Silver Fern is in French Polynesia for the first time with Ocean Sailing Expeditions. Under the careful guidance of skipper Jason, the crew of Denise (remember her from last trip?), Debbie, Liz, Ken, Andrew, Ross and Pattie have helped me spot many a turtle under sparkling waves over the last few days.

We left Marina Taina in the late afternoon after a safety briefing to perfect our man overboard drills before finding a nook to anchor in with Tahiti to starboard and the island of Moorea to port. A stunning sunset really set the mood for the whole trip - everyone is fizzing with excitement about being on board in one of the most highly rated Pacific Islands.

*L-R: Jason, Liz, Ross, Debs, Pattie, Ken, Denise, Andrew. Moorea Island in the background*

Day two dawned bright and early. One of the magical things I can’t get my head around is how stunningly clear the water is right inside the reef next to the largest city in French Polynesia - Pape’ete. You can see the sun rays disappear into the bright blue water, fish frolicking all around. Do fish frolic? I think that maybe it’s all a simulation in The Matrix. Anyway, reality was that the anchor was coming up and I needed to put my coffee down. Once out through the reef, Denise set a wobbly heading for Moorea before turning on the autohelm while the rest of us did some sail training. All too soon, the island came into view out of the gloom of a tropical squall and we squeezed Silver Fern into an anchoring hole at Papetoai. The rest of the day was spent swimming, snorkeling and going for adventures in the dinghy to spot sea life. I think we saw 10 turtles in total today!

Day three had a leisurely start. We moved the boat then piled into the dinghy and went ashore with a jungle walk mission. Leaving Jason on Silver Fern to mind whatever business he had, the dinghy was tied to a tree and we wandered off up the road, then up a very very steep driveway. Fresh pineapple juice was a welcome treat at the botanical garden cafe and we chatted to a local guy who warned us against a jungle walk because of a fire ant problem at the moment. We instead enjoyed the view and a meander around the ‘botanical gardens’ which were more like someone’s backyard. The cool thing here though was a large greenhouse full of vanilla bean plants on concrete trellises. Lots of skinks and birds and a peek into the fire ant jungle was interesting enough, then the crew decided to buy some lunch at the cafe. Fresh tuna came out in various dishes accompanied with french fries and rice.

*At the top of the steep driveway with the superyacht we traded Silver Fern for in the distance*

Walking back down the hill was easier, we were able to look at the fruit trees with more interest and spot things we hadn’t seen on the way up. The tender was still where we had tied it so we piled in, rowed over the shallows and returned to Silver Fern. Once again, the afternoon was spent hanging out, swimming and snorkeling. After a wind change at dinner time, we upped anchor and moved to a bigger spot so nobody would hit us in the night. It’s going to be an early start tomorrow when we leave Moorea and sail 90NM to Huahine!

*Intrepid land explorers today, ocean explorers tomorrow*

-Hannah.

Turtle Hunting

Hooning to Huahine

Upwind the Whole Way!