Many times I read about how Huahine was more laid-back and how Bay d’Avea was the dream landscape. I had all the intention to go there and for that reason we had to separate at least 10 days for our sailing trip. Otherwise we would only have time to go to Bora-Bora, Raiatea and Tahaa.

It is said that Huahine means “pregnant woman” and the island is named as such due to its shape. Although the locals affirmed that it meant “sexy woman”. I guess the confusion even tells us a bit about their cultural aspects…

We started the crossing leaving from the Marae Taputapuatea in Opoa Bay. We had a 27 NM crossing upwind and large waves forecast. And that is how it was, 2.5-3m waves upwind. It was incredibly uncomfortable so that we motored and motosailed for bits of the crossing. Nevertheless, sun was out, wind was good and the bouncy nap was great.

Arriving to Huahine was incredible. We saw some surfers out and the bluest water I have ever seen. French Polynesia as whole has blue crystal beautiful water, but Huahine was different. It felt like it had blue dye on it.

The original plan was to sleep on the first day at Fare village right on the entrance of the atoll, instead of going to all the way south to Bay d’Avea. That was because we would be sailing upwind on they way back. We got there so early that we felt we could make it all the way and have a less tight schedule on the way back.

First stop was midway through the entrance and Bay d’Avea in Motu Vaiorea, on a spot that was said to have incredible snorkel. Everyone says the charts are not that good in Huahine and thus we had some trouble anchoring and found a rather weird mooring ball around.

The waves were huge and the wind was blowing. The coral garden was beautiful but snorkeling wasn’t quite easy and we had a hard time with the current. Bella, who didn’t have fins on, even cut her feet. Nevertheless it was really beautiful.

We lifted anchor and headed, finally, to Bay D’Avea while cooking lunch. It was a quite short ride and we arrived to that beautiful piece of land and sea. We encountered many sailboats anchored there (around 10) and started looking for a spot to anchor. It was quite easy, the bay has a huge sand plateau with good grounds for anchoring.

At the south end of the bay there was the only beach we got to lay down so far in the trip. We wanted to see the sunset from it. We spent a couple hours next to two funny kids playing with stick swords and watching the sun coming down.

Unfortunately the very end of the sunset was cloudy, so that we came back to the boat for yet another barbecue.

On the next morning we went snorkeling around Tiva Point and came swimming all the way to the boat, which was about 3 km. Someone said that there were Manta Rays somewhere there. I think it is fair to say we looked everywhere and couldn’t find one. But we found an eagle ray and other sting rays around! It was a lot of fun.

Snorkeling took us a long time so we headed to Fare Village during lunch time, having lunch onboard. We anchored off the Avamoa Pass on a sand bank. Due to the currents direction and a fair crowd it wasn’t the most trivial anchorage. We were on the edge of the sandbank’s cliff. But at the end it was fine.

We took our dinghy to the village and were very surprised to find the most agitated village we would see in all of our trip. There was a craft shop, where Bella got her Pareo and I got my Maori necklace and a food truck court (although it was already closed). On the way back we stopped at the Huahine Yacht Club and couldn’t get one of the shore tables because it was all booked. We were a little intrigued since there was absolutely nobody there.

Even though, we sat down for a great Hinano at sunset and the crowd started getting there. We saw the most beautiful sunset we saw in French Polynesia and the most agitated night was well. Live music, people dancing and even got to meet a Hawaiian surf legend. We were planning on having dinner aboard but after the party started we decided to get an entrecôte and another créme brûlèe.

At the end of the night we went for a short tipsy dinghy ride and went to sleep.

On the next day we were set to get back to Raiatea/Tahaa so that we could anchor close to the Marina and return the boat on the last day.