one of the most populated places we have been in French Polynesia. We could find two local crafts shops open and a charming pâtisserie. We’ve always had a thing for crafts so we were looking all over for them. We found a beautiful and pricey wooden ray as many other items. We decided not to buy them because we would still see a lot of shops (mistake #2). The chocolate croissant was great though!

Also we saved a few bucks buying wines on the market instead of ordering from the charter company.

We quickly hiked back and embarked on the boat to organize everything. The beautiful Beneteau Oceanis 41’ was meant for three couples (it was the smallest boat I found to charter). That meant we had a lot of room.

The Boat

Bow cabin was ours and all its drawers were Bella’s. One of the stern cabins was my personal closet. The other one was the toys room (cameras, masks, fins…) and also the luggage room.

We couldn’t help noticing how exaggerated I’ve been provisioning. We had food for a month! Storing it wasn’t a problem, we had plenty of space for it. Only trouble was remembering where it all was afterwards.

In no time we were set for the briefing along with two other captains chartering a 52’ Bali Catamaran out of Raiatea as well. The briefing was truly great, they told about all the dangers and specs around the islands, went through each nautical chart giving tips about anchorages, stops, restaurants and snorkeling sites.

I never got good answers for the classical “what to do in a thunderstorm” question though. The guy running the office, Olivier, is a true sailor and was very helpful both on the navigation and the technical briefing. Also a few times afterwards when I had to call him because my electric winch and windlass had stopped working.

As quickly as possible we left Raiatea heading out to Tahaa (another island inside the same atoll) to what would be one of the most beautiful anchorages we’ve been, albeit extremely uncomfortable. On the way we had French-style salad for lunch by chef Bella. And it was delicious!

Motu Cerant (Tahaa)

We anchored at a sand bank right next to Motu Cerant, because we heard there was good snorkeling on the motu.

The motu is private and owned by a guy named Eric. It is beautiful and looks like a beach club. And that is exactly the business Eric runs: people from boats anchor nearby and pay a small fee (like 5 usd) to use the facilities like bathroom, restaurant and sandbeds.

We got there by 5 pm, which in Polynesia feels like 10 pm elsewhere, so it was closed and everyone was cleaning and organizing the place. Eric was extremely pleasant, happy to point us in the snorkeling direction without charging anything while asking where we were from and if we liked Polynesia. Also, a big regatta was ending next Saturday and he invited us to come over for the traditional buffet and dance with more than 300 sailors. We never made it and I still regret it.

The snorkeling was fun! We got to see the only lionfish we say in Polynesia, but there was a lot of current and getting dark quickly. We saw many coral heads but we’re not even sure we were at the right spot, since we didn’t feel like going all the way to the outer reef.

Bye bye Raiatea and Tahaa

The motu was lovely though, and we were the only boat in the anchorage! What a beautiful view. It is one of the best anchorages around because of its bottom! But you are on the windward side and you’ll get blowed the whole night which, on the bow cabin, feels like an AC turned on. We had many waves though, so it wasn’t the best night! Albeit the great temperature.

We called it in early, since on the next day we would be on a ~30 nautical miles crossing to Bora-Bora. And for dinner more of Bella’s delicious salad.

Check out our video for more!